sudsnwicks

ajna, one way to find out if $15 is too much for an 8 oz candle is to visit candle and other gift shops and take note of what other brands are charging.

I didn't use soapcalc when I first started, because I didn't know how to interpret those numbers. Now that I've studied the site more, I have a better feel for what those numbers are all about. I think the program calculates these numbers based on an aggregate of the numbers for each oil. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong.) That is, I don't think it takes into account the synergy the particular blend of oils you chose creates. So if some of your numbers are a little outside the range, you may still end up with a good soap, you just have to try it out for yourself to see.

Yours should be a good recipe. I made something similar (only it had 10% castor instead of 5% castor 5% sunflower) and was happy with the result. Have you used lard before? If not, you might like to know it's a slow tracing oil. Which can be helpful if you're soaping a difficult fragrance.

I've been using poppy seeds as the scrubby, but any scrubby will work too.

Tootie, I'm sorry to hear of your troubles. I know how frustrating this is. Here is a thread I found where others talked about this: http://www.craftserver.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45455&highlight=making+candles+at+high+altitude I know it won't solve your problem but at least it gives you an idea of who else lives at similar altitude and if nothing else, you could try approaching them directly for advice.

Patka, the 1 lb size (what I normally order) comes in a bottle which is brushed aluminum on the outside and lined with a thick plastic (at least I think it is plastic, from the looks of it) on the inside. I've never had a problem with them not being glass (I don't transfer them to a glass bottle) though getting them to open for the first time can be a bit tricky. When you order, they don't ask to see a business license, but they do ask for a company name. If you leave the company name field blank when you fill out the order details, they will come back and ask you for one or else not process the order.

Oh okay, I didn't know about the $500 limit. RME has a limit too, but it's much higher at $2,500.

I thought paypal had no fees either, when operating under the same criteria? That is, sending money from one personal account to another personal account, and funded with the account balance. Or has that changed? Nothing wrong with RME from what I see, but I just felt it's misleading to say it's like paypal but without the fees.

Soaps which have been cured longer will also last longer when you use them. Maybe you already knew that, but just thought I'd mention it in case you hadn't realized that.

MissMary has brought up an important point about the manufacturer's instructions. You mentioned the wax being able to hold 6%-10% FO. What about your FO? You need to pay attention to its recommended usage rate (either look on the bottle or ask the supplier) as well. My lavender FO from Peak, for example, says to use 1/4 - 1/2 oz per lb of wax, which translates into a maximum of 3%. So even though the wax could hold 6-10%, I will obey these instructions and use no more than 3%. If you're interested in buying in bulk to reduce your cost per candle, you could start with ingredients which don't expire, such as wax, wicks, jars. For ingredients which need to be fresh, such as FOs, you could figure out how much you need for 1 year and buy that quantity. If you're not using much of each scent, you could consider cutting back on the number of scents offered so that you can buy larger quantities of each FO.

Thanks Tootie! I hadn't thought to check them for jars as I don't use their wax. I've been paying .75 per jar locally thinking it'd be more if I have them shipped in. Actually it is even more than that now as they raised their price last week.

I consider it a good price. The last time I bought pomace it was closer to $18 per gallon.

I heat first (but only in the winter, in the summer I found it isn't necessary) because I found the wicks stick more easily if the jars are warm.

Would you mind sharing where you get your jars from? I get mine locally thinking it'd be cheaper than having such heavy things shipped. But if you can get them for .67 each including shipping that's pretty good.

It is called a 12 oz jar because that's its capacity in terms of volume. Depending on what you fill it with, the weight of the contents will differ. You may get 8 ounces weight in wax but if you filled it with feathers it would weigh a lot less! As for your fragrance load, 1 oz of FO in 8 oz of wax works out to be 12.5%. You might want to check your wax to see if it is able to hold so much FO. If not, you may find the FO seeping out after a while. Even if the wax can hold so much FO, it's wasteful using so much. You should be able to use half of that (or even less) if the FO is from a quality supplier.

I found it reasonable, even though I am all the way in Oregon. I think the shopping cart doesn't give shipping because they want to calculate exactly the correct amount and not overcharge. Anyway before I ordered from them I emailed to ask how much shipping would be by telling them what I wanted to buy.

Oh, I didn't know that. Hmm, I wonder why.

momtohaley, if I'm not mistaken, you can still get the IRS mileage deduction if you were to charge a delivery fee. Say you charge $10 for delivery, then this amount would be recorded as income. But the money you spend on gas or mileage would still be recorded in your expense section.

You don't have to wait for her to come to a craft show near you. You can just buy them directly from her. I've already bought two.

They are a good store. And even with shipping, the price per pound is still lower than the lye sold in the hardware store here.

Thank you, MissMary. I appreciate your taking the time to help me.

Thanks, MissMary, it looks like I am on the right track. For the auto return, did you just have it go back to your home page? It said the page it went to needed to have verbiage stating the transaction has been completed and payment received. So it would seem I need to create a new page with this message? Did you also manage to have your logo appear on the payment page? It said it was recommended for the logo to start with https otherwise the user will see a warning message about unsecure items on the page. My logo only has http not https and I didn't want the warning, so in the end I couldn't use the logo. It just prints the store name at the top which is in a different font and color and doesn't match my site's look. As for the colors, I couldn't really get that to work either, for it only does that at the top, so the bulk of the page is still not the right color. Am I doing something wrong, or is there no way around this?

Miss Mary, do you need to have the website payments pro to do this? Or will it work with the website payments standard ?

Lovely bag! Oh and I am old too and don't know the lingo either, LOL.

0.1 oz accuracy is good enough. Provided your batches aren't too small. The 2nd recipe you posted only had 10 oz of oil. It would be best if your batches have at least 1 lb of oils to come out more accurately on the lye weight.