Color Testing for Soy Candles Without Wax Waste

Hello Candle Lovers! As much as I love my candle suppliers, you just can't put a lot of stock into the color of dyes either on their websites or on the bottles. And you also know how very, very concentrated those proprietary formulations are.

For those of you who don't know, the bottles are black (because of light sensitivity like some fragrances) and the dye liquid that you can somewhat see with backlighting is black! When you put a drop of dye onto a white paper plate, the drop is also black. And you can stir it around until the cows come home and still only see black, even though the color is actually purple or red or yellow. Here's an idea a few days ago and it works pretty well.

You all know that soy wax is, well..., a bit waxy. So, after 10+ years of candle making, I have finally figured out a pretty good way for color testing my soy candles without having to waste wax. I poured some of my cooking oils onto a paper plate and voilà, grapeseed oil is just as clear as melted soy wax.

Cooking oils for testing dyes

Now, don't get all excited, the dyes don't blend in perfectly, but it's close enough in my opinion. One drop, two drops, ??? You can get a good idea by stirring in the dye 1 drop at a time and mixing it in good. Then you'll have a pretty good idea of how much dye to add to your wax.

This post also helps to explain why there is slight color variations between pours of the same scent. Sometimes my recipes call for only a small portion of a single drop of dye! This makes all of my candles absolutely unique from one another.

Happy coloring! Cheers!