olives

...or the moon is full, or the wind is blowing in a certain direction...LOL! The inconsistencies are making me nuts! I'm doing more testing today and my first plan of attack is to lower my pouring temp to see what that does. Every day, it's back to the drawing board!

SAME! But this whole tunneling issue has got me a bit panicked and re-thinking my whole process. My candles could look perfect and smooth on top, yet have air cavities inside that would essentially make it a dud candle. So I feel like I need to now go the relief hole route for every candle I make...time-consuming, but I can't let candles go out the door that could possibly be duds. @TallTayl - do you poke relief holes in every single candle you make to sell? If so...are you filling the holes with a repour of wax, or hitting the tops with a heat gun and letting the wax melt into the holes? Honestly, I often wonder how some of these smaller-scale makers (P.F. Candle Co., for example, or Seawicks) who aren't Yankee, yet are still running businesses, deal with the quirks that we do...I can imagine that they don't have time to do repours on the thousands of candles they make every week!

Thanks @TallTayl, I will give that a go. The air cavities would also explain the inconsistencies in the wick performances during my testing. Always something!!

I don't poke relief holes, but I'm thinking you might be onto something with the air cavities. Would pouring at a lower temperature help prevent air cavities? I like the smooth tops that the higher pour temp seems to give me, but I'd gladly trade that for candles without air cavities.

I've been ordering 5 lb bags from TFCC so unfortunately no lot number on those...and the largest ECO I've used is the ECO 16 in a 16 oz straight-sided jar with a 3.58" diameter. Same tunneling/extinguishing! I'm going to give that one a try it again, though.

I've been testing a blend of GB 444 wax (75%) and coconut slab wax from Candles & Supplies (25%) and wicking is proving to be almost impossible. I've been testing every size imaginable of rrd, CD, hemp wicks, ECO, and even ribbon wicks with completely inconsistent results from test batch to test batch. I'm adding 8% FO, and pouring each batch between 140 - 145. Edited to add: I'm heating to 185 and adding FO at 185 as well. My most common issue seems to be severe tunneling that ends up extinguishing the flame. Example photos are below. This happens no matter if I size up or down in follow-up batches. Any guidance would be much appreciated!

Wowza. Thanks for posting this...heading over there now to stock up!

FYI all...just got this email from Rustic Escentuals: Due to a disastrous warehouse fire at a critical manufacturer, our industry is experiencing a shortage of multiple critical ingredients used in the formulations of many fragrances. Rustic Escentuals has already experienced a negative issue with a reformulated fragrance. Due to this experience we will NOT be having any of our scents reformulated and will stick with all original formulas. This issue may cause some of our fragrance oils to be listed as "out of stock" when our current inventory is depleted. We do not want to risk customer dissatisfaction with fragrance oils that are not guaranteed to perform as usual. Please understand that this situation is out of our control and is an industry wide dilemma. Hopefully this issue will be resolved by May 2018. Please be patient with us as we try to navigate through this uncharted territory. We will be happy to speak to our customers about this issue and address any concerns they might have. Customer happiness and product quality are our most important goals in this situation. Thank you for your understanding. Rustic Escentuals customer service: 864-582-9335 phone orders/technical support: 864-384-5331

I like http://www.brownkraftlabels.com/ for my warning labels; you can customize them with your company name, candle scent name, size, etc.

I agree, go for it! I do still order my tin lid labels from them (since I don't make as many of those as I do jar candles) and I think you'll be happy with how they turn out.

I've used Sticker You for a couple of years now and I have found them to be a good resource for short-run labels. Just a heads up in case you're looking for larger-run orders: I did eventually switch to another company for my jar labels about halfway through this year, because I increasingly found that the turnaround time for any larger-run order I'd place (say, 150+ labels) would be delayed for at least 10 days past the promised date - even if I had paid for express production & shipping - and (in my experience) customer service wasn't always eager to provide updates or resolution. I do think you'll be very happy with the quality, and I love that you can upload and size your artwork yourself right there on their website. Makes ordering very easy!

Brambleberry sent this email out yesterday: What You Need to Know Due to a shortage of an aroma chemical called citral, we will be temporarily reformulating some of our fragrance oils. We have a plan in place to address this situation. What happened On Oct. 31st, 2017, the production unit of a citral manufacturer caught on fire. There were no injuries but the factory was badly damaged. It's going to take several months to repair it before they can resume production. This manufacturer is a large supplier for the fragrance industry and citral is an essential component in certain scents. It smells like lemon, so it adds brightness to aroma blends. What this means for you Rather than putting the fragrances out of stock, our vendors will be reformulating them. They're working hard to make them as close to the original scent as possible. However, some may smell slightly different and may perform differently in cold process soap as well. This will affect the fragrances during 2018 and maybe into 2019. Our plan of action As soon as we get the reformulation in, Caitlin and Lara in our research department will test it in cold process soap. Once we know how it performs and we run out of the previous formulation, we will update the product page with testing notes compared to the old version. We will also describe any difference in smell.

I've used Bayberry Black Forest from RE and really like it...it's more woodsy than just berry, which is what I was looking for. I do see they also have a Bayberry which they describe as a "traditional Christmas bayberry."

I know! I'm still shaking my head!

HGTV has posted this absolutely cringeworthy "tutorial" on their Facebook page. Thankfully, there are some pretty vocal comments alerting them that following this tutorial will result in a candle that will be dangerous to burn, so hopefully they'll take it down.

I just got another email back from Aztec re: my question on their new coconut wax: "I’m so sorry, but I was just told I misread the information on the wax and it does contain paraffin. Sorry for the incorrect information. Travis Forrester" Sounds like they're finally getting the story straight after probably getting lots of inquiries for more info...

Yikes...that has a big impact on those of us with small businesses! I'm going to have to do some serious number crunching for 2018.

Very interesting...I'm thinking about ordering a box of the IGI from Aztec and trying it out. Also, I just realized that the cost listed on Aztec's website is actually for 25 pounds (not 50 pounds like I had assumed), which makes it comparable to the other coconut waxes I was looking at...so scratch what I was saying about it being more affordable!

So I just got this reply from Travis at Aztec - my question to him was whether or not the blend contained any paraffin: "No it is a vegetable and coconut oil based wax."

I'm skeptical, too, and noticed that they didn't reply to a comment on their post asking whether or not there was any paraffin in the blend. I just emailed them and will report back if/when they answer... The price point is comparable to what I'm paying for my 464 wax, so I am intrigued because the coconut wax options I've been looking at are all almost double that...but the fact that it's more inexpensive also leads me to question what it's blended with. Hopefully they'll provide some more info soon!

I'm thinking the same thing...I have a market the first Friday in December and think these would make perfect gifts/stocking stuffers. I haven't heard about adding salt, but that sounds interesting!

Try StickerYou.com. You can get any size you want, and low quantity minimums which is always a good thing! I've never printed them myself - always worried about the ink smearing!

I've been following this thread with great interest, since I'm interested in moving to a soy-coconut wax blend candle myself. I am about to start testing the coconut container blend wax from Candles & Supplies. I was told by C&S that although the coconut to soy ratio in that blend is proprietary, they suspected that it was more coconut than soy. I am going to blend this with 464 at different ratios to test. I'm very curious about wet spots, as well as frosting issues - both of which I have severely with 464, especially as the candle ages (and by "ages", I mean only after a couple of months!) I sell my candles mostly via wholesale, and these are the two top complaints I get from my accounts...and one reason I'm experimenting with a coconut wax blend.

Thank you! This is a big help. Who is AGE? Couldn't find them on the supplier abbreviation list.

I see a FO on Candlewic's site called Holiday Sparkle with the following description: Cedar and Fir Needle create a base for spicy cinnamon and clove, with light sparkling orange and lemon top notes. Not sure if it's the same, but some similar notes. Peak's sounded fabulous, though!