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Fire and Ice

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Posts posted by Fire and Ice

    ** What's in your pot this week/end? **

    in General Candle Making Discussions

    Posted

    It's coming down to the wire for everything for making soap! Just have to pay and wait for the oils from the Co-op to arrive and Monday I'll be ordering several wood molds!

    I will be setting the candles aside for a month until my year end stock dwindles. I've killed off three scents and that helps to tighten my candle line. Nothing will replace them, that I know of.

    Later next week I will be ordering a few 4oz bottles from the Scent Works to try.

    Fire

    shea butter

    in General Soap Making

    Posted

    Joanne, just so you know, there is a huge butter and oil CO-OP going on right now in the Co-op section of the boards!!!! The suppier is Columbus Foods~ Soapers Choice and the prices on oils and butters are excellent because we are buying in huge bulk! Go have a look! The prices can't be beat!

    Fire;)

    HELP - Need clarification on terminology

    in General Soap Making

    Posted

    Sometimes a scent will smell bad in the soap but when curing for several weeks, it will return back to the origional scent. I do not personally know what causes this this to happen. My GUESS, is the lye water because the scent returns to it's origional properties after a month or so and the only thing that has changes in the soap is a lot less water in the soap. You must understand however that this is just a GUESS on my part. Also, it's a good idea to use distilled water and not tap water when making soap! Florals and spicey scents are quick to accelerate the trace of the soap batter in the pot or bucket, Worse, they can cause seizing (soap on a stick) or the scent rices (looks like rice granuals) Water scents can often, though not always do this as well. Thes baches can be saved but you generally have to HP them in order for them to turn out. With ricing, sometimes to can stick blend it back into submition though.

    There is a forum called the Scent Review that shows many of the scents and how they behave in CP soap as far as if they did anything weird.

    In order to know many things, research is best. Try the Miller soap site and read, read, read.

    Fire

    Lye discounts and superfatting???

    in General Soap Making

    Posted

    Someone needs to correct me if I am wrong but I think what you mean is a water discount, not a lye discout. I've been researching for months both on these forums and on the Dish and I've never heard of a lye discount. You don't want to discount the lye due to the fact that the if you under measure the lye, you will have oils that are unsaporanated and a huge oily mess in you mold due to too much oil.

    Superfatting means you add the oils at the end~ trace so that they are not eaten by the lye.

    Fire

    HELP - Need clarification on terminology

    in General Soap Making

    Posted

    So if you had a scent that caused the volcano thing you would say it volcanized? lol:undecided

    I am referring to the batter rising out of the mold, not the incorrect method of adding water to lye and exploding lol

    Firstly,the morphing scent might be something like a floral scent, maybe a scent that will accelerate the trace. You melt your hard oils, (do not overheat nor burn them), then add your soft oils to the hard oil and stir or stick blend to incorporate them together. When the oils are fully joined, you add your lye water, (which is best at room temp or just a little above room temp), and bring you mix to a trace, ( light, med, or thick,) you take out some of the raw batter and place it in you color cup and mix that for your color for the swirl.

    At this time, you also add your scent to the pan of soap batter and stir.

    When you are working with a floral or a spice scent, you need to work FAST because these scent WILL accelerate the trace immediately!

    The volcanic reaction will happen when adding things like HONEY to your lye water! Honey is best NOT added until you are better prepaired to use it. Milk will do odd things to you lye mix too but not like honey will. Honey and Goats milk soaps are futher down the road for me. Although I have read and understand home to work with them, that doesn't mean I should yet.

    A good thing to do is start at the back of these forum pages and read to the front. Have a norebook handy and take great notes!

    I hope this info helps!

    Fire

    Pros and Cons of a Kelsei Mold please........

    in General Soap Making

    Posted

    Those were my absolute favorite molds- the Misty Creek type.

    The main issue I had with a MC mold was the slack in the cutting guides. Which these don't seem to have.

    I wonder what the bar size is? Note to self, no more molds. HA!!

    The second PITA was lining them.

    A chore I despise. It is easy to do with the template, that comes with a MC mold. Still, I don't like doing it.

    I wonder if they are going to come out of hiatus. LOL!

    My favorite now is the TOG molds. :)

    I didn't think these were a bad choice for the price of the mould. I plan to start with wooden moulds and learn from there. Of course I wish Upland would figure out what they are doing and come back but I think they might be gone for good since they were supossed to reopen their site in August. That was months ago and still nothing. Nobody seems to know what the heck is going on with them! And it's a darn shame!:undecided

    Fire

    EO to cover human scent?

    in General Soap Making

    Posted

    But you still have to eliminate all scent of skin as it can still be smelled by the deer right through the clothing. So the human scent and the clothing scent have to be eliminated totally. My guys use the whole she-bang, the scent eliminating shampoo, soap, deo, sprays. I am not allowed to go with unless I have showered with that stuff, becais of all my hairspray and perfume:o

    That's true enough but understand also that animal can smell and hear 100xs better than any human so any sweat will also give them away as well.

    Having been a trainer such as I was, I've tested all kinds of things and no matter how you try and mask it, human scent will always give it self away to any animal. That why tracking dogs are so valuable to police departments!

    But yeah, if someone smells of aftershave and shampoo, they will certainly cause the wildlife to be FAR more alert then will as little scent as possile.

    What I used when hunting, was the scent of another animal. The scent of a horse generally will not spook deer because it's another animal that is not a preditor to them. Rub a towel over a horse and keep it up in the stand with the hunters. The scent of a horse might cover human scent enough not to spook the deer.

    Fire

    EO to cover human scent?

    in General Soap Making

    Posted

    It's not so much the scent of the skin but rather the scent of the clothes that give humans away to animals. I know this as I trained tracking dogs for Police forces all over the USA. Unless you smell like absolutely NOTHING, don't bother because whatever the scent, it must blend with whatever is already there for the deer to smell. They leave when a new scent comes in to their area. A new scent can carry for 1/2 mile to a dog or a deer. The body sheds million of scent cones every hour. The colloection of that in one place is overwhelming to animals and they will avoid it. Dogs can still track suspect even when the track is days old and hampered my snow or rain.

    Fire

    What's your plan for 2008?

    in Business Side of Things

    Posted

    Well I plan to thin out some of the scents I offer in the candles and really tighten up the line because my price is going up in January. I'll still have the clamshells but I'm learning CP soap, lip balms, lotions, body washes, room spays and maybe a whipped butter sometime next year. I'd like to phase out the candles completely over the next few years. I getting sick and tired of lugging 30+ boxes of jars to every show and twice that amount to the two really big shows I do. However, that said, I noticed most of my major compititions have folded as well. It will all depend on sales in 2008. I know I need to take my company in another direction if I want to survive out there. CP soap is a way to do that because nobody in my area does it, that I know of.

    Fire

    Can M&P get DOS?

    in General Soap Making

    Posted

    I think you're pretty safe. Just don't add things like pumpkin puraee or things like that as that WILL spoil IN the soap. (I came across a thread about someone who did that and then sold the said soap at a FM!:shocked2: ):lipsrseal This was on another forum though.:o

    Fire

    Glass prices are on the rise!

    in Business Side of Things

    Posted

    That totally sucks!

    Everything in this venue is on the rise. Big time, to the point that it will eventually force people out of this business in the future, IMO. I've raised my wholesale prices for the first time in five years effective 2008. As much as I protested doing this, I had no choice. It is impossible to absorb these high costs of supplies any longer if you plan on making any profit. There comes a time to think with a business mind vs the hobbiest mentality if you want to survive.

    I totally agree with you, Mystical Angel. Three years in a row, my wholesale Jar prices have increased and my wax went up nearly $ 8.00 a 50 lbs box. Thank God I don't have to pay to ship it in! I informed my customers in July of this year that my candle prices were increasing. But my prices in candles also includes the tax people pay. Many whined and complained but knew I had no choice because they know ME!

    Now I have to convince my wholesale accounts that they have to raise their prices as well. He really undercuts my prices which is why nobody else will do wholsale on my candles.:angry2: I told him to raise his retail prices but he hasn't done it yet!

    Fire

    Lip Balm Techniques

    in Bath, Body & Cosmetics

    Posted

    I tried to use pipette to fill the tubes but my lip balm mixture became solid inside the pipette and I couldn't use it anymore. The mixture is liquid in my pyrex cup but as soon as I suck it up with the pipette, it became solid. Any advice?

    Are you keeping the mixture warm on a candle warmer on you work bench? Keep the workings very close to each other and used a lip balm tray. If you have to walk back and fourth, you allowing time for the mixture to cool in the pipette. Frankly you might try the small stainless steel creamer idea, mentioned above. I think I will try that too.

    Fire

    if someone local ordered....

    in Business Side of Things

    Posted

    I do local shows to establish a local presence. Yesterday I had two shoppers at my home who purchased over $200 of items in 40 minutes. The appointments were scheduled. How does this differ from an open house in your home??????

    e

    That's an excellent question, Eugenia:confused: Not that I've ever had an open house

    Fire.

    What to Do—“Just in Case” (Sorry It's So Long!)

    in Business Side of Things

    Posted

    I would hold the check and HOPE that she listened to you. What I also know is that when customers due the same scent of a long period of time, the get candle nose and start blaiming thethe candle instead of their own nose.

    If you haven't changed you formula, then trust it to cure. Unfortunately we can never trust a customer to cure candles properly, which is why I never ship candles that have not cured for at least five days.

    I hope she does the right thing and allows the candles to cure. I would also subtract the one she burned from the check and retun her money AFTER she has shipped the candles back, if she decides to do that. JMO,

    Fire

    Fire

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