Candle Glossary & Terms

Additives: Anything added to wax to enhance its performance.

Appliqué: Applying an item to a finished candle for decorative purposes.

Bayberry Wax: Natural wax derived from bayberry bushes. Boiling the berries removes their waxy coating which floats to the top where it can be collected.

Beeswax: Natural wax derived from honey bee hives.

Burn Rate: The amount of wax consumed per hour in grams.

Candle: Wax — paraffin, vegetable, beeswax, etc. — formed around a wick. The wick burns and melts the wax into a liquid, which is transported by capillary action to the flame which vaporizes the fuel and burns it off.

Candle Accessory: Item designed to hold a candle in some manner.

Chatter Marks: Result of pouring wax too cool, leaving bubbles and horizontal lines in the finished candles, aka Stuttering

Clear Crystals: Additives that can prolong burning time, enhance colors and raise melting point.

Container: Not a mold, anything used to pour the wax in that will remain as part of the finished candle.

Core: Central part of a candle.

Coreless Cotton: Cotton braided wicks with no core material.

Cored Wicks: Designed to stay straight while burning, braided with round cross section. Cores contain either zinc, cotton or paper for effect.

Delamination: See wet spots

Double Broiler: A small pot placed above a larger pot that contains boiling water.

Dye: Oil soluble colorants used for coloring the wax.

Essential Oils: Plant matter extracts.

Jump (Skip) Lines: Horizontal lines formed in wax as it is poured into a cold jar.

Flash Point: The lowest temperature where the vapor from a combustible liquid can ignite, momentarily in the air.

Flat Wick: Used mostly in taper and pillar candles, a flat plaited wick that curls, to allow self trimming by the flame.

Floating Candle: Candle with a convex bottom design to allow floating on water.

Freestanding Candle: A stand-on-it's-own candle to be used only on heat resistant, non-flammable surfaces or on a candle holder.

Fragrance Oil: Blends of oil with natural/ synthetic or just synthetic .

Gel Candle: A transparent candle made from gelled mineral oils or gelled synthetic hydrocarbons poured into a container or stand-alone-candles if hard gelled.

Hemp Core: Cotton braid with 100 % hemp core.

Hurricane Candle: A candle shell mold where the center is hollow and filled with wax that can be replaced. The outside is separate and decorated, the decorations cannot burn.

Layering: Pouring two or more layers of colored wax.

Luminaria: Votive candle used in a sand-filled container for outdoor use.

Luster Crystals: Additive that brightens colors, makes colors opaque, raises the melting point and prolongs burn time.

Melting Point: Temperature each kind of wax reaches when it melts; wax comes in different melting points.

Melt Pool (MP): Liquid resulting from burning a candle.

Microcystalline Wax: Highly refined wax, soft and pliable for adhesion or hard, brittle for durability.

Mineral Oil (White Oils): Chemical inert oils free of nitrogen, sulfur, oxygen and aromatic hydrocarbons, common in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics. plastics, textiles and foods.

Molded Candles (Novelty): Free shaped, free standing candles made by sculpting or molding or poured into a shaped mold. Some are used and some are just for decoration and not meant to be burned.

Mold Release: An additive in wax or spray that pre-coats the inside of a mold to help the candles come out of the mold easier.

Mold Seal: Reusable putty-like sealing compound used to secure the wick in the mold and to prevent leakage of molten wax. Also prevents water from leaking into the mold while in a water bath.

Molten Wax: Hot, melted liquid wax.

Mottling: Snowflake appearance in wax.

Mushrooming: Incomplete combustion causes carbon mushrooms to form at the top of a wick. Caused by the type of wick, or cooler burning additives and some scented oils.

Novelty Candles: See molded candles.

Overdip: Dipping a core in wax, usually colored for effect.

Paper Core: Cotton wicks with core of stiff paper or cardboard.

Palm Wax: Wax derived from palm, 100% natural, hard wax, high melt point with crystalline look. Comes in flake form and used straight or as an additive to other synthetic or natural waxes.

Paraffin: Wax most commonly used for candle making, refined from petroleum.

Petrolatum (Vaseline; Petroleum Jelly): Additive used in container candles, lowers melt point, softens wax.

Pigment: Colorants, non-soluble type, colored particle suspended in wax used for overdipping.

Pillar Candle: Self standing candle with one or more wicks, usually square and thick but can be round or hexagonal; burned in/on heat resistant surface or holder.

Polyethylene Wax: Wax made from low molecular weight, high-density raw materials, to produce desired characteristics required by the industry.

Pouring Temperature: Temperature the wax is when poured to make the candle. This is not the melt point and determined by the effect wanted and the type of mold used.

Recycled Wax: Pieces of leftover candles that are reused.

Refined Paraffin: Lower oil content waxes which is harder.

Scale Wax: Semi-refined wax with lower oil content.

Scent Oil: Same as Fragrance Oil.

Skip Lines: See Jump lines

Slack Wax: Semi-refined wax with a higher oil content used for religious candles.

Soybean Wax: All natural wax made from soy bean. Generally clean burning waxes, several melt points for various applications non-toxic, biodegradable, environmentally safe and long burning.

Specialty Candle: Meant as a decorative work of art, usually free-standing, unusually shaped, painted.

Specialty Wick: Used in Oil lamps and insect repellent flames.

Square Wick: Used in pillars, beeswax, and tapers and candles with non-combustible materials like pigment or fragrances in them. Braided so they curl or self-trim in the flame, inhibits clogging of the wick.

Stearic Acid (Sterine): Additive used to make wax harden, slower burning and more opaque colored candles.

Stuttering: See Chatter Marks.

Taper Candle: Slender candle that thins toward the burn end, to be used with a holder.

Tart: A small shaped disc of scented wax used to melt in a tart burner or used to melt in a potpourri. Can come in various shapes but is usually 2.5 inches round.

Tealight Candle: A filled candle that is usually 1.5" (38mm) in diameter and .75" (19 mm) in height.

Universal Additive: Helps with mold release, hardens wax, binds oil to wax increases opacity and lengthens burn time used in all types of candles.

Votive Candle: Produced to be used within an accessory, a votive holder.

Votive Holder: A vessel that can hold a votive candle while burning and contain the melted wax.

Vybar 103: Additive that reduces air bubbles, reduces mottling, and enhances fragrances and color, for melting points over 130 degrees. Can cause shrinkage and rippling.

Vybar 260: Additive that reduces air bubbles, reduces mottling, and enhances fragrances and color, for melting points under130 degrees. Can cause shrinkage and rippling.

Water Bath: Placing hot mold in a container of cool water to help cool and harden candle.

Wax: a material made from a mixture of hydrocarbons or derivatives thereof.

Wax Formula: Combination of wax, additives, dyes and fragrances used to make a candle.

Wax glue: soft sticky wax used to glue two pieces of wax together or to apply decorations.

Wet Spots (Delamination): Areas where wax has pulled away from parts of a glass container leaving spots, mostly in container candles.

Whipped Wax: Wax whipped with an egg beater/blender to make if fluffy.

Wick:  A material that delivers fuel to the flame in a candle.

Wicking Needle: Thin metal poker used to make wick holes in candles.

Wick Tabs: Flat metal discs with holes in the middle for a wick, holds wick at the bottom of the candle.

White Oils: See Mineral Oils.

Zinc Core: Cotton wicks with a thin metal (zinc) wire core.