Jcandleattic

9 minutes ago, Quentin said:

  @Jcandleattic you're needed back at the office.

LOL 

when I say Presto, I am talking about an actual presto pot that will hold about 8-10 lbs of wax, not the 55 gallon melter - that is HUGE and way way to big for any type of production I would put out. 

I have 4 of these - minus the basket and lid. 

23 hours ago, kandlekrazy said:

Coolest soaps!  They must fly off your shelves.

They do! and they are so fun - but laborious- to make. 

10 hours ago, Kerven said:

Wax into pot, turn it on*, put the lid on (optional), and give it a stir once in a while.

I know the OP said they are using soy, however, I'd be very careful putting the lid on when melting wax. 

I know I would never ever put a lid on my presto when melting paraffin. I've seen and heard horror stories about that, although I've never experienced it myself. The minute I open my prestos I either throw the lids out or use them for other things, never when melting wax. 

I voted between $2k-$4k, but would have to go back and look - it's been over 20 years since I started making, and I did get my business license and all insurance in place that first year, even though I don't think I started selling for almost 3 years after making my very first ever candle. And I was constantly adding costs due to testing and all the different things I'd try, yearly insurance, licensing and other expenses, etc.,  

14 hours ago, Quentin said:

But I can't safely put pots of paraffin directly on an electric griddle. Absolutely a NO-NO. Not ever? I think that's what you're telling me. If I want to make two colors of paraffin at the same time, I'll just need to pull out a second double boiler. Is that correct?

I think that's what she is saying but it's incorrect. I put my repour wax in my pour pot that I set directly on my electric griddle all the time, sometimes as much as 6-8oz of wax for a large repour and it's always fine. I can fit 3 of the small pour pots on my griddle comfortably. I've never tried 4, I don't think that many would fit, however, if you had a bigger griddle... 

You can use a griddle just like you would a presto pot. I wouldn;t (and haven't since my very first candle) use the double boiler method with paraffin. You risk getting water splashes up in the wax from the boiling water. 

What you don't want to do is heat paraffin on a direct heat source (like a hotplate and pan) when it's a presto or griddle, it's not direct heat, and will melt it fine. A hotplate and a griddle are 2 different things with the heat source not conducting the same way. 

I've never had paraffin wax smoke and that's even with accidentally setting my presto to 300+ degrees for a couple hours thinking I turned it off. 

If you can bear the cost, Perfect Man. It's one I haven't seen in the above recommendations. 

This is a great masculine scent and one of the very very few I will pay that much for a lb. (I have only bought it twice and use it very sparingly because I'm so cheap!! HAHA) 

A lot of my FO's change the color of the batter (I add the FO in with the oil before adding my lye solution) however I find as long as I gel my soap, the color will 'turn' back to what it's supposed to be. And I use a VS that works wonders and can stave off any discoloration of a vanilla in a soap for at least a year, sometimes indefinitely depending on the vanilla content. 

As for colors, for me, to get a true purple, I have to mix three different micas, but it remains true to what I want even after cure. To get a true orange I have to add neon orange to my regular orange. It does fade with time, but I find that with adding the neon, it fades to the orange it is supposed to be (or the orange I want it to be). 

To get a true dark black, I mix AC with black oxide, and sometimes still end up with grey if I dont' get the mix JUST RIGHT.

Same with my true red which is a bit of red oxide with neon pink. This mixture also has to be just right or it gets the pink hue, or the barn red. Most of the time I can get it right unless I'm in a hurry. LOL 

Depends on how I'm burning it. If I'm burning straight through without turning the burner off, I expect it to last at least all day - meaning 10-12 hours with a consistent throw. If I'm turning off/on off/on, I expect it to last at least 24 hours (turning it off/on every 2-3 hours or so) 

I hope I'm making sense. It makes sense in my head, but I realize sometimes I don't come across verbally the way I intend. 

Very well said @ncraiders

On 6/22/2018 at 5:42 PM, Testing123 said:

whats the best device to use to tighten the tabs?

I just now saw this - so sorry. I use a pair of pliers I stole from my husband and have had in my candle tools for years - I use it when making my own wick assembly, so it would stand to reason to use it to crimp the pre-tabbed assemblies as well. 

57 minutes ago, Forrest said:

 

Then according to the book I read having unique scents that aren’t available anywhere else should be the cornerstone of your marketing.  So my follow up question would be do the people who buy your products know this? If not what could you do to make sure they know?

 

I give the majority of my products names that don't have the scent anywhere in the name. Like my blue mermaid fin soap. I'm naming that one A Sailor's Dream.  My DB, embargo, CB scented soap is named Kilgharrah after The Great Dragon of Merlin folklore. For me, that is also part of my "uniqueness" - you will never find another "Kilgharrah" soap scented the same as mine.

I always say, it's the look of my product that draws them in, and gets them to pick up the product, and it's a combination of the scent and naming convention that gets them to buy. I do have some customers, that will ask if I have a certain scent, and if I have one that is it, or close, I hand them the product and let them sniff it to see if it's what they are looking for - 9 times out of 10 it's not, since I blend, however, 6 times out of 10 they will buy. (this is a guess, but it's a only a handful that turn their nose up and don't buy because it's not exactly spot on what they want) 

16 minutes ago, Faerywren said:

Like Sarah, I do almost all custom blends. When I smell a fragrance I almost immediately get a feeling of what it "needs" to round it out. I only do a handful of single FOs, all my others are blends. When someone buys a soap or candle from me, they are getting something they can't get anywhere else. I get a lot of enjoyment from blending and testing and naming. Almost as much as making the items themselves. 😂

This sounds exactly like me, and what I was going to say as well.

22 hours ago, Forrest said:

My problem is I can't seem to let go of the old samples that I'm never going to use. If I could do that I would have room for some new samples.

 

I started mixing them to make new scents. The has worked for me and I'm down to only about 30-40 sample bottles now (please don't ask how many I had before I started blending!! LOL) 

I mix peppermint with sooo many things - 

Peppermint with Dragon's Blood - call it Dragons' Breath

Peppermint with Snow Witch (a piney scent) 

Peppermint with Apple and Orchard 

Peppermint with Vanilla

Peppermint with Apple Blossom

Peppermint with Pink Sugar

Peppermint seems to go with a lot of things, you just need to get the combo right, because it can be an overpowering scent. 

5 minutes ago, Quentin said:

You are correct. I should have been more specific. Some of the sellers of the hybrid waxes are coming close to making claims that some of their products are "one pour" pillar waxes. IGI 6028 is one that comes to mind right now. At least that's the information coming from Candlewic.  As I said, I'm skeptical.

As @Crafty1_AJ said though, pillar waxes need to shrink and pull away from the side of the mold though, or else it was be very hard to remove from the mold. I'm with you, I'm skeptical about this. 

17 minutes ago, Sebleo said:

if you are knowledgeable about all wax production, there is not one that is better for the environment than another. 

This. Soo so much this!!! 

Why prime? I get my wicks pre-primed by the supplier, but if I were using raw wicking, I wouldn't bother with priming (I don't with my pillars) 

If you really want to prime, I would use beeswax as the primer since that is a wax you use, and it has the higher melt point. 

@Laura C nope, hokum doesn't die. LOL 

56 minutes ago, Laura C said:

If there is a post on here I should read just let me know.

There is one, let me find it - 

51 minutes ago, Laura C said:

What's the deal with adding the scent based on the FO flash point? Does that make a difference with cold & hot scent throw?

No. Flashpoint has literally nothing to do with when to add the FO, at what temp or anything else. Flashpoint of a volatile material is the lowest temperature at which vapours of the material will ignite, when given an ignition source, such as a spark or open flame. 

In our world it will mostly determine whether an FO can be shipped by air or ground. Unless you are working near an open flame (which let's hope you are not) then you do not have to be concerned with the flashpoint. 

15 hours ago, Quentin said:

I've been curious lately about the single pour waxes I see on the market. Mainly as a substitute for some of the paraffin pillar blends like IGI 4625, just to give one example. 

Do they really live up to that claim?  No second pour or topping off or punching holes in the bottom? Really?  I'm not being lazy. I'm just looking for ways to cut down the time involved with all that stuff. What I'm saying is, time is money. I'm skeptical about single pours.

Do you mean for pillars? Then no, not really.  But if you are looking for container wax, and don't mind using paraffin, then yes, there are some still available. I use J50 - or what is now known as IGI 4636, and it is truly a one pour container paraffin blend. I never get a dip or have to do a repour with this container wax. 

Now with palm container, all I do for those, is once the top forms a 'crust' so to speak and is solid enough to hold the liquid in below, I just flip my containers over. No second pour, but to get the timing down right it takes some practice. If I didnt' do the flip though, I would have to do a repour.

For pillars though, the closest I've come is pouring cool and having to only do 1 repour, I've never seen, nor heard of, a single pour pillar wax.

I know people try to single pour their palm pillars, as have I, but it never really works out. 

14 hours ago, Marleigha said:

So sorry to hear that you don't have the time to get an order in this go round.  This will actually be the first time I've ever placed an order during the sale and it's only because I need a few pounds of some of my staple scents.  What ones have you used from them and loved?  

CS's cotton candy is my FAVORITE cotton candy. I also really love their Raspberry Sangria, and if you don't make soap/bb items it's a good one because it's not skin safe. Found that out AFTER I ordered it, but I love it. I *think* that's where I got the Violet Lime and loved it. I also really like their cucumber mint. There are several others, but those are the ones right off the top of my head from them that I love. . 

This is the first year in a long time I won't be partaking in this particular scent event. ... Just too busy and don't have time to get an order in. 

Sorry Trapp, I haven't used any of the ones you mentioned. The only scent I have ever tried that had the word "birch" in it, was NG's Cracklin' Birch. And I used that in a mix.