BenderSF

Luckily the photo is a pretty high resolution so I can zoom in and see that it's NOT lit.  What looks like a flame is just the reflection of the light on the glass; the wick has actually collapsed against the glass.

But I absolutely share your concern...just because this person wisely didn't light it, it doesn't mean someone else won't.  Especially with the warmers that warm from the bottom of the candle rather than the top (and those already make me a little nervous, at least for glass containers.)

(Which doesn't answer your question whether it's safe.  I can't answer that part, but I know it scares me enough that I wouldn't do it personally.  And luckily I'm just a hobbyist so I don't have to worry about what my customers might do...)

Ugh, that's really frustrating.

Sounds like several people in this old thread have had bad experiences there.  I've been lucky...I've only had good experiences with them.

I hope you get it straightened out and manage to get your items.

Aztec sent an email with a list of about 40 fragrances they're discontinuing.

There are several that I really like on this list, but I'm really surprised about Sunset Citrus.  I think it came out in summer 2022 and it's been once of my favorites.  A beautiful soft citrus with a bit of an amber and sandalwood base.  Highly recommended.

Here's the full list:
Arctic Forest
Argan Magic Type
Berry Creme Brulé
Butter Rum
Cinnamon Cashmere
Coconut Butter
Cost Revised Duck Farts
Cypress & Cedarwood Relax
Dragonfruit Poptail
Duck Farts
Endless Love VS Type
Flying Fox Lush Type
Frozen Falls
Green Tea Energy
Honeydew
Monkey Bread
Moonlight Path
Northwest Passage
Oak Moss
Orange Chiffon Cake
Orange Zest - Energy
Peaceful Patchouli
Peppermint & Rosemary Energy
Pineapple Paradise
Pink Type (1 lb. Pink Type)
Pumpkin Pecan Waffles (BBW)
Rose Amber Energy
Sandalwood & Chamomile Relax
Sapphire Nights
Spearmint & Eucalyptus Relax
Spicy Christmas
Stone Shore
Sugar Plum
Summer Sunrise
Sunset Citrus
Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin
Sweet Winterberry
Tea & Cucumber
Twilight
Winter Hideaway

And the full email is here:
https://email.candlemaking.com/cr/AQiV2w0QmNE_GNfm1kLHIDmCkUCszih8aTTzEVd97-MpvlaIjDaBDDbePYH3Bw
 

Love those!  They look great!

Interesting.  I see their site is back up.

I just checked out their Facebook page.  As of October 12 they said they're still looking for someone to buy the business.  Looks like they've been selling via email for the last couple months but they recently put the shopping cart back online.  Someone asked in a comment 5 days ago whether it's permanent or just until the stock is sold off and they replied "Permanent until new owners are chosen."

That's great news!  For us customers, at least....I just hope the owners aren't miserable keeping the business alive while trying to sell it.

And just got an email from Midwest.

https://midwestfragranceco.com/blogs/news/black-friday-2023-faqs

Quote

 

BLACK FRIDAY/CYBER MONDAY SALE HOURS: Our sale will begin at 8:00 AM CST on Friday 11/24 and will continue until 11:59 PM CST on Monday 11/27!  You’ll have all weekend long to take advantage of great deals!

 

SALE DETAILS: 12% off on all fragrance oils, bases, dyes, sample size wax, and sample size single & 6 cavity clamshells AND $10 off all cases (wax and clamshells)

 

Aztec's sale went live a couple days ago.  https://www.candlemaking.com/blackfriday2023

• 10% off almost everything
• Additional 10% off fragrance oils
• Plus one more 10 for $10 coupon code

Sherlock's Study, https://midwestfragranceco.com/products/sherlock-s-study-fragrance-oil

Ah!  Thanks for the background and perspective!

With the staggering amount of talent from the members here, I know whatever name you land on will be perfect.  As always, I'm grateful to be in the company of such inspiring folks!

So many great suggestions!!

I'm absolutely terrible with names, so I can't contribute any suggestions myself, but I'm curious, why the heavy focus on "scent"?  We have the "Fragrance Discussion" forum, of course (which is actually my favorite), but the other sections of craftserver never really struck me as "scent-centric."  I love a lot of the suggestions, but they only seem to capture a small part of what craftserver has to offer.

1 hour ago, Belinda said:

I don't understand people that don't like foodie smells LOL! They're my favorite!

Funny enough, I was one of those people when I started!  Could not fathom why people would want a candle that smelled like food.  But it wasn't long before I stumbled across some that I liked, and then it clicked for me.  Now the vast majority of my favorites are food/bakery scents. 😆

53 minutes ago, Belinda said:

I haven't tried that one. Does it smell more like pumpkin pie?

No, it's more of a straight pumpkin without any spice or added notes.  Maybe smells like pumpkin pie filling before you add the spices.  The site describes it as "The robust, creamy spice of pumpkin conjures images of hay rides through a pumpkin patch."  I'm still testing it, still undecided how much I like it.

Probably my favorite scent of the last two autumns has been Pumpkin Peanut Brittle.  I've tried FB, Community and Aztec.  They're all really similar and all excellent.  A really nice, warm scent, not sweet, a little salty.  Very cozy.  (edit: oops, I see from your post in 2020 that you're already a fan of this one.)

I'm burning Northwoods' Pumpkin & Suede right now for the first time.  It's really nice.  Very similar to JS Pumpkin Firewood, but a little richer.

1 hour ago, Belinda said:

Wellington has a good one, Spiced Pumpkin and I also got some pumpkin pie paradise from them

Have you tried their "Pumpkin"?  I recently got some, and I think I like it, but I'm still testing it.  Not sure it really smells like pumpkin, but it's one of the few I've found that doesn't have a ton of spice.

1 hour ago, NightLight said:

But competition will happen

.....and then WSP will buy them.   😆

Thanks for the heads-up!  I knew the day was coming when they finally consolidated all their separate sites into one, but I didn't know it finally happened.

I too am worried about what the future brings, but that's a constant worry with any supplier.  For now, I like that I can combine Just Scent, Rustic and WSP products into a single order and get free shipping for $25 orders.  (I definitely would have preferred that JC and Rustic were still independent -- they stopped putting out new scents when WSP bought them, and I really miss that -- but since they're not, I like that the sites are now consolidated.)
 

On 8/19/2023 at 11:23 AM, doglvr said:

I looked at Crafter's Choice fragrance oils and could not believe the prices.  Over 8.00 for a 2 oz. sample.  That is insane!  Are their oils that good?

A lot of people love them.  I haven't been overly impressed with them myself, but I've only tried about 30.  For a hobbyist like me, and someone who primarily makes candles, it's hard to spend $8-$24 on a 2 oz sample, especially when my hit-to-miss ratio is only about 1 hit to every 10 misses.  Hopefully they won't raise JS and Rustic prices to CC levels.

Luckily for me, I'm stocked up on all the JS and Rustic scents I need.  (Except for one JS scent that I was just about to stock up on...they just discontinued it in the last couple weeks. 🙄)

OMG!  What a great idea!  I'm planning on picking up the crock pot over the weekend, but I'll do some more reading first and maybe I'll decide to switch methods.  Thanks!

2 hours ago, Noob82 said:

I hope they aren't all weak.

I've never had that problem with Aztec oils.  They are some of my favorites.  Like all places, some will be powerhouses, some will be more subtle.  (Although, even though I haven't tried their Macintosh, I do have several other apple scents from them and they throw well for me.  Anecdotally, there have been several posts here in the last year or two saying that 6006 isn't what it used to be.  Are you getting good throw with other oils with that same batch of 6006?)

This is a long shot, but I thought I'd throw it out there...

Does anyone know of a scent similar to Nature's Garden's "Game On"?  As soon as I discovered that it's one of my favorite scents for soaps, they discontinued it.

Their description is basically "sandalwood + herbs", but that doesn't do it justice.  To my nose, it smelled like "a football + sandalwood."  Many years ago, Yankee (briefly) put out a line of "Man Candles".  One was called "First Down" and smelled like, well, a football.  "Game On" was similar to that.  The sandalwood note was very similar to Body Shop's old "Woody Sandalwood" (another favorite scent I've been hunting unsuccessfully for.)

I'm terrible at blending, but I don't have a good sandalwood base to start with anyway.  I've tried many sandalwoods, but none come close to Body Shop's "Woody Sandalwood."  Plus I don't have any football essential oil. 🙂

PS, I miss those Yankee "Man Candles."  Riding Mower (grass, easy enough to find a substitute), 2x4 (sawdust), First Down (football) and Man Town (can't remember what this was, but I remember that I liked it.)

Thanks, @TallTayl!

In that case, I'll go with a 4-quart crockpot to give the soap more space.  I love the microwave idea, especially since I probably won't do hot process very often, but my (built-in) microwave was put in the most inconvenient spot possible, so I know it would end up being more difficult than it should be.  😆

I've made cold process soap a handful of times now, and I'm preparing to try hot process for the first time.  I've done a bunch of reading so I think I have a gameplan, except for one thing.

Can I safely use a 2-quart (8 cup) crockpot to make a 2-pound loaf?  A 2-quart mixing bowl is the perfect size for my 2-lb cold process batches, but I know hot process can tend to volcano, so I'm wondering if a 2-quart crockpot will be cutting it a bit too close.  All of the videos I've seen show a larger recipe with a full-sized crock pot (probably 6-quart), but I don't want to make that large a recipe.

They do make 3- and 4- quart sizes, too.  That would give me some extra breathing space, but I'll never make a larger recipe than 2 pounds so I'd rather not waste the cupboard space unless I have to.

Any advice?

2 hours ago, TallTayl said:

What do you think?

Sorry, I should have mentioned in my original post: I have not used these (or anything similar).  I had just seen them online so thought I'd pass on the info.

Yeah, I like those bags.  I've got some Brambleberry olive and palm oils in those bags.

I stumbled across them (or something similar) at Uline a while ago:
https://www.uline.com/BL_3480/Spouted-Stand-Up-Barrier-Pouches

WSP carries something similar too, 12 oz or 20 oz:
https://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/products/heat-seal-spout-bag-12-ounce-clear.aspx
https://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/products/heat-seal-spout-bag-20-ounce-clear.aspx

1 hour ago, gc78 said:

The only other two things I am adding is UV Inhibitor and white candle dye chips...Throughout all this testing, the one thing I haven't done is remove those two items

I have no personal experience with it but I've heard that white dye chips in particular were very difficult to work with.  I wanted to use white dye a few years ago and did some searching on this forum first.  I can't remember exact details now but it wasn't recommended, something about white dye being a pigment and/or titanium dioxide, either of which will clog wicks.

That's just hearsay based on my faulty memory  , but thought I'd throw that out there.  You said you've been using the white dye in all of your testers, so it might be worthwhile to make a tester without it just to see if it makes a difference.

Good luck! 

FYI @Lizzy and anyone else who might be looking, I finally found a Mountain Lodge dupe.  Kind of.  It's not supposed to be a dupe, but it's close enough for my nose: NorthWood's Snowy Mountain Cottage.

https://northwoodcandlesupply.com/products/snowy-mountain-cottage-premium-fragrance-oil

I wasn't even looking for Mountain Lodge when I got this.  It's not described as a dupe and the description isn't even close.  It's still not quite what I remember the original smelling like, but it smells pretty darn close to me.

(I hadn't tried NorthWood before, but they have some really nice scents.)

Sorry I don't have much direct advice to give, but a couple things I'll just throw in here:

Don't rule out a bad (or just challenging) batch of wax.  I've read some posts in craftserver in the last 6 months or so saying that 6006 has not been very good lately.  I have VERY limited experience with 6006, but I'm surprised you describe it as "firm".  The one batch I bought (in 2018) is definitely one of the softer waxes I've used, and cold throw is very strong with almost any fragrance.

About the wick size (and again, I don't know 6006 well and I've never touched an HTP), sometimes candles can be counter-intuitive.  Sometimes it seems like a candle is UNDERwicked when actually it's OVERwicked.  Might be worth a test.

Hope you don't give up.  It can be frustrating for sure, but it can be very rewarding when things start falling into place.  

(edit: oh, and to answer the question in your post's title: no, you're not being a perfectionist.   )