ElleP

Thanks, @moonshine and @iansmommaya – I had come across Nemat and was on the fence about ordering samples but I think I'll give them a shot. I usually buy between 5,000 – 10,000 sticks at a time so I think I can just buy directly from them.

Thanks, @Sarah S. I forgot to mention that one of the other reasons I'm not crazy about BCN is that they're always out of stock! Which is scary if you're trying to run a business. And yes, the punk sticks are quite long – they might just barely fit in our packaging, but I'm not even sure since we designed the boxes for 10.5" sticks. As for SOS, when I first ordered samples of their sticks the quality seemed pretty good. However, when I started ordering larger quantities (orders of 5,000 – 10,000 sticks) the quality went way down. Felt like a bait and switch. I looked into finding a supplier overseas via Alibaba, but their MOQ's were so crazy high – you literally have to order them by the shipping container full! That would probably be equal to 500 billion sticks, haha!

I'm wondering if anyone can recommend a good unscented incense stick supplier. I've been getting my sticks from SOS, but I'm not happy with the quality (I've been using the charcoal ones) – they're not consistent, both in terms of the thickness of the reed stick and the part that gets burned, and there are many that are either broken or stuck together with another stick. I end up throwing out so many and wasting a lot of time sorting through them. I ordered a sample of their natural wood ones, but it's the same story. I've also ordered samples from Wellington, which I really like – very consistent "machine made" sticks and good quality. The only issues with these are that they're a little on the thin side (but I could live with that) and they're all curved (some more than others). If they were straight they'd be nearly perfect. I heard good things about BCN's sticks so I ordered their charcoal and black-colored wood sticks. The charcoal ones are almost perfect – totally straight, consistent size, not too dusty. The only issue with these is that the tops are cut off revealing the stick inside and the reed stick is a very unattractive yellow color. The black colored wood sticks are pretty good, but have a more hand rolled look and I think I prefer the machine made ones. I know, I know, I'm picky. I've searched the far reaches of the internet but have only come up with either sticks that are not quite right or sketchy websites with very little product information. Surprising that there aren't more suppliers out there. Anyone have some tips?

UPDATE: So I did a few experiments and it turns out that it wasn't the Campfire after all, it was the patchouli. My original blend used dark patchouli, but I had run out of it when I performed my initial candle test with no campfire so I subbed with light patchouli. The light patchouli works just fine with no issues, even with campfire. However, I found my new test candles clogging with the dark patchouli (with and without the campfire). So I could just use light patchouli instead, but I prefer the smell of the dark patchouli. I've heard of people diluting certain essential oil in a carrier oil, like coconut fractionated oil, so they'll work better in candles. Does anyone have any experience with this? If so, what ratio of essential oil to carrier oil do you use?

Well, it looks like it may have been the Campfire after all. I made a candle yesterday with a CD 8 wick and tested it today – it burned just fine for 4 hours and never clogged. I might even wick down to a CD 6. I'm going to burn it again a couple more times just to be sure. Thanks again for the tip, TallTayl and Moonshine! It's such a shame that this fragrance oil clogs wicks because I searched high and low for a smoky scent that I liked and this one was the best!

Alright, will do. The campfire makes up only 9% of the fragrance blend though so it's surprising that such a small amount would cause a clog. After reading through the forum though it seems like these smoky fragrance oils are pretty troublesome.

Thanks, TallTayl. Is that Campfire from Bulk Apothecary? Also, do you think I'd be safe wicking up to a CD 12 or 14? Strange that it sometimes works fine with a CD 10 and sometimes doesn't.

Hello everyone! This is my first post – I started making candles a few months ago and have learned so much on the forums on this site, however, I've run into an issue that has completely stumped me. I'm currently making coconut wax candles (Coconut 83 from California Candle Supply) with two different custom-blended fragrances. One fragrance is 100% essential oils and I've had no issues wicking it (at least after A LOT of testing). I use a CD 6 wick in a glass tumbler that's about a 3" diameter. The other fragrance is a blend of essential oils and fragrance oils (sandalwood fragrance oil, patchouli essential oil, campfire fragrance oil, and neroli fragrance oil). For some reason nearly every wick I've tested in this candle clogs after 1.5 - 3 hours. I've tried LX, ECO, and CD wicks. An ECO 4 wick works without clogging in a 4 oz metal tin, but all of the ECO wicks I tried in the glass tumbler clogged. I finally got a CD 10 wick to work without clogging, however, I got a full melt pool within 2 hours (which seems to fast) so I tried a CD 8, but this clogged. So I made another candle with a CD10 wick to make sure I could replicate my results and it clogged. Oy! Does anyone have any idea what's happening here? I only let the candles cure for 2 days before testing so perhaps that could be the issue? I thought 2 days would be enough just to test the wick (I cure for 2 weeks to test fragrance throw). The other candle with 100% essentials oils has never had any issues with wick clogging and I tested almost every kind of wick in that one and only let the candle cure overnight before testing. FYI, I use 7% fragrance in both candles and I heat the wax to 200 degrees, cool down to 150 before adding my fragrance, stir for a full 2 minutes, and then pour. Any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated as I'm out of ideas here!