Adding stearic acid to soy wax?

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Anstarx

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So I've made a couple of candles for myself before and they are nice. I used a blend of soy wax and beeswax. Now I'm considering venture into candle making further alone with my soap making and eventually selling both. Still far-fetched for now but hey, one step at a time.
I mainly want to make three products: regular jar candle, pillar candles, and a wax tag that people hang in closet or rooms for scent. Wax tag is pretty popular where I live now and I do love them for not needing open flame or a specific wax warmer.
BTW wax tags look like this:
13160440_f1e12b4eaf23cf2e20208291bc153533.jpg


My biggest problem? Beeswax and FO are both expensive. In order to keep the cost reasonable I can only choose one to invest in and I chose good FOs.
Soy wax worked fine to jar candles but I felt them alone is too soft for pillar wax and definitely not wax tags. The wax blends people talk about are really expensive here so I can only get pure soy wax and other additives on their own. I've considered adding palm wax or carnauba wax but they are equally expensive.

Recently I read that adding stearic acid to wax can make them harder, burn larger, and maintain the scent longer. It sounds promising and I already got a big bag for soaping and lotion making anyway. Has anyone experienced with adding stearic to soy wax to make their own blend? If so, how much? I'm going to try my own experiment of 2%, 5%, and 10% stearic acid and soy wax blend but I'd love some input from experienced candle makers.
 
I've been experimenting with stearic as well, but am not far along to offer very much advice. From what I've read, too much can inhibit hot throw, but I'm not sure about cold throw. For wax tags, I think you could probably use a fair amount to get a harder product. As for candles, the amounts you're listing sound like a good starting point.

I actually just read an article at Soap Queen that said she made a 100% stearic acid candle! That might be something interesting to try...
 
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