Thursday, April 09, 2015

How to Make Gel Candles Bubbleless

Gel Candle
Learn how to make gel candles without bubbles, and you will soon be turning out crystal clear creations that garner oohs and aahs from all who see them. This wax always produces bubbles, of course. It is in its nature as surely as it is in the nature of champagne. As champagne without bubbles is just wine, so this wax without bubbles is just mineral oil mixed with a polymer. I know of no one who wants to remove the fizz from champagne, but there are chandlers who want to know how to make gel candles bubbleless.

Some people protest that having a lot of those shining little globules obviously adds to the inner beauty of the wax. They pour their wax in a way that is guaranteed to produce the greatest amount of fizz. Others consider it just as obvious that an abundance of fizz or globules or whatever you want to call them hinders the inner beauty, but...

...how to make gel candles bubbleless? That isn't so obvious.

My personal search for a solution to the problem produced four very different possibilities. Some seemed easy. Others seemed far beyond my reach. I think you will agree, however, that all four are interesting.

Which way would you choose?

1. Pour the Way a Bartender Pours

This is the most common answer I got to my question of how to make gel candles bubbleless. I was advised that you have to pour the same way a bartender pours beer. Hold your glass container at a 45 degree angle. Gently pour the hot wax down along the inside of the tilted container, making sure it hits the side of the glass and not the bottom. This will avoid a "head" on your luminary. Alright. That reduced the amount of fizz, but it certainly did not give me a definitive answer on how to make gel candles bubbleless.

2. Maintain High Temperatures

Asking a traditionalist how to make gel candles bubbleless, I learned that you can do it by keeping your wax hot for an extended period of time. This will allow a certain number of those pesky little globules to rise to the top and burst. It doesn't answer the question of how to make gel candles bubbleless, but it does help reduce the number of bubbles you get.

3. Bake Your Creations

One of the largest manufacturers of this type of wax gave me a third idea. Preheat your oven to 65 degrees Celsius (150 degrees Fahrenheit). After pouring at the high temperature of 90 degrees Celsius (200 degrees Fahrenheit), set your creation in the preheated oven - and hope for the best. Well - this, too, failed to answer my question of how to make gel candles bubbleless. Hope does not burst shiny globules, and although you can reduce their density this way, you are not going to eliminate them.

4. De-Air Your Luminaries

A chandler who wanted as badly as I did to know how to make gel candles bubbleless got in touch with a scientist who taught her to de-air her creations with a vacuum device. She explained to me that she adds her dye and fragrance, mixes it in very well, and then puts her very hot wax in a specially-created vacuum device (see caution below). Finally, this was how to make gel candles bubbleless. She had not one bubble!

You can learn how to make gel candles bubbleless. You can learn how to create them with a reduced amount of fizz. Personally, I'll just forget the struggle, think of those shimmering little globules as though they were in fine champagne - and enjoy them immensely.

CAUTION:
Do not try this with a household vacuum cleaner. The chandler's vacuum was specially designed for her use.






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