I want to make candles that burn different colors. What chemical compunds could I soak the wicks or add to the wax to do this? I assume some copper compound for green, a lithium compund for red, but could anyone be more specific about which compounds–also, where could I get them?
Google is our friend.
“Candlemaking colored flames” turned up a lot of extraneous stuff, but also:
It says to only add one “color enhancer.” I understand that fooling around with mixed chemicals could be a nasty business, so no problems there. Do you think there would be a problem with adding a different chemicals to different stripes in a multilayered candle? The layers would be pretty much entirely separate and would burn in succession, producing a different-colored flame each time the candle burns down to a new layer.
I don’t make candles, but this piqued my curiosity.
It might be difficult to do because the chemical is in the wick, not the wax, but if you know your chemistry enough you should be able to figure which can interact with which in relative safety.
I guess it makes sense to treat the wick rather than the wax. I was thinking along the lines that since the wick sucks up the wax, treated wax would take the chemical with it and change the color of the flame as the wax burned, but now that I give it a little more thought, doing it that way could cause problems with consistency and cause problems in allowing the wax to set up. Thanks for clarifying.
You might check with the kind folks at http://www.candlecauldron.com. They have a good message board.
I have seen firestarters and fire additives that give colored flames, but reading the warnings on them was enough to put me off. Whatever you add will be adding some component to the smoke/soot the candle gives off, so that’s something else to consider too. Good luck.
~karol