chuck_35550

I guess I should have said, CareBear instead of CB. I was curious as as to the total depth of your new mold. Steve

I have the green, red and blue pops and don't use them. I've been using Celestial and they work real nice for me. HTH Steve

The majority of our glassware is made in China and would not be considered 1sts by any stretch of the imagination. I inspect my flint glass jars and see plenty of imperfections and if I had my druthers I'd rather have seamless glassware but then it would cost more than the whole candle. Steve

One question for CB. I notice that the mold is only 1 1/2 inches deep. Will the mold accomodate more soap or is that filling it up to the brim? TIA Steve

Oh I don't wait. I just grab a bar after a week and go to the shower.

I use a toasted oven to heat my jars and a double hot plate I got at Wal-Mart for $30.00 dollars. I can keep two pour pots loaded and monitor temp with a wire probe. The plates are covered with a hard plastic and not an open hot plate eye. Hth Steve

I just keep thinking that you need me to hold your ipad while you work. Great as always. Steve

Show us the cut bars of that pretty soap. Steve

I store mine in the open on bamboo shelves in our guest bedroom for about a month and then place them in plastic storage bins so they don't lose their fragrance or get dirty. Turn them about once a week so they won't warp and place on paper towels in a storage bin and forget about them. I label my bins so I can remember what kinds of soap are stored. HYH Steve

No, Silk makes coconut and almond milks. You have to get the original recipes without vanill or sugar added to them. These are usually the lowest calories milks and are are great because they have really long shelf lives and give soap a great quality. HTH Steve

Oh for pete's sake, the National Candle Association lists these candles as separate "types". Obviously, a tea light is not a container candle meant to be used on its own; you put the thing in a burner. A votive is put in a holder and a container doesn't have to be placed into anything to make it work or safe. It's only common sense to sell a safe product that reduces the risk of hazard. Customers are not candle makers and for the most part pay little attention to the details we place in our products. Why attack Stella for making a case for her opinion? You don't have to do what Stella suggests and it doesn't mean Stella is 100% anything but opinionated. Its not fair to hijack a thread for the sake of ganging up on someone you are feuding with due to personality conflict. The point of a thread is to develop discussion for the purpose of improvement of one's own product(s). Come on ladies and give it a rest. Please.

I nave a bottle of it. Can't get anyone to buy that fragrance. Steve

I sell to friends and co-workers mostly. I have an annual wholesale account that keeps me busy during the holiday season and occasionally get large orders but this is just a part-time business and one that I have been developing for about 7 years now. You will evolve over time and your product(s) will change until you are reasonably satisfied and then you will change again. Customers are very difficult to read and the only golden rule I have adopted is "Never Throw Anything Away" sooner or later you will use it. Most people don't know about my products and I'm satisfied with it that way. If it were full time I would be really aggressive about wholesale and retail accounts. HTH Steve

I needed this formula for people sensitive to coconut and yes, it makes a very translucent and long lasting bar of soap. I really like this soap with infused oils.

Looks good to me. I have tried salt (hardens the bar) and sugar and didn't care for the results that much. The sugar really caused me some headache with acceleration and the soap felt sticky to me but you know how that goes. I recently formulated a recipe with no coconut and used pko and babassu instead. Its such a different soap but boy it really makes your skin feel good. I added jojoba beads for a mild exfoliant and the bars last forever. HTH Steve

Yes I do. It's very simple too. I take a piece of parchment or freezer paper and roll it up and insert it into the pvc pipe. Once inside, the paper unrolls and I have a cap that fits onto the bottom and I cut off the extra at the top. I then fill the tube with my imbeds which are made from cp soap that I have sliced and then taken small cookie cutters and cut out my shapes. Once the tube is full I pour mp over the top and let it set. The tube of soap just slides out of the pipe and I place the whole tube(s) down into my loaf mold at different levels as soap is poured into the mold. It's really easy. Home Depot cut the different sized pvc pipe for me and gave me the caps for free. Larger pipes should work about the same (I think) but I have never used them for cp, so someone else will have to tell you their technique. HTH Steve

You should check out TAP Plastics on Youtube. I purchased a pound of their silicone and made molds for an upcoming order of 200 soaps for a fund raiser with the ribbon on top. They aren't pretty but the soaps look great and it wasn't hard at all to make. The vids are very helpful and you could make silicone molds of those tins real easy IMHO. A pound will cost you about $40.00 plus s&h. HTH Steve

Oh Babs, when are you gonna move to Birmingham and be my swirl partner? Is that a three funnel swirl? Or did you free hand that through the mold? Steve

Wow, I bet your linoleic numbers are through the roof. Do you use high oleic sunflower? You might try reversing those oils (10% sunflower and 31% oo) when using those particular fos. HTH Steve

Here's my procedure: Turn on melter, place clean jars in toaster over at 150 degrees and prepare my wicks by placing a small square of 3m mounting adhesive on each one and have my craft sticks with drilled holes, thumb clips, fos and any dye lined up and read to go. My pour pot is warmed on the double burner and my fo shot glass is warmed as well. I tare out my pour pot and fill with hot wax and place back on the burner and put in a temp probe and begin mixing in fo and color while keeping my temp constant at 185 degrees. I take out a jar pop a wick in and clip into place and tare out on the scale and pour up the wax and place it in the cooling box. I usually pour two cases in an hour and then cover and let cool slowly. Wicks will melt when exposed to the heat and not perform properly. IMHO Steve

Stella makes the best point that the whole wick assembly has to be straight from top to bottom. I use a small square of 3m mounting square placed directly over the center of the wick assembly and use the same method of a barrel that was a case for a thermometer to stick the wick. The wick goes up through a wide wooden craft stick that has a hole drilled in the middle and then is lined up with the two seams of the glass and secured with a thumb clip. The alignment of the seams almost gurantees a pefectly up and down centered wick that does not require any extra time or effort. I've had these sticks for years and they clean up very nicely and are super cheap and easy to use. I have never had a wick come loose from the jar or allow wax underneath because the wick assembly has been sealed by the piece of 3m mounting square. HTH Steve

I'm not gonna say I came up with the idea of adding co but several years back when GL was the hottest wax on the web; I added co and claimed it would enhance ht. We went through this same kind of testing period where some said it really helped and others said it didn't. I found it helped during a time when the soy harvest went through a severe drought and the quality of the wax was brittle. The co improved the appearance and gave marginal improvement to ht as well but wasn't necessary after the soy improved. GL offered sticky wax which was petrolatum and really helped with the adhesion and the ht at the time. I tried co with 6006 and several blends and didn't get any more stability with or without it and decided to move on. It will make votives glossy and improve the ht/ct IMHO. HTH Steve

May I suggest adding 15% soy, heat to 190 degrees and pour into room temp jars and do not cover. I like cdn wicks and use 6%.fo for best results. Steve

Poor Pam, I know just how you feel. LOL Steve

Babs....you did it! Thanks a bunch for the vid tutorial and get you a camera crew young lady. I know plenty of local folks who would love to help you out (hint, hint). Hope you get somewhere with the hand problem, my wife just had back surgery and its no fun having an ongoing physical problem. You may have soapers' hand, jk...lol. Southern Ladies are the best. Steve