Forrest

2 hours ago, TallTayl said:

That stuff is like Vaseline.  I have not noticed a difference between 2 days and 2 weeks. I would love to stand corrected. Feels like it is mostly petrolatum which is pretty stable on its own 

Thanks TT,  4627 is a lot firmer if you leave it in the garage in the winter, hard as heck to get out of that dang bag it comes in. I guess I'll have to bring it in the house for the summer or I'll be pouring it from the bag.

For 6006 I always wait two weeks before doing a wick test, but how long do I need to wait to wick test in 4627?

14 hours ago, CandleRush said:

Thanks Forrest! That one sounds beautiful! I will give that one a try!

I ordered dark rose and laudanum, rose patchouli and amber, and pear and honey to start with. I will post my results here. I’ll be using 50/50 464 and 4630 for those who are interested.

In the past I’ve felt good if I like 2 out of 10 FO samples. I was 9 for 10 on these, but I had to cut my list down. My wife rejected the rose patchouli and amber, not that she didn’t like it; she just felt it wasn’t good for spring/summer. We liked the pear and honey, but I cut my list down to 4 and it didn’t make the cut. I ordered 2oz each of those 4, but I had to get 10 more samples so I could have free shipping. One thing I noticed is these FOs seem to mature with time, I was using 4627 so it wasn’t the wax. They also have staying power, sometimes I can still smell them two days after my test. I almost put the dark rose and laudanum on my list, I’ll be interested to see how you like it.

On 3/3/2020 at 9:10 AM, CandleRush said:

Thanks Forrest for your reviews.

In your opinion do any of these hit the ball out of the park even those you blended?

The wife test is complete and the EAU DE MER + AMBER, with a little lemongrass is the winner for both of us. 

I’m looking for ideas to decorate candle tins. I’m a hobbyist and I’ve settled into using 8oz tins, but I would like to make them more attractive. Any suggestions would be appreciated.   

17 hours ago, FlamingGlitter said:

Hey guys,

I've been researching, pouring and testing candles like a crazy person in order to make my product the highest quality I can, but also make it as safe as possible (ain't nobody trying to get sued, amirite). In my research I've found plenty of resources, some more helpful than others, however I wasn't able to find a testing template that worked super great for me, so I made my own and wanted to share it in case anybody needs it/wants to use it.

If you have any suggestions of what I might have missed or what else I could add, let me know.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SYvfDLarFZwzaGQM-j8D1U5IxCsnJUKU/view?usp=sharing

Great job! The only thing I didn't see was room temperature. For the most part we wick for an average room temp, but if your room is  warmer, or colder it will effect your test results.

56 minutes ago, CandleRush said:

Thanks Forrest for your reviews.

In your opinion do any of these hit the ball out of the park even those you blended?

That is hard to say, and my taste tend to be different from the norm. I’m going to try and get my wife to smell them this weekend. If I can get the wife test results I can give you a better answer on Monday. Right now if I could only have one I would pick one of the last two on my list, both of which I blended. As a standalone it would be the Rose Patchouli and Amber, or the Pear and Honey.

First let me say that IMO these FOs can compete with any of the high end candles I know of. While these have not been through the wife test yet there is only one out of ten that I didn’t like. I’m not good at fragrance reviews, but here are my thoughts on the ten that I tried.

LEMON VERBENA + THYME- Good HT, complex, but a little too light on the lemon for my taste, I added about 15% Lemongrass and I love it. I also tried blending it with a Lemon Verbena which did not work well.

PINK PEPPER + VETIVER- I can’t really describe this scent, but the throw is Ok and the scent is very pleasant.

ROSE PATCHOULI + AMBER- A very soft, complex floral, I generally don’t like florals, but I liked this one.

ORANGE RIND + CLOVE- Nicely balanced between the orange and clove. It will make a good holiday scent.

OUD PATCHOULI + RESINS- A bit soapy, I do not like this one.

BLOOD ORANGE + LIME AGAVE- Not a bad fragrance, I thought it needed more orange so I tried adding some blood orange and that did not work

PEAR + HONEY- Best pear fragrance I have tried, light and very pleasant

BLACK CURRANT + RHUBARB- Really did not like this one, but I added about 30% blood orange and it made a very nice fruity fragrance that was not sweet. Definitely a keeper.

EAU DE MER + AMBER- The first time I tried it I hated it. I tried it again and really liked it, then I added a little lemon grass and loved it.

BERGAMOT + AMBERGRIS- It was a bit sharp, or maybe bitter, so I blended it with a Sea Salt and Orchid and it was wonderful.

15 hours ago, TallTayl said:

I do two similar things for production partners, and have been considering offering the service for CraftServer members.

I'll be needing you to double wick an 11oz tureen with 6006 for me😂

Welcome.

I can’t help you with your wax issues, but will say that I see lots of expensive, high end candles here in the US that have adhesion issues, and the customers don’t seem to mind.

9 hours ago, dustinryan2010 said:

Smells pretty great! I Feel like I may get a slightly better throw with HTP’s, but I don’t like the soot, curling, large flames 🤦🏻‍♂️ 

I just did a test with HTPs I had twisted and they did not curl nearly as much. I really like HTPs but the curling is a problem.

My best guess would be that if you don't trim the wick you'll have a FMP before the end of your second burn. I

Just a guess, but if that is true perhaps a CD6 would work.

I’ve spent a little time with my Lab & Co FOs and I thought I would share my thoughts. The two words I would use to describe these FOs are quality, and complex. I love the quality, but in some cases I think they took the complexity too far. Perhaps I just prefer an FO with a stronger main fragrance supported by others fragrances. To solve that issue I have tried blending a little bit of some other FOs. For example in the Lemon Verbena & Thyme I had trouble smelling the lemon, so I added just a bit of a strong lemongrass FO and I love the results. I was hoping to identify four of five of these FOs that I liked enough to order. That is an optimistic goal as my hit rate for samples is usually about 10%. With these I will have a hard time cutting my list down to five, I have only identified two that I don’t like. I will say that I’m more impressed with the HT than the CT, but that could be my nose. I should be finished playing with the FOs soon and I’ll give a review of the individual FOs then.

On 1/14/2020 at 11:37 AM, TallTayl said:

Air current in that particular jar and wax/wick/fo

humm, perhaps I should go back to tureens

On 2/20/2020 at 8:38 AM, TallTayl said:

I have had some early successes holding the wick on both ends, twisting, then heat gunning the wax coating to help “set” a twist. Then an over dip in high melt point wax can add to stability,  it is far from perfect, but may help at least a little for the exercise. 
 

flat wicks worked well in multi wick candles by facing the “V” in the direction I wanted the curl to face.  Helped to control the melt a little, but takes a bit of time to set up.

 

the bigger problem Of coreless/flat/curling wicks is that the curl weighs the wick just enough in soft waxes to cause them to lean as they burn.  Leaning wicks are a big pet peeve.  The lean makes the later burns kind of dangerous by a) exposing much more wick in the last burns as the lean was previously well beneath wax fuel, and b) pushing the flame closer to the glass. 

Using 4627 with a 7% FO load in 8oz tins I tried twisting two HTP wicks and spiraling a zinc core, yea that was a bad idea. The spiraling basically doubled the amount of wick in the wax, meaning I needed a much smaller wick size. I discontinued that test at 4 hours. I used HTP 92 and 72. After four burns of four hours each I can say that the HTP 72 looks like the right size wick, but one size down might be better. The twisting was slightly successful, the problem seems to be that when you twist the wicks they tend to bend less, however, the MP was slightly off center and over the 16 hours of burn time the bend of the wick has moved 180⁰.  I have an idea on how to better twist the wicks. If I heat the part of wicks that will be in the wax with a heat gun they will twist easily and get stiff again when they cool. The wick holder helps keep them from untwisting when I pour the wax. My other Idea is to drop down a size in the zincs and zig zag the wick a bit.

6 hours ago, AustinCandleMaker said:

I think I'll ask the color question in its own thread

You got this. BTW I saw that thread an I use 4627, it has its drawbacks, but if it is HT you want that's a great wax. I used to use 4630 and it was easier to use and had good HT.

I don't use colors, but  many of the board members are knowledgeable in this area. From what I have read here from people I trust dyes can clog up your wick, so maybe the Internet got one right.

One bit of advice I would offer is don’t do too much at one time. Stick with one wax and one container. Do you have a wax and container picked out? I number my candles and keep all the information in my test log. I just write the number on a piece of painter’s tape and stick it on the container. The first thing you need to do is get your process right; I heat my wax to 190⁰, add 7% FO, and stir for two minutes while keeping the mixture above 170⁰. The best advice I can give you is ask questions on this board, but when you do provide as much information as you can. Making candles is difficult and frustrating, you will need a good support group, which is the other thing this board provides. So, tell us a little more about exactly what you are wanting to do.

20 hours ago, TallTayl said:

Soft waxes have easily become untwisted as soon as the candle wax gets warm and softens. At least that’s my experience.

OK, my new idea is to use a zinc core wick and wrap it around a pencil.

55 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

I have spent a lot of resources proving this theory in my own shop.

The next thing I'm going to try is twisting an HTP wick so that it rotates 360 degrees during the life of the candle. If I size it right the uneven melt pool could be a big advantage. and I won't need to trim the wick

16 hours ago, Sarah S said:

 

Ditto. My best, most fragrant candles still have some wax hang up even at the bottom of the jar. 

A full MP in the first couple burns equals a sooty, inferior throwing candle by mid point.

I have a theory that the best HT comes from wax that is exposed to the air at the point of melting. A FMP prevents this from happening.

I have decided that a FMP not desirable in my candles. My goal is the smallest wick that will eventually melt all the wax. Of course that makes my wicking much harder.

You shouldn't have a problem with 4630 being inconsistent. In my very limited experience having the right size wick is more important than the type, but I also used CD wick with 4630. If you search this forum for "wick list" there was a thread that contains my wick list according to size. It has helped me to get my wick size right, but it only goes up to a CD10.  Between the wick list and learning to do a wickectomy  finding the right wick has become much easier.

I have come to realize that my process for making a single candle is significantly different from the process I use for making a larger batch. The biggest difference is how much my wax cools over the two minutes of stirring, sometimes dropping to 160⁰. I was wondering how other people deal with this issue.

This may not be your problem, but I had an FO pollution problem in my house, so I put all my FOs and candles in sealed containers. All the FO molecules in your house can desensitize your nose. Your other problem could be air flow. I test HT by burning the candle in a closed room for an hour. It could also be that your wick isn’t right for your FO, I wicked 18 FO and the difference between the largest and smallest wick I needed was huge.