Jcandleattic

What wattage is your melter? Is it a light bulb style? 2-piece hot plate style? The wattage and type of your melter will affect the throw as much as the wax and amount of scent. There is a very good thread here that will help explain it. If I can find it again, I'll link it.

For Lye I use ED - IMO they have the best value and shipping prices on the bulk lye. I usually buy 2 of their 32lb "deals" and that will last me quite a while. For oils it depends - I go with one of these 3 places depending on price - WSP, Soaper's Choice, or MMS (aka Majestic Mountain Sage or The Sage) WSP has free shipping on everything once you reach their $40 minimum (with oils that's easy to do), MMS is close to me and sometimes have great deals (they had PKO on sale 100lbs for $50 2 years ago, so I got 200lbs - great deal even with shipping) Soaper's Choice has great products.

Also, along with what OG said, if you are testing next day it may be too soon. Is 3022 a paraffin/soy blend or does it have soy/palm in it at all? If so then yes, a day is too soon to test for throw. I'd even wait up to 3 days for paraffin candles as well. You'll notice the difference.

I'm going to try the whipped soap again, but probably not the salt bars. As the salt bars cure, they have tiny pink spots in the Dijon mustard yellow bleh color. but I doubt it will all turn back, but I'd be happy if it did...

I guess "trim" was a misnomer, no, I mean just smush them harder when "hugging" - but that's the spaces that will leave the wall thicker than elsewhere in the candle. It's so hard to explain in text - I wish I could show you. :-/

I often wonder that too. I'm willing to bet it probably does, even if just a little because I know weather elements can sure play a part in how a soap reacts as well.

It will just end up slimy goo. You can go ahead and try it though. I think everybody needs to try that at least once. LOL

What Trappeur said Ktaggard - Beautiful website. I wish mine was as nice, but alas - it is what it is. Because I don't have time to promote and I don't spend much time updating my site, obviously I don't get much business there. I mostly use it to show people what I have and the scents I carry. I really need to spend the time to update it more often, but bleh - that's part of the business structure that alludes me and because it's not something that I can naturally pick up on, and it takes effort and work, it gets put to the back burner. I've had different variations of my website now for 15 years - and lucky if I get a couple sales a month directly on my site. However, like I said, I don't promote it like I should. I do make enough revenue elsewhere and can see I get a lot of traffic on my site, so from the other sales (which are probably partially driven from my site) it is worth it to me to keep it.

Very pretty! I wish I could like lavender. Everyone seems to love it, but it gives me such a headache I can't work with it.

I love Nurture for their mica's. You won't be disappointed.

I get a lot of my soaping accessories from Wal-Mart. Like my silicone spatula's, and measuring cups. I also get a lot from the Dollar Tree as well. It's amazing what you can get and where very inexpensively.

Okay, I'm not good with the actual scents, but I would think anything woodsy/outdoorsy, anything spicey (without fruit in it) and anything clean smelling. Those would be the groups I would start with and dwindle down from there. (sorry, I know it didn't help much)

Use a heat gun to clean the beaters. Takes a matter of seconds and easy peasy done!

I get it at the 3 points. Hard to describe where without a visual, but think of it as 3 - 3" pillars shoved together - all the white space around the outside, that in a 3 wick pillar has wax? That's where I have to trim - but only slightly because I will still "hug" my 3 wicker, and push it in toward each wick in the center. Well, I know what I'm talking about - but it's hard to explain in text. LOL

Good luck on your next show!

I have a true 1 pour container wax that I don't have to save any for that, but for my pillars and votive's I save some in either another votive cup or tart molds.

I have pins that have a smaller round base for the bottoms of the pins. They are little bigger than a votive pin bottom. They work very well.

Thank you. Yes, the highlighted portion of the article is what I was trying to say, however it was said better (and more scientific) in the article.

they look good. I use 4625 and a 24 in my 3x6 candles with no problems. my 6x6 and 6x9 candles have holes in the molds and that is one of the only molds I still use wick pins in because I can't center them very well and the holes do seem to be placed very well. Yours do seem a little off in the unlit pic, but it could be the picture - the lit pics don't look off center to me. Yes, it does matter even though it's the bottom of the candle, because once it burns down to that point it could go wonky and the last 1/3 - 1/4 of a pillar is the most 'dangerous' part of burning the candle. (people forget about them, they burn them all the way down scorching the tables they are on, etc., etc.,) Good luck, looks like you are on the right track.

LOL it's probably chewing tobacco. (and yes, still gross!!) Glad you did good - Good Luck tomorrow too!!

Well, going over it in my head and I finally think I figured it out. I don't know though. And yes, those damn gremlins can go visit someone else. I do NOT like them!!!

UGH - apparently today was not the day to soap. My well thought out peppermint salt soap turned a pukey baby poo yellowish green - so those will ALL have to be mine. (they smell good though) and I wasted almost a whole pound of Himalayan Pink salt in the process. The whipped soap I had planned will NOT come to trace. Using my normal recipe that normally reaches a thick trace in 5-7 minutes max when stick blending has been in the blender on HIGH for about 20 minutes now and is still just as fluid as it was before I added my lye water. Checked and calibrated my scale, it's fine. double checked all of my measurements and unless I am a complete spaz, they were correct too. I have no clue what is going on. *sigh* I'm going to go take a nap know. I'm feeling a bit defeated.

That's nice Suzy! My brother had no kids and was divorced. I wouldn't say he was a partyer or anything, but he did enjoy his Crown Royal, so when we toast we do shots of Crown. We usually end up having 50-60 guests show up every year even though there is only about 10 in his core group of friends he grew up with, he did know them all and they all want to come and commemorate his life with us. As he said, he had the best friends in the world and it's a true fact. He did.

you are right to be suspicious. Many years ago a customer bought one of my memorial hurricane shells. She said it broke in transit and for me to replace it. I did no questions asked (my mistake) and she then ordered 5 more. She paid for them, I sent them, and she proceeded to say that all 5 again broke in transit and for me to replace them. Well, knowing (or presumably knowing) that the first one broke, I made sure that these ones would not break in transit and protected them so well that the only thing that would break these things is if a Mack Truck ran over them. I asked her to send me a picture, and started the process of making a claim for the insurance (I can't remember now if I was responsible for that or she was) I refused to budge at that point, she procrastinated with everything so long that the postal service wouldn't pay the insurance, and she refused to send me pics of the damaged product OR return them for a full refund or replacement upon my receipt of said damaged goods. Doesn't matter - short story long is that it ended up I found out she was lying, all 7 I had sent her, it turned out, were fine and she was just trying to scam me into making enough for her whole family without paying for any of them. So since then, yes, if its somebody I don't know or trust I will take the extra precautions to protect myself.

I do sometimes - especially if it's a new customer. And I always get insurance.