How to Cool Your Candles Down Faster
You can make your candles harden more quickly, (and give them a super-shiny
appearance), by... :
- Using a water bath This decreases your candle setting time considerably; handles the leaking problems, typical of the single-color candles, poured at high temperatures, into metal moulds; and improves the surface appearance of the wax. The candles will set faster, with a high-gloss finish.
- Setting your candles in the fridge. Use this technique, for hardening your candles at room temperature, and then popping them into the refrigerator. This speeds up the cooling time, for the firm, but still warm candles. The fridge-set candles will release from their moulds more easily too.
How to Prepare a Water Bath for Your Candles:
You can use any container wider and taller than your candle mould, for a water
bath. Buckets, small waste paper baskets, deep cake mixing bowls, etc. all work
equally well.
1. Fill the container about three-quarters full of cool water. The ideal
water bath temperature? No cooler than 15° Celsius (59° Fahrenheit).
Any colder than that, and your candles might crack. Add a bit of boiling water
if necessary, to increase the water temperature slightly.
2. Pour your candle. Give it a good tap, to dispel air
bubbles. Leave it for two minutes. Insert it into the water bath.
Weigh it down with a book, a heavy box, anything that will hold that mold steady
in the water. Now fill the container up, close to the top of the mold, with
more cool water.
3. Leave the candle to set for a half-an-hour, an hour's best for large
moulds, holding candles weighing a kilogram, (2.20 pounds) or upwards.
4. Remove the weight. Take out the mould. Prick the candle all the way around the
wick, with a wicking needle, or skewer stick. Re-centre and tighten the wick, if
it's been displaced. Refill the candle with wax, (heated up to the right pouring
temperature).
5. (Optional) Stick the mold back into the water bath. Leave for another hour or
so, and remove. Top up for the last time, if necessary.
Cooling Your Candles in the Fridge
Once your candle requires no more topping-up...is almost-set, and not liquid any
longer...is luke-warm, rather than boiling-hot...you can refrigerate it, until it
removes from the mould easily. Metal moulds do well in the fridge for an hour, while
plastic or polycarbonate moulds, might need only 20 minutes to cool down. To avoid
the candles cracking, Do NOT stick them into the freezer, unless that cracked look
is a special effect you deliberately seek.
Follow these easy tips, and you'll shorten your candle cooling times, by many
hours.