NattyCat

OK I melted it down one more time and it's finally come out right.

Inez. Can you send me a larger amount of this stuff so I can do some serious testing with all my moulds and jars? say 10kgs?

Nat

my 3rd attempt came right out of the mould - i used 1tsp of palm stearin.

However, the only part that was crystalized was the base - the rest of the candle, ie the top and side were just blotchy with round splats.

I think I give up.

Natty,

I just checked my info concerning the wax - it should release very easily (just as Sabrina and me experienced) - did you pour it a bit cooler than as you would when pouring a pillar (at around 80 ° C instead of around 95° C)?

It is declard as 100% Palm Stearin and it conforms to RAL standards (German Institute for quality control and identification marking - if this is the correct translation) so it is certainly no crap wax. I'm so sorry you are having a bad time using it!

If it doesn't release from the container I don't think it's bad because I don't like it if the finished candles just falls out of the jar:angry2: ...so this wouldn't bother me, but that's just me.

Hi Inez

I followed the instructions on the bag - you had written to pour at 95 so that's what I did. I re-melted it and poured for a second time into a clean mould that was coated in silicone - but I STILL could not get it out the mould and just had to scoop it out with a knife.

I have just re-melted it for a 3rd time and added a teaspoon of stearin. It has 2 drops of liquid dye and a small splash of FO so I will see tomorrow what happens to it - I poured this third one cooler than the first two so we'll see what happens!

Nat

I ended up using a knife to gouge a great big hole down the middle and then put my fingers in to pull it out - but as soon as I started to pull the whole candle just disintigrated into a pile of dust. this is one BRITTLE wax!

I scooped it all up, remelted and repoured into a freshly cleaned mould that I coated in silicone spray. Let's see how this turns out.

I have never seen anything like this wax - when it was a pile of dust on my kitchen counter, it looked like shards of fibreglass!

I would show you the candle I poured using the Granite wax.

But it won't come out of the mould.

I've banged, frozen, refrigerated, yanked, swore, cursed and cried - but it won't budge.

I blast mine with a hair dryer on the highest output but coolest temperature setting....

Can anyone tell me what 3 heaped tablespoons would be in oz?

I'm trying another rustic and I've seen it says add 3 heaped tablespoons of stearin per lb of wax' date=' which is ok if you are using a full pound of wax. Anyone know what percentage this works out at?

I've got a feeling I saw 10% per pound once?[/quote']

why don't you just use that fancy pair of weighing scales you got from tesco and weigh 3 heaped tablespoons of stearin, and set the unit to "ounces".

Oh ok so I just use this stuff on it's own. I didn't get enough to pour a pillar though - i've only got a little bag and that won't be enough to fill anything other than my smallest mould, and then I won't get to see the effects very well as the surface area will be small. That's why I thought it was just an additive, as there wasn't enough to pour a whole candle.

So what's this palm fat stuff you sent me? That's just a replacement for soy?

Nat

Update!

I'm showing you all a pic of the spider palm wax after the first burn, to show you how it cracked once the melt pool cooled down. Also, a new crack appeared near the bottom. Today I'll do a second burn.

The other pics are the granite palm wax.

This time I used 5% FO without problems. No additives and it came out easily of the mold. No cracks in this, it's differnt than the spider wax.

Hope you enjoy. Thanks for looking!

so is that pure paraffin? How much granite additive did you put in per pound of wax?

I didn't get a spider one - I got peacock and granite...is the peacock the same as the spider?

Nat

blimey - how much is that candle gonna cost? £300?

7.5" wide and you have a row of wicks down the center? There's no way that will burn properly. And 44 pounds? What was the point?

sometimes you just gotta do something silly "cos you can". It makes a nice change from having to pour the same orders over and over again I guess!

effing hell! Is that your central heating for this winter???

btw...I emailed you about glass - did you get it? (scentifique)

Nat

having my gallbladder out was the best thing i ever did...but then i was in liver failure because of it, so having it removed was not optional!

it does hurt like hell. a LOT. and it will continue to twinge for a year or so afterwards - but it's nothing like the pain of gallstones, so keep your chin up - the joy you'll feel at not having that gnawing pain under your ribs is well worth it!

very nice. ecoysoya pillar blend was does the same cracking thing. I hated it so don't make pillars right now. will probably try again with a para/soy blend as I just can't accept cracks round the candle like that. They get worse - when the candle burns down further the whole top of the candle splits apart.....

not sure about the USA, but I think there may be legal implications if you tried to sell it in the UK?

I think it is against the law to repackage some other company's product and then sell it as your own, whether you add FO to it or not? Not sure, but I asked this question a long time ago to some trading official and they gave me that reply...but then I wasn't going to add FOto it, was just gonna repackage and resell.

aah thanks Nat.

Long time no speak' date=' how u doing? [/quote']

Doing alright thanks babe, just working my butt off trying to get the website done. I did reply to your 5055 email - vic wants some now too so just shout if you need it and i'll order and get it delivered direct.

BTW - pour your clams, no repour, shut in about 1 or 2 hours - done.

just don't pour too hot or you'll melt the clamshell...tell me how i know THAT!

I use a container and Pillar wax blend. I find that pillar on it's own is too hard for the weedy tealight oil burners we can get in this country, and they don't melt enough or get hot enough, but container is too soft.

Use pillar but chuck a handful or two of container in there just to soften them up a bit to melt easier with a tealight.

Nat

awwww thanks peeps :embarasse

Hey nat i read that mag!!! Good excuse to buy this edition!!!!

Nothing beats free advertising.Congrats to you!:whoohoo:

Thanks hun! It's the Autumn Special Edition, so will be on the shelves throughout September and October

Does anyone here do dipped bears wholesale? One of my clients wants to introduce them to their range and it's not something I do....

I would have to send the FO to you as it is exclusively blended for them but that's no biggie....

Nat

Thank you! I'm so excited I could just WEE myself!

Been really excited this last month or so as I was contacted by someone at one of the UK's biggest weekly woman's magazine, who said they would be featuring our company, and asked me to send a photo.

The issue is out now and we're on page 5, which is technically page 3 as they count the front cover and inside front cover as pages - we're in the "First things First" section. I'm so excited!

Funny thing is though - our website is shut at the moment because we're just about to launch a new one, so we best get cracking!

I took a photo of the section we're in, and also put the information about the magazine in too. Yipppppeeee - my company is going to be exposed to 804,000 women for free!

Here's my general calculation:

Wax

There are 34 ounces in 1kg, so

£4.00 / 34 oz = 11.7p per ounce

Total Cost of Wax: £1.28

Fragrance

On average, FO costs £1 per ounce

When using a ratio of 1oz of FO per Pound of wax I would round up to the nearest quarter of an ounce, so

11oz candle = 3/4 oz of FO

Total Cost of FO: 75p

Wick: 10p each

Dye: 10p if used

Total Cost of Candle: £2.13

(I didn't include dye as I know you don't use it)

Nat

very nice! I bought that website template too from RTBWizards after I saw it on www.xoxocandles.com.

The format didn't quite work for me, so I wasted my money, so it's really nice to see it working for someone else. And yours looks better than xoxo too!

I emailed them yet again yesterday and still no reply. that's 3 emails I've sent now with no reply and still no draft of the label design I paid them for last week. I think it must be me - I went with them based upon everyone's rave review so I'm hoping that this delay is just down to sheer workload -but it would be nice if they actually told me what was going on or at least replied to my emails.