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I have an excellent recipe that includes a small percentage of Crisco but a lot just doesn't work good for me. There are lots of recipes for Crisco that folks have been soaping for a long time and love the results. Crisco just substituted palm for the cottonseed. Same stuff. I actually like the palm better. It just sends the linoleic through the roof and doesn't make for a very hard bar on its own. Top is absolutely straight on but the proof of soap is how it acts on the individual skin and not to be expected to work for everybody. I made a lard soap recently that is very nice but makes my skin really oily. My dw took the same bar and said it was perfect for her really dry skin. HTH Steve

I just don't think this is going to be too luxurious. I would expect DOS and for the bar to be harsh. The recipe is really unbalanced IMHO especially using 40% Crisco. Your linoleic is through the roof while your oleic is low and then using coconut and pko to offset provides the harshness. What do you think about this one? Crisco 10% Coconut 20% PKO 5% Castor 10% Shea Butter 30% Olive Oil 25% Hardness 40 Cleansing 16 Condition 56 Bubbly 25 Creamy 32 Iodine 60 INS 143 The shea makes it expensive but it and the olive would make for nice effect on the skin. I'm like Scented in that I don't HP only CP. HTH Steve

In My Honest Opinion

I pour 15 oz of wax and 1 oz of fo that have been tared and weighted on my scale. This gives me 16 oz of fragranced wax at a rate of 6.6% per pound. Lighter fo may require a higher percentage but maybe its not about burning your nose hairs. Maybe its about what was the original intent of the oil? A complex fragrance oil is subtle and the different notes appear during the burn. A less complex oil may simply give you the strong notes that would otherwise hide softer notes in a different blend. Some of my customers love the soft and complex fragrance and others want their nose hairs burned off. You just learn what wax and fo combinations will achieve those desired effects. HTH Steve

People initially began blending the cheaper soy with the expensive J waxes to cut down on costs and to gain advantages from both types of wax. Nearly all waxes are now just plain expensive and there is only the advantage of qualities of different waxes in a blend. I use the 70/30 Clarus from TCS and pay a pretty penny for it per ounce but it has out performed anything else I tested. A customer called me to say that my candle fragranced from start to finish and that says it all to me. IMHO. Steve

I think that's bunk. Who would want to stand over individual jars and stir in fo for pete's sake. I would guess that most of us stir the pour pot all through the pouring process. It may be fully incorporated but I stir it none the less, so as to err on the side of caution. You want fragrance from start to finish of the candle IMHO. The question you should ask yourself is whether your current process is giving you the desired results. Hang what everyone else does. The same thing applies to wax, wicks and fo combinations that blow out the doors for some but not others. HTH. Steve

I think you have to look at soap in one of two categories: decorative soap for display only and utiliatrian soap for actual cleansing of skin or hair. Personally, I don't want seeds, flower pieces or anything else to find their way into or on my body. Just a plain piece of soap please. Otherwise, the skies the limit. I was shocked to hear a customer state that she thought my soap was only to look at and not actually use. After explaining that although the soap may have a nice swirl; my intentions were her to use it and buy some more. Later, she bought some more. HTH. Steve

I can't seem to wrap my head around that one. Hmmmmm

They do pretty good in my 70/30 soy blend but I use on average about a 6.6% load. I'll make two 8 oz candles by using 15oz of wax with the 1oz tester. It seems like relly complex fragrances need longer cure time to get a better ct/ht IMHO. Mine are waiting for me when I get home. Steve

That's what I thought, just wasn't absolutely sure. I should be good to go and go and go and go......... Steve

How long do you let them cure? My belief would be that dye should have no impact on the ht. If everything is working as it should and the fos have been formulated for vegetable wax blends; you should be getting reasonable throw. Hand them off to your testers and see if they report no ht. HTH Steve

Ok, thats it for me. I have enough 1 oz bottles to make a raft and cross the Atlantic! Amber Romance Amish Quilt Badedas Birthday Cake Botanical Garden Butter Cream Butternut Pumpkin Carrot Cake Apple Jack Christmas Fantasy Christmas Memories Candy Cane Flower Child Kaylins Herb Patch Patch Blend Patch Raspberry Pumpkin Spice Roll Sweet Amber Musk Patch Amber Blue Skies Christmas Bliss Pumpkin Pie Apple Pumpkin Streudel I don't remember but does the cart show the regular amount and then they adjust later? Steve (fo ho)

Invest in an oven thermometer that has the silver wire and a probe on the end. I set my pour pot (glass coffee carafe) on a single burner with the probe in the wax and monitor my temp. I set the timer on the thermometer for 2 minutes when stirring in fo or color. If the wax gets too hot I simply remove from the burner. I have a griddle but it takes up so much space on my work bench and the single burner doesn't. HTH. Steve

I was really disappointed with Elements Iced Carrot Cake. It's ok, but not as good as some others (ng). The fos really need significant cure time in my 70/30 before they develop real depth; so I kinda am looking at my ususal sources that come out of the chute strong. Steve

The book recommends high oleic sunflower or grade A refined olive oil. They suggest that you can use Comfrey, Jewelweed and Lemon Balm fresh but you have to wilt them first and be careful that they don't sour on you. Use 1 to 2 tablespoons of vodka on top of the oil to prevent souring and then either infuse with a crock pot or place in a jar and let the sun do the work. 1 tsp white vinegar for dried herbs per 8 oz of oil. Strain with cheese cloth, muslin or a fine sieve lined with the cloth and press. Decant the clean oil into another jar and either repeat the process for double or triple infused oil and store in the refrigerator. Check for any sour odor and or mold before storing your oils. HTH Steve

Apple Jack Peel and Christmas Cabin from ng are easy to sell. Last year I sold a lot of Pom and always a lot of creme brulee. I generally offer about 20 fragrances for holidays and stick with the fos that most people want for that time of the year. HTH Steve

It turns orange when your temp exceeds 100 degrees. I place a stainless steel bowl down into a nest of ice cubes and place a thermometer down in the milk. Then you slowly add the lye and hold off whenever the temp begins to climb toward the 100 mark. The majority of the time my milk looks golden but occasionally it turns a little orange. The smell is gonna be there regardless; go ahead and use it and the smell fades away. Vanilla and some other fos will increase your temp so be careful and watch your temp. I pour up after my base temp rises 2 degrees and never go for a gel on a milk soap. HTH. Steve

Yup, it will be a fast one. You might consider soaping it on the cool side. You think it would be fast in a large sized batch Top?

I use 16 oz and 12 oz salsa jars but have been from jelly to tumbler and in-between. The salsa jars are the cheapest and the cusomers like them. Plain with no frou-frou.

I make my own labels and customers appreciate the sometimes zany descriptions on my scents. Avery has a free download and you can get on your computer and make any kind of label your heart desires. Unless you are making a gazillion candles and don't have time to print up your own. I also make my own soap bands.

I would gladly go back to the days when most of us were using J waxes and zinc wicks and had only a handfull of fragrances. Candles were all the rage and they flew off the shelves. You didn't have to pander to specialized tastes or change up your jars. Customers have become so pampered by all the competition that they can dictate all kinds of stuff from a poor guy trying to turn a dime. Forget great profit margins and welcome to the world of over priced wax, fragrance and glass. You make a product with your own two hands or with your employees own two hands and no machine makes it for you. That's as natural as it gets in this century.

I ran those recipes through calc and the last one is best but try this one: 25% Tallow, 25% Coconut oil, Lard 20%, 25% Olive oil, and 5% Castor. Remember to use a light colored olive oil. HTH. Steve

This article came from About.com Think "harder oils" and you'll generally get whiter soap. Generally, that is, because most of the "harder" oils will give you a whiter soap as well. Beef Tallow Lard Coconut Palm Kernel will all give you nice hard white soap. A little bit of Castor in the recipe will also help give you a nice hard white bar, as will really light-colored Olive Oil. (Note: usually only the "refined grade A" is light enough color to not impart any of the green to the soap.) So, here are a few simple recipes using these oils that should give you a nice hard white bar of soap with or without the Titanium Dioxide. (Note: Yes, these all use Beef Tallow. You can order it commercially from soapmaking oil suppliers like Columbus Foods, or it's really easy to render tallow for soap making yourself.) Basic White Soap 35% Beef Tallow 30% Coconut 30% Lard 5% Castor Oil Basic White Soap with Shea A little refined shea butter (Buy Direct) will give you some extra moisturizing without imparting much color at all. 30% Beef Tallow 30% Coconut 30% Lard 5% Shea Butter 5% Castor Basic White Soap with Olive If you've got some really light-colored refined Olive Oil, you can try that too. It's often worth the slight beige tint to get the extra moisturizing qualities of Olive. 25% Beef Tallow 25% Lard 25% Coconut 20% Olive 5% Castor So for a nice, hard, white bar of soap, just like Granny used to make, use one of these combinations of oils, or create your own soap recipe using combinations of these oils. If you want to use your tried and true recipe, but want it whiter, add some Titanium Dioxide to the batch. Or...better yet...use one of these recipes AND add some TD and folks might just think you've slipped a bar of Ivory (Which is really not very Ivory colored, is it?) into the bath! (Heaven Forbid!)

This book has a great section on infusing oils. "Soap & Other Obsessions" by Zonella Gould, Sally Trew and Diane White. HTH Steve

Candlewic is dead on.