littlebrownbug

They do carry wick stickers....they just call them glue dots instead of wick stickers. It's under equipment and they are $19.99 for 1000 glue dots....HTH! Mike

Does anyone on this board know of any good label programs for Macs. like the Avery labels for PC's? I need a good reliable label making program.... Mike

Sorry for the lateness of this post....been in the hospital for the last week. I use CS frosted palm wax in the 10oz. and 16oz. apothecary jars using 1oz. ppw. or 1/2oz. depending on the fo type. So far I am very pleased with the results. I have experinced a very good cold and an excellent hot throw with the candles that I have tested so far. The palm wax for us so far has a much better scent throw than any soy candle we have tested and will switch over to more palm candles than soy. I really like the palm wax and now am very sold on it versus soy wax. Mike

If you are using the dye chips from CS you won't be able to for long. That company went out of business and as soon as CS sells out of them they won't have them unless they go to a different manufacturer. Mike

My experience with dyes is this....if it's soy we don't color them because most soy waxes don't color well. I realize that some soy waxes will dye well initially but usually they don't hold up well(the color fades) and our customers don't like that. So we asked our customers if it matters to them if they are dyed or not and most say that it doesn't matter as long as it burns well and smells good. To our customers,scent is more important to them than is color...go figure???? So that is how we approach dying our soy candles. However,I like color and now that we are doing palm candles we do color them and that seems to be doing very well indeed. Soy....no color added.....palm wax...add color. Mike

It costs me more to order from BCN than it does from Candle Science and BCN is much closer to Nebraska than is Candle Science......I sure hate to do this.....but I must apologize.....my info. was wr------.(lol) from NC to here is $80.39 and from Wisconsin it is only $76.91 a whopping savings of $3.48 for 50lbs. of Ecosoya CB135. But when I consider the difference in customer service and quality of advice etc.....CS wins hands down from BCN. BCN's initial price is $4.55 higher than CS's price however.($49.95 vs. $54.50). For the diff. in price and customer service etc.....I will stick with CS. Mike

You could be very right about that grama....but that is why we test and keep on testing. I will post the results of my testing of that wick with pictures so we can all learn from my boo boos or my yahoooos! Might even have some do overs....we shall test and learn. I do use the csn 9's on my apothecary jars (double wicked of course) and those seem to work very well. If the 7's work I am hoping that my jars don't get so hot....that does concern me alot. Really hot jars bad for the fingers. Mike

I have noticed.....for those of you who use CS's CSN wicks that there is a 6" pre-tabbed CSN 7 wick which I think was available only in a 3" wick before....but I could be wrong about that so please be forgiving if I am wrong.....smiles! I may try double wicking my 16oz. and 10oz. apothecary jars with those and see if they would work or not. Mike P.S. When talking to CS customer service this week,they had told me that the csn 7 was available only as a 3" wick for votives and now they have a csn 5 3" wick for votives and no csn 7 3" wicks that I could see anyway. Mike:

I have noticed.....for those of you who use CS's CSN wicks that there is a 6" pre-tabbed CSN 7 wick which I think was available only in a 3" wick before....but I could be wrong about that so please be forgiving if I am wrong.....smiles! I may try double wicking my 16oz. and 10oz. apothecary jars with those and see if they would work or not. Mike P.S. When talking to CS customer service this week,they had told me that the csn 7 was available only as a 3" wick for votives and now they have a csn 5 3" wick for votives and no csn 7 3" wicks that I could see anyway. Mike:

I'm not sure because of the angle of the photo...but it appears that your wick may be just a little bit off center. If you haven't checked that out it might not hurt to do so. If your wick is centered well then it could be a combo. of things. If you go to the gallery you can look at my palm wax pictures and see the problems that I have been having using a single wick (CSN 16 as well). As of now,until I can make a single wick work and work well,I have opted to use two csn 9's and those pics. are in the gallery as well. My jars are apothecary and they measure 4"H x 4" W(at it's widest point) x 2.75" at the opening. I am using CS liquid burgundy....6 drops and the single CSN 16 wick. On my double wicked candles all my colors are from CS and the fo's are from NG or BCN. Make sure that your candle isn't burning where there is a draft. Mike P.S. I would try double wicking them with csn 9's and see how that goes for you.

Nice pillar Suzanne.....Actually the color of your pillar shows off the starburst pattern very well.....now I want to try some of their starburst wax.I've been using their frosted palm wax in containers and still testing away with that. I also made a black cherry container using CS's burgundy liquid dye. It seems to have worked very well....now if I can just find the magic wick for my containers I will be a very happy person. Mike

Hi Everito, Smiles....bought mine from CS also....thanks for the tip! Mike

Hi Vicky and thanks for the post. I agree with you that now days especially that it doesn't much matter what something says it usually doesn't carry much weight to it unless there is some kind of state or federal legislation to put some teeth into it. Maybe that is what is needed....and like you said it's at least a beginning and does offer some kind of guidelines to follow. I also agree that one should not lessen the amount of product liability just because it is rated by someone as being somewhat safe. Again,thanks for the post I think it's great advice. Mike

It has been brought to my attention about jar safety and that ASTM(American Socicety for Testing and Materials....something like that) are probably the best jars to use for safety reasons especially if you double wick containers. So far my suppliers "say" that theirs are all ASTM rated. Perhaps this is something we should all check into especially if it could help reduce product liability costs....Just a thought....anyother comments sure are welcome...I so much want to learn more about what we do and how to do it more safely. Mike

I noticed the "centering" also Stella so I may use the same wick again and try to keep the wick centered and to keep it from floating on me....it was centered when I started actually and now has moved off to one side. I have noticed this also when I double wick. So,for some reason they tend to float away from center and I don't know why it does that?? Also for jakalex....I have double wicked with the CSN 9's and get a very good clean burn but the jar gets really hot doing that and if I can single wick these I would rather do that. I have thought about using the CSN 11's and double wicking with those but the 9's seem to do a very good job so far and if the 9's get really hot I am thinking that the 11's would be hotter since it is a little bit bigger wick. Just how hot do your jars get jakalex when they are burning? How long does it take to get a full melt pool? I personally am very nervous double wicking becasue the jars get so hot but will do so if it is the only solution I can adequately find. Mike

These are pictures of CS's frosted palm container wax in a 16oz. apothecary jar using six drops of burgundy concentrated liquid candle dye from CS and their CSN 16 wick which was designed specifically for palm wax. It just isn't working well as you will be able to see. I need the magic wick so I can single wick my apothecary jars and get the melt pool I would like etc. These pictures are reflecting about 35 hours or so of burn time. Mike

This may be the same company that CS used and they told me that they went out of business. That's to bad....I was all set to order some. As far as I know there is no one else that makes these or at least as good as these were supposed to be. Mike

Hi Anjie, If you are just starting out or thinking about making candles you may have freinds and family request certain types of fragrances,and that is how some get started with the fragrances they have. Eventually you will discover what others like and add those to what you already have and you will eliminate those that don't sell well. So,it's kind of an ongoing thing. You will keep the good ones and get rid of the bad ones. HTH Mike

Hello Chrisasst, I use wick stickers from Enchaned Lites and they are a double sided sticker and they have stuck very well in both palm and soy waxes. The only time they let go is when I have remelted them either in the oven or with a heat gun. Mike

Hi Isbennis, I will try to investigate this further for you as the "AppleSmith candles are made in the same community that I live in. I know Mrs. Smith and will find out more about this kind of candle if they are willing to spill the beans. I am so surprised to see them make this kind of candle as they once told me that they didn't have time nor did they want to experiment with other waxes....but I will check it out.....BTW....where do you live? I am trying to figure out how far out they reach? Mike

Hi Stella, I like that idea Stella....it would be great to have that kind of stuff listed. It should be a sign of committed and quality minded candle makers. Remind me when I start up production to do that....perhaps you could make up a simulated candle label with what you would like to see on it and post it here as a guide. Kind of like a "Good Candle Maker Seal of Approval" or something like that......smiles Mike

What is the best way for newbies to get their candles out into the market place and to gain some market share? How much advertising should they do? Should they hire a sales force? Should they go the MLM route or some other form of direct selling? Just what is the best way? What have others like yourselves done? Mike

You are very welcome...:-) Mike

Hi KW, Just wanted to know if your wick is meant to melt in a jar that is 4.25 as a single wick? I would guess that you would want two wicks that would melt half of that size each which should get you a complete melt pool. Otherwise I am guessing that two wicks that would melt 4-4.25 in. each would make your jars way to hot when burning....just a thought. Mike

Where can one buy candle supplies such as wick trimmers etc. directly from the manufacturer? Maybe there aren't any that do that and one would have to rely on the wholesalers instead? Mike