Having the right type of wick in your soy candle can make all the difference when it comes to soot, scent throw, tunneling, and overall burn profile. If you want your candle to have a good burn profile and give you the most bang for your buck, then you need to make sure you use the right type of wick. Let’s see what wicks are best for soy candles.
What wicks are best for soy candles? ECO series and CD series wicks are the best choices for use in soy candles. ECO series wicks are flat braided cotton wicks with thin paper threads that allow them to stay rigid without a core. CD series wicks are flat braided cotton wicks with paper woven into the cotton.
Choosing the Best Wicks for Soy Candles
When crafting candles, you are sure to have a variety of preferences when it comes to choosing the best wicks for their soy candles. Some of the popularly used candle wicks for soy candles include wood, hemp, and cotton. Here are their following benefits, differences, and their downsides to know which candle wick might work best for you when it comes to crafting your soy candles.
Cotton Wicks For Soy Candles
Cotton wicks are also braided candle wicks covered in wax and compressed to hold their shape. They are also much more affordable compared to other wick types and are much easier to maintain.
Compared to wood wicks, cotton wicks can be reignited faster for use and can simply be trimmed for maintenance.
Versatility
Cotton wicks are better known for their versatility. This is because cotton wicks can work well with any candle scent formulas upon testing. It’s also easy to make the necessary adjustments to cotton wicks too.
Candles with cotton wicks are better candles to use for outdoor themes or settings as well. Compared to candles that use wood wicks, candles with cotton wicks will fare better in outdoor areas since they’re less likely to get extinguished from light wind pressures.
Disadvantage
One disadvantage that cotton wicks have is their tendency to quickly burn up all fragrances in your candle. This is due to the taller flames produced by a candle’s cotton wicks, so it is crucial to trim your wicks to their recommended size so that it doesn’t result in less scented burns the next time you light up a candle with a cotton wick.
Coconut Soy Candles
What wick is best for coconut soy candles? For coconut soy candles, the popular candle wick choices are the ECO and CD candle wicks.
Coconut-sourced products have grown in popularity over the years. Even in the candle market, coconut soy candles have become very popular among candle enthusiasts.
As a natural wax blend, candle makers will also pair this type of wax with a natural wick.
CD Wicks
The CD (also called Stabilo) candle wick is a flat-braided cotton wick that provides a consistent burn and higher fragrance loads due to the woven paper threads within the cotton wick.
This type of wick works well with softer types of natural waxes. Furthermore, CD wicks are covered in a natural wax coating, which is great for natural soy candles.
ECO Wicks
On the other hand, the ECO candle wick is a coreless, flat cotton wick comprised of thin paper threads, which gives it a firm structure.
Like CD wicks, this type of wick is good for natural soy candles such as coconut soy candles since they are also covered with a natural wax coating. Additionally, this type of wick does fine on wax blends and paraffin waxes with a low melt-point.
Hemp Wicks For Soy Candles
Hemp wicks are braided wicks made from natural hemp fibers. They work great with soy candles and provide a hotter wick burn, thus providing better and longer-lasting performance.
They can be made from scratch using hemp twine, also referred to as hemp string or hemp cord.
Because of the hemp twine’s natural stiffness and dryness, you won’t have to treat it the way you would have to treat other wicks for usage in candles.
Because hemp wick is considered an organic fiber, the smoke produced by hemp wicks, when lit up, are not toxic at all and work great with scented candle formulas too.
In addition, hemp wick is a natural fiber, making it an incredible sustainable option for candle making since it is biodegradable.
Overall, hemp wicks are considered an environment-friendly candle wick. Most hemp wicks are also covered with beeswax, allowing them to burn at slower rates as well.
Wood Wicks For Soy Candles
If you want to get a candle wick with a lovely modern aesthetic that other candle wicks can’t provide, then go for wood wicks.
Wood wicks are thin tubes of wood crafted in accordance with candle making. Wood wicks are perfect for any type of candle and have a great burn time as well.
Another appealing aspect about wood wicks is the distinct crackling sound they produce as they are ignited. This soft crackling sound can provide a calming ambiance and is a perfect candle in a quiet room for a better relaxation experience.
Another advantage wood wicks have to offer is their ability to produce lower smoldering flames for candles. With lower smoldering flames, the candle is consumed at a much slower rate, resulting in longer burning times.
Wood wicks are also the best candle wick when you desire a clean burn. Due to a wood wick’s inability to “mushroom,” wood wicks will produce minimal amounts of soot, carbon, and debris, resulting in a much cleaner burn.
All you need to do is simply trim off charred wood to maintain a bright flame.
When you’re trying to let your fragrance spread faster, wood wicks are also the better choice.
Burn tests indicate that wooden wicks conduct heat faster in candle wax, which allows a candle’s scent to disperse way more quickly into a room than other candle wicks such as cotton.
However, one downside to wood wicks is that they need better maintenance when used as candle wicks. Lighting up a wood wick for the first time will be easy, but doing it the second time might require a few more tries before getting it to ignite.
This is caused by the charred outer layers of wood that are not easily penetrated by fire, which can be quite a hassle.
You can find out more about wooden wicks in our article titled Wooden Candle Wicks For Beginners.
Waxed Wicks / Primed Wicks
Do candle wicks need to be waxed? Waxed candle wicks will significantly improve a wick’s performance and ability to burn in candles, so it’s recommended to have your candle wicks waxed for better usage.
Not waxing your candles will result in your candle burning out first before it can even melt your candle wax. Additionally, a waxed candle will light up quickly and provide consistent burning to your candle throughout too.
When creating your soy candles, you can choose to order pre-waxed candles to save yourself the time from having to do the tedious waxing process yourself.
If you want to, though, you can also do the process yourself and experiment with different kinds of wax to see which type works best for your crafted soy candles.
Conclusion
In conclusion, you have several options when it comes to choosing the best wick for your soy candles, however, cotton and paper wicks appear to be the most popular wicks for soy candles.
The ECO and CD series wicks are more natural and cleaner burning than some of the other alternatives, in addition, they are great for containers and votives (which you find made of soy wax, a lot).
However, wooden wicks have their following and come with their own unique benefits, and are worth trying out at least once. You oftentimes see people charging more money for wood wick candles, which is reason enough to give them a try.
You can find out more about candle wicks in general in our article titled Candle Wicks 101.
