emilyspoppy

Yep! It's a two way street!

Ditto! I do and it sells well. I don't use bakery fragrances in the blend, though. I mix my bakery scents together and name it "Betty's Bake Shop", another good seller in candles and melts. JMO/HTH Dave @ Betty's Boutique / Charlotte Hall Country Candles & Soaps

Thanks for sharing, Russ! Dave

http://www.craftserver.com/forums/showthread.php?5492-Supplier-Abbreviations-and-Links 04-01-22-05

Gosh, Russ! That's depressing! Dave

My dear pal in the "Volunteer State": (You asked for it!) I'll let you know as long as you don't tell another sole! The two times that I was treated most recently, my face and lips swelled severely. My eyes were so swollen I couldn't see, but my lips hurt the worse. Once episode was a result of using a new aftershave. The other was from lip balm. As a result, I will NEVER make and sell lip balm. The most severe reaction took place shortly after I helped a friend work on his boat in preparation for a planned fishing trip. It was speculated that a chemical agent in the boat's bilge compartment was the irritant. I began to itch about my ears and inside my mouth about the time I arrived home from prepping the boat. My wife and daughter and I had been invited to join my parents and my brothers at my grandmother's for a feast of chicken and dumplings. I was really looking forward to the evening. I love chicken and dumplings. My grandmother was a fantastic cook, too. I decided to take a quick shower before my hospital nurse wife got off work and picked up our daughter at the babysitter's. Within moments after beginning to shower, I sensed something serious was going on. I actually watched hives erupt and spread from my face to my groin area in less than a minute. My heart felt as if it would burst, I could barely breath and I had virtually turned purple. I dropped to the floor, still dripping wet, after making the call to my parents who lived less than ten minutes away. The telephone handset was left hanging. When my wife arrived home she found the front door kicked in and the phone handset dangling. The bedspread was missing, too. I learned later that my mother didn't want her son to be seen naked. My wife called the police. She didn't know I was in the emergency ward that she had just left a short time earlier. She thought I had been abducted. About 10:00 PM that night I awoke in my own bedroom to find my entire family gathered about my bed. My mother was still crying. She told everyone that she felt that God had spared me from dying in Vietnam only to be killed by some unknown chemical in a boat's bilge. My wife remained in the living room. She knew my mother didn't like her and she was angry that my dad had kicked in the door even though my brothers had made repairs. She was the least concerned about my health. The family dinner was cancelled as was my fishing trip. A year or so later my wife cancelled our marriage, too, but that's another story. Something good did come out of this incident, though. A few years later I was performing a routine inspection in a middle school's cafeteria when a twelve year old boy collapsed during the lunch period. In addition to being a health inspector I was also a certified Para-medic and volunteer firefighter. Teachers agreed that the unconscious boy was pulling a prank. Following a quick examination, I knew better, I told them to call for an ambulance and report a student in severe anaphylactic shock and to have the school nurse immediately bring epinephrine if she had any in her medical supply cabinet. She found and brought some, but refused to administer it, insisting that the boy was faking the attack. I snatched it from her and treated the child. The school principal was seriously upset with me, until the other paramedics arrived and confirmed what I already knew. The boy survived and if my calculations are correct he should be more than 50 years old now. That is if he's remembered to watch out for his severe peanut allergy and he's been lucky, otherwise. I heard it was quite some time before the school board put peanut butter and jelly sandwiches back on their lunch program again as it had been on the day of the attack. If I hadn't had my own episode with anaphylaxis, I may have just stood and watched with others while a young boy died. There was nothing heroic about the incident, but there sure was some seriously fortunate timing of a health inspection. I don't believe in coincidences. Sorry for the book, but you did ask for details. I hope this clears up any unintentional suspense I may have burdened you with. Sorry! Remember . . . Please don't tell anyone else! Let's keep this our secret! Dave

It's just because I love you nice ladies! I'm also not sure that I'm up to another wickless wax marathon right now! (lol) CBL-129 . . .CBL-129 . . . CBL-129 . . . . . . . . 85-63-07-14 96-04-02 07-11

Good for you, friend! You have, however, just made me crave a cup of "Joe"! I'm off to brew a pot! Mmmmmm! Dave

I was reading somewhere that this is actually known as "The Chinese Candle Conspiracy" Chinese manufacturers, with their government's endorsement, have been bribing aliens into using their ray guns to make our great hand-crafted candles inferior to even the really crappy ones they produce. It appears the aliens have a craving for MSG. Chinese restaurateurs here in the states are compensated by the Chinese government when they allow the aliens free admittance to their buffets. They pass along the addresses of American candle crafters inside special fortune cookies. I began research on the conspiracy when I was given one of the special cookies by mistake. I've investigated an allegation that Buddha was an alien, but could find no supporting evidence to corroborate the claim. There is however some pretty convincing data that the supposedly deceased martial arts expert and actor, Bruce Lee, was an alien. This would account for his ability to hover in mid-air and why his voice had to be over-dubbed. He actually transported himself back to his home planet, "Satirica", where he resides with his family. He and his Satirian, friend and former Earth colleague E. A. Presley, hang-out a lot together. It seems neither can understand why their acting talents were not recognized by earthlings, thus explaining their failures to achieve recognition by not winning even a single Oscar nomination between them. Look at the message slip on the next fortune cookie you break open. The numbers printed on the reverse side are not meant to actually advise the patron what numbers they should use when purchasing a lottery ticket. They're code numbers used for communicating with aliens. 27-04-36-19-11-56

You do know that even if TCS sends you some GREAT tart wax, they might break your heart later. It seems I recall that a friend of mine posted she was finished with TCS wax. I'm not sure right now who that was, though. What in the world could explain the mixture of different forms of the wax they are shipping? Can't they make up their mind or are they just sweeping the floor and boxing it up. I'd need to know before I bought any and began a major testing program. JMO Good luck to all, though. I sincerely hope you've found the perfect wax for melts and the supplier never disappoints you again. Dave

I send my condolences for the stress I anticipate you'll soon be under! (ROLFL!!!!!)

OMG! Here we go again! Ravens off and running! (lol) "Burned out from testing, Dave"

I'm simply a soaping dummy! As far as the concentrations go, I've only been basing my fragrance load on what the supplier's state. I'm super-scared of causing a problem for someone with a skin irritation or worse. Based on your advice, which I hold in the very highest esteem, it will mean that quite a few of the fragrances I have chosen to ignore may get another chance. I've already noticed that the scent can come alive in water and a short cure can change the intensity, color and scent character of M&P soap. As a dude, I hate admitting this, but I am very sensitive to skin irritants. I always do the testing on myself first. I'm the cleanest person in the neighborhood as an added benefit! (lol) I've had to get emergency treatments three times for allergic reactions to skin irritants. Once was so bad, I came very close to dying. I was in full-blown anaphylactic shock. I has passed out after calling my mother that I was afraid I was dying. I had just taken a shower to get whatever it was off of my skin. I woke up in the hospital with a half dozen nurses and doctors staring at me. Only adrenalin and steroid injections had save my life. That and the fact that my father kicked in the front door of my home and scooped me up my naked body and carried me off to the station wagon that my mother drove madly to the hospital. I was only 25 at the time. It was pretty scary. My parents both cried like babies as they worked on me. I could hear them from down the hall. It's something they never forget before their death. I won't either. You've just turned a very rainy dreary day into a much happier one for me with your generous post. Thanks, Candy! I'm off to make some more soap. I have these "recipes" that keep "talking" to me! Dave

Very true! A bunch of years ago, I tried creating my own colorants by using just three the primary colors. Magenta, Cyan and Yellow. I bought a color wheel and went to town like some sort of mad chemist. As I got older I lost interest in the process and began to buy my colorants pre-made. I use liquid for the most common colors and dye chips and blocks for the more "exotic". I wish I was better at keeping notes when I go into production mode, but the process of looking up color recipes slowed me down too much. Now I stick a label on my one pound PET bottles that I work with during production. It includes the source of that FO and the color "recipe". I really hated to have inconsistency in the colors of my candles when they were on display. At the height of our busy season my wife and I may pour as many as 2 dozen different fragrances of container candles in one night. We work with small batches except for very best sellers. It can get so involved that we don't even speak to each other for fear of screwing things up. Since my recent move into the worrisome world (for me anyway) of scented bath & beauty products I have added quite a bit more data to the labels I use for fragrances in that category. JMO/HTH Dave

SUPER TACKY "Sport" !!! You do a search and find a thread that is over three years old and disguise yourself as a friendly and helpful fellow crafter giving unsolicited advice on a dead thread. Didn't you realize that your member name would reveal your true motive for posting here? I have two shops which require the use of a lot of bags and packaging, but I can assure you that they won't be purchased from a supplier who resorts to such common and deceptive marketing practices as you have displayed in several postings on this board. Worst wishes for your business!

It was hard for me to get a rich, deep red "Christmas" color in both IGI-6006 and IGI-4630 until I starting adding a little bit of black to the batch. I'll also use a bit of black to intensify green and blue when I want them to move beyond the pastel level. Try some experimenting on your own. I suspect you'll be surprised. Dave @ Charlotte Hall Country Candles

I'm heartbroken! Maybe I got a bad sample last week, but I made two bars of GM M&P, un-dyed and at high concentrations just to test the strength of the fragrance. At 5% FO, my "throw" was very, very slight. At 8% FO it was only barely detectable. It is a pleasant fragrance, though. My wife felt the same way. (I wouldn't market this product at this concentration.) I have not actually used the soap. If I do and find that the scent increases, I will post again. For the record, I noticed very little discoloration even after several days. I'm reading nothing but great reviews so I'm pretty dismayed by this. I wanted to rename it "Joe's Barbershop" in honor of my old barber. I had planned to send him some bars using his storefront or his image on the label. It looks like I'm going to have to design my own fragrance. I already have a "recipe" in mind. I'll let you know how it turns out. Dave

As I promised in a PM, I experimented today with wrapping tart melts. All week long I've been wrapping melt and pour soap bars and I felt a similar procedure should work with the tarts and votives. I expect there will be members who will disagree with this technique. It's anyone's prerogative to do so. I used restaurant food grade stretch film (Not Saran Wrap) that can be purchased at many locations including Costco, Sam's Club and Bj's. to name a few. The box should have a slide cutter on it making the process easier. Pull and cut-off about 3" of film for tarts (More for Votives) and CAREFULLY lay the strip on a cutting surface. Using a VERY sharp, non serrated, knife cut the strip into 3" squares. The film is very "clingy" so you need to be careful not to let it overlap onto itself. Place a tart with the top (widest side) down in the center of a square of film and while using a finger to gently hold the tart down pull and stretch the film up and to the bottom (narrow side) of the tart. You want to make sure the film is taught. You can trim some of the excess bunched up film with scissors if you like, but I just smoothed it down and applied a round label 1 1/4" (votive warning size) that I designed and printed to cover the bottom of the tart. In my honest opinion the packaged tart looked nicer than the ones from Yankee that are shrink wrapped. There were no visible seams or rough edges. The same result was achieved when I wrapped some votives. At first the process was a bit slow, but within a five minute period, I found it easy to wrap and label 10 tarts quite easily within a minute or so. I guess my wife and I will be wrapping our tarts and votives again! Virtually no expense to wrap the tarts, only a minimal amount of time. It's a winner in my opinion. JMO/HTH Dave @ Charlotte Hall Country Candles

Yeah! Just what you all need in "your neck of the woods", another fragrance supplier. I live in a very populated area of the country and not one supplier less than five hours away! Jealous? You betcha! "Disappointed Dave"

Would anyone know where I might find information regarding the B&B safety of FCC fragrances besides the BCN site? I have a some rebottled oils of theirs with no data on them. I spent a good deal of time doing an internet search and found their company's site, but they didn't list their fragrances. BCN doesn't carry the fragrances I would like to know about. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks! Dave

I think you're more like the Energizer Bunny. I'm only Ray-O-Vac Heavy Duty!

Do we ever sleep?

Yankee Candle and other "biggies" shrink wrap theirs. Maybe the experience that "kforbs126" had was limited to that one seller. Maybe they smelled bad before they were wrapped. I don't wrap mine because it's a pain in the butt to do by hand. JMO/HTH Dave @ Charlotte Hall Country Candles