strugglebrother

Thanks guys

Hmm, can't remember what I mixed it with... Maybe try and boost the top mid or base with another fragrance, sandalwood or amber / bergamot?

If anyone of you wants 3 gallons of the RE base I gladly give it away for free if you pay for shipping or want to meet for a pickup. I'm located in Los Angeles, CA.

Yeah, I guess it's not the strongest of scents... their rating of it being 3 out of 3 is a bit misleading. I've used it in a blend, haven't tried it on its own, unfortunately.

Just like coffee and other really strong fragrances, keep the blend of the fireplace down to a very low percentage. Too much and you will get a BBQ smelling candle, if that's not what you want Or try and blend it a bit with something musky.

What wax have you been testing in? I get great results in soy/para blends, but not so great in only soy.

Both of these additives are there to preserve and make sure bacteria stays out of the solution. Seems like Butylene Glycol are a bit less harmful? http://www.healthy-communications.com/butylene.htm I'm ordered quite a few additives and fixates to experiment with

I tried to call them today to order various products in 60lb quantities but they only want to sell me pallets 2220lb? They don't want to deal with anything less than that?

Have anyone tried the new formulation of CS Plumeria in wax, room sprays and or diffusers? Is it the same?

I suspect The Candlemakers Store base is the same as Rustics looking at their ingredients list. All fragrances are different and react differently to the ingredients you blend them with. The big downside with a readymade blend is that it might work good with some and really bad with some others. If you can dial the ingredients of your base towards the fragrance you might be able to come up with something perfect for just that fragrance etc. Yes, let me know how you get on. I just ran out of DPG which I also wanted to try, please do try it and let me know. Too much DPG can clog fine mist sprayers, so don't use too much. Maybe try 1 to 5% and see if anything good happens? DPG and PG are the same but different Propylene Glycol vs. Dipropylene Glycol Fragrance Oils
 Propylene glycol and Dipropylene glycol are derived from the same chemical process, adding water to propylene oxide. However, the molecular structure and chemical composition of each is very different. Though both are used in the cosmetics industry, dipropylene glycol is the preferred fragrance carrier oil for a number of reasons. Chemical Properties Propylene glycol has a low boiling point and moderate freezing point. It is a diol, or double alcohol, which means that people who are not permitted to use alcohol would not be able to use any fragrance oils with it as a carrier oil. Dipropylene glycol has a high boiling point and low freezing point. It can act as a solvent and stabilizer for many products containing oils. It is non-alcoholic and therefore can be used without restriction for fragrance oil, incense and so on. Skin Sensitivity Propylene glycol is generally well tolerated by most humans. However, those with eczema have been known to show allergic reactions such as contact dermatitis and hives. Dipropylene glycol has not been shown to cause allergic reactions. Toxicity if Ingested Propylene glycol has a sweet taste. It is toxic to dogs and cats, and therefore human toiletries and fragrances should never be left within reach of pets. Dipropylene glycol exposure has been shown under lab conditions to result in minor corneal irritation in rabbits and kidney or renal system changes in small rodents. There are big debates about if DPG and PG would make a fragrance as a perfume 'last longer'. Some say it could work as a 'fixative' and many others say it doesn't work like that at all. Both are used to dilute or bind/carry fragrance. I use DPG in candles to dilute solutions. For instance, if I need half or a quarter drop of liquid dye.. I mix it with DPG and take one drop of its dilution etc..

That is pretty much what we are doing now apart from the FO/EO modifier, we haven't had any clouding yet as we don't use that much water. The Rustic base gives great longevity but with the downside of ruining the fragrance / smell. Some of our fragrances work fine with just alcohol and water at 4% to 7% but a few of them don't have the same longevity, they are gone after a few minutes. I can see that Rustic's base have: FDA approved SD Alcohol, Water, Glycerin, Propylene Glycol, Bensophenone-2. Glycerine is, from what I understand, used to prevent the ingredients to separate and should be odorless. Propylene Glycol I can see is used in a lot of bases but it's described as 'nearly' odorless. Bensophenone-2 is used to protect from UV and are described to have a 'Geranium like' odor. I wonder if the Propylene or Bensophenone are ruining scents in the base and I suppose the Propylene is there for longevity. Could be worth trying to add Propylene to just Perfumers Alcohol and water to test? I can definitely live with no UV protection.

I thought exactly the same thing in the beginning. We made our room sprays with the base and initially we were really happy with them. I think we were lucky that a few fragrances masked the smell from the base. Then our problems started. A few fragrances I have worked with for a few years smelled off in the base. I ordered some perfumers alcohol to test and when you have the base side by side to just perfumers alcohol you smell a HUGE difference OOB. I tried something simple as Candle Science Blue Spruce, one in Rustic's base and one in Perfumers Alcohol with the same ratio of water as the FO. It smells clean and very pleasant with only the alcohol but completely off in Rustic's base sprayed in the room. Try a fragrance and blend it just with distilled water and do A/B test with the base and you will see. It's one of those -You don't know how bad your old car is until you sit in a new. With longevity, I mean 20 minutes... If it goes away after 5 minutes it's not great etc.

RE has a nice Pipe smoke FO and also their Cuban Tobacco FO is great.

From what I can find the biggest wax candle ever made was in Stockholm, Sweden 1897. It was 127-foot and was featured at General Art and Industrial Exhibition of Stockholm. They have a huge candle inside the 'General Wax' store here in Los Angeles. They poured that in 2014.. Here's a few photos of it

We are turning our candle collection into room sprays. First, we tried out Rustic Escentuals 'Fragrant Room & Body Spray' base... Around 3-5% fragrance is well enough to scent a whole room with only 3-4 sprays, and the fragrance stays at least for an hour which is great. BUT, there is a terrible smell to this base which ruins a lot of fragrances. You smell it straight away when sprayed and it takes about 5 minutes in the air until the fragrance actually smells like it should. So we had to scrap this as it's such a bad first impression of a room spray. We tested it with friends and they actually complained about that they couldn't take the fragrance after a while as it becomes so heavy due to the base. Then, we tried fragrance oil (around 4-5%) + water (same ratio) and fill up with perfumers alcohol. This makes the fragrance smell exactly like it should when sprayed, very clean and lovely. This has unfortunately not the best longevity. It evaporates pretty quick and won't scent a room more than 10 minutes to 20 minutes depending on fragrance. We can up the fragrance to 7-9% possibly but I'm wondering if there is something I can add to boost the longevity which is completely odorless? Clouding is not our biggest concern.

I think they are terrible.... I wrote about my experiences here

I use the EZ Wick Setter. We have two... One is adjusted to fit the main jar we are using. They will adjust it for you to any container size free, you only have to pay postage for it.

Apart from those ingredients, Voluspa candles have a fair amount of paraffin in them to help with the throw.

What's your name? Let's just call me Strugglebrother How old are you? I'm 42 Where do you live? I'm Swedish. Moved to London, UK and then ended up in Los Angeles (last 5 years) after meeting my lovely girlfriend here. How long have you been making candles/soap/whatever? About 3 years now How did you get started making candles/soap/whatever? My girlfriend is a part-time perfumer and we wanted to start a business together so the interest grew thanks to her. She does the blending and I do most of the production. Are you married? Any kids? Not married (yet)... No kids. If candle/Soap making isn't your primary job, what do you do? I'm a music and radio producer so I tend to spend a lot of time in front of a computer and I work remotely these days thanks to the internet. I really wanted to work more with my hands instead of sitting in front of the screen all day hence why we started the business. I've always been interested in design and all the aspects around branding and such. Anything else we should know? I used to be a touring DJ for 10 years but hung the headphones on the wall. I still go out to clubs sometimes but more on special occasions. I love animals and to take trips to Joshua Tree for the relaxing silence out there in the desert.

Thanks, @candlescience for clearing that up. Very informative reply. I have 3 50lb boxes which I don't know if any of them are affected and are unstable. I've used up one 50lb box for a bunch of candles which I tested and noticed lesser hot throw from. Shall I email you the numbers of the remaining 3 boxes I have to see if any of those are affected? I really don't want to make more candles and risk to use unstable wax. Thanks again.

Looks like a custom mold. I haven't seen any like that here in the states. Closest mass produced and easy to get a bottle like that would be a 4oz Boston Round but it wouldn't have the same heavy build to it.

We have a Portrait... I use it mainly for making black and white warning labels when we have smaller runs, 50-100 circular labels. I get whole sheets from onlinelabels.com It comes down to a few things... Are you printing on inkjet? Price of ink will be much more expensive for 300 big labels than taking it to a printer. But it's great if you are only doing a personalized candle for someone and only need 10 stickers. The machine itself is great, the software that comes with it is complete crap. It's extremely confusing and not at all straightforward. It would probably be a nightmare if you are not a 'trial and error' person. The software for Cricut might be better than the Cameo / Portrait, I haven't tried it.

We use three scales This one for heavier loads but still needs to be detailed, and it's also great that it has a bowl so the scale doesn't get ruined by fragrance oils https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002SVQHWY/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 This one we use for perfume and extremely detailed measurements. It doesn't take any heavy loads https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004C3G73U/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Then I use this one just to weigh wax but it's quite inaccurate and I wouldn't recommend it https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007GAWZ0/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks for getting back to the forum When it comes to the “Straight sided tumblers” there has been a lot of problems. First with them always being out of stock and then after that them not being perfectly painted. The new tumblers are unfortunately worse than the old ones as the paint is falling off from the front easily. Stickers can’t be reapplied and finger nails make streaks on them. Would you consider switching back to having them painted on the inside like before? Back in the day they were of good quality and perfect. I have never had any problems returning anything damaged and your customer support have been excellent dealing with in the few cases something happened. But sadly the new tumblers are just not as good as before and not an improvement from the old ones. I’m also interested to hear if you have any revised statement regarding the overall problem with the soy wax from Golden Brands? Quantum have brought out new products but Golden Brands products have changed in performance but we are only being told that ‘nothing has changed’ and ‘no one has any problems’. This is obviously very frustrating for a lot of us. Other than that I think you have great pricing and most of your products have the best of quality! I love how quick you are with processing and shipping compared to your competitors. And I’m also extremely pleased with the option to be able to get things shipped from Reno for all of us who live on the west coast. Best

Yeah, that's a good idea. I can down the paraffin and coconut with the HTP 73 and up the soy. I mainly use the coconut wax for the nice smooth color and feel. I called the importer / manufacturer and they are sending me samples of the CDN line so I'll test the 6 and 8! Thanks again for the help!