e911

super handy! Thanks! I usually only make about a pound per scent, but it's nice to see what's needed to do more!

When you guys mix your own parasoy, do you use more soy than parafin because it is cheaper to buy?

When I used parafin, i used it in a 50/50 blend or a 70/30 blend heavy to soy. I thought it worked out well for me, but I'm not really the greatest source of info since I'm a n00b.

As a n00b thanks for the other provider suggestions. I've only used Peak and I've got some from another supplier (old age, memory is slipping). I haven't made anything yet as I am waiting for it to get a little cooler outside before I start making them. So many vendors, so many to try, I hate wasting what little money I have for bad product

I use Ecosoya Pillar Blend and it tends to work well for me, but then again, I am new and may not be the best judge of this. So far, everything I've made through the winter has smelled great out of the warmer. Some scents though get weak quickly, but those are the ones I keep and use myself.

Practice is the best advice I've gotten from folks here.

To start making my christmas presents for friends and family. This year I decided to try a new scent provider, Bitter Creek North, as well as my order from Peak.

Both packages arrived at the same time, woot! One thing i noticed is that BCN really packs their stuff well.. It was packed nice and tight inside the box.

I know you shouldnt judge a scent by its out of the bottle smell test, but when compared to Peak (the only other company I've used), the out of bottle smell test wasn't as good as I had hoped. Some of the scents were either very muted or strangely, had no smell at all (at least none this newbie nose could smell) Anyone else noticed this or maybe I'm spoiled with what Peak sent me for my first batch last year ha!

Also picked up another batch of wax and scents from Peak. Picked up 43 new scents for this christmas batch and some more clam shells. Starting to think I have an addiction :embarasse ha!

Next on my scent provider list is probably going to be Candle Science. Any one else have any good vendors I should look at?

Side note: wish wax would stop going up in price. My first batch was 20$ for 10lbs now its gone up

Thanks Alan for getting us back online. I hope you found the info I sent you helpful!

Really nice smooth tops!

(sigh) I miss mine looking like that. They've done something to my wax ( regardless of what IGI says, there's quite a few of us that have gotten that wax from many different supplies and they've all started acting wonky)

Must be beginners luck because I don't really do anything special besides heat the wax, add color and FO, cool slightly down to low end of the pour temp range, pour until full, then enjoy the smell! :-/

So, during my recovery from wisdom teeth surgery, I decided to try to make more tarts with a smaller pot. One of my coworkers makes candles too so she is letting me borrow her 1lb pour pot. In my testing I have found that I'm not a huge fan of the paraffin blended with soy. Can't put my finger on it but there's something different. I've tried several combo's of blends like 50/50 soy to paraffin, 60/40 both directions, etc. The 50/50 seems to be the best of the blends, but I like how the ecosoya Pillar blend comes out. So I'm stuck with probably 5+lbs of paraffin

Here are a few snapshots of my creations so far this morning:

Peppermint Kiss. Smells like a a hershey's chocolate kiss with peppermint, but heavy on the peppermint.

Cinnamon and Balsm. Smells wonderful! Don't mind the fingerprint!

1lb of soy makes 6 tarts Good to know!

Is it me or does the Candle Science Liquid Dye's seem to be MUCH weaker compared to Peak's? I was looking at CS' stuff while I'm building my spreadsheet (here i go again with spreadsheets!) and looking at the cost per ounce and how much it will make overall, and not only is it more expensive it makes less overall.

Anyone else notice this or is it just me being overly observant? So far these are the only two companies I have gotten to, Lonestar is next on my list to add to my spreadsheet.

E911,

Thanks for all the pics!!! It is so fun to see your progress in tart making!!!!! :drool:Loooooooooooking GOOD!!!!

Thank you!! I'm super excited.. Time needs to hurry! ha!

Here's a link for testers cards. Maybe change a few things to use it for Tarts. There are a few different types you can try to find in the search field if this one isn't good.

http://www.candlebusinesscorner.com/forms/testcard.htm

That is perfect. Thanks so much!! You guys are awesome!

These are your first batches, so you know this information, but as you experiment with different waxes, you will want to label with what type of wax (the manufacturer and number), supplier where you got it and also supplier of the FO. You'll have a lot at some point and you may forget! As an example, I am testing 3 different supplier's Cotton Candy so I needed to be certian I knew what I was comparing and choosing. Another test I am doing involves the same FO from one supplier but 2 different wax blends.

You are off to such a great start!

Thanks for the Tip! I think I may order these same scents again, and try them with other blends of the same waxes. Currently I'm only making 8oz batches so I can maximize my FO useage. I don't have enough clamshells to make a full 1lb batch. So far, everything has come from Peak. Once I make at least 1 batch of each, I'm going to sit down and make out another spreadsheet (sheesh I have a thing for spreadsheets apparently, i'm doing one with the four suppliers I'd prefer to do business with ha!) and mark out what mixes I've tried, plus thoughts/comments about that.

Some close friends have offered to test a few of them for me so I may give them a couple and ask them to do a write up for me.

The red in the Macintosh Apple was 20 drops of Peak's Red Liquid Dye. I'm really impressed with how red it turned out

Which FO has the floatie thing?

The Macintosh Apple. It looks better now. Here is a photo showing the Red comparison. The Darker red is the Macintosh Apple.

Could be unmixed FO?

I'm not sure. I mix mine ALOT.. Almost 3-5 mins of stirring depending on how much coloring I put in it. Will have to see what happens I guess when it sets up :-/ I'd give the Creme Brulee a major yes vote if anyone has been on the fence about it. It was a sample that Peak sent me and its enough to make your mouth water.

So I tried a batch of 60 soy/40 paraffin with a Creme Brulee, and if the molten throw is any indication, I'm hoping the cold throw will be just as a good! I colored these with just 1 drop red and 1 drop green. Gave it an interesting brownish color.

Something's wrong with this one though, I'm not sure what THere's some kind of floatie thing on top of the wax.

And I compared the red of the Macintosh Apple to the red of the Winter Wonderland's I made, and the Apple is a very nice dark red like a good apple

Ok, It's official. I'm hooked. I've been messing with a few different mixes of wax. 50/50, 60/40, 70/30, etc.. Now the real test, is how they will smell and throw after they are cured and remelted in a tart warmer. The next 7 days are going to be torture.

My latest mix: 60% paraffin/40% Ecosoya Pillar Blend, 20 drops of red, and Macintosh Apple. This... Smells... Divine! It has a great dark color to it while it's molten, I'm hoping it turns out well! (I know I got a lil overboard with the dye, but hey, it's an experiment )

Few Pictures below. On a side note, do you all like the pictures, or should I lay off? :-/

I made a small batch of Peak's Cedar Scent, and I'm very disappointed with it's cold throw Not sure if it's something I did or if it's just weak in general.

Just started making candles last month. I am a stay at home mom and needed something to do in my free time.

Nice to meet you all

Welcome!! You definately came to the right place!! These guys have been super helpful. I just started making my first batches of tarts here in the last few days. I would encourage you to make sure to read around on the forums. Lots of help!!

One could say I think I have a new addiction. This has been so relaxing and interesting experience. Made another batch as soon as I got up, but realized that I better get some kind of scent label on these before I forget which is which since I only have 2 color choices.

Here is a picture of what I have thus far

I have tried the following scents so far:

Twilight Woods (one of my favs so far)

Purely Peppermint (omgosh uber strong!)

Cedar (I was a little disappointed in this FO )

Fraiser Fir (made this along with the purely peppermint and lets just say, my apartment was an interesting smelling place for a day and a half)

Winter Wonderland (which you can see just recently poured there in the back of the picture. Yes I know, I didnt have enough wax to fill that last container, I'm keeping this one as my personal sample, but this scent does smell great)

Here's a few more pics of them now that they have had time to set up a bit..

Ok so i made another batch today, this time with 4630. It says working/pouring temp is between 165 and 185, except when I removed it from the heat to add the FO and color, stirred, the temp dropped below 150. The Cedar's (greens in these pics) I poured at below 150, and the Twlight woods (reds) I poured at just above 170. I also splurged a little bit on the red dye. My hands got shaky and ended up spilling 12 drops instead of 7 for 8oz's of wax.

Here are the pictures. The cedar wasn't as strong as I thought it was going to be, but the twlight woods, holy batman it smells amazing in here!!

Filled them up a bit this time

Thanks everyone for the help and ideas. My stove kinda sits in an odd place in my apartment, there isn't alot of counter top space, so these are placed on the furthest side away from the burner i was using to help with some of the heat issues (hopefully).

I snapped a few more pictures this morning, I must have poured too quickly (i thought I poured pretty darn slowly myself) because I have sinkholes in mine

Well....I don't know what you mean by feeble attempt...they look fantastic to me!!! And the dribbling....heck fire, I've been making candles for 12 years and I STILL dribble...way too much I might add, but that is the nature of the beast. I LOVE peppermint and pine type smelling scents....you took such a great close-up picture that I can just about smell them!! The colors look great to me...all of my bayberry, evergreen scents are always a dark green and that is from the recipe that the supplier had. Sooooo.....it all looks perfect to me...take a bow..ya did great!!!!:highfive:

Thanks! I started off small, with just 8oz of wax. I'm doing two batches with each scent. One in the Ecosoya and one in the 4630 to see which I like better (really pulling for the soy). So each of my scents are eyeball poured at about half/half. I'm erroring on the side of caution and doing just a little under 1/2 bottle. Don't want to over do it, but I tell you want, I'm pretty sure my whole building can smell the peppermint!!

So... Here is my first feeble attempt at making tarts, and already ive found a few problems. First, I need a smaller pour pot. I ordered a 4lb one on my first order and its too big:embarasse. I cant get the thermometer down into the wax. Second, I need to not dribble so much when pouring.

However, between the peppermint and the fraiser fir, I'm not sure which one is more powerful ha! It's an interesting smelling time right now in my apartment.

So here are two pictures I took of my first attempt. The white ones are the peppermint with no dye. The green's are the fraisers, but I think I got too much dye in them as they are REALLY dark :embarasse I'd welcome feedback if you see anything wrong

I have one like this and love it.

I get distracted and forget to check the temps in the melters sometimes (well every day). This one can be set to beeeeeeeep when I'm at the bottom of a desired temp range. The timer is handy too.

Thats the one i originally wanted, but they are like 40$ here.. i found a regular candy one from hobby lobby for 4$ so going to give this one a shot!