BenderSF

I have very limited experience but I've only found a couple Crafter's Choice oils that I like in candles: Blooming Tulips (perfect for early spring) and Dune Grass (Yankee dupe).

Others I suppose work fine in candles but I just don't like the scent (Frasier Fir) or they seem like they'd be better as a mixer or in soap or b&b products (Bourbon Cypress & Tabac, Burmese Wood, Charcoal & Shaved Cedar).  I think a lot of people on Craftserver like their Vanilla Bean Noel, but I can't get it to work well for me.

If you find one, let us know!  I've looked but haven't found one so more or less gave up.  No matter what the descriptions or the reviews say I usually just smell the same old pumpkin spice (or, more accurately, just spice.)

I did recently stumble across the first and only genuine "just-cut-open-the-pumpkin" scent I've smelled so far, but unfortunately it was just one note among a bunch of others.  But, it gives me hope that a plain, genuine pumpkin is at least possible.

I can't help to answer the question, but I get the same thing sometimes.  Candles with dye sometimes look exactly like your photo, and candles without dye sometimes have that "oil slick" look like aviking's pic from 2017 above.

I haven't taken meticulous notes on this issue, though, so I've never been able to determine a pattern on when I see it vs when I don't, but I know I've seen it in paraffin and in soy, scented and unscented, dyed and undyed...which really only leaves wax or process.

Sadly I never smelled the original CS Mistletoe, but FWIW, several older posts on this forum have said that Candle Cocoon's Winter Woodlands Whisper is very similar or identical.

I went to NorthWood to order some stuff I don't need 🙄 and discovered that they have some Black Friday deals:

• 15% off fragrance, wicks, and colorants through Sunday 11/27/2022 (a pleasant surprise since I was ordering fragrances and wicks)
• On Monday 11/28/2022: "$25 off your fragrance purchase of $25+"

You need coupon codes for both, available on their blog: https://northwoodcandlesupply.com/blogs/news/shop-our-black-friday-2022-sale

1 hour ago, Noob82 said:

Do you have any recommendations for 6006 in the 8 oz mason jar from CS?  

Take this with a huge grain of salt: I don't use 6006 very often, the 6006 I DID use was in 2018, and I only made a couple in 8 oz Mason jars.  But the ones I did make burn great with ECO 2.

They've been reformulating here and there for longer than I've been making candles (August 2018.)  Whenever I buy an oil, I take a screenshot of the webpage.  I just looked at some old screenshots and several had notices saying they had been revised as early as August 2017.

I think they really ramped up on their reformulations early/mid 2019.  This post from July 2020 introduces their "Clean Scents" moniker, and also says that they had been phthalate-free since summer 2019: https://www.candlescience.com/introducing-candlescience-clean-scents/

They were my favorite when I first started, but I've stopped buying from them altogether.  They have a very clear vision and they target their audience well...I'm just not that audience.

FYI, Aztec has 5-lb bags of BW917 on sale for $7 for their Black Friday sale.

I still haven't even tried the stuff I got in 2020, and yet here I am considering getting some more.  I do love a bargain!

Aztec started their Black Friday sale.  10 free 1 oz bottles, 50% off 5-lb bags of Blended Waxes, some warmers on sale.

https://www.candlemaking.com/blackfriday2022.html

Just to report back, I did try the Mountain Lodge from Canwax.  It's a puzzler.  It's definitely a Yankee dupe.  The notes are all there.  And yet, there's just something about it that I find really unpleasant.  I just can't place my finger on why, but it's a big enough problem that I can't even continue testing.  Very odd.  It's rare that I react so negatively to a scent that I literally can't even continue testing it.

It may not be a complete loss though.  I ordered about 10 other Canwax oils.  Their Maple Sugar is promising.  I'm a huge fan of maple, but I've never found a FO that smelled even remotely like maple.  My first test candle didn't burn well but the cold throw is absolutely spot-on maple sugar.  If I can figure out how to get a decent candle out of that, then I'll be very happy.  I also threw one called Brown Sugar Dahlia into my cart only because it sounded so gross that I had to it for myself 😆, and OOTB it's actually really really nice.  I almost never burn floral scents until spring so it'll be a while before I try it, but I'm looking forward to that one.

And in the meantime, my hunt for Mountain Lodge continues.

I'd love to find something, too.  I also saw some posts here saying WSP's is "the same" so I tried it.  It's similar, but not nearly as good.

Community also sells an additive: https://communitycandlesupply.com/proddetail.php?prod=OE.

I don't have much experience with it though.  I only got as far as making one small test candle before I got distracted by something else shiny.  I can say that it didn't make a notable difference in the burn or the scent of my (unscented) tester, but I didn't test whether it actually helped to eliminate odors.

This is a long and rambling post.  tl;dr: I tried it, and I'm happy so far.

The ramble:

Well, I made the leap of faith and got a 23-lb batch from Aztec.  Initial impressions are good.

I haven't done comprehensive testing, just a quick test so far.  Ideally I would make a candle of something that threw well in the "good" 4627 but not in the "not-as-good" stuff, but I don't have enough of those original oils or candles left.  For reference, my experience with "good" 4627 is 2 25-lb batches from 2018 and 2019.  My last batch was from Sept 2020, which is useable but doesn't throw anywhere near as well as the earlier stuff.

I made two small scented/dyed testers and one unscented/undyed.  Observations:

• Out of the bag, it's definitely softer than any of my previous batches.  Still vaseline-like, but softer.  Still sticky, but less sticky than the 2020 batch.
• When melting, it released a ton of tiny air bubbles, but they had dissipated by the time it reached 190 degrees.
• When melting, stirring and pouring it looks and feels pretty much the same as previous batches.  No strong odor, clear but with a slight yellow-ish tint.
• It cooled beautifully, nice smooth surface, semi-matte finish.
• Two testers took solid dye blocks very well (I don't use much dye, just enough to give it a little color.)
• An unscented and undyed tester turned out noticeably whiter than any of my previous batches.  It's still slightly translucent, but noticeably whiter.

I've been burning one scented and one unscented tester for the last four hours.  They're both burning great: nice steady flames, no flickering or dancing, no noticeable smoke or soot, perfect size for the containers.  4627 has never been my favorite to use straight, but these are both burning better than any of my previous straight 4627 candles.  (But, these are also not in challenging containers.  Paraffin in 2 oz tins with LX 12 or 4 oz tins with LX 14 almost always works well for me.)   The scented one is throwing incredibly well, and the unscented one is not throwing any bad/chemical scent.

So, still early days obviously, but so far I'm really happy with it.  And man, it's nice to finally smell Indiana's Cinnamon Dolce Latte in all its glory again.

@birdcharm, ha!  Funny you should say that!  A couple years ago I was melting the remnants of 8 different candles so I could re-use the containers, and dumping the wax into an old soup can.  When I was done I was shocked that this mix of 8 unrelated scents all together smelled like one of my favorite colognes!

To date, that has been my only blending success...and it was a total accident! 😆

Thanks @birdcharm!  It's a great suggestion for someone who has more skill blending than I do.  I've tried blending before.  I am......not good at it.  😆

Thanks @Lizzy!  I had seen all but the Canwax.  I don't think candlesoylutions and catalina are dupes based on the descriptions, and the ebay one is a Scentsy dupe.

I don't remember Canwax popping up when I was googling around before.  I'll give them a shot and report back.  Fingers crossed.... 🤞

Thanks!

Has anyone found a dupe of Yankee's Mountain Lodge?  C&S used to carry one but discontinued it before I could try.  The Candlemaker's Store has one but it's not even vaguely similar to the original.  I've collected a lot of lodge/cabin/woodsy scents in the hopes of finding something at least similar, but no luck.

I'm surprised it's not more popular.

Thanks @ErronB.  That's what I was afraid of.  I'll probably order something in the next couple weeks.  Not sure if I'll try some more 4627 or something else.  Depends on how lucky I feel that day...

Anyone purchase 4627 recently?  If so, how is it these days?  I need to get some more paraffin soon, but my last batch of 4627 (September 2020) wasn't great.  Not terrible, but not great.  There were a few posts here in 2021 that sounded like it was getting even worse.  With wax changing so quickly I'm wondering if maybe it's better now.

I'm just a hobbyist, so a 23-lb box lasts a really long time, and I'm not sure I want to risk getting another sub-par (or worse) batch.  Although I guess everything is more or less a crap shoot these days...  😆  😢

3 hours ago, The Candle Nook said:

do you find wicking problems with the Lemon Pound Cake?

Yes and no.    I haven't made too many yet, but the few I've made burn fine.  But my nose has a problem with any citrus or mint fragrance, so I can't get it to work in a candle.  (For my nose, at least...a friend assures me it's fine.)  I hope to figure it out someday, but in the meantime, both this and the Lemon Meringue (which is amazing) throw great in melts.

Thanks @Belinda!  I like the sound of that.  I'll pick some up in my next order.

Indiana is one of my favorites!

I've only tried three apple scents.  I love Caramel Apple Cheesecake.  Apple Fritter and Hot Apple Pie are both nice but not my favorites.

For coffees, Pumpkin Spice Latte is one of my all-time favorites.  I love both Cinnamon Dolce Latte and Cafe con leche (it was recently renamed, used to be "Cafe C-u-b-a-n-o", but AFIK it wasn't reformulated).  Gingerbread Cafe Latte seems really nice but I haven't had it long enough to really tell yet.  Vanilla Hazelnut Coffee didn't make much of an impression, but that's another one I haven't had long enough to really decide yet.

I posted some of my other Indiana favorites a few months ago.  I now add Lemon Meringue, Lemon Pound Cake, Gourmet Sugar Cookie and Christmas Kitchen to that list.

@Belinda, I've always thought about trying Apple Brown Betty but the description isn't very, well, descriptive 😆: "More complex than plain Hot Apple Pie this rich Apple Dessert will become an all time favorite."  Do you find it to be much different from apple fritter?

Those are awesome!

Welcome back to candlemaking!

Of those, the only one I've tried both the original and the reformulation is Hansel & Gretel's House.  I only poured one candle.  I don't remember it very well, but I didn't like it.  My notes say that it was very different from the original, very nice OOTB, but it was just sweet and plasticky in wax, so I tossed it.  (But that was only from one test....maybe if I had worked at it I could have improved it, but I didn't bother trying.)

A lot of people on craftserver have said that the smoke and odor eliminator is completely different.  Here's a thread from 2020:

Heads-up, when CS reformulates they sometimes also rename it.  Sometimes they put that info in the new scent's description, but sometimes they miss it.  For example, they introduced a new scent "Black Amber and Plum" that was a reformulation of "Holly Berry".  That IS mentioned on the Holly Berry page, but not on the Black Amber and Plum page.  Same with the old "Antique Sandalwood" that was reformulated and renamed "Library."  So, be careful if you decide to try some of their newer scents.

Ha, I'm reading this thinking to myself, "I don't need another wax...I don't need another wax..." 😆, and then I realize I already have some.  (Maybe.)

About 2 years ago, Aztec started carrying an "all-natural container blend," https://www.candlemaking.com/all-natural-blend-container.html.html.  The rumor on craftserver was that it was BW-917:

They were selling it for $1 a pound as an intro deal so I picked up a couple bags, but I never poured it.  Since your first impressions sound pretty favorable maybe I should dig it out and see how it holds up 2 years later.