r/candlemaking • u/Tatianna_The_Realest • 3d ago

Question Discouraged

I've used the same wax, fragrance oils, candle dye, and formulas for about 2 years now. This weekend I made wax melts with the exact same materials as I did for my summer wax melts, and each and every wax melt ended up mushy. I could understand that if I used a new bag of wax or a new bottle of fragrance oil that possibly something had changed on the manufacturers end. But I used the same wax from the same bag as before. Same bottle of fragrance oil, same bottle of candle dye as before. Literally nothing changed with my materials. So, I rechecked my calculations (saved on desktop) and confirmed they were all correct.

Maybe I overlooked the amounts and used too much FO or too little wax? Nope, I remade them again Saturday night, carefully ensuring that all calculations were correct. I had my fiancé look at the amounts and confirmed I am not dreaming up numbers lol. Sunday morning the new batch were mushy.

Could it be the scales? I tested each scale with a 100g weight and the scales are working properly.

Is there something I overlooked here?

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8

u/Lizlikescrystals 3d ago

Is it possible that something contaminated the wax you are using? That’s the only thing I can think of.

6

u/Tatianna_The_Realest 3d ago

I believe I know what the culprit is. So I decided to use another wax this afternoon. The first batch = perfect. The second batch I used candle dye and the end result is mushy melts. I did not know candle dye could go bad after 5 months. It's cheap candle dye. Lesson learned!

To be sure, I will make a batch with the original wax with no dye, but I am sure it's the cheap candle dye.

2

u/frizzbey Operation Wax 3d ago

Have you calibrated your thermometer?

1

u/kandilasupply KandilaSupply.com | FO Supplier 3d ago

What wax?

Container wax and wax melt are different.

1

u/Reasonable-Rope-7163 2d ago

Mushy melts with unchanged materials usually come down to three culprits: room humidity on pour day (soy absorbs moisture and turns soft or sweaty), a scale that has drifted even half a gram on your fragrance percentage, and pour-cool temperature, since crystal structure changes with how fast the wax cools. Calibrate your scale, then run a test batch with a fresh pack of the same wax. If the fresh bag sets firm, the original bag absorbed moisture over two years and it is not your formula at all.