chuck_35550

Love the spoon swirl and the piping makes a perfect topper. Great work and oh so much fun. I did the same thing with waiting too long to start and had to chunk the whole bag (it was solid soap). I thought there would be time to clean up...wrong. Show us some more when you get them done. Steve

I fill a tea strainer full and continue to add as it soaks down. I'll remove that and add fresh as I use oil out of the pot. Its not unusual for people to triple infuse their oils. The light olive is a deep golden color now. I have large bags of just petals and whole flowers. I use the whole flower for the infusion. HTH Steve

Calendula is supposed to have healing properties. Infuse rice bran, high oleic safflower,high oleic sunflower,almond oil or any other carrier oil you will only use a small amount in the recipe. That being said, I infused a pound of light evoo and use it in my small two pound log mold. I used about 3 or 4 oz of Caledula flower and then strew the top with petals. The whole flower is cheaper than the petals and the petals are pretty kwim?

Hands down the best investment you can make. Keep an eye on your temps though, the presto tends to over heat most wax. IMHO Steve

You would add whatever 6% times 12.9 would equal. Just weigh out 8 oz of your wax and add .5 oz of fragrance oil and then place your container with the wick attached on the scale and fill until you reach a height on the container that you like. Weigh how much left over wax you have and more than likely its not enough to make much difference. Pam is saying that you need to get in the habit of weighing wax and fragrance oil. Most jars are only going to hold about 85-90% (8 oz may only hold 6-7 oz) and fos are going to be different volumes per weight of an ounce. This is why sometimes you have exactly enough or a little too much because of the difference in volume. Write down your formula and when you test, write down how the candle behaved, looked or any other observations and adjust until you are satisfied. Good science will cut down on failure IMHO. Good advise Pam. Steve

I get that sometimes with shea and cool temps. I keep my temps under 100 degrees when using full gm and no water. Try upping your water percentage if you are less than 38% and see if that gives you a little more wiggle room from thin to medium trace at about 100 "degrees. HTH Steve

I use the large tips on a professional strength bag. You can place saran wrap around the tip to prevent leaking soap until it gets thick enough to pipe. Make a star in the middle and pipe around it and build your cupcake. On cakes I like to place Mp imbeds on top after pouring a thin icing over the layers and then pipe around the imbeds. Hth

I'm using the bar and its pretty darn nice. I wouldn't market this bar, its just an effort to help a friend with breast cancer. If it works for her, then great.

Good luck with that. Marketing the tragedy seems crass to me. JMo Steve

I use Clarus Stasis 3022 (70/30 soy/paraffin) with cdn wicks. I use the gold lids and I believe the 9 oz jars will hold about 6 oz comfortably. I bought the 16 oz jars several years ago when the mfg suddenly stopped making the 12 oz jars. I'd take $5.00 a case for them. Steve

Read some medical articles about skin irritants and they suggested stay away from lanolin, cocount and cocoa butter; so I came up with a formula using Babassu and pko instead. I infused the olive with Calendula and placed flowers on the top of the log. The soap is very dense, has little odor if any but bubbles very nicely. I added shea butter, ho safflower and sunflower with castor to round out the emollient side of the bar. This is one hard bar of soap right out of the mold and my question would be: should I cut back the pko from 12% to 10% and add to the shea? Thanks Steve

I have about 25 cases of the 16 oz jar I'll sell you. The 12 oz are good sellers, they hold 8 oz of wax and I just got in about 350 of em. HTH Steve

You want a jar that is just about as wide as it is tall. Straight wall is better than curved wall and you often get a curved wall on a wide mouth container, because the rest of the jar narrows back down to a standard size. It doesn't mean you can't use strange looking jars it just means you have to be prepared to buy a wig to cover the hair loss from all that you pull out. KWIM? Steve

Ooooh I like that Eric. You know, the big companies ship this wax from all over the place and some distributors blend their own and the wax is gonna get nasty at some point. How often do you change the filter? Steve

Yup, ceiling fan or fan in general is a great trick to get a fragrance moving. The carnies at the fair keep fans running to waft the food smell down the midway and so if you go in a shop and smell a strong candle fragrance, look for a fan somewhere. Air currents will push your fragrance to different parts of the house whether hot or cold. Steve

Not a waste of time for my product. Its what works for me and thats the bottom line.

Just be aware that the labels are not waterproof and have to be sprayed either with Modge Podge or any good clear, spray on silicone protectant. Waterproof are pricey and its easy to spray the labels yourself but it does slightly alter the appearance IMHO. Do not use the clear ones from Avery but the crystal clear labels from online or from labelsonline (I think) the Avery labels are not really clear. I would recommend that you get samples and see how you like them. HTH Steve

I have never had a customer bring back a candle because the flame flickered (say it fast 10 times). Whether it is a combination of all those possibllities or not, the flicker is not that big a deal. Under and over wicked are different subjects, as you have noted and testing different wick structures is a reasonable way to try and get the most bang for your buck from the fo and wax. Watch anything with a flame and you will see that it can be affected by drafts, build up within the wick from solids that are in the fuel and the configuration of the jar and wick. IMHO Steve

I hate to keep putting my wax out there as the perfect wax (which it is not) but it makes no sense to have to add all kinds of other waxes and or oils to get a decent cold throw/hot throw out of a quality fragrance oil. Paraffin, soy, beeswax, palm, or toe jam should be able to adequately do the job for which it is specifically manufactured. Container, pillar, tarts, mottling, carving, cave painting have all been formulated to perform as directed by the manufacturer. The reason why some people are able to come up with good blends is because they worked with a base wax until they learned it and then decided to tweak it wherever it had a weak area. That being said, 6006 is just fine all by itself but with a little added soy you get a somewhere 50/50 blend of paraffin and soy for better adhesion to the container but in the end it always lets go and you have wet spots. I like the added soy to the 6006 for easier wicking and a little more forgiving in the area of fo percentage. It would be my go to wax if they ever quit producing Stasis 3022 70/30. Steve

you might try asking this question in the wickless section. HTH Steve

Ancient Amber? Herbal Amber? Secret Spa? HTH Steve

I fill my dishwasher up with about 3-4 cases of jars and let them wash overnight. The jars are nice and squeaky clean when they get placed in the toaster oven for warming. The jars come from China, need I say more? Steve

Dancing is caused by impurities in the wax that interfere with the consumption by the wick and eventually the wick breaks down due to acids in th soy. I like the cdn wicks best in my soy blend but sometimes an fo is heavy and it clogs the wick and causes it to flicker. IMHO Steve

Longer cure time IMHO. Your fo should be fully incorporated throughout the wax if you blended for at least several minutes. I guess you're rationale would be that if the wax is hotter the fo will fully incorporate? If the fo was heavy it should give you great ht in the final burn because it might have settled but lighter fos usually take a longer cure time. HTH Steve

I don't see any difference. Placing a votive is slightly different than pouring wax but of course you intend to test the container. A well designed votive burns down within the shell like a pillar and eventually the wall blows out and it fills the container with the hot wax. The challenge would be to wick the container without it getting too hot and cracking. Can't tell how that holder is designed from the pic. HTH Steve