BusyBee

Yankee soot like crazy because they don't know how to wick their candle right not because it is paraffin. They are using double Helix #5. If it is wicked right, then their candles burn clean without any soot. I make soy wax candles, too. But paraffin would burn as clean as soy or any vegetable waxes. See pictures! *No. Those aren't wood wicks in there.

If FOs were dangerous materials to inhale vapor for smell, then we should have seen a lot law suites by employees working at FO manufacturing facilities. But I did not find any, which makes me think they are all safe.

If you are getting HT after few hours, then I am suspecting your candle has air current problem. It might be producing too strong air current. Try to feel it by placing your hand 5 to 6" above candle flame. Be careful when you do this. Some candles are really hot (which I am suspecting your candle right now), and some are really cool. If that is the case, then you will need to find another wick that would produce cooler air currents. You are not doing anything wrong. It's just that 6006 is very tricky wax to make them work compare to other waxes. As for the BBW candle, these are ingredients that go into their candle. Many big name brand companies have the easy to work with wax formulas, and this would be the key to our successful candle making. BBW Frosted Cranberry 3-Wick Candle UPC#: 667553889836 Ingredients: Hydrogenated Soybean Oil(8016-70-4,Wax), Paraffin(8002-74-2,Wax), *IGI 1230 Fully Refined Paraffin Wax: 10 -30% Hydrogenated Palm Oil(68514-74-9,Wax), Microcrystalline Wax (Cera Microcristallina, Cire microcristalline)(63231-60-7,Wax), Fragrance (Parfum)(Fragrance Ingredient), Benzyl Benzoate, Sorbitan Oleate(37318-79-9,Emulsifying Agent), Butyl Stearate(123-95-5,Emulsifying Agent), Linalool,C7-9 Esters of Benzotriazolyl-Dimethylethyl-p-Hydroxybenzenepropanoic Acid(Stabilizer), Bis(Octyloxy-Tetramethyl-Piperidyl) Sebacate(Stabilizer), Pentaerythrityl Tetra-di-t-butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate(6683-19-8,Stabilizer), Limonene, Citral, BHT(128-37-0,Stabilizer), Solvent Red 24 (CI 26105)(85-83-6,Colorant), Disperse Violet 26 (CI 62025)(Colorant), Solvent Orange 7(Colorant), Solvent Blue 36 (CI 61551)(Colorant), Solvent Green 3 (CI 61565)(128-80-3,Colorant), Solvent Red 26(Colorant), Solvent Yellow 56 (CI 11021)(Colorant)

Your question is most straight forward smart question by a new start up. Ask a lot of questions! That's one thing you will need to do before starting any business including asking yourself "What made me thinking about starting a candle business?". You will need to build a strong foundation first before you start any business. Below are some of things you will need to learn to build your foundation. 1. Learn candle vocabulary & abbreviations: You will need to know the language spoken in candle industry in order to understand them. 2. Learn different types of candles 3. Study history of candles 4. Basic fundamentals of candle (1) Candle Flame: This is most important part of candle design, and pay attention to Conduction, Convection & Radiation (2) Wick (3) Fuel: What is difference between oil & wax? (4) Additives including oil & wax (5) When is oil or wax are main part of fuel or work as additive? (6) Fragrance Next step you will need to take is to write a business plan with lots of questions. Here are some examples and this is only about 20% of my full questionnaire. I. Learn About Candles What kind of candles are there? What kind of candles are in strong trend? How is the candle trend changing? II. Candle Ingredients & Supplies What types of waxes are there? What are the pros/cons of each wax? Which is better for my business? Who are the wax manufacturers & their suppliers? Which fragrance oils should I use for start? How many different kinds? Who are the fragrance oil manufacturers & their suppliers? What kind of wicks are there? Who are the wick manufacturers & their suppliers? What kind of candle containers are there? Who are the container manufacturers & their suppliers? Who are the packaging manufacturers & suppliers? How am I going to do labels? Who are the label companies? Do I make my own labels or use others? What kind of label printers & programs are available? What is the best choice of label material? Who has the best ingredients & supplies at best price including shipping cost? Have I researched enough to locate the best ingredients? Can they provide constant supplies without disturbance? What is my back up plan if supplies are disturbed? III. Market Research Who are the consumers of candles? What makes consumer buying a certain brand or type of candle? What is the candle market trends? What is the fragrance market trends? IV. Competitions Who are other candle companies? Who are the top 50 in the world? Who are the top 50 in U.S.? Who are the dominating players in certain markets? Who are the dominating players in my region? What made them successful? What was the reason for failed candle companies? Is any of these candle companies related? Who are the parent company if applicable? Can I do better than them? Build a strong foundation, Plan smart & big, Execute! Candle business is very fun & profitable, but it is not as easy as many people would think.

Naming your brand should depends on your targeted market. Some name will fit well in certain markets and some will not. People will need to hear about more of your operation in order to suggest any names. Most general common way to name a business would be using your name. Abbreviations can be used also, and there are also territorial names like Gold Canyon Candle (AZ) or Chesapeake Bay Candle. Territorial names should work well in candle industry. Bisbee, Jerome, Sedona, Flagstaff & Tucson are well known artist towns, and handmade candle should go well with those kind of city names. Using one of those city names like Grand Canyon, Paradise Valley or Tombstone sounds good to me.

Sorry that I cannot recall which article I have read that. It was so long time ago. If my memory is correct, then some of those were lavender, peppermint, orange peel, and possibly lemon grass. Perfumer's Apprentice would be a good place to look at for start of your EO venture. They should be able to help you with information & carrier oils that you will need. https://shop.perfumersapprentice.com/c-63-carrier-and-diluting-oils.aspx Spectrum Chemicals & MFG Corp is another source, but you will need to have some knowledge on what you are talking about with these guys. https://www.spectrumchemical.com/OA_HTML/index.jsp?section=10565&language=US&minisite=10020&respid=22372 This website should help you on your research. http://www.thegoodscentscompany.com/index.html

First of all, soy wax is not easy wax to achieve decent HT even if it is made with easy to use FOs. I can tell you that as a soy wax candle maker, and I am suspecting main reason for you lack of HT is due to this fact. It's not that many won't support using EOs in candles. It is just that it is almost impossible to overcome few big obstacles using it in candles. Biggest obstacle would be the price factor. 1 oz (not lb) of real Jasmine EO would cost $800 & up. If you have paid a lot less than that, then the chances are you don't have real EO on your hand unless you are located in a region where they actually manufacturer them. There are many EOs out there with fancy subtitles that are selling at less prices. Those are all pre-diluted in carrier oils. If anything is added to EO, then it is technically no longer EO. It should be considered as FO made with EO, and there are many of these out there. But since there is no regulation, people call it whatever they want to call it. The situation is very similar to olive oil industry. Most olive oils are mixed with cheaper oils, but they still sell it as olive oil. So, are you asking about using real EOs in a candle or is it EOs mixed with other ingredients? Answer to your question depends on this answer. Even if someone has real EO without any carrier oils, that person needs to have the knowledge in working with undiluted fragrance in order to make real EO work in a candle. This would require perfumery or scented oil industry knowledge which many of candle makers do not have. You are up for tougher challenge than regular candle makers if you want to make EOs work in candles. There are about 8 EOs that are known to be working in candles. If you use anyone of those 8, then you would not need to learn about perfumery. Cedarwood & Jasmine are not in that list of 8. Someone could make real EOs work in candles. But the answer should be in perfumery industry not in ours. Did you know that there are more astronauts in this world than real perfumers? Perfumers require natural born talent in ability to differentiate the smells. No one can get into perfumery schools without passing that smelling test. This is one of big obstacle getting into perfumery industry or obtaining information from that industry. If you are using EOs diluted in carrier oils, then you need to make sure those carrier oils are comparable to work in soy wax candles. I believe most of those available are to be used in diffusers, so it would be safe to assume that they would work in wax melts but not in candles.

I hope to see you hit 100,000 in next five years at Etsy! Good luck!

That's a beauty! Don't forget to put a big warning label "PLEASE DO NOT EAT THIS CANDLE!" Good luck! 👍

No! That's too small. One size up might do the job. Hey! I thought purpose of wooden bowl is to help candle burn better since none of the wick works well.

I know that wooden wicks will never work because of so many different reasons! I would not buy any wooden wick candles either because chance of ending up with bad wooden wick is too great. But I find that wood would be the best material to be used as core of wick for soy wax(464). For other waxes, there are many other better choices available than wood core.

@TallTayl Yes! CW can get really messy & scary without proper trimming. @ErronB Hey! You have to give them credit for protecting their customers. I would not want my supplier to give out any of my information to others. Have you thought about modifying wooden wicks yourself? There are so many different materials that we can use to modify current wooden wicks. I am middle of doing that thanks to having a lot of time due to current Pandemic situation. And it works much better than just using regular wooden wicks. There is no more worrying about wooden wick not staying lit! Combining it with different materials by applying additional cotton sheets or special fiber sheets or coatings. There is a burning rate chart for all different kinds of materials, and anyone one can come out with best of their own material choice. It works a lot better than their booster wick idea. Picture is wooden wick with multi layers of special fiber sheets added. Top is coming out very clean considering this is soy 464.

I think Cottonwood & Helix are very nice wicks even though it did not work out in my 464. It might work in other waxes nicely. It looks like Yankxx use double Helix 5 for their tall Tumbler Candles(soy blend). Yankxx candle was sooting really bad. When I tried it in 464, it worked better. But it mushrooms(just little) & HT is weak. Cottonwood burned really well in 464. Burning characteristic was close to perfection in 464 that I almost got fooled. But HT is weak, and it started to scorching the wax after 2 hours and 15 minutes. I got wax & FO burning smell after 135 minutes. I did try many times over because it was burning so good, but HT & wax scorching is big problem with this wick in 464. It did not perform well in 6006 & coconut 83. All others are good quality wicks, but there are nothing special about them in my opinion.

@TallTayl You might be right about CandleScience dropping CSN. They might have known, It seems like Wicks Unlimited has CDN. Wicks Unlimited might be willing to carry VRL(CSN) & V from now on (hopefully). Cottonwood will be in question for a while since Atkins & Pearce is losing their wick assembler. Who knows? Atkins & Pearce might be willing to take over that wick assembly machine. V series including VRL(CSN) can be purchased from UK. But, most of UK candle suppliers don't have capability to send out international shipment. In worst case scenario, we might have to go thru this kind of service to get those wicks over here (for small quantity orders). https://www.forward2me.com/ *Many countries have this kind of middlemen companies including Germany (*I was only able to find one German candle supplier which was not so good. I was hoping to find some over there since Wedo is a German company.). They handle shipping and custom paper work for small orders. And this could be one of the ways to get those popular European waxes to US for sample try out. I was not able to talk to anyone at Wick It nor Wicks Unlimited because they never returned my call.

I think their quality came from their professional staff. I don't see others that have professional staff like Precision Wicking. It must have been hard without big account like Atkins & Pearce has. How about Wicks Unlimited? Don't they have most of what Precision Wicking carried? Atkins & Pearce was asking for 10,000 MOQ on Cottonwood instead of their usual 5,000 because 3rd party is doing the tabbing.

@TallTayl Are they the one who were actually assembling Cottonwood & Ribbon Wicks?

You are right about that. Let me correct this! Registration for Commercial Co-Venture is required in 22 states including my state California. If you are located in a state where your state does not require one, make sure you are following other state's regulation when you make online charitable sales promotion sales to other states that require Commercial Co-Venture registration.

No. If my knowledge is correct, then IR thermo only can measure up to 790F where the flame would be anywhere in between 800 to 1400F. So, I have been using only digital meat thermo until now. I will be getting J Type thermocouple thanks to one of our member here & I will be getting IR thermo too. We will see.

Most craft shows or fairs should have past attendance records. Some might have breakdown sales data which shows how much different category of vendors sold at the fair. It is considered huge success if a vendor(I am not talking about candle vendor here.) can make a sales to 15% of the attendees. You have to keep in mind that one customer can buy several candles. These things need to be research by you for your own show which you are planning to attend to come up with ideal inventory to take to a show. *Attendance number could be totally different from last year due our current pandemic situation. Too little or too many is not good! I say 10 and no more than 15. You would want to go to a show and check out how other candle makers are doing before decide on your scent selections. First time buyers will be looking for small size like 7 to 8 oz candles. Your repeat customers will be looking for bigger one 12 - 15 oz.

I forgot ask CT strength level. Is it good idea to aim for 9 to 10 CT strength with 6-7 HT strength?

It is true that some wick will create bigger flame and form deeper melt pool. There is no denying this kind of wick is not a hot burning wick. However, I am observing below which brought me to this question in my post. Same wick is working different in different waxes. 1. Melt pool size & depth stays relatively the same. But, melt pool temperatures are little different wax to another wax. I see difference of 5F melt pool temperature with same wick in different waxes. 2. Container temperature stays almost same. 3. However, there were big differences in air currents. Some wax will produce moderate air current with moderate air temperature. Some wax will produce little bit stronger air current with little bit hotter air. And some will produce really strong air current with very hot air. I might have thought certain wick was very hot, if I were to only test that wick in wax that will produce strong air current with really hot air even though it could be one of the coolest wick. This is the reason why I was asking for way to measure hot burning wick. And there is another consideration that we have to think about. Some wax will burn hotter than other waxes. I have to say candle making is an art! Could there be any scientific formula solution?

If we were to scale HT strength in 1 to 10(1 being weakest and 10 being strongest) , then what would be your target HT strength of your candles and the reason? Let me go first. My goal is around 7. Personally I prefer HT strength in this level, and luckily I found many who likes this kind of strength. *Of course measuring HT strength would be very subjective that can be totally different from person to person. But let's try our best.

This topic has been posted many times over, but let me tried to post this one more time for new comers with another interesting topic. There are only 4 things required by regulation to be put on our labels in US. But I see so many out there who cannot do this right. 1. Your company name 2. Product identification: If your product is a candle, then it must state that it is a candle. 3. Net weight in both oz and grams 4. Manufacturer's(your company) full address These information has to go on main level, and it requires to be places on side when its possible. *Many big companies has address on bottom warning labels. Many start ups, who are home based business, might not want to disclose their location. But it is required by law. There are few other options not having full address on our labels. 1. Put only street name without street number, city & state with your website address showing some where on product. But your website must disclose your full address. 2. Put only street name without street number, city & state and register your business with national registry like Dun & Bradstreet (It's free.) *Above is required but someone might be able to get away little bit by putting City & State only. But you must disclose your full address on website or getting registered in national registry. (Please don't take this as legal advise since this is not fully legal.) WEBSITE! There are many candle makers who claims something like this on their website without being registered. "We donate 10% of our sales to XXX Foundation, which supports ....." When someone claims that their certain percentage of sales goes to non-profits, then he or she must register with State Attorney Generals Office as Commercial Coventurer (one of profession fundraiser). They will need to pay registration fee and file annual report. I see so many candle makers out there, who do not understand labeling & fundraising regulations. I am just hoping that our members are not the one. But then, I see so many staying in business with wrong doing. So, I have to say choice is yours.

Yes I have seen wicks that can catch up quickly between burns. But like you said earlier, there are many wicks that won't catch up but perform superior. I am the one who choose to go for performance over hmm I don't think my candles are unsafe but here it is "safety". I guess we are all different. Thank you for your input!

How do you manage to handle wax shrinkage after burn? It is my observation that every time melted waxes being harden the wax will shrink down leaving taller wick than while burning. Wax shrinkage will be different depends on duration of burning & different types of wax. So, I thought every candles need to be trimmed almost every burn. Have you found a wax that would not shrink or wick that will shrink with the wax? Or are you using wicks that will work with your wax at any (long) length?