Top 6 Candle Additives for Candle Making: Improve Scent & Burn Time

To improve the look, feel, and functionality of candles, the additives used in their production are crucial. These additions can make a big difference, from improving the candle's scent to extending its burn time and making it burn more smoothly. Whether you're a novice or a seasoned maker, making candles with the correct additives is key to getting a professional result. Here we take a look at the six most popular additives used in candle production.

What Are Candle Additives?

Candle additives are additional materials added to candle wax bases to improve their properties. These compounds help change texture or lengthen burn. Natural and synthetic additives often work with specific waxes.

Enhancing Scent Throw

Candle additives enhance burn quality and fragrance throw. For example, Vybar improves paraffin wax performance, while coconut oil enhances the scent of soy candles. Stearic acid helps harden soy candles, optimizing their overall quality.

Improving Burn Time

Higher melting points and tougher wax make candles burn more slowly, and evenly. Stearic acid (stearin), beeswax, and microcrystalline wax are candle additives that help candles last longer and not sag.

Increasing Hardness

Some candle additives make the soft wax, like soy or paraffin, harden to provide a higher melting point and structural stability, which helps unmold pillars/votives, reduce frosting, and reduce oil seepage.

Providing Smooth Finish

Stearic acid and paraffin are two examples of candle additives that can be used to harden the wax and prevent it from splitting. This will result in a smooth and professional finish.

Preventing Candle Issues

Candle additives improve wax's texture, burn quality, appearance, and lifespan to prevent or solve candle-making issues. They often fix frosting, tunnelling, weak fragrance throw, and colour fading.

Top 6 Additives for Candle Making

Improving your candles' performance, appearance, burn quality, texture, and scent throw is as easy as adding a few thoughtfully chosen additions, like those below:

1. Stearic Acid

Stearic acid can be derived from both animal and vegetable fats. Stearic Acid is frequently used in candlemaking to harden candles and avoid slumping; as a result, it is commonly used in votives and pillars. It is also used to make translucent wax more opaque, extend burn time, and preserve aroma.

2. Vybar

Vybar is a polymer that is added to wax when making candles to help the colour stay true, keep the scent in longer, and make the wax harder. It makes the wax harder, and more opaque, stops mottling (spotting on the surface), lowers air bubbles and helps clean mould release.

3. Microcrystalline Wax

To make their candles more viscous, sticky and flexible, candlemakers use microcrystalline wax, a refined petroleum wax. Its melting point is quite high. It acts as a binder for high scent loading, improves opacity, and decreases mottling in paraffin. Pillar candles, votives, dipped candles, and sculpted candles all make use of it.

4. UV Inhibitor

A UV inhibitor is a chemical additive that protects products, such as candles, from UV light damage. It helps prevent colored candles from fading and white candles from yellowing due to prolonged exposure to light. For candles to retain their luster, and burn time under different lighting conditions, this additive is necessary.

5. Vegetable Glycerin

Coconut, palm, or soybean oils are the most common sources of vegetable glycerin, which is a clear, odorless and viscous liquid that is derived from plants. On occasion, it is utilized as a functional additive in candles, with the purpose of enhancing the consistency, and color stability of the product.

6. Coconut Oil

Whether it's used as a main ingredient in coconut wax or to improve the burning properties of candles, coconut oil is a sustainable, and eco-friendly element. In candle wax mixes, it produces a smooth, creamy texture, extends burn life and improves scent throw. When burned, it leaves no ash behind.

How to Choose Right Candle Additives

Selection of candle additives should boost performance—such as hardness, smell throw, or color—without overloading the wax (2-10% ratio). Choose Vybar for aroma retention, Stearic Acid for opacity and stiffness and beeswax for a slower burn, often mixed with soy wax for structure, which are important. Think about these things:

• Different waxes require different additives.
• Different additives are needed to reinforce the structure or boost smell throw.
• Excessive additives can alter the wax's characteristics.

Tips for Using Candle Additives

• Accurately weigh additives for proper ratios.
• Stir into melted wax between 70 and 90 degrees Celsius to regulate temperature.
• Stir gently to combine.
• Use specific additives for desired effects, such as:

• Stearic Acid: increases hardness and aids mould release.
• Vybar: making wax harder and better at retaining scent.
• UV Stabiliser: prevents colour fading from UV exposure.
• Microcrystalline Wax: raises the melting point and improves fluidity.

• Test wicks for optimal burning with hardened wax.
• Document ratios for replication.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Common blunders in candlemaking include:

• Excessive dosage of additives can lead to brittleness or altered melting points.
• Not testing for additive, wax, and fragrance chemical compatibility.
• Not adding additives at the correct temperature can lead to poor binding or burning.
• Scent throw can be affected by disregarding cure times.
• It is challenging to reproduce successful candles due to a lack of documentation.
• Precise measuring of additives is crucial; under- or over-measuring can lead to undesirable results.

Conclusion

When it comes to improving the performance, appearance, and longevity of candles, it is essential to make careful use of the additives that are used in the production of candles. By mastering the characteristics of these ingredients, candlemakers can overcome typical obstacles and produce works of art on par with those of professionals.