giedre11

Ooh, I agree! I don't know if it costs the suppliers extra or what, but I've noticed that even places that ship wax don't always offer that hundred weight discount with UPS.

Ok, newbie here too. Now I'm totally confused! I always thought the main reason for poking air holes was not so much to keep the wick straight, but rather to help get rid of any air bubbles in the wax, so that when your candle set up it wouldn't hit any air pockets and burn badly. So, would putting a straw around your wick keep your wax bubble free as it's setting up? I must not be getting something right?

I love your candles! Those are some way beautiful pillars, and that marbling is fantastic. Interesting about mixing some of those fo's, do you get an incense type scent? I may need to try that one out!

I have several of their scents I've been using for bath and body, so decided to try some in candles. I've used Secret Garden, White Tea and Ginger, Tahitian Petals, and several others I just can't remember right now. They all throw great! I love their stuff!

Thanks I'm going to give that a shot. First I'm going to just check the J-50 itself, just to see if there are any problems there, then I'm going to add the "toppings" a little at a time and see what happens. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Great candles! Palm wax is the bomb!! I'll bet you are going to get addicted!

Now those are nice! Very classy, I can see them in an upscale dept. store!

Thanks Twoscentsworth for your reply. I am pulling my hair out on this one, so I've decided to start all over again. I do realize the vast difference between the embed melt point and the J-50 melt point, but I figured after a certain point in burning the candle, the two waxes would mix and it would burn adequately. This morning I fired it up again, and I've now gotten a full melt pool, but it amazes me that the flame height from the 1212's is only about a half an inch! I guess it's just my "newbiness" lol, that I have'nt had much experience with really high melt point waxes. The following are pics of the candles before I lit them, and the second where they are lit. The lit candle pic is not too clear, but if you look closely, you'll see where I have already inserted the bigger wicks.

I seem to have a rather strange situation on my hands and I'm not quite sure what to make of it. I hope I'm even posting this in the right section! I got some embeds that I've used to make a drink candle...but it's not a gel candle, it's a J-50 wax candle. It's a very large cup {24oz.} that I filled with wax {J-50} and added 1.5 oz of vanilla fo per pound. Actually I made two of them. One I triple wicked with htp 52 wicks, the other I triple wicked with htp 83 wicks. I then proceeded to put a whipped cream dollop over each wick {they're pre-drilled} and added a cinammon stick, a couple of cherries and some chocolate chip embeds. They were added when the wax was set up some already so I could just push the embeds down a little into the liquid wax and not have the embeds sink. I let them sit for several days and decided it was time to test them. I was hoping the candles were not overwicked. Well let me tell you was I surprised when the candles barely and I mean very barely burned. I tried pushing some of the embeds around and moving some of the melted wax to the side in hopes of seeing some type of better burn. Well, nothing doing. I then put the candles out and pushed htp 104's in each spot. That didn't work. I then did the same thing with htp 1212's and finally got a burn that looks fairly normal, but nothing at all that one would expect, I mean there are three htp 1212's...the cups are 4.5 inches in diameter and straight up and down sides. Actually the 1212's are giving me a rather small melt pool considering their size...maybe about a 1 inch melt pool for each wick. Heck I use them to burn my palm pillars and get a great burn. I don't understand what's going on. Could it possibly be the high melt point of the embed wax? Then I was thinking I made a mistake in calculating fo amount, but I really don't think so. I have pushed fo to the extreme and still was able to get a decent burn in my pillars{paraffin} Sorry for the overly long rant, but I'm just totally lost. Anybody else do these types of candles? What are your thoughts?

Oh my gosh, soap making is sooooo addictive! Once I got past that fear of lye...and I've never lost that fear {good thing 'cause you will always be on your toes when using it} I went on to make like 50 batches! I had soap everywhere...had to eat by the computer as it was the only spot that didn't have bars of soap drying. Once you use what you have made... I promise you that you will never go back to using store bought soap! Have a blast everybody!

Oh how dainty! I love the soft look.

Those are just too cool!

You know what I've noticed with many store bought candles? They are often double or triple wicked in a container that I would have ordinarily wicked with maybe an HTP 104 or even a 105.There was one I bought recently from Walmart, it was scented "Orange Jasmine" and it's in a straight up and down container...wonderful scent. 3 and 1/4 inch diameter and it's double wicked! I'm going to burn it and see how it does once it gets past the midpoint. Maybe just maybe they have something there?

Isn't 1/2 of a dye block a lot for just one pillar? I may be misreading you, but I thought those dye blocks colored up to 40# of wax? I'm just a newbie myself, but that sorta caught my eye! Good luck!

I have several that I order from too, but only because there are certain FO's that only those suppliers have and I love them!. Of course, since I don't sell I have leisure on my side as far as that's concerned. There just are some knock my socks off scents, but unfortunately they are not under one "roof".

Thanks all for the kind words and encouragement. As you know, layers are time consuming, but they are lots of fun!

Are they considered worse or maybe better than non-seamed containers in regards to safety? Or are they maybe just considered "worse" only because aesthetically they're not as appealing as non-seamed jars?

Can anybody recommend a place where I can buy some really good embed molds? I am mostly looking for the foody and fruit type ones. I have gotten some that I'm not too thrilled with the detail. These molds to me, are not cheap and I'd love some really good quality molds with my main focus on detail. Of course the cheaper the better , however I know you do get what you pay for, so I'm willing to shell it out, just want to make sure I'm getting quality molds! Has anybody bought these molds that you would recommend? TIA

Have never worked so hard, nor had so much fun! This was my first use of mottled pillar wax, and by pouring the layers I also got the rustic effect. The red candles are scented "Orient Express", the blue ones are "Rain"

I too am testing these wicks, but am mainly working on votives, so can't help you out there. I think folks have just started getting their samples? and so there may not be many responses to your question. I know it was stated that these wicks could also be used for paraffin, but so far I'm not having a whole lot of luck with that...guess I need to stick to what they are best for. I did try a 767 in a three inch pillar {paraffin} but wasn't thrilled with the results...high flame and small melt pool. I'm going to be pouring some palm pillars and some soy containers and will do more extensive testing then. Isn't testing just such a major pain?!

Wow, that is some camera you've got, what fantastic closeups! Neat candle.

Hi Scntdwik! Of course we don't like you....we love you!!:awww: Hey, I have never attempted to wick one of those jars, but I have read old posts and the suggestion on jars that are not straight up and down is to wick for the midpoint of the jar...at least that's how I understood it! There are no stupid questions, you should see some of the ones I ask! lol

I usually heat my pour pot by giving it a blast with the heat gun for approx. 5-10 seconds. I keep my presto on low...some of the wax I have been using tends to turn quite yellowish if kept heated at about 180 to 190 degrees. I think it just all depends on how warm/cool your surroundings are. I find a significant drop in wax temp if I don't pre-heat my pouring pot.

I use one of those little plastic medicine cups and wipe out {sometimes!} after each use...they are marked also. Just wanted to add one thing, don't let your FO sit for too long in paper cups or especially styrofoam cups. The FO will eat right through the styrofoam in no time and you will have FO leaking all over your counter...ask me how I know.

I have bought from more than one source. I am quickly finding out that one does not need to order only 1 case at a time. One needs to order at least 4 cases for UPS hundred weight discount! 1) One case of wax ordered in state: 1.00 per pound, with shipping, handling, and tax= 1.43 per pound 2) 5 cases of wax at pretty much 1.00 per pound on average, roughly 1.45 per pound...out of state, probably around 3 states away or so. I want to buy pallets!