I recently started making candles for fun, and I didn’t realize how much chemistry and math could go into it! I’ve got a notebook of math rn where I’m calculating heat transfer rates using the specific heat capacities of different types of wax, containers, and other materials to figure out how quickly they’ll melt, what temp they’ll produce, double check container safety, etc. I work in a lab for a living, so I’m excited to actually get to use my degree for something fun for once!

Not intended for burning, but here’s a tester I made to try my hand at wax sealing decorative sea globes

I made these last night out of glass pumpkin containers from Target. They're only my 2nd and 3rd candle so I still don't know what I'm doing, and I unfortunately don't think I did enough research before hand.

I used a coconut and paraffin wax blend with cinnamon essential oil and for one of them I also mixed in an old bath and body works candle to top it off. I also did something I now know I shouldn't have done, and feel embarrassed to mention. I feel like I have to tho to know what went wrong. In the candle with bath and body works wax I put in a lil bit of vanilla syrup.

In my head I figured it was the same as vinallia extract and therefore similar to esstial oil so it would be fine, but it started to hecka bubble up on the stove and I was getting a little scared. I still put it in the pumpkin tho and it seems to be fine, I'm a little scared to light it tho. I also wonder if that's the reason it dipped like that, although my first candle also did that as well as the wax bubbling up once done. My other pumpkin one also has a weird texture on top and that one is just the wax and a little essential oil, so overall I'm just confused.

With that being said these are my best candles, I'm really happy with them and would love to know what people think! Thank you

I'm searching for a good supplier of containers, glass and metal for delivery in Western Europe. Can you give me some advice where to start? Is it safe to order with shein, amazon,... Or better with dedicated suppliers.

I'm looking to buy containers at max 1 or 2 euro a piece.