Carriegsxr6

i think they look great.

you can buy wick sampler packs at Peaks http://www.peakcandle.com/category/Wicks/LX-Wicks.aspx and Lonestar http://www.lonestarcandlesupply.com/wicks.html

i noticed fruit slices is missing too

i agree about the soy formula. i dont think it should be feed to babies. soy is good for hyperthyroidsm though. its slows you down, but bad for hypothyroidism.

I know what you mean about some fragrance companies working and some not. I usually always revert back to Peaks and Candlewic, those were the two companies I first started with and they have always brought me back. Even though there are other companies out there that have such delicious sounding blends, they just don’t work in my wax. I just bought a bunch of 4oz bottles from AH/RE and the Raspberry Lilac keeps bleeding and sweating out of the C-3. I have no clue why. And the cinna-vanilla starts smelling like plastic after burning a couple hrs.

Once you get a stick blender you will be able to mix the color better. The best thing to do is after you mix the lye in with your oils, then remove a small amount of oils to mix the color with. Oxides and Ultramarines are oil dispersible and will not disperse in water. This will ensure you are not putting extra oil in there that you don’t have enough lye for. Because that would make your superfatting percentage higher and your soap softer. If you have liquid glycerin to premix the color in, then that is okay since glycerin is basically oil that has already been saponified (liquid soap).

I am not sure if the oil shelf life is valid anymore after its been soaped. Robin can you maybe chime in here and let me know if this is true? Also Suzanne just made her first bar using25% castor, try pming her and ask what it feels like. http://www.candletech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43153 I think your recipe sounds like it should be tried out. the only way to know for sure is to soap it and use it. maybe only start with a 2lb oil batch.

I use two RRD 34s for the 10oz apothecary if you are just test burning wicks, then you can usually burn them two days after you make them. some people may say the next day but i try and wait two days to make sure they are fully hardened back up.

I am not sure what kind of votive container you are using, some are wider than others. You may want to start with an RRD 29 since you are using container wax, and if thats not big enough use the 34.

i use 7% FO with my C-3 and notice a big difference if I wait 2 weeks as opposed to 5 days. I like them strong.

those are very cute

i think you answered your own question. Too big of wick and too much FO. I never go above 7% fragrance load in my wax.

i ususally use 1oz per pound of oils. some stronger fragrances need less.

if you add container wax, they will be softer. if you want them harder, try adding a little pillar wax, try 70% votive wax to 30% pillar wax. I use the v-1 wax and always let my tarts set up overnight before i unmold them, they are ususally hard enough so I am not sure why you find them soft.

You confused me at first when you said you made votives with c-3 since c-3 is a container only wax. But I think what you meant is that you poured c-3 into votive size containers??? With my c-3 I heat to 185-190, immediately stir in color and fragrance and pour right away so that the temp doesn’t drop too much. I never add vybar and don’t think you need to either. Vybar is to make the candle more opaque (which soy wax is already very opaque) and to make it harder, which you don’t need to do. I also get a few sink holes but the color always looks great and I hardly get frosting. I do notice wet spots (the wax pulling away) usually a couple days later, but they are not too bad. The candle doesn’t rattle inside the jar. with c-3 it should set up enough in 2-3 days for you to test your burn pool and wick, but if you want to test for fragrance throw you really should wait a full 2 weeks before you burn.

very cute, i love the botanicals

sweet almond sounds better. I use ultramarines and oxides and find so far that all of them hold their true color and a little goes a long way. Majestic Mountain Sage has a great selection of them. RBO means rice bran oil.

i am not sure, are you asking for mixing ideas and those are the FOs you have on hand? if so i would mix vanilla sandalwood ginger lime cinnamon vanilla ylang ylang orange

I was able to get 7oz of soy wax into these with .5oz FO. I got them double wicked with 2 RRD 34s

Well now I know what you were talking about in your other thread when you said it was turning dark brown. it was your color you added for the swirl, it morphed from blue to brown. it must not be CP safe and meant only for melt and pour type soaps that dont come in contact with lye. the yellowness of the rest of the batch is because you used oils that were dark, maybe the wheatgerm and olive? as for the cracking, i agree with carebear, its because you used the flexible mold and it was still soft when you twisted and turned it to get it to release.

i love the detail in the green one, great job

I know exactly what you mean about cure time and wanting to make them fresh to order. 100% soy candles really do need those 2 weeks for best throw. So what I do is tell them since they are made to order, it will take 3-4 days before they can ship to ensure they set up enough. It will probably take another couple of days for the mail to reach them, by the time they receive their candle it would have already cured for almost a week. Then I put instructions in there telingl them they should wait a week after receiving their candle to burn it in order to get the best fragrance throw. If I make it for someone in my area that doesn’t need shipping, I tell them it will take 5-6 days to make and then they need to wait a week before burning it. I find most people have been okay with this and are able to wait the week before burning, I think if they had it the next day they would be too tempted to wait an entire 2 weeks before burning.

just wondering.... did you add fragrance to it?

I got mine from Candlewick, they do not come in a dropper bottle. i had to purchse some empty dropper bottles from someplace else. but candlewic's pricing is the cheapest for the dyes. Here is a company that sells EVO dyes as well and theirs come in a dropper bottle http://www.northstar3c.com/cgi-bin/shop2/cp-app.cgi?usr=51H9035419&rnd=4762896&rrc=N&affl=&cip=12.155.132.249&act=&aff=&pg=cat&ref=eco_dye&catstr=HOME:8

I find it easiest to wash it the next day. Its too much of an oily mess to wash down the sink right after, and I am afraid of clogging up my sink.