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HOW TO MAKE Scented Soy Drops or Soy Beads
It's really easy, fun and inexpensive to to make your own Scented Soy Drops, or Soy Beads as they are also called
(see picture samples at the bottom of this page). They are simply unscented 100% Soy Container Wax that have been
soaked in a mix of candle dye and fragrance oils. You can package them for air fresheners, or use them in Plug-In
or other Tart Melters instead of tarts.
What You'll Need -
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Some 100% Soy Container Wax - It comes in the little wax pastilles, or beads, uncolored and
unscented. You can buy it by the pound (any amount you want) or in 50 lbs cases, depending on how much you need.
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Candle Fragrance Oils - Order any scent you like. All of our candle fragrance oils are compatible with soy wax.
I like to use skin safe fragrance oils but it does not have to be skin safe fragrance oil to make soy drops. Just keep in mind if your fragrance
is not skin safe, the melted drops cannot be used on skin, like a massage oil candle, for instance.
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Super Concentrated Liquid Candle Dyes - A few small bottles different colored liquid dye with droppers will get you started.
Since you are not melting this mix, solid dye chips cannot be used. DO NOT USE FOOD COLORING!!! Food coloring is water based and cannot be mixed with soy wax.
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A kitchen scale - Either one of our 11 lb Escali scales can weigh your wax and also your fragrance oils. Your
scale needs to go down to a fraction of an ounce to weigh your dye, for small batches.
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Heavy Seal Top (Zip-Loc style) freezer bags - A common 8" x 7" quart size bag will hold about 1 pound of soy wax pastilles but larger bags like
the gallon size make it much easier to mix the contents around.
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A small glass jar or Pyrex measuring cup - to weigh and mix your fragrance oil and dye together in.
The How To -
Start with some math and keep good notes. If you have great success with a color/fragrance combo you'll want to remember how to
repeat it, and not your failures.
Fragrance Load - For each pound of wax you'll want a fragrance "load" of about 4-5%. For the Millennium Soy Wax 4% fragrance
load works best, or you can go up to 5% in the 100% Soy Container Wax. For a 5% scent load example, you multiply a pound of wax (16 oz)
x .05 (your fragrance load) = 0.8 oz of fragrance oil for each pound of wax pastilles. That is 0.8 oz by weight on a scale, not a measuring
cup.
Dye Load - When making soy candles you can add as much as 30 drops of liquid dye to each pound of wax. However, we're
not melting the soy wax to make candles so the solid wax beads will not absorb that much dye, and most candle makers use far less dye than that,
anyway. This will just take some testing to see how many drops of dye make the color you want. Start low, around 4-6 drops dye per pound of
wax. Make small batches and of course, take notes.
2 lb Mix Example - Let's say you're making a 2 lb batch in a 1 gallon seal top bag.
-Place your seal top bag on your scale and then turn it on. This will zero out, or "tare", the weight of the bag so the scale will still
read zero. Add soy wax pastilles to your seal top bag until the scale reads 2 lb. Remove the bag from the scale.
-Put your small glass jar on the scale and zero out the scale. Add fragrance oil to your jar until it reads 1.6 oz (2 lb x 16 oz = 32,
x .05 (5% fragrance) = 1.6 oz fragrance to 2 lb wax).
-Add your liquid candle dye to the fragrance oil. Count the drops. I would try 8-12 drops dye for a starting point on a 2 lb batch. Mix
well with a spoon or spoon handle.
-Add your fragrance and dye mixture to the wax beads in the bag. Try to remove most of the air from the bag as you seal it which makes
the mixing easier. Gently mix the wax beads and liquid mixture together, making certain some of the liquid reaches each soy drop, for
a uniform color. Lay the mixture flat on a table. Mix occasionally over the next several days.
Helpful Info
-You may want to put the bag inside a pan...just in case your bag leaks.
-You'll know the drops are done when they have soaked up all the liquid. You should be able to hold them in your hand and even lay
some on white paper with not oil or dye transfer. The time this takes will vary for different fragrances and dye loads. Some may take a few days while others may take 2-3 weeks to absorb completely.
-You can experiment with lighter or heavier fragrance and dye loads. If the wax won't absorb all your liquid in a reasonable amount
of time just add some more wax pastilles.
-Remember this mixture not only will smell good, it will probably look yummy and be in a bag that typically holds food,
so be overly cautious and KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN AND PETS!
LINKS;
100% Soy Container Candle Wax
Candle Fragrance Oils
Super Concentrated Liquid Candle Dye
A kitchen scale -
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