geekrunner

I do like the Peak's BNB, but I like Millcreek's BNB better! It's not as heavy but still smells great, like it has more banana and nut smell and less bakery smell. I can see why some think Peak's BNB smells a little burnt. geek

My comments were directed in a general manner about business. We don't intend to put anyone out of business, I'm certain C&S has plenty of satisfied customers, and I'm certain many of them do not post here on CT. But at the same time, there are plenty of candle supply companies out there, and when they all pretty much offer the same stuff, the one thing that makes a business stand out is customer service. Face it, everybody knows that businesses do alot of butt-kissing when all other things are the same. When it comes to purchasing candle supplies, shipping charges is a BIG issue. We know we have to pay them, and we don't mind paying a fair charge. Perhaps C&S needs to get an update to their website/shopping cart so that it can more accurately provide the shipping charges upon checkout. If C&S continues down the road they are on, and their sales suffer, then tough toenails. That's separating the wheat from the chaff. Happens all the time in business and life. We are certainly within our right to gripe and tell others. Good luck and continued success with your business! geek

Quite a few of us do have candle businesses too. If you have bothered to read alot of what is on this board, you will see that about 99% of what we do is help people who have candle making questions. You seem to have only jumped in on this thread, and now think we only bash suppliers for no good reason. CT is the Cadillac of candle message boards; just check out the number of newbies who post. If you are so busy with your candle business that you can't spend time on a message board, then good for you that your business is doing so well. But as long as we have fingers to type and the Freedom to speak our minds, we are going to vent as we see fit. If you don't like what we do here, then you are more than welcome to frequent another board. You noobs all taste alike. geek

Welcome to the board! We get lots of new chandlers and soapers that discover the board. It's like hitting the motherlode of candle and B&B information! geek

I use Pryme dyes and I like them, but I do have problems with frosting on any deep brown or blue, or any color that has any blue in it. Red, yellow, light brown, no problem. Keep the shade as light as possible and frosting is nonexistent, or barely noticeable. geek

As far as good customer service goes, I'd better put in my shameless plug for The Candlemaker's Store in Hamilton, OH. Last week I finally made a substantial wax purchase (five cases of soy) and they were wonderful to deal with. I was able to pick up on short notice and they gave me the five case price break on two different waxes that totaled five cases! The round trip was only four hours from Indy. I also have purchased from them in the past and had product UPS'd, always very fast turnaround and reasonable shipping costs. geek

Can't help much on your question, but just thought I'd say Hi and welcome to the board! We like noobs. Just ask me why geek

Word of mouth is powerful advertising. It can make or break a business. I suggest we, who have ordered from them, email them and tell them how we think about their customer service. That would actually do them a favor. If no one offers them feedback on their service, but simply stops doing business with them and tells others to do likewise, that is the worst thing to happen to a business. Then they don't know why their business is failing. geek

I purchased ab $200 worth of FO from them thinking I had bought some before. They do have good prices, but most of their FOs stink! I have only found a few I like, but on the whole they are disappointing. If you really want to try them, be sure and get sample sizes first. It is so tempting to buy alot without testing them first, because their pricing is very attractive. Good luck! geek

Welcome! You actually can find lots of good info on the Vegetable wax forum, this is primarily paraffin area. The HTP wicks IMO are good wicks for soy, they burn hotter than some. LX, ECO and CD wicks work well in soy also. It depends on your particular combination of wax/FO/jar what you use. I would get sampler packs of the HTP, LX, RRD, and cotton core wicks from Peaks as a start. Good luck, use the search feature in the Veggie wax forum, and have fun! geek

Maybe if you called them they would tell you! JK Seriously, though, I don't think anyone here knows or cares, really. We want to have our own candle wax/wax blend and are too fixated with our own testing to try and duplicate what YankMe makes. Maybe we want to dupe their scents, but not their wax formula. Besides, if they told you, then they would have to kill you geek

I have had good luck with heating to 195, adding color, stir it in, then remove from heat and immediately add FO. Stir for a couple of minutes, then pour into slightly pre-heated jars (not too hot, just enough to knock the chill off). I've checked the temp range just before pouring, and it was around 165-170. I've had no frosting problems at all. The Greenleaf board does have a plethora of testing info, and Brenda is very helpful. geek

From one Mad Scientist to another, Welcome! I have tried adding paraffin to soy to smooth out the tops and prevent frosting, but at least from my experiments the cold and hot throw suffered a little. I was using Golden Brands 415 and J-50. If you want to try a great preblended parasoy, try the Greenleaf 70/30. geek

If you have any candles tested and working that you made inside, I would make one the same way in the garage and burn it to see if it behaves the same way as one made inside. Ambient temperature and humidity can change how a candle behaves/looks. HTH! geek

Hey! I'm a man, man! LOL geek

I second, third and fourth what everyone else says on the FO/scent blocks. May as well go buy a six pack, you'll get more enjoyment out of that. However, I do like their paraffin. It has a 147 MP and worked well for me. I've made wax chunks, hurricane shells, and overpours with it and been pretty happy! Their molds are nice but way overpriced compared to what you can get online. If I needed something in a pinch, I could always go to Michael's and pick it up. geek

At first, I was drawn to soy because if I was going to test jar candles, I wanted the cleanup to be easy. Cleaning aluminum pillar molds after using paraffin is no big deal, but it's next to impossible to wash out a jar that had any kind of paraffin in it. When I decided to adventure out and try paraffin, I tried J-50. It seemed alot of people liked it. I had a hard time wicking it without it sooting badly, and so stuck to soy. I had used 415 for a while, and when I started getting requests for colored candles, found that soy doesn't color very well. I have tried like others have and mixed 415 with paraffin, specifically the J-50 I purchased, and had decent results using 25% to 30% J-50. Great color uniformity, no frosting, but it seemed that the cold throw suffered, and I didn't like the way it looked when the wax pulled away from the jar. After considerable testing, I have a proprietary 100% soy blend that takes color well, only frosts a tiny bit, excellent adhesion, and very good cold and hot throw. If I ever go to a parasoy, I'll use the Greenleaf 70/30 for an "upscale" line. The few customers I do have now have raved about how well the candle burns, specifically no soot and complete consumption. For me, I would never rag on paraffin to a customer, but would definitely talk up the good qualities of soy. Hopefully the big boys like YankMe won't catch on and try their hand at parasoys, we need to have that advantage in our corner! geek

Maybe you could give the water time to separate from the wax, freeze the whole thing, then warm up the exterior a little and it all slides out. Or you could just throw it all out, you maybe lose two or three dollars. geek

Other waxes may throw differently if poured hot vs slushy, it's really hard to say. If you get the best hot throw when pouring slushy, then by all means don't change that. You would be better off making more than one pour pot batch, stagger them by a few minutes, then after one pot cools down enough to pour, then pour it. In a few minutes, then the next pot will have cooled down enough to pour, etc. That should cut down your wait time, though may require an additional investment in extra pour pots. HTH! geek

I finally got to the point where I could make a substantial wax and supply purchase, and had the opportunity to pick up at Candlemaker's Store in Hamilton, OH. I've purchased from them before several times, but always had the goods UPS'd. Well, I figured that five cases of wax would be very costly to UPS, and I had the week off from work and plenty of time to kill. I called ahead, and asked Dave there (BTW there are two Daves there) if I could get the 5-19 case price break if I ordered two different waxes for a total of five cases. He said he did not have anyone ever ask for that, but said it was OK. Since I was going to order on Wed, it meant picking up on Thu, and their site asked for two day lead time to process order. He said it was OK to pick up on Thu! Anyway, it took two hours to drive there from Indy, less than ten minutes to load and pay, two hours home, 270 mile round trip, and only cost me $22 in gas! The crew at CStore deserve a big Thank You from me, and I would encourage anyone within 125 miles of them to patronize them. geek

I really like the Pryme calculator! I can use it to calculate wax-only batches, then use it to figure the FO, wax and color percentages in a separate calculation. One thing I found on it is that when it figures the amount of FO, regardless of the other ingredients, it counts against the wax only, since the calculator determines the amount of wax you need by using the plugged-in percentage figures to determine the gram weights of the ingredients, then deducting the ingredients weight from the total weight value entered in the top part of the calculator. So if I wanted to have my own 70/30 parasoy, I just plug and chug to get the values for all the ingredients. However, I find that the FO load is subtracted out of the wax qty instead of all ingedients across the board, which is what one would have if one made a big batch of 70/30 in a Presto pot, and simply decanted what one would need for making a candle. Example: I make a certain jar candle, assuming the main wax is a soy. I enter the FO load as 7%, then enter J50 as an additive at 30%. When calculating, it shows the Wax percentage at 63%, the J50 at 30%, and the FO at 7%, total 100%. But then the wax blend (sans FO) is not a true 70/30. That's why I calculate a wax-only batch, assemble it in the Presto pot, then refigure the candle using my proprietary wax blend as just wax, without listing any additives, only the FO and color. Have I totally muddied up the water now? :rolleyes2 geek

I'm bachin' it this weekend! Mrs geek is in Texas visiting her neice that graduated form HS Thursday, and since I live here in the fashionable west side of Indy, sunday traffic will be a total hosejob just before and after the 500. I have a proprietary wax formula now I'm happy with, so I'll be refining my cooling technique to finally achieve my final goal in my Mad Scientist wax testing! (I'm holding my pinky finger to the corner of my formerly sore mouth) Bwahaahaahaa! I can't give away my formula, but I can say it involves a blend of three different Golden Brands wax products. Everyone enjoy your Memorial Day weekend, and be sure and remember our fallen heroes in your prayers. The sacrifices they made allow us to enjoy the freedom we have today. geek

Welcome to the board! Don't be afraid to use the search tool to find info you need. As far as FO load, I'm not familiar with how much your wax can hold, but in general between 1 oz and 1 1/2 oz FO per lb is standard. geek

First pleas let us know what wax/FO/wick/jar you are using, it helps out alot to know what you have. Also how much was in the pot when you were waiting for it to cool. I used Golden Brands 415 for a long time, and waited to pour when cloudy to slushy. Had great cold and hot throw, but hated waiting so long for the wax to cool. You're right, for a single candle pour it is much shorter time to wait to cool down than for a pour pot with up to three lbs of wax in it to cool, it used to take nearly an hour. If I was pouring a lot of candles of one particular scent (in this case 8 oz JJ) I only made 1 1/2 to two lbs in two or three separate pour pots at once, and have them staggered by about ten minutes each, so that after waiting ab 45 minutes to cool down I could pour four to five candles, then go to the next pot when it was ready, pour five more, then to the third pot. It's all in the numbers and planning ahead. The obvious solution to this is to create a wax mix that you can pour a little hotter, thus cutting down your wait time. Or switch to a soy that already has that pour hot quality. The GB 464 is good for that, it can be poured at around 135 and set up nice and flat. You could also either mix your own parasoy or try the Greenleaf 70/30 parasoy. The GL 70/30 can pour just after thoroughly stirring in the FO, which for me was about 165-170. My own parasoy experiments with 415 and J50 in a 70/30 configuration allowed me to pour at 150 with only the familiar parasoy "dip." I could go on and on, but I should shut up and let others chime in on this too. Be sure and let us know wha you have! geek

Well after seeing those two nice candles you are not "Brand New" anymore! Very nice look, it's refreshing to have imaginative ideas for jar candles. Keep up the good work. BTW we have a Candle Gallery for showing off candles, you'll see alot of stuff and possibly get some ideas! geek