Jane42

Thanks so much for your reply! I will have to ask her, but I think the oatmeal is already in this base - maybe if she stirs it when it is cooling, it will help move them around and avoid them ending up on the top of the bar. If anyone else uses the Cierra soap base, would you let me know if that is what you do. So far, the people we have had test them don't comment on it, but I would prefer if the oatmeal was throughout rather than just a hard layer of on the top. Thanks! Jane

We just started working with the oatmeal base (Cierra Candles). My business partner is the one working on this, so I haven't read directions, etc., but I noticed that the ones that have been done so far have all the oatmeal at the top and nothing throughout the bar. How do you manage to "suspend" the oatmeal?

We sell both melts (tarts) and wickless jars. Some people just like the ease of switching their wickless jars without having to mess around with taking the wax out of a melt warmer. Our wickless jars hold 8 oz of wax, so the scent lasts longer. Actually, most of our customers buy one or the other. Some just like to buy tons of melts and votives....others tend to stick with the wickless jars. HTH

We do preheat our votive molds, since it is cool where we are and we tend to get "jump lines" if we don't. Also, if it hasn't already been mentioned, make sure you are on a level surface when doing the second pour on votives. Otherwise, the wax will start spilling off of one side before the other side has been covered. I HATE doing second pours! lol We have also found that adding the FO after the color can completely change some of our colors due to the color of the FO. We have a terrible time with our Cinnamon Sticks coloring....it looks great until we add the FO, then it turns a deep purple! So, when testing a new color, we add FO first, then liquid dye. We live in Western NY, so we usually order our wax from Candles and Supplies in PA or Candlescience.

We have always used the stickums and love them. We also wipe out our jars with a baby wipe to get the film off. It's a pain, but we do it not only so the wicks will stick but so that the jar is crystal clear where the wax isn't. It's a pain, but our jars have quite a film! The stickumms have never released while burning, and we have tested quite a bit, but they do occasionally let go when we are pouring. Not often, but every once in awhile I will get a "floater" GRRRRR More often than I would like, the LX tabbed wicks we use will come out of the tab after I have poured the candle. If I have time, I give them each an extra "squeeze" with the long nose pliers, but I truly HATE it when that happens!!

I am so glad to hear BC's are ok now...I just ordered 1000 and after I put the order in, I remembered there had been problems!

We haven't tried many of their FO's but I bought Iced Pineapple off the classies and tested it in a palm pillar - it was wonderful! I really didn't expect to get such a strong scent in a pillar!!

Great idea! Since we make our candles in my business partner's basement, we have always had the roaster oven to warm jars, pour pots, etc.

I checked Sunshine container and they do have them, but not the same style as the ones we purchase from Bittercreek Ours have the squared display panel and Sunshine has the rounded one. Unfortunately, our label was designed to fit the squared panel. Thanks for the suggestion, though. I am not sure when Bittercreek is going to get them in stock, if ever, so we may have to replace them all.

We use the kraft votive display boxes that hold 18 votives and we have always ordered them through Bitter Creek. They are out of stock at the moment. Does anyone know of another supplier of these boxes. Thanks! Jane

Yes, we charge $1.50 less for the wickless. Our jars do not fit on some of the pad warmers, so we sell the cachepot warmers from Levines. Many people are not familiar with the warmers, which is why we always have them in stock. Once they try them, they seem thrilled to have another option rather than a flame. My father loved using his in his senior housing apartment - he was too worried about having a candle burning and forgetting about it. My nieces and nephews have used theirs in their dorm rooms and bedrooms. I use mine on the weekends because and am forever running in and out of the house doing errands and I don't want to have a candle burning. Except for family and friends, I have never thought to "give" them away. Maybe if they buy so many wickless jars you can afford to give them a warmer. People love "free" or bonus items. Are you using the warming pads for yours? If so, those are more reasonable than the cachepot warmers at Levines. Our jars don't fit on most of the warming pads, so we haven't marketed them as doing so. Good Luck!

Hi, Our wickless candles have just started to take off the last year or so. Since they need a candle warmer, and not everyone has one or knows if the person they are buying a gift for has one, they do not sell as well as the wicked candles. Probably one wickless for every four or five wicked that we sell. We have always had the cachepot warmers at our shows, so people that have bought them are coming back to buy more wickless to use with them. I have also given the warmers as gifts to friends and family, so they are now coming back to buy the wickless. Many people comment that they prefer using the wickless if they have pets - especially cats - even though one customer said that their cat did try to "dip" their paw in the wax once. Even though we use the same 10 oz apothecary jar for the wickless, they are less expensive because they do not have the strap handle that we add to our wicked and are less time consuming to make - no double-wicking and adding the strap. HTH

We have had this happen with the 4630 and LX wicks - usually with our heavier fragrances, like Vanilla Bake from Cajun, and little or no color added. Interesting theories regarding the FO and/or the wicks. I always wondered about what would cause it.

This has always confused me. I have read where the second pour on votives should be 10 degrees hotter than the first pour and I never could figure out how the wax knew what the first pour temp was, but I always went by the rule. When we started getting bubbles on the top of our votives after the second pour, my business partner tried melting the wax for the second pour just enough to get it all melted, then poured. We have no bubbles and the tops don't pop off and I know the temp is not as hot as the first pour - and certainly not 10 degrees warmer than the first pour. This totally confuses me, but it works.

We haven't ordered those. If I just wanted to order some for myself (but who has time to just make a candle for themselves?!?! lol) I would, but I only order the scents I know they have in stock all the time. I am always afraid I will just get it wicked and everyone will love it and then they won't carry it anymore! We did get one by mistake once and I wasn't impressed, but that doesn't mean they are all like that. I totally love C&S Hot Apple Pie, Peach and Honeydew.

I would say 45% of what we carry is JS. Our customer's favorites are Orange Clove, Cinnamon Sticks, Christmas Mulberry (top seller!), Fruit Slices, Mulberry, Strawberry. We are adding their Salty Sea Air - I absolutely love this one. We jumped on the bandwagon a couple years ago when people were singing their praises, and I am glad we did because we found some wonderful new FO's - but we have not found any one supplier that can give us everything we want. That would have been too easy...lol We use IGI4630 and 4794. Of course, we also love some of the scents from Candles and Supplies - and many people on this board do not have any luck with them. You really need to test them yourself and see what works for you!

We received a case of 4630 in December that I am guessing was the new formula, but we didn't have a problem with cracking. Our issue was that when it cooled it had a "wavy" top - not smooth like it usually was. The wax was much harder to cut - not as hard as votive wax, but did quite a number on our cutting tool! We tested a few different scents and they seemed to burn the same, so that was not an issue. We have since received several new cases from a different supplier and it is like what we are used to and pours and sets like it always did. I would definitely call the supplier and I hope they have some answers. When I called a few suppliers trying to find cases of the "old formula", they had no idea what I was talking about but assured me that their 4630 was the softer wax. We ended up purchasing from Candlescience. Our normal supplier, who we ended up getting the one case of the newer formula, was Candles and Supplies.

We use the 10 oz apothecary jars...which we pour 8 oz of wax in. I had someone question me as to why another booth had the same size jar but their label said 10 oz and mine said 8 oz and we were charging the same price. The person insinuated that we were overpriced. It was busy so I didn't try to explain - and, actually, I felt uncomfortable saying that their label could be inaccurate - that they probably had the same amount of wax in the jar but that the jar is "called" a 10 oz by the manufacturer. Sorry...I guess this wasn't really the topic........lol I guess my point is is that it can be very confusing........

We use 4630 in the 10 oz apothecary jars. We double-wick usually using LX10's - sometimes down to an LX8 with certain scents (usually the fruity ones) and occasionally need to wick up to an LX12 for the heavier scents. There may be a way to single wick this, but we never were able to find it.... HTH

We double wick because we just couldn't get one wick to do the job with our wax and jar combo. Our customers like it - looks different than what they can buy at most stores - but I don't know if it makes that much of a difference.

Illuminations candles were my favorite before I started making candles. My husband and I were in a Yankee Outlet store a few years ago and was shocked to find Illumination candles being sold. I hadn't realized Yankee had bought them. I did pick up a few of the Cider ones for my mother-in-law....:rolleyes2

Since there are six post offices in your area, why wouldn't they stagger their hours??? I would think that would make more sense..... When we moved into our house 25 years ago, we HAD to use a post office box...there was no delivery to our house. It was very inconvenient - they used to open after I left for work and were closed by the time I got home. Then they would complain on Saturday when I went in to get it that the mail had piled up and they wanted me to rent a larger box for more money!! uhmmmm, no! They finally built a new post office and left it open so people with PO Boxes could get in. I still do not understand why they took all the stamp machines out of our area post offices..... Now we have to wait in line to buy stamps, which just makes more work for the employees....makes no sense to me.

I think I will post in the classies for some CD's to test...maybe a CD14 - and a couple above and below that. I have posted for some LX's. Ya gotta love the testing!! lol

Hi, Stella! I did see on your other post that the palm would work it's way out as it went down, so I continued to test and it had. I didn't realize that the melt pool had gone further out until I "rubbed" the inside edges. (does that make sense??) The flame is very small, but I think I "nipped" too much off before the last burn. It has burned 17 hours with a 1/2" shell all around - about 1/3 burned at this point. I love the idea of using the tealight! I will try to get a picture to post, but that would require me tracking my son down! lol Thanks so much for all of your advice. I have printed out everything I could find on my last search. I still want to try to figure out what LX wick I could use in place of the Yaley, though. I have seen an LX24 & LX26 suggested so far. If I test a taller pillar, would I use whatever works for this pillar, or would it require a higher wick? I have had someone offer to sell me some LX30's for testing, but not sure that I would ever need that.

Welcome! Keeping good notes is important. I made a pillar a few months ago and was pretty happy with the outcome, so I ordered all the supplies, went to pour another pillar last weekend and could not find my notes anywhere!! So I am back to searching the boards and asking questions - very frustrating! We have a binder that all of our test information is USUALLY stored in. It lists all the testing we have done since we started three years ago; type of wax, amount of fragrance and the supplier, if coloring the wax, how much color was added, what temperature we did our first and second pour at, what wicks were used, etc. Good luck with your votives! Have FUN!