Sebleo

I use palm and presto pots. I do other prep work while it is melting and I also use two pots. One that I am working on now and thenot the next batch is ready to go when I am done with the first. 

6 hours ago, Sarah S said:

@Sebleo, they look great! And I love your creative names too! If you do decide to do layers, please post some pics, I'd love to see!

What temp did you pour those at? I have been making some individual shapes in my silicone molds that look good but the crystallization isn't quite as nice as your clamshells. I'm pouring around 190-180, just because it's small batches and by the time I stir in the FO the temp drops quite a bit. After looking at yours, I'm wondering if I should try harder to pour hot! 😄

Thank you!

I pour small shapes in silicone molds too. I pour those first anywhere between 195 and 200.

I let it cool to around 165 - 170 for the clams.  The clams say they withstand 180 degrees and I believe they do. I poured once at about 183 and the four corners dimpled slightly. 

The trick is to cover them after you pour. I use cardboard boxes, plastic storage containers, and sheet pans. I heat my silicone molds in the oven so they are hot then cover and it slows the cooling process. You can also heat the sheet pans which will slow it down even more. 

Thank you!

They are Sun and Sea, Gingered Peach, and Butt Naked. But, I renamed all of them to Day at the Beach, Ginger Peach Gelato, and Turquoise Paradise.

These shots aren't so great at showing it off though.

I like the amount of crystallization I get with my clams. See if I can post a pic. 

Great job on the labels. I love the golden yellow! Real camping, outdoorsman, nature colors there. 

Thank you @Jcandleattic.  I am doing a last minute, for me anyway, event on the 4th and don't have the time to experiment with something new. So, I came up with another way to incorporate the red, white and blue theme. But, I will give it a whirl some other time. Thanks for your input.

Looking to try layered clams for 4th of july...red, white, and blue. I am using palm wax.

I would love to hear how you do it even if you use another type of wax. 

4 minutes ago, Crafty1_AJ said:

Yes, I saw this and do plan to raise my prices.  DH and I were just discussing that this morning.  Like you, I've absorbed minor cost increases here and there, because I can't change the prices every 10 minutes and expect to keep my sanity, as well as the sanity of my customers.

 

Pet peeve:  I really hate that fees are taken out of shipping monies.  If I raise the prices of my shipping to standard commercial rates, customers will complain -- been there, done that.  And they will refuse to order, claiming that I'm gouging them on shipping.  It's so unfair.  So I charge the discounted rates offered by Etsy, and have to offset my losses by raising prices on the items I sell.  People don't understand that I am charging the same shipping that the post office charges me...no gouging or padding whatsoever.  Sometimes I even direct them with a hotlink to USPS.com so they can see the shipping price for themselves.  They don't understand that USPS raises its shipping rates nearly every year.

 

Five percent seems like a lot, but Amazon Handmade keeps 15% of both shipping money and product cost.  (No listing fees, though).  Cost of doing business, but it does bite a bit.

Why don't you use the discounted shipping rates on etsy?

5 hours ago, obsessed said:

I bought a container palm wax called "frost" palm wax ( in Australia). It was super hard , coloured beautifully and had the most beautiful glow when burning. The throw was great , but I had a problem I didn't know how to fix. I made 2 , with different sized wicks. However , they both tunnelled really bad , but had a HUGE flame! so cn you suggest what I do? I would have used around 8% fragrance oil.  One jar was a squat type of glass bulb jar , the other  a 7cm Libbey "salsa' type jar , maybe not the best styles? But if i had wicked down , the tunnelling would be worse , what should I do? Any ideas please?

Check under Vegetable and Beeswax Candle making for more help on palm wax. Here is a thread to start...

They were talking about the melter (warmer) you use to melt the finished product, not the one you use to make the product.

Some companies manufacture their warmers to go with their wax. Think scentsy.  Scentsationals and BHG, i think, are the same way...designed to go with a low melt point paraffin wax.

Those warmers tend to melt the wax to around 150 to 155 degrees. Palm wax needs 170 or better to fully release scent. The hotter the better. 

Unfortunately there is no way to know ahead of time how hot the warmer will get the wax. You can use a thermometer in the melted wax to see how hot your warmer is getting your wax. 

I use, and sell, warmers by candlewarmers. All i have tried so far get plenty hot enough. But, I've never seen them sold in stores. 

I dip q tips in the oil and put them in a jar. Walk away for a few minutes...open it up and take a whiff. Add more q tips if necessary.  When it is where I want it, I know how many parts of each fragrance. Rough estimates of course. 

Ok, that is great to hear. Thank you! 

I admit I have not called the phone company,  but I read online that only brick and mortar stores are added and it is hard for home based. It might be possibe if I add a land line, but not sure.

I added myself to 411 and my sister on the east coast was able to find the listing. Just not sure if it works everywhere. 

3 hours ago, Shari said:

Some people are nose blind to some scents.  I have that issue with some of mine.  I just can't smell them but others can very well. Now, I don't make candles but soap, scrubs etc.   I've had quite a few customers not be able to smell some scents but I can as can others.  So, it's something with the olfactory sensors in our nose/brain I'm thinking. 

Very true. I just gave a sample to a coworker that is a huge hit with everyone.  She says she can barely smell it. 

Happens at home with hubs and I. Some that I can smell through out the whole house and he has to walk up to the warmer and smell it! 

10 hours ago, Sunday said:

Very impressive Sebleo...I wish I had that kind of self control...but it may be too late for me.

So tell us who you have chosen  as your three supplier?

I started out 10 years ago with Lonestar because they were the closest supplier to me. I still get my wax from them and half my oils. They have a nice selection and very few duds.Fast shipping and good customer service. And the Christmas card is a nice touch. 

Then I added Nature's Garden, but my selections from them were mostly not to my liking. I do not like how they say every single oil works perfectly and strong in every application. It took me a while to pick up on that. Sorry, but not possible. So, there's a trust issue with them. But, I do get 6 oils from them. I plan to replace them at some point if I can find them.

Candle Science is my other supplier. They are the most expensive of the 3, but I love their oils. I really love how they rate the oils on performance in soy and tell you which oils work with Reed diffusers and at what percentage. It saves a lot of money when you don't have to waste time testing an oil that won't work for your application.

I plan on branching out and trying new companies next year. I would still like to keep my supplier list small to save on shipping.  

I definitely hit the panic button when 2 coworkers told me they wished my melts lasted longer. After playing 20 questions I figured out both left their warmer on 24/7.

Under fair labeling you have to list your full address on the label unless you can be found in the white pages. Then you only have to list city, state and zip. 

For those that run a home based business, what do you do? Put your address on the label? If you got yourself in the white pages, how did you do it?

I have 3 suppliers. And i only get 6 fragrances from one of them. I keep reading reviews here too, but I have successfully refrained from branching out so far. So far being the key!

I wonder about those Edison bulbs. They look nice, but how hot do they get? You want palm wax to get hot...the hotter the better. 

Yes you can. I ordered a sample back from Nature's Garden to try it out, but now order in bulk from candleclamshells. I wait til the temp drops to just below 170 to pour. (I use feather palm)

On 5/25/2018 at 8:35 PM, TallTayl said:

There’s an awful lot of debris in wax, usually. You may find bee legs, wings, antennae, dirt, bits of leaves, etc. for lips I usually buy the commercially cleaned versions.

 

You could, if really motivated to use this particular wax on lips, wash it. Put the wax in a pot of water. Heat to simmer until the wax is totally melted. Cool. Remove the disk of wax dumping the water. Scrape the bottom grossness from the disk and throw it away leaving just the wax. Repeat til clean. You’ll no longer have the honey smell, but more importantly the detritus will usually be gone leaving nice clean beeswax. 

Thank you. That does sound like a lot of work!

Can you point me in a direction for the commercially cleaned wax?

If I decide to use this wax for this project or another,  can anyone suggest a fair price to pay for it?

On 5/25/2018 at 12:40 PM, iansmommaya said:

How much did he strain it? What color is it now? Is the wax light or dark? Is it cappings?

I am not sure. It is a medium yellow disc of wax. 

A local bee keeper gave me some bees wax to work with. Can it be used in lip balms? What would I need to do to it, if anything?

He told me he strained it. I can't remember the process he used bUT I see him all the time and can ask.