Mei-Mei

Those are really impressive. The second one has a copper glow to it. I don't know if it's just the light, but I absolutely adore it!

Now I guess I'll have to work on some palm pillars today!

Mei-Mei, what are you doing behind our backs to get candy?!?!?!

I guess I'm just good like that! :laugh2:

Am I the only person who gets candy from Becky? Not only does she send me a free sample, she usually sends Tootsie Rolls or little mints. She's so wonderful.

Did she say how long she had been burning the coconut one in her son's room? Some people expect immediate hot throw the second the flame touches the wick.

I still haven't received my sample. How fast are they shipping actual orders? It's a free sample and I appreciate it greatly so I'm not complaining, but it makes me wonder how well they are doing getting orders out. I'm hoping they aren't having any trouble.

When I placed an order it didn't take any time at all to get it. I think I placed the order on Saturday and I got it on Wednesday. Trying to fill both the orders and get the free samples out must be very trying. I'm sure they are trying to fill the orders first, and with the remainder of the day get out the free samples.

It took awhile for me to get my sample, but I was happy with it once I did get it!

I am doing that same thing today, except I'm using 4oz and 16oz tins! I'm working with LX wicks and using the Greenleaf. I'll post once I get some results.

By the way, when I did this with the HTP wicks I was never able to find a burn that satisfied me. I'm still working on it. I was told to double wick the 16oz with HTP 73 or 83, but I never got 'round to trying it.

Those are very pretty. I wonder how the refreshing desert rain one is made? How would one get that effect in a candle?

I'm not sure when to poke relief holes if I'm making a layered candles with distinct layers. I'm afraid that the color of the second layer will mix with the color of the first ruining the layered effect. For instance, if my pillar is 3 inches tall and I want to pour 2 inches of yellow and one inch of orange do I poke after the yellow pour, the orange pour, both pours....?

Is it really oiley or just shiney? I find my 6006 often gets a shiney look after curing. I love 6006.

It's an oily look. I can see the swirls of oil in the wax.:undecided

Occassionally when working with some container blends (namely 6006) my cured candles have an oily look to the surface. It's really irritating. Is it because I'm not mixing the FO enough? I'm only adding 1oz, so I don't think it's that I'm adding too much oil. Can anybody help me?

I screamed out loud. Too, too, too cute!!!

Adding Vybar will greatly reduce if not totally kill the crystal look. Most additive will but veggy stearic.

Not if you use Vybar 343, which is specially made for palm and mottled candles. You can use up to 5% of that without killing the crystal look.

Does anyone have a source for colored (black) tins? I can't seem to find them anywhere.

Also, I'd like to find some 8 or 10oz tumblers. Not jars, but tumblers/votives. I don't care if they are frosted or clear. I just need to find some!!!! It seems as though I can only find Metro or Apothecary jars once the sizes start getting larger.:undecided

I was just advised today by Brenda at Greenleaf to double wick mine. I poured another this afternoon with single wicking (cause I hate to double wick) but I honestly don't think it's going to work. So double wicking it is.

Poured a 16 oz tin and flowerpot votive yesterday, 4 drops of dye, 1.5 oz of Maduro. I didn't mean to use so much FO. Plus, I have one thousand wicks, none of which were the size I wanted to use, so I just wicked with the tin HTP105, which I knew was all wrong. I wicked the flowerpot with ECO 2. I'm having one of those candle weeks.

Anyhoo, I'm burning both. Even though the 16oz isn't reaching a full melt pool (of course, how could it with that wick???) the hot throw is incredible. So was the cold throw. This is good stuff. I called Brenda for some wicking recommendations and she recommended double wicking the tin since it's 4" across. So I'm going to try that.

So far, I really like the 70/30. Beautiful, creamy appearance, easy to work with, holds color well. Nice.

That's really beautiful!

I will test them here again just to verify all the ingredients we sent. What FO were you using? If it is not ours, is it a heavy oil or a lighter oil?

Thanks

Brenda

I was using your Maduro. I assume that palm stearic is different than just plain stearic? My bag of stearic just had 'stearic' printed on it, rather than 'palm stearic.' Could that be the problem?

Well, I tried it for the last time today, and my votives still did not release. I really think that either the stearic has to be packaged wrong or something, because I did everything very carefully. I placed an order for some more stearic because none of this makes sense otherwise. Even my fiance tried (following the same directions) and the same thing happened to him. Obviously something is wrong with either my wax or my stearic.:undecided

I'm not nearly a pro; I'm still playing with a lot of different waxes, but I really like the 6006. It does take color very well, and has an excellent hot throw and a fine cold throw. It's very, very easy to work with too.

I've tried Mimosa and Mandarin and a few other scents, plus I have a bunch to try on my shelf (sigh...never ending testing). They all seem to throw very well. I love Candlescience; the customer service is excellent and the shipping is so fast.

I was wondering if you are using a scale to measure the amount of stearic. I tried to add by the tbsp and it didn't work. Now that I am doing the 5% by weight everything is perfect. I don't use this particular brand of palm but before using stearic mine was impossible to get out of the molds too. Plus how long do you let them cool?

When I spoke to Brenda she said add two tbsps. Next time I try I'll try use your method and see if it works better. I let them cool all day yesterday, and I checked this morning and they are still stuck tight. I'm so frustrated that I don't really want to mess with it today, but I guess I can't give up.:undecided

Brenda from GreenLeaf was kind enough to call me at home and help me with my votives! I'm going to take her tips and try again. Now that's beautiful customer service!!!!

Well, it didn't work. I called Greenleaf and Brenda is going to return my call later. I'm going to go sob a little bit before re-melting all this durn wax.

I've been making tins because of some of the reasons you list. I HATE wetspots; I just can't learn to live with them. And tins don't show the wetspots of course. Plus, I like the look of tins. My deep, dark, secret? I don't like jars any larger than votive tumblers .

I'm not a professional chandler, so I suppose my answer would be a little different if I were. But for now tins make me very, very happy.

Thanks Brenda (you too Christina!)

I just poured batch two (I'm leaving batch one alone for now, too frustrating). I followed your directions exactly and I didn't use any mold release. I poured crazy hot and doubled the amount of palm stearic. I'll post again in a few hours and let you know how they look.