Sponiebr

(Again.... Milk... Beer... (whimpers)) Bay Rum huh? Bay Rum is one of my just flat out all time favorite scents in this world. Specifically I'm partial to Key Lime bay rum. So when I was beginning on this concept of FO's for making soaps, Bay Rum was an obvious choice. Somebody in another place, on another forum, began a thread asking what might be a pleasant addition to "citrus" FO's. I suggested bay oil. (Yanno... Seemed reasonable, as that's one of my favorites.) I was horrified to learn that per NOT ONE, but a quite a few soap makers, they collectively agreed that bay oil was difficult to work with as it tended to break in CP soaps, and (I can't make this up) "It smells like Old Man's Balls" while it's curing. (slow blink) Y'know what? Nope! I have nothing! I don't actually have ANY questions... I'm GOOD!!! I'm better than GOOD, I'm in fact so GOOD, I'm AWESOME GOOD, one could say I'm GAWESOM'D.... and I'm going to run for my life! I did run for my life and have lived to tell you the tale of horror. CHEERS! Sponiebr

(OK, @KrazeKelly you just clarified this with your last post but I was almost done, so I'm STILL posting this.) Da'fa? What was THAT? You actually lost me in less than 2 replies. Cool looking soaps to just like @Moonstar I also wanted to know about the strippers... Here's where I get lost: Strippers smell like hazelnut coffee? Ok... I'm good with that, I WANT to believe that strippers smell like hazelnut coffee. And... 3. 2. 1... Lost in utter darkness... We start with SO many things not right: The actual beer has notes of coffee, chocolate and toffee. (What actual beer? When was beer brought up? I just wanna know about strippers.... I mean... Yeah Beer's a fun subject too... Chocolate, coffee, toffee beer? Um, Porter much? It smells delicious when I boil it. (STAPH!!!!!!! NOOooooooooooooooo!!!! Kelly. DO NOT BOIL BEER! NO! Bad! You DRINK beer! Look-at-whatchu-did-lookitwhacutdid... BAAAHD. Boiling BEER BAD! No! Noooooooooo!!! You go sit over there and think about what you did! Baaaaahd.) So that fragrance works very well with it. (It? The stippers work better with beer? o.O ) Nope. I'm lost. Do over! Cool look'n soaps Kelly! Please tell me all about the "stripper" inspired one! Local yallow? What's in the 50 shades? Interesting... Sponiebr "the confused mind is a wasteful terror"

Never mind... Well, the squooshed toothpick one works. It's got BB bronze mica, a little CrO3 for a green, (I'll need dyes in the future), and CS' Christmas Hearth. I'm pretty sure, and Dad seems to think it might be plain paraffin. We're not really sure, it was over in some other um... materials that are used in producing things that burn. o.O It melted at 130 F so... We're going with plain old fashion paraffin. It had a really bad "sinkhole?" I just remelted the top and let it run back down into the hole to fill it. It's in a really little jar I got from Dollar Tree. Lots of little air bubbles along the sides of them. I just love how the mica swirls in the melt pool. 45 minutes-ish... A penny for scale...

@TallTayl How long are you supposed to let a candle settle/steep/requiem in pace/sit in the jar before testing? (I actually made 2 little jar candles... Like actual candles with FO and mica...) Also how high should a 1/4" wide wood wick be trimmed, and a 5/32" wick?

Oh, building the frame isn't the issue, that's easy. Getting an entire collection of the FO's and/or EO's in a solid perfumer's organ at a reasonable price is the issue. I *personally* would prefer an organ set up by accord; it just seems like it would be easier to sort out that way. I'll be honest, I'd be happy with even an organ set up with one or 2 drops on cotton balls, but I'd rather have the little 1/2 dr vials. Anyone know of a supplier doing that?

Erm... o.O Isn't (coughs) Mad OILS kinda in the business of selling FO's?

@TallTayl I've got some wax that is extremely hard but very paraffin-esq that I'm going to try tonight just for giggles. Either that or I'm going to make some soap...

I am finding myself in need of a perfumer's organ. There's no way in hell I'm going to get one, but I need one so I can do some scent identification. I'd really LOVE to see a perfumer's organ done up in a micro miniature version with those titchy clear glass 1/bazzilionth of a dram sniffy vials in an affordable price... Now THAT would be AWESOME!!! Anyone know of a thing like this? Sponiebr

Super strong huh? Save on scents has super strong oils and reasonable prices. I like them, "overall". They've got duds like everybody. They do kinda take their time on shipping, and I'm not overly fond of that aspect, but they're no worse in reality than Bulk Apothecary or Bramble Berry. I haven't gotten anything terrible from them "yet".

I don't know where to stick this, so I'll stick it here... Some of you know me. I make soap. I don't make candles unless I'm in the middle of a hurricane and I need more light then it's all kinds of new and exciting versions of house fire threatening fun. Again I'm a soap maker. I do use wax from time to time, but it's mostly beeswax and that goes into my soap, except when I'm NOT making soap and using beeswax for "the unintended other purpose". My wooden soap molds and soap making tools need care and to care for them I make a beeswax preservative which mainly consists of mineral oil and (clears throat) beeswax, and um usually a little paraffin. I was running low on my waterproofer/sealant/soap slicker-upper beeswax wood saving goo so I started to make some more. Beeswax I had, mineral oil was abundant, but my nub of parafin was gone. I used stearic acid instead. Why? Well, because it was THERE, and the paraffin was NOT there. That's why! (Stearic has some interesting friction induced lubrication properties too... but I digress) I made up the goo, tempered it, and stirred the mess with a popsicle stick for almost 6 hours with dauntless resolve. It finally got to where I wanted it and so I poured/glopped it into a 4 oz jelly jar, and remelted it in the oven. I was looking at the pretty golden mess in that jar while holding the greased up popsicle stick and thinking, oh this would be FUN to post on the chandler's forum... I was going to do something along the lines of a picture of my jar full of perfectly poured wax and the headline of YAY!!! My VERY first container pour!!! When do I add the FO and the wick? I figured that would be funny. And it would have been funny if I hadn't been holding that damned popsicle stick. HOWEVER... I WAS holding that greasy little flat stick and my sick, demented subconscious apparently had been eyeing it and had marked it for nefarious entertainment purposes... That poor stick... You may recall my asking about using a bit of straw as a wick? (the concept is solid) Popsicle sticks ain't straw folks, they're STICKS. Wooden sticks at that. Ok, so I've got a wooden stick in my hand covered in a wax and mineral oil grease, and (oh you've already guessed it haven't you?) I set fire to the end of it. It burned, but it did not burn well. Well, the fact that it burned at all was the reason I needed to cut it into quarters smash it up a bit with my pliers (to spread out the wood fibers), and stick a bit of it into my little jar o' wood lube. In it went! Fire applied. And VIOLA!!!! Well... Better you see for yourself: The wick prototypes. Just lit: I put it out after about 45 minutes and adjusted the wick. Re-lit and left alone to burn for about 1 hr 45 minutes before I put it out because the flame was just barely hugging the end of the wick. This also shows the depth and diameter of the MP. It's not candle wax... and those aren't candle wicks but the candle burned steady, though it danced a little bit towards the end when I pushed the char line just to the edge of the melt pool for better feed. I tweaked a couple of other wicks and I have them ready for tomorrow when I will pour with some wax that should burn a bit better. Do you know how HARD it is to keep coming up with terrible ideas that are SURE to FAIL so I can apply my special brand of self effacing humor ONLY to have the DAMNED THINGS WORK!!!!? Anyway... I figured at least SOMEBODY would get a kick out of my miserable failure to produce a miserable failure of a candle... I need to go back to messing up soaps. o.O Sponiebr the King of wish-less thinking.

Howdy!

The timing thing does take practice. What I found has helped me with getting a nice crisp impression was to wipe a little petrolatum across the seal and hit the seal quickly with the alcohol burner just to get the grease to flow and then wiping most of the vaseline off, but you DO want some on the seal so when it hits the hot wax it doesn't stick. I also like to keep a block of frozen metal nearby to chill the stamp on in between seals. I do my seals one at a time. One pour, a few seconds pause to let the wax cool a little, and then press the seal, hold for a couple of seconds (you'll get a feel for it.) Then I set the seal back to chill while I moved the next item into position and got the rest of the mess ready. It's tedious, but damn does it look sharp! One other thing... DON'T TOUCH THE Pressed wax seals until they are completely COLD you'll smudge them if they are any kind of warm at all. If you'll let them be, they'll turn out all really pretty and shiny wet looking. You'll need to regrease the seal about every 2 pressings or so, depending on how hot you pour. I tend to pour VERY hot so I only get a maximum of 2 pressings before I have to regrease and let the seal chill completely. A block of dry ice is just DANDY for chilling the seals... (it squeaks and squeals when you put the warm seal on it ) I also use regular rosin based traditional sealing wax, usually in sticks. It's not terribly dear stuff if you care to buy it. I *personally* use a type of banker's wax which is pretty brittle. I've been known to mix in a little hot melt to flex it up from time to time. (It's been a LONG time though. I have NO clue where my spoon is.) You can get the glue gun sticks pretty cheap, and the traditional waxes in sticks aren't bad but do take a little practice and patience. I've not tried the bulked out bottle sealing wax yet, and I really think I should give that a go at some point. I'm just SO pressed at the moment... o.O Oh and if you buy the traditional wax in sticks, for the love of everything happy skip the bloody wicked sticks. The wicks SEEM like a good idea until you start getting bits of charred wick into your seals or worse burning bits of wick falling onto your project... I'd just skip the wicks is all I'm say'n. Here's some links off of amazon to give you an idea on prices and such. HTH YMWV https://www.amazon.com/DSC-Mart-Glue-Gun-Sealing-Wax/dp/B01M178S17/ref=sr_1_3?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1483443768&sr=1-3&keywords=sealing%2Bwax%2Bsticks&th=1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YOMAYME?th=1 https://www.amazon.com/Bottle-Seal-Wax-Beads-Holiday/dp/B0064OFTOI/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1483445634&sr=8-8&keywords=sealing+wax+beads -Sponiebr

When I was a kid, which wasn't that long ago... I remember seeing the Rockies pop up out of the ground, and... unfortunately I don't have the time to tell you about the events that led up to using paraffin wax. Suffice it to say when I was a kid we didn't have any other kinds of wax that I can remember other than paraffin, beeswax, carnauba, and crayons. The stores had paraffin in Gulf Wax boxes (by the pound), shrink wrapped slabs of beeswax or little square slabs sold unwrapped (and sometimes comb wax), carnauba was in granules. There was always a bag of stearic acid in the same area for hardening waxes. There weren't any soy or other preblended waxes, if you wanted super hard you mixed in carnuaba. if you wanted soft for votives it was mostly beeswax or (if I remember right, vasoline mixed with paraffin). People were doing crazy stuff like melting 6 pack rings and milk jugs and adding wax, They'd mix in hot glue sometimes, and crayons were always a staple. It was a lawless and CRAZY time. I really didn't mess with it, I had my hands full with the rest of the funny farm insanity, but I remember the women talking about it and in my family (I'm getting to it... ) for dipped table candles we used straight paraffin with stearic acid colored with Crayola crayons, (not those Rose Art crap-ons). I have no idea what the usage rate was but the stearic acid significantly hardened up the paraffin and increased the burn time of the dipped table candles. I'm going to assume that it also increased the melting point of the paraffin. I also can't tell you anything about scent throw because I'd never even heard of a fragrance oil or an essential oil until I got to college. Not much info, I know, but FWIW I hope it helps. Sponiebr

I dunno about the "best" but generally I like Citrus, Spices, and Ginger. I ran into an eau de toilet today that really caught my attention: Bleu de Channel. I have had the same .75 oz. Bottle of Cologne for the past 15 years. I got a new bottle last month and another one today. Both are knock offs, AKA: "Impressions"but the first one was Pure Water by EAD which is an "impression" of Acqua Di Gio and the one I got today was Blue by EAD which is an impression of Bleu de Channel. The old bottle of cologne is Burberry Week End for Men. The rest of my collection is Bayrum aftershave, Murray & Lanman Florida Water, and the requisite ancient bottle of Old Spice aftershave...

Not really sure... My 3 year old stepdaughter was always the one that crafted it for me. Her recipe and process was something like: 1/2 sippy cup of Silk brand Eggnog sealed well/ Leave in Hot Florida car for 2 weeks. After sippy cup threatens to explode from internal pressure, gift to Papa in a plastic garbage bag filled with used kleenex and rock hard half chewed on Chicken McNugget jerky presented with a resplendent tantrum as a bonus. Brought tears to my eyes and a flutter to my belly every time. There are times that I wonder if she wasn't a member of the research and development team for Hell's Ghastly Gastronomic Distressors Inc. Sponiebr

Oh! But You GOTTA try "10 day soy based eggnog in a sippy cup surprise"! It is to DIE for! -Sponiebr

Um, not that it's applicable anymore, but my traditional after Christmas scents were "10 day soy based eggnog in a sippy cup surprise", "Crunchy air aged fruit cake", "Sticky soft candy canes", and (my personal favorite) "Pine forest floor in your living room".

@TallTayl I take it that you are storing these in their dry form in the bottles? I was wondering about maybe premixing the micas with some glycerin/castor/OO/other ridiculously long shelf life oil) and a super cheap decorator's marble (e.g.: sack of 1 lb clear glass marbles from Walmart for $.98). Put'm in a boston round like this https://www.amazon.com/Amber-Boston-Round-Free-Black/dp/B00QHHHOH2/ref=sr_1_1_s_it?s=beauty&ie=UTF8&qid=1482672807&sr=1-1&keywords=2+oz+plastic+boston+round+bottles+with+disc+caps and then I could drip straight into the snooty pitcher? (I hate mica clean up. blech! ) Happy Christmas! Sponiebr

A gallon yogurt PPO is too much, is it? Damn.... I was going for that 128 oz PPO of honey and yogurt mixed together, y'know so I could get that really fluid pour that is so highly sought after. I'm at no more than 2 tblsp PPO on yogurt and about 3 tsp of honey. It's just too sticky and lack-lather otherwise. Thanks for the help!

Glitter hot glue sticks don't work worth a damn for making a traditional opaque sealing wax seal. Gotta have something to opacify? Opacificate? ( Whut? Don't lookit me like that... I'm hav'n a MOMENT y'all...) Gotta cloud that glue up with something if you want to see the impression. I used those glitter mini hot glue sticks for our wedding invitations and it was OK as long as I swirled something in there like sealing wax, which was pointless... I ended up using the stickers that came with the Wilton's package. (shrugs, meh.)

I had this happen to me 1 time. I signed out and signed back in and the problem disappeared. YMWV HTH, Sponiebr

Awwww.... TT! I like you... (Well at LEAST 99% of the time I like you...) It didn't give me any issues at all. I'm on Linux Mint 17.3 64 bit and using Google Chrome for a browser (not Chromium). Sponiebr

@Clear Black I've got a sack of Russian brown (looks like milk chocolate) postal sealing wax in chunk form. There's still several good size pieces in there. The Russians still use the old fashioned hard sealing wax for official items and they have a hot pot that they melt it down in and then just ladle a dollop out onto what they need sealed and hit it with the seal. If you'd like some PM me as I don't really have any use for it these days. The old sealing wax (brittle stuff) was/is made with a large portion of pine rosin, chalk, and a little beeswax to act as a melt moderator and they're probably shellac and a little stearic acid in there too. The stuff REEKS of turpentine laced pine rosin when hot. Sponiebr

WHOA MULE! WHOA MULE!!! WHOA!!!!!! Aw, come on, WHOA!!!!! STAHP!!!! Hammer time! So I, or the local chapter of rabid crack crazed squirrels in my head, came up with this thought: (and I quote) "Huh... That Hot Process ain't really all that hot... It's not at boiling. Boiling is 212F and that's 180F and that gets knocked down to 15o's when you add the slop... Huh... there isn't any lye active when you throw in that live cultured yogurt and honey... What if there's Strep. Therm. in there? Shouldn't you might be considering some Optiphen? There's tons of lacterbacter sugars... If they survive the heat somehow they're just gonna keep Sh*(edited)ing lactic acid... That won't be good. You need to KILL them all, and make sure they're dead. Leave no spore or bacter alive." Once they got into talking about germicide. I just got the hell out of there, it was beyond creepy... So... uh, DO I need a preservative? I don't have any doubt that the bacteria is dead from the heat, and I doubt I have any hyperthermophiles in there, but there are lot's of "bacter and fungus" snacks in that soap. I'm on the fence about it because I do this in CP and don't need a preservative. BUT on the other hand in CP the alkaline environment keeps things nice and sterile and also eats some of the free sugars. In HP, anything at the end of the cook is just there, but there is the heat and the heat can denature some of those components... Penny for your thoughts? Sponiebr wrangler of the crack-crazed, rabid, germicidal squirrel infiltration. HEY PENNY!!! Hurry up and get in here they're about to start!

Oh thank heaven's I'm not the only one that can smell that. I'm using Armour Brand Lard, it's just everywhere down here in Florida. Green, White, and red tubs or 4 gal paint bucket. About 1/2 the time it's labeled in Spanish as Manteca. (actually I'm pretty sure it's on both sides of the container...) Gotta love Walmart! It DID take a while to get to trace, almost 10 minutes, which is a long time in HP for me. I might try another batch tonight, as I really need to suss out a OHM soap for fast production. Of anything I have made, the OHM is what I get asked about.