emilyspoppy

Let's sleep on this for awhile. MAYBE Mr. Bill will enlighten us. His site does state, however, it is a custom blend. Night!

WOW! That was a quick reply post! (lol) It's in the cart, M'am! It's in the cart! Delusional Dave

BAYBERRY WAX!!!! I love it! I'll need to contact New York & Paris though to get today's "spot price" quote!!! Platinum Gold Bayberry Wax Silver ect. That's why I know this company's name! Now I need to do some research. Thanks for enableing! (lol) Dave

Oh! Did you mean Candlewics CBL-129 wax? "A multiple pour jar/container blend that is designed to offer you a rich smooth blend on your container candles, this specialty candle wax is designed for containers and votive candles. This wax can do double duty for you. There is no need to use two different waxes for your containers and votive candles." Wax Blend Consistency: Hard Fragrance Capacity: 5-8% Candle's Finish: Smooth & Opaque Pouring Temp (°F): (140-155)° Melting Point (°F): 131° "This is Candlewic's own custom blend that is formulated to give a smooth finish on your container and votive candles. This candle wax will handle high fragrance loads and will exhibit very true and vibrant colors in your candles. This candle wax blend will offer your candles very good burning characteristics and will eliminate undesirable "wet spots". This product will require a top off point." http://www.candlewic.com/store/Product.aspx?q=c69,p526&title=Container-Blend-Wax---CBL-129 There's even a video on this wax describing it's benefits. The ONLY THING I CAN ADD is; It's a pure petroleum wax (No soy) and the owner of Candlewic, Mr. Bill Binder, suggested to me that he believes this is a superior wax for producing clam shell and tart melts I'm sorry I have no additional information on this wax. I have not even tried it yet. I do plan to send Bill Binder a link to this thread for him to read in an email. Maybe more information will be available shortly. I sure hope so. Karen; I do appreciate all of the testing you are currently doing. If I had a dollar for every every hour I spent testing waxes, wicks and fragrances, I'd take a vacation in Bermuda. HONEST! I too want to make the best products that are possible if even for myself, family and friends. I do hope, however, that making the best wax products will be enough to keep our shop open and operatimg in the black. We are all in this wax melter (IE: Presto Pot) together! Sleep tight ladies! Hopefully tomorrow will bring more information. Maybe! Dave

CHRISTMAS MEMORIES! I'm looking to replace BCN "Yuletide". Does anyone know if that FO or any other's for that matter will serve me well? TIA Dave

I've heard the name, but since I'm old and decrepid, I can't remember in what context. I don't think they're a "new kid on the block" though, if they're still in business. I'll see if I can find out anything, too. Dave

Really I'm no expert. I have been at chandlering for awhile, but that only means I've made a lot of mistakes. It would take volumes of boring typing and (worse) reading to convey my OPINIONS on this, but I'll try to narrow it down to the points most brought up. Jeanie; I agree with you that wax preferences are personal. I want it all too! I never seem to quite get it though from the waxes that get shipped to me. My start in this crazy racket was making authentic-type "period" candles. I fell in love with candles, candlelight and candle holders during a visit to Colonial Williamsburg prior to my teen years. I am really a traditional chandler. I HAD to make my own blends in the beginning. I had grocers and butchers save and sell me beef and sheep tallow at the start of my adventure. As you must be aware that was eons ago and everthing has pretty much changed. I have only been making highly fragrant candles for about 15 years, selling them for 12, 10 of which have been in our current shop. I stock a lot of fragrances for several reasons; 1.) I'm mentally challanged (Diseased) 2.) I want to out do the competition 3.) I enjoy blending fragrances I've never felt a major urge to blend waxes for several reasons; 1.) It's confusing 2.) It's messy 3.) I cannot provide the necessary environment to test the blends in that meets with my expectations. 4.) I'm lazy I do "adjust" waxes sometimes. I keep 4627 and 4794 in quantity on hand for that reason. I only use them when the wax I buy in stock from suppliers is "off" though. I also usually have many other waxes "around" just in case. HTH Ravens; The description that CW provides with CBL-129 is satisfactory for me, now that I know that it is an all petroleum wax. Bill's suggestion to "Try it! You'll like it!", will not go untested. I just haven't gotten that far yet. I'm pretty confident that once Bill reads the posts on this thread he may clear up or make additions to their web site. I'm hoping this will be the case. If I learn anything more about any of their propietary waxes I will be sure to pass it on. HTH IMC; "High Fives" back at ya' ! TKS More to follow. . . SOON . . . I hope! Dave

I'm sorry if anything I wrote is unclear or confusing. I'll try and clarify; The practice of producing propietary items is not limited to candle wax as we all know. Karen points out it might be a practice of some companies to get you "hooked" on their brand or label to keep you returning. I'm sure that is a part of the equation for some retailers. I'm a big fan of BJ's propietary line. Berkley & Jensen is a real brand as far as I'm concerned. I do know, however, that there is no big plant that produces all of the items that carry that name. Everything that is sold under that seal is made by many manufacturers in accordance to standards specified by buyers at BJ or presented to their buyers with assurances to meet a certain standard in quality. I know that in some cases this is not simply a matter of repacking. I have nice metal cookwear that has been cast with their logo. I know this is a common practice with many super retailers. Karen mentions she is buying "Rubbermaid" totes with a Target brand label. That may be the case, I have a lot of propietary totes that look exactly like Rubbermaid totes with one major exception. The name Rubbermaid is not molded into the container. I wouldn't be surprised if the totes were not made in a Rubbermaid plant, though. I don't know, but I am pretty sure there are several reasons that Rubbermaid would be willing to do this if they are. Most of those reasons would be driven by bottom-line profits, so numerous to discuss them that it would merely be a distraction here. Based on what Bill has told me, his "Custom-Blended" waxes are not already blended and packaged by any manufacturer. I feel I have no right or need to ask for formulas for his waxes, other than a request to know the type of wax they are blended from. As stated their beeswax pastilles are not prcessed there. I have bought their BW and I do suspect that CW does repack them from bulk based on the packaging I received them in. JMO CW's formulas may be close or "dead on" as the same that IGI or other wax producers use, but since they are not formulated, finished off, packaged or whatever term you choose to describe the process, by them it would not be appropriate or perhaps legal for CW to make that claim. What does matter to me is that I honestly believe that Candlewic waxes will be leaving their factory at a standard of quality greater than that of the original wax processor. I'm pretty tired of playing 'craps" each time I order wax from a supplier. Not only is wax that is "all over the scale" annoying to work with and wick, I'm very concerned the candles that I produce with this wax may cause a loss of customers. It is a real and serious concern for me. Bill is aware from our discussion that he has lost sales of their waxes because they are not as recognizable as the IGI branded products that we as chandlers are familiar with. He is also aware that shipping costs, which his company have no control over are a serious factor when one of us are shopping for a wax source. At the risk of coming off arrogant, I urged Bill to consider adding additional information on his waxes and even suggested that he review his whole online catalog for "weaknesses". His "web work" is not done in-house, but I was very concerned that my suggestion might be regarded as rude. Mr. Binder seemed to appreciate the suggestions, though. I like him. He seemed open to opinions from some "little guy" user like me. I find that to be a good trait in a good businessman. That is not always the case in the real business world. I plan to send him a link to this site by email. I sent him a link on this topic that was posted in the "Wickless" forum. He told me he read it with interest. His reply email to me mentioned he would be happy to see me as a potential wax customer among other comments. I will ask his permission to post useful portions of a reply email if I receive one. I anticipate I will. I don't want to upset my fellow chandlers with what I'm about to post, but my brain has no filter on it. PLEASE accept the following as a FRIENDLY OPINION of what seems to be stressing so many of us over this subject. Here goes; Virtually all of the "Hot Throw" testing that we have done or can do is not scientific. It really can't be. We can try and duplicate an environment in which we do our testing in, but there are too many variables that we can't control. We all have days when our sense of smell are stronger as well as weaker. Even the mood we are in at the time can affect this. Our own mind can play tricks on us. If you feel I'm full of "it", try this simple test. Have someone else line up, let's say ten bottles of fragrance! Close you eyes or wear a blindfold if youre likely to cheat, and sniff each bottle. Write down the fragrance type and any comments you feel are noteworthy after each testing. Remove the blindfold if you're a cheater, or just open your eyes if you're more honest. I'll bet you'll discover some surprises. Smell your fragrances again with your eyes open. Now that you have read the label, do you notice the differences? I ALWAYS do! So does my wife! We can't help it. It's the way our brain is wired! The mind does affect the results unless you are one of those rare individuals with an amazing olfactory sense. OK; Set that test aside; Smell something, perhaps a favorite FO. Now eat something. Smell that FO again. Different? We "smell" with our mouths as well as with our noses. We "taste" with our noses, too. Any wine drinkers here? They should know this is true. Keep taking whiffs. Does it get weaker with each whiff? It does with me and mine. Is the nose really that reliable? "Candlemakers nose" is a real condition. Factor in weather, humidity and ambient temperature and consider air flow or changes in the room environment and then try to understand why; "It used to have a good throw, but it's not the same as it was a year ago." Read that statement on the board and before we know it, we are mostly in agreement. We can't help it we've been prejudiced. We are also subjective. It's our nature. I really don't need to know all of the components or ratio of additives in the waxes I use. I do want to know the type of wax(es) used, but I can make my choices for what works for me by doing my own testing. I try to keep it as simple and as straightforward as possible. As I've stated, I'm not interested in creating my own wax blends. My "crazy scientist laboratory" just isn't set up for it. We all know how very difficult wicking can be, but I think we might be worryimg a bit too much when testing wickless products. I plan on finding a good wax that holds a good load of FO and is does not appear to have a large amount of Vybar added to it to achieve that. I want a good release of fragrance. I want an all petro wax. I have not tried any yet, but from what I've read in this thread, CBL-129 sounds like that wax. I'll know more when I get it into a clamshells and out and then into a melter. My personal worries are this; Our small shop is located smack dab in the middle of three Super-WalMarts all located within a half hour drive of us. Their clamshell melts look exactly like mine, have a good cold throw, attractive labeling, good name brand recognition (Better Homes & Gardens) and a $2 price point. Until now I've managed to comptete with Yankee and Scentsy, but everyone I know shops at WM. I'll post more about CW if Mr. Binder is kind enough to bring more enlightenment to our subject. I hope I have not offended anyone in anyway. I'm in the same boat and trying to do my best to keep it afloat just like all of us. If our boat sinks, we will all drown. I doubt any of us can tread water forever. JMO/HTH Dave

Thanks Candy! I thought there would be more replies, but it looks like you have covered all of the bases. (Sometimes I amuse myself!) Have a great week! Dave

I'm bumping up this thread to make sure that everyone wanting to contribute, can. I will wait a period of two days without additions and then tally up the results of the thread. LAST CALL PLEASE Thanks! Dave

There has been quite a bit of discusion on propietary wax blends in this and the Wickless forums recently. Issues ranging from nature of waxes to company stability have raised many unanswered questions. I personally do not have an interest in custom blending my own waxes. I find mixing fragrances to be enough of a challange. Regardless, I have received a number of PM's requesting my opinions of the topic. Last week I received a phone call from Bill Binder, the owner of Candlewic Candle Supplies, Doylestown, PA. Bill and I had a nice chat that lasted quite awhile. We talked about a number of things including trends in our craft/industry, the pros and cons of wax types and propietary wax blends. I asked Bill if it would be OK to post some of our discussion regarding his propietary waxes on the board. He gave me his permission. Bill is a very nice guy and a true friend to chandlers. I suggest that everone interested in candle making subscribe to his newsletter. For the record; Bill Binder is the newsletter's "Chandler" and author. CW processes and blends many tons of wax annually. Many of the waxes arrive at their facility in heated tank cars. They process soy, palm and petroleum waxes in either slabs, flakes or granules. The granular wax is processed in drum/sprayer equipment. They also do custom blending for some large distributors. They do not process the beeswax they sell in pastille form. Currently I primarily use two IGI waxes in our operation; IGI-4630A ang IGI-6006. Bill assured me that; CBL-125 is the same formulation as IGI-4630A (I've tested this wax and know it's true.) CBL-130 is the same parasoy blend as IGI-6006 This was important to me since my testing has been based using these two waxes. I asked why it would be a benefit for me to purchase his blends rather than in cases produced and packaged at IGI. Bill assured me that CW's standards are very high. The specs are "right on" before they package and ship product. I'm aware, as many others are on this board, that batches bought from suppliers who are shipping out cases that were processed and packaged at IGI are not always the same. I'm anticipating that CBL-125 and CBL-130 and any other wax I buy from CW will be more consistant than what I am currently getting from cases with the IGI logo on them. THIS IS JUST MY OPINION. Why would I choose CW's propietary waxes over another company? I trust Bill Binder. I trust the stability of his company. He is the closest supplier of waxes that I use. They operate a showroom where fragrances can be tested and products are available for pick-up. Bill suggested to call ahead and confirm a visit and/or an order. His company's history is available on their web site. I don't need to post it here. Bill would not discuss any other particular wax blender with me, but he did mention that he is aware there are company's that simply relabel wax from major manufactures. He told me that CW does not do this. He also told me that although their formulas are "propietary" they will state the type of wax they are composed of. Bill also told me that in the event any of CW's waxes should ever need or undergo any formulation changes they will rename (renumber) the new product. He is aware that chandlers need to have consistancy in what they are working with. He is a chandler too. We spoke quite a bit about wickless wax. He too feels there is a signifigant shift in the industry in that direction at this time. I told him I was using IGI-6006 for my clamshells and tarts. He suggested I try CBL-129. It is an all petroleum based wax and not a parasoy blend. We discussed the fragrance loading capabilities of 6006 @ 10%. We agreed that this parasoy wax can take the FO load, but the soy in the blend can limit the duration of the throw. CBl-129 can match the load capability without the disadvantage of soy. It is an all petroleum wax with propietary amounts of additives (polymers, petrolatum, ect.) The melt point is similar. The description of this and other Candlewic waxes can be found on their web site. When my current supplies of waxes are exausted I will most likely be switching over to CW waxes. I have already loaded my shopping cart on the CW site with a slab of the waxes I am interested in. I am not being paid or rewarded in any way, by mentioning CW waxes. I am also not trying to convince or persuade any other crafter to give up a product they are happy with. I hope members find this information of some value. Although I do appreciate that some members feel I might have more to offer than I post, I would like to assure everyone, that almost everything I know our belive to know about propietary waxes is in this thread. I have no "secrets" or thoughts to offer in PM's. There are very many more talented chandlers who can bring more light to this subject than me. Hopefully posts following this one will be enlightening. JMO/HTH Dave @ Charlotte Hall Country Candles

I am currently looking at one of the clamshells (smaller six-cavity) that I purchased from Candlescience and an assortmrnt of four from WalMart. (Better Homes & Gardens & Scent Sationals). There are all nearly identical, but from slightly apparant different molds. The differences are very subtle. The desity of the plastic appears identical. The hang tops the same. None have a plastic odor or difficulty in opening or resealing. The Walmart clams were $2.00 each and have a very good stong cold throw. I have not tested them yet. JMO/HTH Dave

Welcome Chris and thank you for asking other members to contribute. The best way to learn is to participate. Happy Easter to you and everyone else reading this. Dave

Ditto!

Thank God it wasn't more! I would had to take off my slippers and use my toes to tally them up! (lol) Have a Great Easter! David

So do I, Sue, so do I !!! Who let that other idiot in here with that "sick" post. He should be banned! David (Kind & Always Polite-David) :whistle:

Unless some more posts roll in after bumping this up, I'll do a tally w/summary towards the first of next week. I hope Julie (scented) contributes. I hope / I hope !!! Have a Great Easter everyone! Dave

Very NICE! I LOVE the prim star and the wide ribbon! One tiny little question, though, please; The "stuff" on top looks pretty light. Shouldn't "it" have been a darker shade of brown? Mine is, unless I'm off my diet. (I'm so very sorry! My prescriptions have run out and my wife has been too busy to get them filled. I hope to be better soon.) Happy Easter {Too embarrassed to include name}

Thanks! That's the most useful info I've read all week!

That's why they have laundromats isn't it! For washing really shi**y stuff, that you don't want to wash at home. My wife was a PT night manager at a local LM here for years. She told me "David! You would not belive the crap some people bring into wash! It's amazing." She was always bringing home "good" jewelry too. She would hold it for a week and stash it in her box. (Jewelry)

The "Candle Fairies" blessed me. I have a shop neighbor and good buddy who sells me washed/used white cotton towels or $4.00 for a bag that is so heavy, my wife has a problem lifting it. NOPE! Sorry! I have to place my order with him about a month in advance and he always tells me, I was lucky (As if I didn't already know!) to get them! It's a little melodrama we play out every other month or so. I can accept no offers to; "Can you get me some?" (lol) I have to tell you here, that a clean white and well washed cotton towel sure does put old "Bounty" to shame in our little candle-making room! I'm planning on increasing my "orders" and stocking up and stashing them, just in case. As a thought; I've seen plenty of used cotton towels quite cheap in thrift shops, yard sales, ect. If I were a soy chandler or soaper I would buy them, use them and haul them to a laundromat and wash & dry them! JMO/HTH Dave

Hey dear pal' ; Glad to see you post. To all; I was surprised to check in today and find that four pages of replies, already exist on this thread. I also appeciate the PM's from others who were reluctant to post here. Your PM's will be included in my summary of votings and comments on this thread. I promise to do my best to tally-up the "findings" of this "survey" and post them when it appears that the data is conclusive. Thank you ever-so-much for participating. I'm sure this thread will be beneficial and enlighening to not only me, but to others. I'm looking forward to reading more replys. Please keep posting. Have a GREAT week and please accept wonderful Easter blessings to all Christian board members. TIA Dave

I'm actually reluctant to start this thread. I don't wan't it to be restrictive nor overly-subjective. Any comments or diversions from the core of the topic would be fine. Finding this board at the beginning of this year opened-up a whole new world of fragrance suppliers, I didn't know existed. It has been an enlightenment, but also a concern for me. I'm no longer certain, that I'm stocking the best fragrances that are available to me. I know that many if not most members on this board, including me, buy from more than three suppliers, but I would like to get a better idea of where I should be investing my limited resources searching out suppliers I am not familiar with. Since I've joined this board, I will no longer even consider buying from what used to be my main supplier of fragrances. I will not even mention the name of that company, due to very personal reasons. I now have a serious need "to go shopping", but I don't know where to start. I'm a chandler only who prefers to mix his own blends and thus I would prefer to use suppliers who stock "primary/simple" fragrances that are for use in paraffin candles. At this time my three FO primary suppliers of choice are (in order); Peak - Consistantly strong, Good packaging, Good selection, Friendly site, SUPPORT ALAN & THIS BOARD Gemlite - A bit hit & miss but; Stock primarily basic fragrances, good pricing, quick & reasonable priced shipping Candlescience - A bit hit & miss but; I'm very familar with their FO's due to annual sampler sales, provides honest feedback reviews, great service (Wished they still took PayPal!) If anyone would be willing to participate in this survey, I would very much appreciate their response. Thanks to all for reading and sharing! Dave @ Charlotte Hall Country Candles

I'm pretty familiar with Candlewic's candle making supplies. I have been a happy customer of their's for years. I am now interested in doing M&P for personal use only. I would like any opinions or comments that anyone might offer on their M&P line, including; Bases / Molds / Soap Dyes Any other suggestions for a "newbie" M&P old geezer would also be appeciated. TIA Dave @ Charlotte Hall Country Candles