Milk Machine

I use Coconut 84X 90% and S&P 487 10% and have had great success with Premier wicks for my single wick candles. I've been trying to make a triple wick candle with a 3 ¾" wide by 3½" tall container. Same blend of waxes and same fragrance oils as my single wick candles. I've been trying Premier 725, 730 & 735. These all seem to do well until about half way down and then the wicks all seem to really struggle. They almost or do drown out. If they are any bigger I think they might be too big during the early burns. I'm wondering if Premier wicks don't do well in this situation. Should I change my blend for larger, 3 wick jars or is there a series of wicks that performs better in this situation. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated! 

Broken record here.... Scent Memory has a lemon creme

Tart, bright lemon zest and juice meets creamy vanilla clouds in this delectable fragrance oil. 

Notes of sweet lemon, vanilla, bergamot, black tea, tonka, honey, vanilla

Check out Scent Memory. She just released a new coconut fragrance, Coconut Butter, described as "

The scent of pure, fresh coconut meat and oil, with light toasted notes for depth. THIS is the coconut you have been searching for. Amazing on its own or as part of a blend. "

Check out Scent Memory champagne cocktail & dessert table. I REALLY like Scent Memory!

WOW!  I just got my sniffies in the mail and wasted no time sniffing them. This set is AMAZING!  Definitely my style. They all smell very high end. The first one I opened without looking was dusted sheets. SO GOOD!  It reminds me of Baccarat Rouge 540 that Scent Memory makes a dupe of, which is not to say it smells like that. It just seems like it's in the same class as that. Basically I really liked them all except for Mesmerize. Maybe my nose is tired but I just don't smell a lot from that one. And personally I'm not a pear fan so I didn't love Perfect Pear BUT I do think it has some depth to it which makes it a very good pear. I would consider carrying it for customers that do like pear. I'd also be curious to know how it does in wax.   Neon Flowers also isn't quite my style but when I would smell it without looking it would grow on me and I think blending it with something like Porter Candles Smoked Brandy Leather would be amazing.  I was really impressed with these. I know that the original intent was for candle specific FOs but I do like mine to be good for soaps as well. If & when there is IFRA data available for these and if possible CA Prop 65 info I would be grateful for that.   As I'm typing I keep smelling "Exhilaration" that touched my nose. It's so nice!  Thank you @TallTayl. These were great!!

I agree👆👆!  I was trying but couldn't think of anything good or that made sense. Oh, actually,  just had the thought what about Made Scents. But really I was typing to say Scenter Square does fit perfectly because we're all about scents and this is like a town square for communicating about them. If you want to keep you business name separate then Made Scents or Make Scents is all I have so far

Hi all, 

I just wanted to share that Kevin from Armatage Candles  launched a mobile & desktop friendly app for candle making. Right now it mostly helps with candle making math but it is beginning to be able to do things like keep track of materials used. Kevin says it will eventually have inventory & COGS features. I'm not associated with him but I have found it somewhat useful and think it will be very useful when he adds all the planned features. He is also very open to suggestions and improvements. I just thought to mention it here in case anyone else would be interested. It is a paid subscription but it's pretty cheap. I had looked into craftybase at one point but that was too rich for my tastes. I think Moonlite could meet my needs at a better price if Kevin can add all the planned features. Check it out if you want!

I got my sniffies today. I'm not near them right now so I am only going by my most distinct memories. I REALLY liked Blue Hyacinth. It was very realistic and natural smelling. Same for Strawberry Rhubarb. I also really liked Strawberry Vine. It was just the right mix of strawberries & leaves & earth. I was surprised by sugar beets. I couldn't believe I liked it!  It was earthy but slightly sweet. I thought it would be nice with Hyacinth to add a little earthiness without darkening it too much. Speaking of earthiness,  Down to Earth is one of the best "earth" or petrichor scent I have smelled. Some others are hyperrealsitic and just unpleasant. This one is realistic but still pleasant and interesting. Also pleasantly surprised by the 3 citrus offerings. My favorite of the 3 was clementine coriander followed by tangerine & ginger but also intrigued by mandarin & myrrh.   BIG THANK YOU to @TallTayl for going above & beyond!

3 hours ago, TallTayl said:

TL/DR It's time for drastic changes to my business model.  I'm excited to pare back to short run fragrances of the month type things and subscriptions over offering dozens of the same fragrances I've always made. It takes me the most time just to find the fragrance bottle I need among so many others. What a waste!

 

The Long Version:

 

After writing and speaking with my CS family I know I'm not alone feeling like I've been stuck. Despite literally hundreds of lbs of fragrance I have no gumption to make anything. That lack of ambition is showing in sales and in my general attitude toward the business. Time to change that!

 

Recently I've ramped up home improvement projects that have been on my mind. We planned for graduation company, so we had a solid date on the calendar to complete a long list of things that have needed attention since before the world stood still. When faced with people sleeping in rooms referred to as a "Room Of Requirement" because pretty much everything got stuck there behind a door motivation improved in a hurry.

 

I moved from room to room clearing out, organizing, and THROWING THINGS OUT! I'm not quite minimalist, but am on my way there. As an example, I loathe seeing a sink piled high with dishes because nobody bothered to run (or empty) the already full dishwasher. My logical brain said we can't have piles of dishes to wash if there are not so many dishes to use. I made many trips down to the curb with boxes piled high of mismatched plates, bowls, cups, glasses, etc that got stacked in the kitchen when we blended households.  I am in the process of making custom ceramic dishes (another post to come about  that). Until that happens the cabinet which was loaded full enough to bulge got emptied. We have 4 sets of plates, bowls, etc. Kept only the nicest of mugs and very few glasses. If we have company pull out the Chinet plates. Boom! Solved. The kitchen seems so much bigger now.  people need to wash their own dishes if they want to eat (or use a chinet, I don't have a preference). This saves me maybe 30 minutes a day of kitchen work now.

 

If I can apply that to the business with maybe 6 fragrances that rotate in/out each month I may have a chance to achieve some sanity and inspiration in the studio. I'm planning to use the custom selections from our fragrance labs and keep barely anything else. I'll be dispersing just about everything else. This is super scary, but has to happen. Imagine every month being completely fresh and new! Imagine storage shelves I can remove since there will be less to store. I'm breaking out in a cold sweat thinking about this.

 

How are you staying motivated?

How am I staying motivated?   Well, I'm still pretty new to it, so that helps. But reading your other post about the new fragrances I think would motivate me if I needed it more!

I also tried BW 924 and was not impressed. I do really like Coco83 with S&P 487

Sounds promising! 

Have you tried Midwest Fragrance Company's Smoked Cedar & Oud. To me it was too woody and too smokey. So maybe that could be more what you want or something to use as a blender

Did the mushrooming with the premier wicks continue past the 2nd or 3rd burn? Mushrooming can be common in the first couple of burns because being at the top of the candle and experiencing more drafts. I ignore Mushrooming that happens in burn 1 or 2, trim the wick and keep going. 

Have you tried Premier 700 series wicks? I know Black Tie Barn uses them and sells them. I'm pretty sure he has used them in the same wax you use. I use it in a coco wax aandi like them. I also think in a recent video from Wade he was testing candle science FOs at 9%. I guess my recommendation would be to try 9% FO and Premier wwicks.  Black Tie Barn has a great price on the wicks and he ships really quickly!   Good Luck! 

.

I had a really difficult to wick FO that would drown out most cotton wicks in a similar blend wax. I tried a .04 booster wick at 0.5" kind of by mistake. It burned quite well with this particular FO. I decided to try a .03 and .02 just to make sure I wasn't over-wicking. Those both were fails. They had towering flames and/or soot and were just too hot. The .04 booster was the best one for that combo. It seemed counterintuitive to me but it worked. I mean to try again with .04 and a the next size smaller width. I know testing is tiresome but it might be worth it to try going up in thickness. 

42 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

I have not done any updates lately. When did it start?

Just today.  I haven't posted in a while. Can you delete all the extra spaces on my post about coconut wax?  Unless they don't show up for other users. Thanks!  Maybe it's something with my phone that is beyond me

Still misbehaving when I tried o post that last one. 

22 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

What type of device?

have you shut down and rebooted?

Samsung (android).  I just tried rebooting. Hopefully that 

Having problems creating posts. Spaces get added, cursor moves to new spots. I've tried clearing my cache, deleting cookies etc but no luck 

These are the waxes I'm testing. I'd like to settle on one but wouldn't mind working with 2. BW 924 seems to be pretty new. I base that assumption only on the limited number of companies that carry it and finding 0 reviews. Has anyone here worked with it? Candles &Supplies 

say that it cures in like 18-24 hours! I just poured some test candles and the CT with 924 after 18 hours is very good. The CT with Ceda Serica is pretty poor. Is that normal for Ceda Serica? I know it has a 2 week cure and wondered how much that effects CT. Basically has anybody worked with both Ceda & BW924 & can compare the 2? Or compare either with Coco83 or Coco84? I like the CT & HT for Coco84X (with some added SP487). I started looking into BW924 as a coconut apricot wax without any paraffin. I think it is soy based. Is Ceda also soy based? Also, most descriptions say Ceda has a "minuscule amount" of paraffin. Coco84X has a "very small" or "small" amount of parffin and BW924 is paraffin free. I'd like to use little to no paraffin which is why I look at these 3 waxes. Thanks for any insight, experiences or opinions.

I did end up buying the ASTM F2417-17 Fire Safety for Candles. There is nothing about container surface temperatures.   I'm so disappointed. I spent the $57 for peace of mind and to cover myself. It provides no guidelines on this subject. No 140° no 170° no 175°.  I don't know where other people get these figures from but it is not from that document. So if you are considering buying it to get that official guideline don't bother.  All the other information contained I have read here or other candle blogs. Big waste of money

Spaces keep getting added & I can't post. Cursor moves on me and miles of space gets added when I try to reply to a thread or send a message

Well, I'm fairly new so I can't be that much help but I thought I'd try since no one else has responded yet.  So the first question is about glass adhesion. I think you are correct that temperature fluctuations can cause those wet spots. From what I understand, those wet spots can happen any time there are temperature fluctuations even after a candle has cured. They are a minor imperfection. I read one place that you can try heat gunning the outside in that area to try to fix it but it may reappear. Just today I was at the store and saw some "professional" candles with the same issue. It really is minor and something candle makers get more frustrated over than candle buyers.

For the 2nd question, I don't work with soy so I don't know the pour Temps. But I do know there are different methods and it might be something you just experiment with and compare your own results. Sorry that's not very helpful 

For the melt pool, I think that when you have reached a full melt pool it should be 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep?  Maybe?  Not more than 1/2 inch if I remember correctly. I use  coconut wax and I know for my wax I do not want a full melt pool (all the way to the edges) at least for the first couple of burns. So I don't worry about 1/4 inch of wax unmelted around the edges. It will often melt once the candle is half way burned down.  If I get a full melt pool on the first burn or 2 my wick is too big and will be way too hot in the middle of the candle. 

Hopefully this helps a little and maybe someone with more experience will correct anything I got wrong 

I was looking for opinions on Wellington Fragrance. It's within driving distance from me. They have some dupes that I like from other companies. I searched on this forum and found some older posts with mixed reviews and just wanted to see if there are any more updated opinions. Thanks!

I just saw this thread and am intrigued by this wax!  I saw one distributor (Cierra) said it was being discontinued. It was unclear if they were not going to continue to carry it or if the manufacturer was discontinuing it. I assume just them?   I have been mostly testing with Coco83 & Coco84X with some S&P 487 but wonder how this compares as far as ease of use and wicking & CT/ HT goes. I saw @TallTayl has used both and wondered if one is better for certain containers or if one is better over all. I personally don't love soy but on the other hand I like the marketability of a paraffin-free wax like BW 917. I'd love to hear if anybody can compare this with Coco83/Coco84X  or even just more general impressions!   Thanks!