BusyBee

Per ASTM standards container temperature should not exceed 170F. That seems little bit too high for my comfort range. So, let's talk about coffee in order to have an idea of "how hot is too hot?". Coffee is usually served in temperature between 150F and 175F, and many people would prefer near 175F coffee. When they do Coffee tasting, they would prefer at 130F, and this is where I find my comfort range 130F maybe up to 140F for the candle. The lower the better! Yes. There are many people who might burn their candle way beyond 6 hours at a time. If anyone can come up with warm burning container candle for this kind of long burning time, then it would be special. However, we all should be good as long as we can keep its temperature below 170F for more than 6 hours burn even up to 12 hours burn. As long as we keep that temperature below 170F after so many hours, no one should blame us.

Happy Thanksgiving! I use heavy duty business type printer, Samsung CLX-6260FD, due to amount of labels I need to print, but I find that print quality of $150 printer up to $4,000 printer is very similar. Print quality will be more depends on the quality of label paper than the printer that you are using. Best printer in most economical price range would be Brother printers. If you go up one more level, then look into Canon printers. You will need to pay more attention to cost of replacement cartridges, because it is very costly. The other thing not so good about color laser printer is that the thick label paper gets jammed so many times. I also use heavy duty inkjet by Epson WorkForce WF-7110, and I don't have paper jam problem with this one. If you laminate your label, than quality of both of laser & inkjet labels will be similar. So, you might want to consider inkjet also. But for inkjet printer, you will need to look for in range at least above $200 for the professional quality print. And, something like Epson ECO Tank series will save you a lot of money on ink cost, even though it is little bit more costly. The other way to save tons of money on inkjet cartridge is to connect after market ink tank kit, but it is not going to be easy to connect this system to printer. It can be done, just not so easy. Happy Black Friday shopping!

I order wooden wicks from them, and I usually get my shipment in 5 business days. And, their wick clips are a lot better in quality than what I got from Northwood. I know it is kind of weird not having a business phone for a company that size. But, so far they did fine with my orders.

I use wooden wick on my 100% soy wax with excellent result. After I saw your post I tried wooden wick on paraffin wax candle just out of my curiosity, and it did exactly what you have described. Huge dancing flame producing a lot of soot. I tried booster wooden wicks only(but both thick and thin). I even trimmed the wick down to half of soy candle, and the flame was still 3 times bigger than soy candle. Wooden wick is very important wick for me, and I am a huge fan. Because without wooden wick, I would not have my candle business. But, maybe it might not be for paraffin candle??? I am not an expert on paraffin wax, so I could be totally wrong. Because name brand candle with best burning characteristic that I know happens to be paraffin wax candle with wooden wick. It is WoodWick candle with PlusWick. Their first wooden wick candles were crap, but now they make the best one. Sorry, without being help to you, I might have gave you more confusion with my information.

HI! If you want STRONG HT with ease of wicking, then stick with straight paraffin. Many likes this kind of HT, but I found that they are more value sensitive shoppers. If you want VERY PLEASANT HT with almost impossible to wick, then it is straight soy. There are many who prefer this kind of HT also, and these are people willing to open up their wallets. I suggest anyone to stay away from parasoy, and the reason is this. Paraffin & soy each wax has pro's and con's. By blending two waxes together, you are not only improving con's of each wax, but you are also reducing pro's of each wax. This translates into inferior result vs straight paraffin or soy. You still can make decent candle out of parasoy, but it is not going to be stand out candle from the crowd. Paraffin wax has been around for 190 years. It is highly developed wax that I don't think there are going to be any more room to improve on its quality. It is easy to wick, because everyone in the industry knows characteristics of paraffin, and most wicks are designed and work well for paraffin waxes. On the other hand, soy wax only has been on the market for 20 years or so, and it's still in development stage where it needs to go another 30 to 50 years to be fully developed. I believe the wick manufacturers haven't got up to par with soy waxes wicking yet. None of them work properly. All they know right now is that it requires bigger wick than paraffin, but still no good result. I see some for soy waxes, but it gets too hot. I was more of paraffin fan before I started candle making, and I have tried many different type of waxes available locally. I live in Los Angeles CA, so we have almost everything locally over here. But, I end up choosing GB 464 as my only product. The reason is "very pleasant HT". The scent is not strong and it does not hit your face, but everyone knows it's there. Warning! It is not going to be easy wicking this soy. You have to do it unconventional way and need to be creative. If you want to know how I wicked my GB 464, then I will be glad to share it with you. This is only my opinion, I am pretty sure there are more experienced chandlers here that will give you more and better information.

I don't know what to say about this one. It will make your day! https://www.illuminidol.com/

I thought this might interest someone. Check out their wax and special WICK. I guess there are many different ways to wick vegetable waxes, and we only have very limited kind that does not work so well.

Hi there! In order to be profitable candle business and keep grow, your total material cost should not exceed 25% of your retail price. Ideal range would be to keep material cost at about 20%, but this is very hard to do when you are just starting out and not buying in bulk. When I say material cost, that should not include any labor, rent, electricity, gas, business license fee, insurance, etc. You will need to set your retail price at minimum of 4 times (or 5 times is better) of your material cost as a small tiny operation. For people with physical store front, they will have to charge 6 to 8 times of their material cost. When you calculate the material costs, you will need to figure out at at least minimum of 1 box of containers, 1 lb of fragrance oil, 100 pack wick, 50 lb box of wax, shipping charge, etc. *Big guys operate at 12 to 18 times of their material costs. First thing you would need to do is marketing research and come up with your own marketing plan which will give you idea of your retail price. Then, you will have idea about how much you could spend on materials and start shopping for best price & quality suppliers.

Hi there from Canada! 1. I am the one who is using 464 for candle, and it is excellent wax that I don't bother to look for anything else. 2. In my opinion, wicking is about 90% of candle making. If you can get the right wick into a candle, then most of problems you hear gets solved. You have to use WAXED cotton wicks for any kind of candle. For soy wax, try to choose from the ones designed for soy waxes(ECO is my choice among cotton wicks, but there are others that other candle makers had success.). Wooden wicks with "booster" are the ones that will work well with soy wax. Combination of wooden tube wick with cotton wick work well also. Once again, wicking is almost everything in good candle making. Finding the right wick is time consuming process that it could take months & months to years. 3. If I am correct, I believe there are only 8 essential oils out of thousands that can be used in candle making. You will need to choose from fragrance oils made for candle making, and on top of that make sure they are made for use with soy wax. Even if we were able to use essential oils in candles, it would be too cost prohibited. It takes 60,000 roses to produce 1 oz of rose essential oil. Don't even waste your time looking at their pricing. 4. Wax coming away from glass(Wet Spot) is something even big candle companies haven't figure it out. It is just nature of wax. There is nothing that can be done at this moment. Frosting: This is another nature of soy wax, and frosting is caused by expose to lights. You can reduce frosting by using amber glass or ceramic container or tins. With 464 wax, you can have beautiful top appearance by pouring at temperature between 130 - 140. But, think about doing 2nd pour with 2mm thickness. This will give you mirror like finish 100% of time. 5. If you can get the right wicking, then all the problems will be solved. Soy wax need fire power, but make sure you keep the temperature down so you can keep the container at safe temperature. This is very critical part that you or any candle maker would need to figure out. Your plan to use 415 or 464 in little Mason jar! This is not a good idea. Soy need fire power to burn right and that container is going to be too small to keep it cool for that fire power. I only can wick 464 right among container that has minimum of 3.5" and up diameter. You are up there in cold weather, and I am down here in Southern California. You might have to experiment with your own pouring temperature depending on your room temperature condition. Yes! There are so many things that needs to be put into consideration. Good luck with your candle making journey!

I am on west coast, so I am not familiar with any of suppliers in Florida region except for wicks. We have many chandlers in this forum, who are in Florida, so they might be able to share good suppliers in your area. Or you can check out the "Suppliers by State" in this website like kandlekrazy had suggested. For Fragrance Oils, you might want to consider looking at AFI [Aromatic Fragrances International] in Cartersville, GA https://afi-usa.com/fragrances/ Bulk Apothecary in Streetsboro, OH https://www.bulkapothecary.com/ I haven't deal with them yet, but I find that they have a good pricing on bulk orders.

100 per batch and 1,000 per batch are totally different category. Ritehete 65lb melter will handle 100 per batch with maximum capacity of 400 units per day(8 hours). This is due to time that required to melt wax. If you attach dispensing system & gun, that will save you tons of time & labor.($2,000 to $3,000) They also have what they call mixers, blenders & agitators for blending FO, which cost in $1,000 to $1,500 range. Total system is going to cost around $5,000 including shipping. Now, in order to do 1,000 per batch, you will need much bigger system. Check "Waxmelters". https://www.waxmelters.com/default.asp You are looking at $60,000 price range for that kind of system. I am in the process of making wick setter for 3.75" tin which can be made easily from parts available from any hardware store and things laying around the house. Total cost would not exceed $10. I will post picture when I am done possibly within 2 weeks. Some companies manufacture automated wick setter machines, but those machines are for more than 10,000 per months candle makers. For bulk wax, look for wax blending company closest to where you are. Wax manufacturers & blenders all require 1 pallet minimum order, which is about 35 cases of 50 lb per case. Saving on cost of shipping is where you main profits are. For fragrance oil, you are going to need lots of research. Quality, available scents, price, & shipping cost are the things that you need to put into consideration choosing right FO supplier. For container, I don't see that much price difference from the big wholesale vs candle suppliers unless you buy cheap ones from China, which I would not recommend to use as candle container. Get them from where you can save most on shipping cost.

Dana Decker of Lumetique is the wooden wick patent holder. The Wooden Wick Company is the licensed manufacturer of wooden wicks. It seems like Atkins & Pearse has license to manufacturer also, but they don't have any wooden wick product on their web site yet. And, there are many other wooden wicks that came from China without licensing, so be careful thinking about using those. Wooden Wick Co. is same company as Lab & Co. Try their "Adhered Wicks" which is called "Booster Wick" also. They come in different width and thickness, and they are very reliable wicks compare to regular wooden wicks that we are so familiar with. I think they require minimum order of 100, and for small quantity you can get them thru many reliable candle suppliers that carry Wooden Wick Co. wicks. They do have sample pack available.

You will need to understand the fact that anyone, who does not make candle, will never understand how hard development of decent candle is going to be. So, don't blame your wife for being impatient. Take your wife out to dinner, and just tell her that you have totally underestimated the candle making thing. Also, tell her about story of guy like me. I thought I could open up my candle business in about 3 months, but it took me 20 months from the start to opening up my candle business. Development took about 6 months, coming up with company logo took me about 3 months, marketing research was another couple months, coming up with marketing strategy was about 4 to 5 months, & finally the label design took another few months. This was done in my spare time working 50 hours full time job, and it might have taken a lot less time if I had more time and resources($$$). I did started to sell(test marketing) candles from about 9 months from the start. Being from red to black will depend your marketing plan & your ability to succeed with it. This is going to be long challenging journey, but it should be fun and very rewarding venture. Are you trying to opening up a retail shop? Have you come up with any marketing plan?

Sorry that this is not 8 oz tin. This is 14 oz tin with GW 464 and 12% FO. These pictures should give you an idea of what you should be aiming at. Full melt pool with very clear clean wax and clean even surface after burn. If you can achieve this, then it will give you excellent FT without getting black soot. Wooden wicks are not easy to work with. But, it is only wick that you have ability to play with its size by cutting them to your specific size needs. Don't be afraid to start from way over wick size. From their down size it by start cutting into smaller wick. Have fun!

Think of it as blending two different waxes. Actually, blending two wicks is much easier task than blending two waxes. You will be surprised to find this kind of blending would work little better than single wick.

Wood tube wick was originally designed to use with combination of regular wicks. Even though WW claim now it can be used by itself, it would not work good by itself. You should cut them into desired length before you pour. I believe tube wick with ECO 6(or 😎 would work best for your candle. It should be an wonderful wick!

Welcome to the world of searching for magical wicks! Like you said, I hated all of the wicks. I mean all of them. I have tried everything available from candle suppliers, wick assemblers, wick manufacturers, and I have tried no brand wicks from China, etc. I even tried oil lamp wicks. Tried to make my own wooden wick like many people did in this forum. I ran out of wicks to test, so I even pulled out wicks from name brand candle companies and tested on my candle. So, I ended up ran into this wick. I pulled out this one from WoodWick Candle. They call this +PlusWick and I believe it is patented. This was the magical one that I was looking for. Zero black soot even in heavy drift, just right amount of fire power, 100% self trimming, etc. I tried to make this wick by using wood wick from Wooden Wicks, but it wasn't working similar to this exact one. China sells a lot of this copy cats, but no one should buy those unless he or she wants major law suits from Yankee Candle and Dana Decker company. So, what is our solution? I would suggest you to try "wood tube wick" by Wooden Wicks. You can buy sample quantity from North Wood Distributing. If you are using any soy blend wax or vegetable wax, try combination of wood tube wick with ECO wicks. Wood tube wick only works with combination of other regular wicks. It should give you result close 100% satisfaction. 100% paraffin wax, I don't know. It's very frustrating many times, but once you figure it out... Have fun with your journey!

I use tin made by ULine, and I never had your problem. I think you need to look for better quality tin.

If you can have those friends to help you out, then you have an upper hand. In my opinion, container & label design is one of the most important part of successful candle business. I have spent more time & resources on design logo, labels, printers, & flyers than actual development of decent candle. Good luck with your journey! I am very curious about how your small tin designs would come out. Quality of picture in here is not so good, so it might be hard tell from this picture. Each one is different label materials and has different quality. You will need to play with few different types of label papers in order to achieve the best result.

Hi Z, Thanks for shipping it out so quickly. Your melter is awesome! Just like almost brand new as you claimed. I will try to enjoy this melter.

Soy wax has frosting problem. So, many of us choose not to dye them, and I find that many successful soy wax candle companies are using container that would not show the candle wax. Most successful two soy wax candle makers that I know are P.F. Candle & Joshua Tree Candle Company. Check out their product by Google them. They are using amber glasses, which will cover frosting problem. I believe their best sellers are in 7.2oz for P.F. Candle and 8 oz. for Joshua Tree Candle. Ceramic container with lid would work well for soy wax candles also. I only do 14 oz tin container. I use tin for so many reasons, and it is the only container that works for me well in my market. I know that tin would be a hard seller in most other markets, but we do have many in here who is doing good with tins. But, then what sells best will totally depend on your targeted market. If you are aiming to do wholesaling to retailers, then amber glass should work really well. If you are aiming for online direct sales, then ceramic container with eye catching graphic design would work best. If you are aiming to sell at farmers market & fair, then rustic looking container would work best. etc.

Exact size of your wrap around label for 8 oz tin should be 1 1/4" x 9 31/32". I don't use 1oz & 4oz tin, so I am not going to able to give you exact sizes. You will need to measure them by yourself unless someone else in here has experience with those tin sizes and share their knowledge with you. For the top circle & height, you just need to measure the size from your tins. For the length, you need to wrap a paper or thread around your tin, mark it, and measure it to get exact size. For circular labels, I buy them in different sizes. But for the wrap around labels, I just buy them in sheets and cut them off using paper cutter. Even if you find the right sizes, I have feeling that you are going to have hard time designing labels for those small size tins due to small space. I hope this would helped you little.

I think with your special 3D talent, I believe you are going to come up with great unique candles. I wish you good luck!

It is my understanding that you wanted to create higher end candle line with best burning characteristics. Yes! It must have full melt pool which is almost impossible to achieve with the wicks available to us thru suppliers when container is bigger than 3" in diameter with vegetable wax. The picture below is my 14oz (my supplier thinks it's 16oz) tin candle with 3 5/8" inside diameter using 100% soy wax with maximum FO load allowed. I am going to show you how I achieved that full melt pool with cool burning characteristic. The temperature of wax right below the flame is 116F, one inch away is 111F, and near the edge is 104F. Outside of container is so cool, I don't even bother to take measurements. My other container I am using has 3 1/8" diameter with same wax. In my opinion with any type of vegetable wax, we need a big but cool flame. Big but cool flame? This might not make sense at all. But, I find that every wick has different burning temperature. I have no idea why this is true. Most hottest burning wick that I know is Cottonwood wick by Atkins & Pearce. That little sucker is really powerful that it's going to burn the soy wax(not thru the wick, it will burn your wax with heat power) after 2 1/2 hours. The coolest burning wick that I know is Tube wood wick, and among regular wick would be the ECO wick. So, you need to really wick up with ECO. Many of wick guideline available thru suppliers are way off on ECO wicks. For your container and wax, it should work decently with size ECO 18. This will create little hotter flame than one mentioned above with my candle, but it should be very acceptable as a finished product. I showed you how to create ECO 18 in prior pos ting, so I am going to skip how to make ECO 18. But, if your goal is to create higher end candle, then ECO 18 is not the perfect solution. You will need to try combination of Tube wood wick and ECO. This will bring the flame temperature down little bit more for better burning characteristic. It involves wood wick which you had been using, but totally different wood wick. My candle picture you are looking at has combination of ECO 14 & Tube wood wick. I think your candle would need ECO 10 or 12 & Tube wood wick, but it is your job to find out. For your reference, that Tube wood wick has fire power of ECO 7 size, and it is designed to use with combination of regular wicks. It will not work by itself. Once again, have fun with your journey!

Premier 775 is not going to work. HTP 1212 is very close by looking at your picture, and only thing you need to solve is to put curling into consideration and find the right wick position. How was the burning characteristic of HTP 1212?