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I don't like vanilla stabilizer. I just don't. TD does an adequate job if properly mixed but using fos with little or no vanilla has been the best way to go. There's nothing wrong with a light or chocolate brown color but for swirling you need a light contrasting color. I'm in that stage of not wanting a bunch of chemical additives in my soap. Obviously you can get fos that can be used for both soaping and candles but I find that its rare for an fo to be strong in both categories. I'd rather use a fragrance which has been formulated for use in the one medium but that's just me. I know that most of these additives are natural based but so far this approach works better for my soaps.

I use a turkey fryer which has a 200 degree temperature. Typical temp for pouring is 185 degrees into clean and warmed jars. I place my jars in a toaster oven on the work bench and keep them nice and toasty. The pour pot is kept on a constant temp on an electrical twin burner on the work bench. I stir in fo and color and pull my jars out and wick them. The jars are weighed and tared out and then filled and placed into a covered box for slow cooling. I pull the jars the next day and do clean up and trim the wicks before putting on the lids. The candles are ready for sale and really don't require a cure time. They do become more concentrated over time and most times a candle isn't going to go out immediately. I like my candles to be uniform with no wet spots but they will still occur. You can see that candles in the center of the grouping in the cooling box seem to have the fewest wet spots, so I cover my box with a heavy quilt to try and keep out drafts. This is a great wax IMHO. I use cd and cdn wicks and rarely have to change out wick sizes once established. The wax colors well but will only give you pastel colors. I prefer no coloration and rarely have a customer ask for color. I typically use from 6 to 7% fragrance oil and never have seepage or separation. Good luck.

Clarus 3022 parasoy 70% soy and 30% paraffin. Connie's Candles offers slabs or you can contact Clarus.

I began making candles under the assumption that my product would be as good as the mainstream or better. That arrogance would soon be overcome with the discovery that making a strong scented candle was no easy matter. When I did make a "nose burner" , my wife complained that it was "cutting off her air". Big deal, customers demand a long, strong burning candle worth their hard earned money. Demand always shapes supply and this was no exception. My only problem with that story (soot up your nose) is that they must have been burning really crappy candles in a small room. More likely, the woman was burning multiple candles all over her house (idiot) and saturated the air with combustibles. No one will heed this article any more than they do our instructions to trim and burn for only an hour or so. Oh well, better than bashing.

Are you using more silk as a result? After all, more is better. I just get more skeptical about how or how often additives escape the lye monster.

Wicking is pretty constant, not a lot of up or down in my experience. You can get an 11 pound slab from Connie's Candles but its pricey.

A little more research into Sericin revealed that this is the dull coating on the raw silk fiber. It can be removed or broken down by using concentrated hydrochloric acid. The liquid silk is available from BB at about $60.00 a pound and MMS sell its for about $40.00 a pound. So if I got it right, its the coating on the silk that imparts the above mentioned qualities and not so much the fiber itself. The majority of my soaps are milk based and high heat is a no no for that type of application. Hence, the silk tends to wrap around the stick blender and doesn't work well for me. I have managed to mostly liquefy the fibers in very hot lye solutions but not totally. It does look good on the label. There is also powdered silk, which is from ground up cocoons but it too is expensive.

Cd or cdn will work well in this wax. The cdn wicks have a coating that helps preserve the wick and depending on who you talk to will either burn hotter or cooler. The cdn seemed to provide a more uniform burn than the regular cd wicks. I've also used lx and eco wicks successfully but the cdn wicks are my favorites.

I don't get that much with cold process soap. It doesn't incorporate that easily for me and there is no shine on my soaps. I can believe the result in hot process and suspect that if the silk is boiled in water for a period of time, it will dissolve. Just a theory, as I haven't tried that yet. I'm wondering if the hydrolyzed silk might be the better way to introduce the additive?There are plenty of hair care and other personal grooming products with hydrolyzed silk on the label. Here's some info: Silk amino acid (SAAs) also known as Sericin is a natural water-soluble glycoprotein extracted from raw silk. It is used as an additive in skin and hair care products due to its high levels of serine which has excellent moisture preservation characteristics.[1][2] As a water-based additive it is used to provide a protective barrier and silky feel to lotions, soaps, personal lubricants, hair and skincare products.[3] Silk amino acids are produced by hydrolyzing (or breaking apart) silk proteins into smaller peptide chains, typically 18 to 19 amino acids in length. Silk amino acids have a lower molecular weight than silk protein powders and are moisturizing to skin and hair. Silk amino acids are used in formulating shampoos, conditioner, hair treatments, bodywash, body lotions, cleansers, toners and facial moisturizers, mascara, lipstick and color cosmetics.[4][5]

I agree with 100% soy but not the "natural" part. Neither would I term it to be organic. The distinction between soy and paraffin is obvious but the process to create the wax is identical. Soy wax does not occur by natural means it is manufactured. Using essential oils for fragrance and all soy with cotton wicks is about as close to all natural as your going to get IMHO.

Frankly, I dislike the practice of "Premium" fragrances. There is no way you are able to quantify the contents of fragrance oil without the use of a sophisticated lab. Dupes are case in point. The dupe is not an exact replica but a close approximation to the formulary. This nonsense is about offering us the real deal so that our products will be competitive with main stream manufactured candles. I can understand needing a wax that will hold more fragrance oil for some applications like melts but otherwise, it doesn't make sense to load a candle with 10% fragrance and expect that it will be any more concentrated than a 6 or 7% load. I can tell you that if you use a quality oil like Candle Cocoon's Vanilla Voodoo; loading it up past 6% would probably destroy your sinus cavity. You might pay more but in the long run its profitable because you use less and get the same result. Vote for me.

I strongly suggest Clarus 3022 parasoy. Its 70% soy and 30% paraffin and very easy to wick. There is practically no cure time necessary, although it does get better with age. It is a soft wax and does not hold up well in high outdoor temps but otherwise there are few problems with this wax. I have been using it for over 6 years and there isn't a better alternative than this wax. The 85% 6006 and 15% soy is the only one that ever came close to 3022 IMHO.

Hey TT! Found unsweetened organic coconut at Wally World. I'll give your idea a whirl and see how it works out. People have been looking for a true coconut fragrance oil for as long as I can remember and so far no good. I mean a straight up coconut with no floral or bakery notes.

Where did you find unsweetened coconut TT? What about coconut water? Has anyone explored whether that adds any benefit to soap qualities?

Yes, guar gum. There is another brand of coconut milk without it, but I had to search several stores before I found some. That was the same experience I had with the gum. It was tough going but the other is pretty easy. I think there have been previous posts about guar gum. Thanks.

What type of coconut milk are you using? A word of caution is to avoid canned coconut milk with Agar in it. I think that's right, anyway, it's a thickener and when it mixes with lye you get this monster thing that takes a lot of work to beat back down (or that was my experience); so I buy canned coconut in the Asian section that doesn't have additives. I've used the coconut Silk milk and it does ok but I like to mix it half and half with goat milk for the extra fat content. I pour my liquid over an ice bath and never let the temp get over 100 degrees. It goes all orange and smells to high heaven if you scorch the milk.

I used to keep coffee beans in a Mason jar for customers to sniff. The coffee beans were supposed to clear the nose so they could sniff other candles. I'm not real sure that ever really worked but the best way to avoid burning your nose out is to wear a respirator. It's a hassle but for about $30.00 you can pick up an industrial strength respirator at Home Depot or Walmart. You wear it whenever you pour candles (continue to ventilate the area with a fan and open window) and avoid overloading your nose or your lungs. Fragrance oil is suspended in the liquid wax and then is trapped as the wax hardens. Lighting the candle returns the wax to a liquid state with the fragrance oil suspended in that melt pool. You could call that an infusion of sorts but the real deal is the wax' ability to take larger loads of fragrance oil without breaking down (seepage). Most of us stand by the belief that best quality fragrance oil should be able to do the job at 6% to 7% load and not require 9% to 10% , which is more expensive. My parasoy will take a 9% load but it does just fine with 6% or 7% depending on the type of fragrance.

Green Apple or any kind of apple is a good mixer with pom. You could add a dash of peppermint for a little sparkle and call it Sparkling Apple Pomegranate.

By the way, you're melts look great Vicky!

Any Bama soapers planning on attending the meeting in June?

Does AH/RE still carry the condensed milk fragrance from KY? Sugar Cookie Royale.....mmmmmmm. Sweet.

Have you considered using essential oil of Lavender? A little goes a long way in almost any application. It tends to be more of a medicinal fragrance to me and I like to soften it with some vanilla or mint. This is a good time of year to bring out the lavender and mix it with other herbal fragrances. Unfortunately, a lot of people think of old people or an old fashioned fragrance but another side of lavender is its ability to soothe the nerves and help relax at night for sleep. Don't claim any kind of powers but you can honestly say that it calms or soothes. I love lavender and peppermint.

Personally, I like Muscadine. Its a slightly sweet fragrance and of course it is an old timey wine made from scuppernong grapes or wild grapes. There are several good fos out there. I really like Tuscan type fragrances as well. I think AH/Re used to have one called Tuscan vineyard. CB is right though about your customers, how familiar are they with wine and or upscale kinds of fragrances? Remember that Boones Farm makes fruity type wines with apples, pears and strawberries, as well as, sparkling type wines. I just might look at that myself, now that I think about it.

Congrats! It is a lot of fun and you'll never use store bought soap again!

Van Yulay is amazing. There are several different designers on that site. I have a dozen silicone cupcake molds that are fluted. I place them on a cookie sheet and then place the cookie sheet on top of my scale (tared out). Color and fragrance my votive wax and pour an ounce into each one. Once the wax hardens, they pop out and they look like little suns. You can package them in cello (careful to use bags that will not cause your melts to lose their fragrance) tie them with ribbon and a tag or leave them loose and let customers choose their own. Intricate patterns can be done but color can render a pattern almost invisible. Its best to try them out and to use sizes that fit most melt pots. Customers expect a lot out of these little guys, so make sure they fragrance for at least two days of constant use. Flex molds are ok but silicone are best. Hard molds don't last long and are a real pain in the release area. I have bing cherries, different sized strawberries, hearts and fruit slices. I've made some myself of maple leaves, acorns and little pumpkins. Fun.