Timber

 I LOVE their pumpkin zucchini bread! Also cactus sea salt, PPW, Hansel & Gretel, & cucumber melon are great.  The only thing I've tried there that didn't throw well was Hello Beautiful so I've been using it for scrubs & lotion.

I just lit an ICS H&G today which is smelling good & strong (3 week cure).  I did have to wick up from what I used with CS. 

2 hours ago, Hopie said:

I think I have a few zinc wicks under some dust bunnies in here...what size worked for you? I have a 9 oz status. I'd love to know.

I haven't tested the 600 in status jars too much but mostly use 51z.  I've been  burning ICS Pumpkin Pecan Waffle in a status with the 51z & it throws from the front of my house thru to the back & up the stairs.  I could smell it strongly when I walked in the back door earlier today & it was sitting on my piano in the living room near the front door.

I'm finding zinc wicks work well with PB600, similar to 6006 with similar throw.  Really only difference I can tell from the 6006 is no sink holes & no wet spots.  Agree that the PB650 makes good tarts; had one that I could still smell lightly after 2-3 days continuous.

So, I've been dabbling in making candles the past few years.  Thought I had a handle on it.  Poured a few candles at a time for myself here & there.  Made it all thru summer without making a single purchase for supplies.   I mean, I've got a shelf full of fo & wicks, probably 50 lbs of various wax.  What could I possibly need? 

Then my sister asked for a candle to gift to her son's girlfriend.   My sister is about the only one I've given candles to.  She asked for any fall scent.  Wouldn't you know, i just poured the last of my Amish Harvest for myself! I could have tried a couple other scents i have but that one I feel the most confident about to give away.

Well, once I started, i just couldn't stop.  It didn't help that i ran across the .99 sale with CS (@#$%#! Facebook)!  I now have restocked my Amish + 4 other scents from 3 suppliers, 20 new scents to test, and ingredients to try my hand at solid lotion bars.  Came home from work yesterday & had boxes stacked 3 ft high, plus another today.

Really hoping I win the local Queen's Heart Raffle this weekend, over $250,000 now.  (I've got my eye on some new jars)😜

6006 is a bit soft for melts.  I just started playing with the problend 650 & 600.  I am loving that so far, the 600 container wax has never had a single sink hole for me & has been a perfect one pour wax.  Throw seems pretty similar to 6006, so I may be moving towards that. I am thinking about picking up some 464 too & adding to the 6006 to see if it would pour more like the Problend 600.

Thank you for the info!  For my hobby purposes,  I don't think I'll try hanging onto candles super long, but I'd like to be able to pour ahead of time for my own use & gifts without worrying that the candles won't burn well.  Probably gonna shoot for a 6-9 month shelf life & start testing some 2 month & 6 month burns for comparison. 

I usually let my candles (6006) sit for 2-4 weeks before burning, sometimes up to 2 months.  After playing around with candles the past year, I now have my zinc wicks pinpointed for the most part with masons & status jars.  However, from all the great info on this forum, I know that the candles continue to cure & the wick that works great at 2 weeks may be under wicked later on. 

My question is: at what point can you feel confident that your wick is going to perform & the wax won't cure/change significantly more? 3 months, 6 months, a year?  I'm thinking of starting to make additional candles to test at 6 months to compare to the one month burn.

We got a cockatiel about 4 months ago for my teenager.  It stays in his room & since we got the bird, I keep all my candle activity downstairs; I don't use any scents in the upstairs bathroom or hallway like I used to.  However, we've decided to move the bird downstairs for more interaction with the whole family & I'm trying to work out a plan as to how to keep my hobby while hopefully not killing the bird in the process.  

My sister says she burned candles without any problems when they had cockatiels but to read online, everything's forbidden it seems.  I'm thinking I may move my candle making from the kitchen to the office/extra room which is at the back of the house & easily closed off. 

Any other suggestions or experiences to share regarding birds in the house & scents? 

Candles

wax used: 6006

fragrance load (%): 5%

average cure time:  2-4 weeks

Wax additives: none

container: 8 oz mason

wicking notes: zinc

Cold throw: excellent

Hot Throw: excellent

This smells EXACTLY like walking thru my grandma's rhubarb patch when I was a kid. I love it!  OOB the rhubarb is very sharp but mellows a bit in wax, letting the strawberry thru.  Smells like when grandma was making pies!

On 3/29/2019 at 9:33 AM, TallTayl said:

They are cute - a bugger to wick, but cute. 

For me,  36 zinc has worked pretty well for almost every scent I've tried in 6006 or 4630.  A few had to wick up to a 44z.

I currently use my kitchen for candle making.  Our house is an old craftsman with the dining & living room open to each other.  I'm planning on putting the bird kind of central to the dining/living space.   I'm thinking I'll move my candlemaking to a back room that is a little farther from the main living space with a hallway between.  The birdcage we have is fairly large; I had hoped to get a smaller one for when we wanted to move him around but haven't done it yet because he's still not as comfortable with us as we'd like to be able to let him out if his cage (but he's mostly been with my son in his room, which is why we're bringing him down to the main floor).

Good to know, thanks.  I figured it would be more of a problem when actually making candles, when fumes are the strongest, but wasn't sure.  Glad to know I should be able to burn them around the main floor of the house. 

We got a cockatiel about 4 months ago for my teenager.  It stays in his room & since we got the bird, I keep all my candle activity downstairs; I don't use any scents in the upstairs bathroom or hallway like I used to.  However, we've decided to move the bird downstairs for more interaction with the whole family & I'm trying to work out a plan as to how to keep my hobby while hopefully not killing the bird in the process.  

My sister says she burned candles without any problems when they had cockatiels but to read online, everything's forbidden it seems.  I'm thinking I may move my candle making from the kitchen to the office/extra room which is at the back of the house & easily closed off. 

Any other suggestions or experiences to share regarding birds in the house & scents? 

On 11/24/2018 at 1:27 PM, pughaus said:

FYI: the wax ships from DIETERICH, IL 62424  not Laguna Beach as I had hoped.  However, if you live near IL... (cough cough @TallTayl) 😉

Are you kidding me??!!?? I live about 15 minutes from Dieterich! Drive thru it every day to work!

ETA:  I don't doubt that this is someone reselling a product.  Dieterich is a smaller rural town, maybe population 2000? Not much industry there: a bank, gas station, school, furniture store & septic business.  They tried a grocery store several yrs ago that went under. 

I find these hilarious.  Talk about finding your corner of the market, lol!

https://www.scarymommy.com/swear-word-candles-etsy/?utm_source=FB

Flaming's pineapple cilantro was great for me in 6006, 8% in an 8 oz Mason, 44 zinc.

Have you ever seen paper bag floors? I think they look soooo good!  A quick google search will give you all kinds of pictures & instructions.  I know someone that recovered her floors like this & it is gorgeous.

Do the beads swell much when they soak up the oil? I guess I expected them to act more like my son's sensory water beads that soften & get the size of marbles when in water.  Of course I'm not using the same volume of liquid though, so probably that's why they stay about the same size.

About how many ornies can be made per lb of beads?

7 minutes ago, ScentedPleasurez said:

I ordered the cucumber melon and hello beautiful that she had on the garage sale. Strawberry sugar,lemon pound cake. 

I had on my list to try the pink frosted cake,praline pound cake, and pumpkin cheesecake.

Her cucumber melon was the best ive ever purchased the hello beautiful was a dud for candles imo. No throw what so ever. 

Same for me with the Hello Beautiful, very light oob.  I really love the zucchini pumpkin bread & cactus sea salt.  Hillbilly homebrew throws well & smells nice except it reminds me of banana laffy taffy so I can't get that out of my brain when I burn it.

Thanks for the comments! HT is a bit lacking for me with both the melts & candle, but the burn is pretty good I think, without a hint of soot so far.  First 2 pics are the end of the first burn & last 2 are what it looks like at the halfway point.  Little bit of hangup but some of that is my son or husband being a little overzealous blowing out the candles.  (I've found more than once a candle that had perfectly clean sides one day have wax all over the place a day or 2 later.)

Thanks Trappeur.  If that candle burns well, I will make more!

Fran, they remind me of Brach's nougat candy my mom used to buy.  I'm shocked no one in my house tried one (or maybe they just won't admit it, lol).

Ok, made some chunks & this is what I ended up with. 

I used 6006 with 15% glass glow for the chunks & that was still pretty soft.  The overpour is increased to 25% palm which was much firmer although maybe still just a slight bit oily feeling on the surface.  The pink is FC Bourbon Raisin 8%, tan is ICS Apple Strudel at 10% (haven't had much luck with that one, even a little weak oob). Overpour is ICS Vanilla Smoothie at 8%.

Since the chunks were pretty soft, I also decided to try a chunk candle with straight 6006 overpour in Mason with 44z wick.  Overfilled the jar a bit, but fingers crossed it works, haha!

I'm interested in trying to make chunk melts (I think they look so cool & pretty), but I mostly have 6006 & 4630 on hand which would be too soft on their own, right?  However, I have recently received some glass glow & thought I could add a little to either of the above to harden it up a bit, maybe 15-30%?  I realize that wouldn't be enough palm to show any pattern, but just looking to firm up the softer wax. Sound reasonable?  

Cute!  I just saw this gift idea on Facebook.  Curious how they smell...

http://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/2018/06/01/1-debuts-meat-scents-candles-to-fill-your-home-with-aroma-steak-sauce-and-beef.html