Forrest

Sarah, I just made some melts out of the Peony and if it smells half as good as it did when I put it in hot wax I'll have a new favorite.

Last year we bought Lemon Grapefruit soap from B & BW and my hands have never been cleaner. I looked but couldn’t find a dupe. Then last week I was playing around with my big bag of melts and got the bright idea to put Lemon Verbena in with Grapefruit, It was better than the soap. The other thing I’m working on is Community Candle’s Oak moss and Magnolia, if you add just a little more Oak Moss it smells just like the signature candle we got from the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans several years ago.

I wouldn't call have a large supply of your candles to burn being stuck, I'd call it a blessing. Of course it will make them sad and frustrated when they see how their candles compare.

You should be able to check it with boiling water

Just because they know what is in your candles doesn’t mean they could make them. It would be funny to see them try. You make a great product, they won’t find any better candles out there. It is not unreasonable for them to expect some sort of volume discount, but it is up to you to decide what terms you are willing to offer. The first question you need to answer is how much more work are you willing to take on. I would suggest that you email them and politely, but firmly, tell them what you are willing to do. Tell them you’ll need a deposit for orders over a certain amount and how much deposit you’ll need. They seem to want to turn you into an employee, but you already have a business. I’m sure the friendly handshake agreements work well most of the time in Blue Ridge, but it looks to me like something a little more formal is needed in this case. I would give them prices and terms and let them decide if they want to buy your candles or not.

Wow, now that is a list. I'll have to print it and put it in my notebook for future reference, I could get a lot of ideas from it.

Yes I saw those, very impressive. You are way ahead of me. I'll have to try the lemon verbena and Luxe Linen right away as I've been needing to put the Luxe Linen in some wax. Thanks for all the suggestions.

These days’ houses are built with open floor plans that create large spaces, too large for an average candle to be effective. In my den I’ve always used two candles with the same scent, but when I was thinking about making some candles for myself I realized that maybe pairs of candles with complementary scents would be better. For example I love Lemon Verbena and Grapefruit together, so rather than blending the FOs I can make one candle of each to be burned as a pair; each scent would be strong in one area and they would blend in the middle. What I’m looking for is suggestions on which FOs would pair well together. This should be a fun project for me but it might also be a good marketing strategy for those of you who sell candles as so many people have big spaces. Both of my daughters have open floor plans, so I’ll be making some fragrance pairs for them also. So which scents would you pair?

My WSP order arrived yesterday and the first thing I did was smell the Jelly Doughnut. I can’t say that t is what I’ll be burning at my house when nobody else is around, but what a fun fragrance! I do know what I’ll be doing with it right away. Last week my eight year old granddaughter was here for a visit and I told her I had ordered the famous Jelly Doughnut FO, it was a little secret between us because her grandmother doesn’t know I ordered more FOs. She was excited to smell it. She left several items that would not fit in her luggage for the trip back so we’ll be boxing them up and mailing them, and in the bottom of that package she’ll find a Jelly Doughnut candle. She is really going to love this one.

No, I tested various sizes of CDs until I found the right one. I can tell you this based on my last test, the 51 zinc burns a little hotter than a CD8.

After much testing I am using CDs for most of my containers. I used to use zincs, but I fined the melt pool is not as deep with the CDs

The wicks are one inch apart. This might help explain it. Notice how the flames are blowing sideways, the room is dead calm. This one is about 2/3 of the way burned and I just lit it. For the top third this candle was perfect and the flames stood straight up. As it got closer to the widest part of the container the flames created an air current. That hot air blows around and heats the wax, and the glass. I am hoping that by adding more soy to the bottom half it will slow the burn enough to keep a reasonable melt pool. At least this test should tell me that I'm on the right track or I should give up.

All my test candles burned to hot in the bottom half so I'm hopping the extra soy will slow the burn down. I waited for the bottom half to cool before pouring the top half and I poured at a cooler temp than normal, so the mixing should be minimal. Over all the candle is 42.5% soy, it just has more at the bottom than the top. I guess we'll find out what's going to happen in two weeks. I'll post pictures so y'all can see.

I poured the candle this morning. On the bottom half I used 36g 464 mixed with 64g of 6006 which yields a blend of 55% soy and 45% paraffin. On the top I used 100g of 6006, which is 30% paraffin. I use two Premier 700 WI-720 wicks. If you look closely you can see the difference in the two waxes, but that’s not an issue for me. My objective is to get a full melt pool that is less than a half inch deep for most of the burn. This probably won’t do it, but it should be closer than my last test with 100% 6006 and I still have a little room to make adjustments. Just so y’all understand this isn’t the main focus in my candle making journey. I spent 6 months, and a lot of wax, doing wick testing and now I’m testing FOs to see about their wicking and making some blends; you know, normal stuff. This is just an obsession to feed my insanity. Now I wait two weeks, I’ll report the results after the test burns.

I was in Dallas last week, it was brutal

You have hit on something I have thought about, and even tried unsuccessfully to work on, but not posted about; a wick equivalence chart. I tried using several of the wick charts that are available on the internet, but that didn’t work, frankly the charts are of limited use. Eventually I’ll have enough test data to be able to make a few observations, but even those may be valid only for the wax I’m using. Still, it sure would be nice to have a wick equivalence chart, just to use to help know where to start testing; I would never suggest using such a thing in place of testing, at least not on this board☺️

I got; Peony Jelly Doughnut Pineapple Cilantro Fresh Ginger Lime Cool Citrus Basil Dragons Blood Pure Amber Freshly Zested Lemon Autumn Breeze Bergamot & White Tea

I have a dehumidifier and 80 is a comfortable temp. It is probably 65 in my bedroom at night.

As for driving myself crazy, that ship sailed a long time ago. But you're right, I could just use melts when it's to hot or cold for my candles to burn properly, or use TT's wick trimming method.

Well so far I have failed miserably, but I've got some new FO on order that may do the trick

That is true, but I'd be spending all my money on the utility bill and couldn't afford all my candle supplies. For my personal use I'll be making candles for winter, summer, and Spring/fall with different wicks. If I start selling I'll go with the spring/fall wicks.

Well that's right in between the 80 degrees I keep my house in summer and the 60 degrees I keep it in winter

The reality of this topic really hit home for me last night. I recently finished wick testing my on 8oz tureens and started testing some FOs in them. I tested 8 FOs for three burns of 4 hours each. After that I decided I would just enjoy the candles and keep an eye on them to make sure they are still burning correctly. I keep my house at 80 degrees, but I keep my bedroom much cooler. So last night when I turned on the air conditioner in the bedroom I lit one of the candles. Three hours later I went in to the bedroom and noticed that the HT was I expected. When I checked the candle it was tunneling and the MP wasn’t much more than an inch wide. Clearly it needed a bigger wick. To be honest I kind of expected this, I tested this candle at a warmer than normal temp and burned it a lower than normal temp, so this was sort of an extreme case. My take away from all this is not that I shouldn’t test at 80 degrees, I can’t not test for four months a year. It is that I should be aware that I’ll need to adjust my wicking for a normal room temp. I was using a CD6 so I’ll probably move up to a CD8, but I have test data on several wicks, so picking one that is a little hotter than a CD6 shouldn’t be a problem.

I cut my 6006 with a butter knife, but I may need one of those when winter sets in.

FOs are cheaper than therapy