Taper candles - Wax formulas

You probably have no intention of using animal tallow to make your dipped taper candles, like our ancestors used to...

That's a good thing because the formulas I'm about to list only use classic and easy to find ingredients, like paraffin wax, beeswax and a few selected additives.

You will notice that none of the formulas below contain Vybar. The reason is simple : Vybar is commonly used to bind fragrance oils to paraffin wax. However, the diameter of taper candles is so tiny that the resulting melt pool is not large enough to spread any scent at all. This is why taper candles are probably the only type of candles that are not scented.

Formula #1

• 70 to 95% of paraffin wax
• 5 to 30% of stearic acid

for example, 90% paraffin wax and 10% stearic acid, which is a good starting point. base formula, can be colored.

Formula #2

• paraffin wax
• beeswax

These two components can be blended in any proportion you like.
Church candles are made of almost equal proportions of paraffin wax and beeswax, with however a slightly higher percentage of beeswax.

Formula #3

• 65% of paraffin wax
• 25% of beeswax
• 10% of stearic acid

this formula combines the democratic price of paraffin wax, the amazing scent of beeswax and the hardening action of stearic acid.

Finishing

If you wish to make colored dipped candles, two options are available:

• dye the whole batch of wax you will use for dipping the tapers;
• use uncolored wax to dip your tapers and, when fully shaped, overdip them a few times in a small amount of intensely colored paraffin.

My preference goes to the second solution because it means you won't end up with kilos of paraffin colored in a shade that you may never use again...

If you don't want your taper candles to drip, you have the option of overdipping them one last time in microcrystalline hard wax. This will coat your candles with a thin layer of a higher melting point wax and should prevent your tapers from dripping.