Crafty1_AJ

I need to ban myself so I can get busy making lotion, soap, and tester candles! Ack! I feel your pain ... LOL!

I'm not a cut & carver, so I know zip. But I do know I like it very much!

Was it Camille Beckman? ETA: Oh, sorry. Spaced out there! Failure to adequately caffeinate ...

Oh yeah, I was browsing a Hallmark in the Phoenix area recently, and I saw some body butter. It seems like the brand name on the label was a woman's name? It smelled kinda old and rancid to me, but coulda been I was having an off day with my schnoz. LOL Or it might have just been on the shelves a bit too long. Scratching my head trying to remember that name ...

At my local Wal-Mart Supercenter, I can get olive, coconut, lard, canola, soybean and even castor (in the pharmacy). I've also seen safflower and sunflower in the local grocery stores.

Yes, I'm seeing jump lines, so you might have poured hotter or preheated -- however, that might have melted your chunks! When I do chunk votives and pillars, I don't like to pour the overpour too hot, otherwise the chunks may melt a bit. I think your candles look good! ;-D

In my experience, any candle can give off soot if not wicked correctly and/or burned correctly. However, I do think soy is cleaner burning in general, as long as the candle's wicked correctly and burned correctly (out of a draft, keep wick trimmed, etc.) ETA: I get good throw from my soy candles, but it takes a little longer for soy to "get going" and get that scent out into the room sometimes. My paraffin candles seem to zip that scent right out into the room a bit faster. And yes, as was posted before, some scents which will throw great in paraffin refuse to throw in soy. You just have to test. HTH!

Are you using different waxes or the same for candles and tarts? If I can't get decent throw from a candle, I usually don't get very good throw from that same fo in a tart. I must be living wrong! LOL Or using the wrong waxes! (Or maybe both! LOL) ETA: Sometimes the throw is slightly better with for me w/ tarts, but not much! The thing I love about tarts and wickless candles is the fact that I can use scents that are a booger to wick, such as clove. :-D

Personally, I don't find any huge difference between wickless candles, tarts, and candles if you use the same wax and same level of fo. That's because the scent throw is related to the melt pool, not the flame. In my experience, (all other factors being equal), the bigger the melt pool, the better you're going to smell the scent in the room. The scent throw on a big ol' double-wicked apothecary is just plain better than the scent throw of a votive (in terms of how far away you can detect scent). My recommendation would be to check the manufacturer's suggestion for scent load on your wax and stick with that. I do use a different fragrance load on my tarts than I do with my containers, but that's because I use different waxes with different maximum scent loads. HTH

Yes, Missourian here, and the weather was AWFUL. Really did a lot of damage. We had damage to our house from hailstones the size of golf balls being driven into it by fierce winds. But we were the lucky ones ... some were killed. :embarasse I didn't plug your numbers into a soapmaking program, but the percentages of your oils & butters look good to me. I like your balance of soft and hard oils; I make a soap similar to that and it's a bar I really like to use on my dry skin! Let us know how it works after the cure!

Yes, the 16 oz. jars don't fit as well -- that's true. I should have mentioned that 95% of my website candle sales are the 8 oz. square mason jars, so I can comfortably fit six in there, each individually bubble-wrapped and surrounded by a cushion of peanuts. HTH!

I whip my shea until it's starting to get creamy and then put it in jars. You can put it into your jars anytime, but it's going to set up and look a lot nicer if it's still a bit soft and not yet set up / stiff. No clue on your other question ... sowwy 'bout dat! LOL

I've made all kinds of different soaps, including some with a relatively high percentage of soft oils. EVENTUALLY, they all get rock hard. Some types are just faster getting there than others! LOL

I've gotten that color 3 ways. 1. Blue food coloring -- goes purple in an alkaline environment 2. UM Violet 3. Liquid purple colorant from Dragon Lily Essentials HTH! Oh, the gray color results from not using enough.

For me, most of the time the oob smell is the same -- it's how it ends up smelling in the wax or soap. But I thought the SW Mango smelled kinda skanky oob. Went ahead and actually soaped it. It smelled soooooo much better in CP! A shocking surprise, but a nice one. LOL

Aw, thanks, guys!

Woohoo! Congrats! It's a great feeling!

Since jar candles tend to be heavy, I use the USPS flat-rate Priority boxes. They cost $8.10 each, and since my jar candles weigh about a pound apiece, shipping would be much higher on most of my customers' orders if I did NOT use flat-rate. They really save money with those boxes. I love 'em! Most orders can fit into one box, but if they order 10-20 candles or more, of course I have to use a 2nd or 3rd box. I just charge for exactly however many of boxes they need ... no handling charges or hidden fees or anything like that. HTH

LOL -- I do that too! (With the 2 diff. calculators.) Yes, I agree with Glo. If you want, you could sub lard for the palm in my recipe. Plug that recipe into the calculator and see what kind of soap you get! You could also take out 5% of the olive oil and replace it with 5% castor oil. You can get all the ingredients at a Super Walmart that way.

LOL!!

I've seen big name candles with huge wet spots, oil seepage, blotchy wax, off-centered wicks, tunnels when burning, and crummy scent throw. Then again, when I was starting making candles, I made candles like that too! You're right -- no such thing as a perfect candle! It's always something ...

What kind of wax you using? And how wide is the diameter of the jar?

I just take that crimped wick tab collar and shove it up into the bottom of the candle. It sinks right into the wax and holds.

The manufacturer of your wax should have guidelines for recommended scent load. Sometimes that info. is posted by the seller of the wax too. Six percent is typical, but some hold much more. And of course, as the others said, it depends on the fo too! Some killer strong ones you can use at half the level you typically use on other fo's. HTH!

Well if my wicks are not burning steadily, it means they're either in a slight draft or they need trimming. Or you could try those candle cappers maybe? They do keep the flame steady even in a light draft.