Stearin dipping

[Tesco]

Hi, new to the forum but am struggling with trying to use stearin as a coating for pressed flower candles by dipping wax candles into it: the candles end up with an ugly white scaly coating. Does anyone know why? I read that it could be low temperature, however I heated the stearin to 90 degrees C- surely this isn't too cold? In fact afterwards I tried heating more and only got to max 100 degrees. My method is dipping the candle for 3 seconds then raising it. The weather is warm, and when I raise the candle I see it slowly dry to this scaly surface. Would it perhaps help to dip the candle then immediately plunge into cold water? Any ideas gratefully received!

 

[jcandleattic]

Hi, new to the forum but am struggling with trying to use stearin as a coating for pressed flower candles by dipping wax candles into it: the candles end up with an ugly white scaly coating. Does anyone know why? I read that it could be low temperature, however I heated the stearin to 90 degrees C- surely this isn't too cold? In fact afterwards I tried heating more and only got to max 100 degrees. My method is dipping the candle for 3 seconds then raising it. The weather is warm, and when I raise the candle I see it slowly dry to this scaly surface. Would it perhaps help to dip the candle then immediately plunge into cold water? Any ideas gratefully received!

Stearin is not a true wax and that's why you are getting the white scaly coating. Dipped candles should be done with a paraffin wax with a microcrystalline additive to help the layers adhere to each other. Stearin (a derivative of stearic acid) is used to help make wax more opaque so you wouldn't want to use it (even as an additive) for dried flowers as it could completely obscure them.. Not sure why you are using that alone, but I don't see any way for it to work successfully as a coating by itself.