One day you wake up, look at your candles, and find some weird frosting-like effect covering your candle.
Is it time to panic?
Below we’ll cover what’s causing this, how to prevent and fix it, and if you should be worried.
What Causes Candle Frosting?
Candle frosting is a natural occurrence in vegetable waxes and is most commonly found in soy wax candles.
The frosting effect on candles results from the wax’s crystallization process as it attempts to return to its natural form. This process occurs over time and temperature changes.
You’ll know frosting affects your candle when you see a white crystallized pattern on the candle’s sides, top, or bottom.
How to Prevent Candle Frosting
With soy wax, it can be virtually impossible to prevent frosting forever, but you can take steps to reduce and delay the effects of candle frosting.
Preheat Containers
Preheating will help the wax adhere to the container and help reduce the effects of frosting.
You can preheat using a heat gun on its lowest setting or place the containers in the oven for 2-3 minutes at ~100°F.
Take caution in handling hot containers!
Test a Lower Pour Temperature
Experiment with pouring the wax at a lower temperature to reduce the crystallization process.
When pouring the candle wax at a high temperature, you’ll have a much more significant temperature change and length of time until the wax hardens, leaving your candle more susceptible to crystal formation.
Test by adjusting in small increments of 5 degrees.
Use a Stable Curing Environment
Fluctuations in temperature will increase crystal formations.
Curing your candles in a stable, cool, dry, and dark environment is essential.
Use a Soy Blend
If you can change your wax, use a soy blend.
Soy wax is great but has additional issues like frosting, sweating, etc. These issues are why many candle makers opt for soy wax blended with other wax like paraffin, coconut, or beeswax to reduce the effects of frosting.
How to Fix Candle Frosting
Although it may be challenging to prevent frosting forever, there’s a temporary solution you can fall back on.
Use a heat gun.
Set the heat gun to the lowest setting.
Evenly run the heat gun over the frosted area of the candle to melt the wax.
In addition to the affected areas, you’ll also want to heat the rest of the candle, including the entire top layer. This is essential to let the candle cool evenly and release air bubbles.
It’s important to understand that this is a temporary fix.
Temperature changes cause frosting, and by using a heat gun, it’s going through an extreme temperature change. This can promote more crystal formation in the future, but it will eliminate frosting in the short term.
Does Frosting Affect Candles?
Candle frosting is purely an aesthetic issue and will not affect a candle’s performance.
So good news, you don’t have to worry about frosting diminishing the burn quality or scent of your candles.
However, it will affect the look of your candles.
How candle frosting will affect your candle’s appearance will depend on the candle’s design.
Frosting is harder to see on uncolored soy wax and much more visible when colored with certain dyes.
When using 100% soy wax, keep the frosting in mind when designing your candle and deciding on colors and containers.
There are a wide variety of containers to choose from that will help hide frosting.
If you’re selling or giving away candles, it’s best to educate your customers about frosting and how it’s a natural occurrence and will not negatively impact the candle’s performance.
You can even use it as a selling point to prove the wax is authentic soy wax.