krateliff

I know that you said that you cleaned your molds, but I'm not sure what method you used to clean them. I fought the pinhole problem for about a week with 4794. What finally worked for me was to spray the molds with WD-40, let soak for a couple of minutes, wipe clean with paper towels. Then spray with Pam, soak for a couple of minutes, and wipe clean with paper towels. This cured the pinhole problem for me.

What temperature are you pouring each layer at? I've seen that look on the bottom of my votives before. It happens when I pour too cold. I just went and looked at all the votives I have cooling. It was hard to tell since everything I made today is white, but I did get the bubbles on the votives I poured at 160 and the ones I poured at 170 looked better. HTH, Kristy

Thanks everyone for your help. I was getting so frustrated. I never did get a mottle out of this wax. At tremendously high percentages of oil (I mean really really high) it did sweat a little bit but not as much as Top's picture. I have come to the conclusion that it is not 1343. I researched on BCS website and IGI's website and decided that this wax must be 4625. I'm not sure, but pretty sure since I determined that the meltpoint was in the 140 range. I know it's not 1313 since I have some and they don't look alike at all. I know it's not 4614 because it was not a one pour and I have 4614. And since it must not be 1343, that only leaves 4625 left. Thank you Top and Scented for all of your help. I'm going to throw this wax back in the bottom of the closet and order a fresh batch of 1343 so that I can try again.

Top, What you are describing is about what I expected to happen and how I thought the wax would behave. So now I'm wondering if maybe I got the wrong wax. I ordered 1343, my invoice says 1343, the package says 1343, but maybe it's not 1343. I just got 10 pounds so maybe they grabbed the wrong one when bagging my order. Now I'll have to try to figure out what I have. I'm wondering if it's a blend instead of just plain parrafin and maybe that's why it's not leaking or sweating? Could you post a pic of yours? Thank you, Kristy

Yes I'm afraid that I'm a geek. I think it must be all of that computer science and biomedical engineering from school. I haven't had this much fun in years, and I have so many chemicals to play with. My poor family may never get a home cooked meal again.

I don't have much more time today since duty calls. I have to do all of those housewife things. :rolleyes2 I will pour a couple of more votives using lower percentages of oil. I'll try with 2, 3, 4, and 5% tommorow. Maybe try some with steric acid and some without. That should keep me busy for tommorow. You may be right, I probally am just too far in the extremes.

I'm just a newbie too that has no idea what I'm doing. That's why I'm doing so many crazy experiments in the first place!

Thanks for the thoughts Top. Yes, I chose 100 grams because it made the math easy and it was just enough to make 1 votive and have just a little bit of wax left over. I've poured the experiment that Scented suggested and poured at all kinds of temps just to see what happens. I poured at 200, 195, 190, 185, and 180. I also just for kicks and giggles mixed up one with 1 oz fo and 2 oz wax and another with 1 oz mineral oil and 1 oz wax just to see what on earth happens. I guess that I'm weird like that. I think though after watching the first 4 candles burn I may have an answer. I had just assumed that if wax is like a sponge that if you exceeded the amount of fo it can hold the rest would just seep or leak out of the candle. But now I don't really think so. I think that this could happen with some waxes but maybe it just depends on the oil content of the wax to begin with? It does however affect the burn quality since all four are burning differently. The candle with vybar needs a bigger wick I think. The flame on it is only about 1/4" tall. The flame on the candle without additives is huge so deffinatly needs a smaller wick. But it's not the answer to the totally liquid votive (at least not with the LX10 wick). On another note, I remember reading on here somewhere that there are two different kinds of 1343. 1343A and 1343N? One mottled and one didn't. I don't know which one I have. I bought it from Bitter Creek South so it's possible that this wax just won't mottle no matter how much fo or at what temp.

Ok. I will try hotter temps today and I'll use ounces. If I convert the formula with steric that I used in the previous experiment to ounces and adjust to make a larger batch the proportion would be: 12.8 ounces wax 1.6 ounces fo 1.6 ounces steric acid I can't measure this on my scale so I can try 13 oz wax 1.5 oz fo 1.5 oz steric acid which would be roughly 9% steric, 9% fo, and 81% wax. If this formula isn't right please let me know. This should make 16 oz of wax and I can make 8 votives so I can pour each one at a differnt temp. I can try 175, 180, 185, and 190.

My fragrance oils from Nature's Garden and Scent Works arrived yesterday and I just can't stop sniffing. These fragrance oils are soooooooo good!!!!! Now I'm just sorry that I didn't order more but after buying some from one supplier that I just didn't care for too much I've been more cautious on purchasing fragrance oils. From Natures Garden I got: Smoke Eliminator Angel Food Cake Kumquat Honeysuckle Sweet Pea Vanilla Silk Hillbilly Homebrew French Vanilla Caribbean Best Friends Monkey Farts OOB I really like the Kumquat, Smoke Eliminator, Angel Foodcake, Honeysuckle, Vanilla Silk, and Sweet Pea. I like the French Vanilla too, but the Vanilla Silk is better. OOB I really didn't care for Best Friends, Caribbean, Hillbilly Homebrew, and Monkey Farts. From Scent-Works I got: London Lemon Curd Moonlit Honeysuckle Dragon's Blood Sandalwood Vanilla Egyptian Spice Black Orchid and White Lilly Ambadilla and free samples of Be Delicious and Stella. OOB I loved all of these except for Dragon's Blood, Ambadilla, and Stella. My favorite is Be Delicious and LLC. Oh these are soo good. I'm really glad that I ordered these in the 4oz size rather than the samples! My DH really didn't care for any of these, but I love them. I don't think I can imagine wasting some of these in wax though, they smell just way too good, and were sooo expensive. Unfortunatly I don't do bath and body and I don't think DH is going to let me get too many projects going. I've already made two trips to Bitter Creek South, one trip to Houston Candle Supply, and ordered from Candlewic, Scent-Works, Natures Garden and Rustic Escentuals. I can't wait until next week to try some of these in wax. Unfortunatly I have a swim team party tonight and swim team all day tommorow so it will be Sunday before I have time to play.

Thanks for replying Scented. As for the mineral oil batch, no I did not add any fo. Just 20 grams mineral oil and 80 grams wax, nothing else. I was using the mineral oil in place of the fo because I was tired of wasting fo and just trying to see what happens when you use too much oil. But it did not mottle and I'm sure that 20% oil should be way too much. It was just a mad science experiment. Yep, I expected batch 1 to mottle, but it didn't. That's why I tried the mineral oil experiment which didn't mottle either. I will try higher temps today. I was afraid of too high of a temp because I don't want to cook off the fo, and when I tried the 4794 I had problems with pits.

Please help! I have read, searched, and studied and thought that I understood, but I am totally confused. I thought that wax was like a sponge and could only hold so much fo and that if you exceeded this amount that the candle would either sweat out the extra oil or mottle (actually I thought that the sweating is what caused the mottle). I've been experimenting with IGI 1343 and I thought that the this wax could only hold 3% fo. I expected that if I put in too much fo that either the candle would have a mottled appearance, I would find extra fo in the bottom of the votive cup, or the candle would sweat and I would find little beads of fo on the candle. I mixed 4 different batches to test so that I could see the difference between the different additives. I may just be in need of a math lesson so I'll give all of my measurements. To start I colored several pounds of the 1343 pink so that all candles would have the same color. All candles were supposed to be 10% fo so all measurements add up to 100 grams. Batch 1: 90 grams 1343 and 10 grams fo. (90% wax, 10% fo) Batch 2: 80 grams 1343, 10 grams fo, 10 grams steric acid (80% wax, 10% fo, 10% SA) Batch 3: 88 grams 1343, 10 grams fo, 2 grams vybar (88% wax, 10% fo, 2% vybar) Batch 4: 88 grams 1343, 10 grams fo, 2 grams universal additive. (88% wax, 10% fo, 2% UA) Each batch was poured at 170 degrees. I poured each batch into a votive cup and used an LX10 wick in each one. I can see differences in the appearance of each candle (mainly the appearance of the top), but none of these sweated or leaked fo. The one with stearic acid looked blotchy but did not feel slimy and I really didn't like the blotchy look. This one did not look like the pics of mottled candles in the gallery if just looked blotchy (and unfortunatly I didn't take a pic). I was sure that when I started probally all of these candles would sweat. I thought for sure the first one would but none of them did. In frustration I mixed up another batch with 20 grams of mineral oil and 80 grams of wax (20% oil, 80% wax). I did not wick this one but I put it in the oven to cool slowly sure that it would mottle or at least leak the oil, but it didn't. It came out totally smooth and not oily feeling at all. No oil in the bottom of my cup. No sweating. I expected something to happen so that I would know I had exceeded the fo load of the wax. I thought the purpose of these additives was to increase the fo load of the wax so I really expected some to leak more fo than others. But since none leaked at all I am totally confused. So my question is, exactly what happens if you put too much fo? Sorry for the long post but I was hoping with enough details someone would be able to point out where I went wrong. Thanks for any help you can give.

I forgot to mention that Michael's is having a sale on their flowers right now. They were 40% off.

These were silk flowers. The first one I did, I had a bit of trouble with because I dipped it too many times and it became too heavy. In an effort to fix my boo boo I discovered the easy method. I'm using a big pyrex measuring cup to dip my flowers in so the cup is not very deep. I take off the stem and little green piece and clip a clothespin on so I have something to hang on to. Then I dip the flower, shake off excess wax, and stand up the clothespin on wax paper to catch the drips. When they are dry I just put them back together. I hope this makes since. I'm doing more today so if anyone wants, I can take pics of the process and post later. If you do get too much wax on them, I found that you can just toss the flower back in the pot until all of the wax melts off. I hope my colors and fo come today so I can play with adding color!

Thanks everyone. I had thought about giving the roses for a Mother's Day gift but didn't want to give my MIL Sex on the Beach and I don't have any rose fo. I have more fo's arriving tommorow that I hope to play with if I can get another thermometer. :smiley2: I just wish that I knew more about arranging flowers.

So far none of my candles have come out to well. I am still experimenting and impatiently waiting for more supplies to arrive so I decided to play with dipping things in wax. This is soo much fun! Everything is scented Sex on the Beach since that's all I had on hand. [attach]6258[/attach] [attach]6259[/attach] Thanks for looking, Kristy

I sent you a pm.

ROFLOL That is just too funny. Nope, I don't think I can get a bigger house. Just will have to get rid of some of this junk. Now lets see what can I toss? The kids toys? DH tools out of the garage? Maybe all of the dishes in my kitchen cabinets since it looks like we'll be eating at Burger King everynight. I think I'll start with the closet under the stairs. Surely we really didn't need the vaccuum cleaner. I really fear that someone needs to come take away my credit cards before they go in shock. I started searching today looking for must have fo from Bitter Creek South so I can place an order. Instead of finding suggestions though I found so much more. I need one of everything from WYW, SW, Peaks, and NG. Hmmmmmm. How to ever pick just a few scents to try?

Good luck. Let us know how it works out. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

How much wax went down before you realized what was happening?

Hi Nina, I am new here too and I would love to be your friend. I've only made a few candles so far, but now me and DH are hooked and want to try it all! Hope you have a great day, Kristy

Our Sams discontinued the paper portion cups so now they only have the plastic ones. I don't know which size you are looking for but Genpak and Sweetheart make them. Here is a link to all of the different sizes that Genpak makes http://www.genpak.com/cfm/containersbycategory.cfm?catid=15 HTH, Kristy

When you are testing your candle how long do you need to wait between burns. Can you relight the candle as soon as it has completely cooled or should you only burn it once a day? Thanks for any advice you can give me.

I am new to making candles and I love this board. I have spent hours reading, researching, learning, and drooling over all of the pictures in the gallery. There is so much information here and everyone seems so nice and helpful. I hope that oneday I can make candles half as well as some of you. We made our very first candles a couple of days ago. For our first attempt we are using the 4oz hex jars with IGI 6006 wax. I really like this wax a lot, but it’s the only wax I’ve used so I don’t have much to compare it to. We poured two candles without fo (just wax), two with amber rose (I love this one), and two cucumber melon (DD loves this one). For wicks we are trying the 44-20-18z and 44-24-18z. So far I have only been test burning the unscented candle. This is our control candle and we thought it would allow us to see how the fo affects the wick size needed. Besides, after pouring we were dying to have something to burn and the whole house smells like Amber Rose so we have to wait on the house to air out before we can test burn the scented candles. I can see already that this hobby (and this board) is addictive! There’s so many things to make and so many waxes, wicks, colors, and fo’s to try! Now if I can only find some where to store all of this stuff out of the way instead of on top of my kitchen counters!

Sales Tax- All of my sales are in Texas so I have to tax everything. Tax rates vary according to where your buisness is located, so you should check with the comptroller. I believe that if you are shipping out of state (mail order) then you do not have to collect sales tax. I have to file my sales tax quarterly (TODAY!). The form is not very complicated and my computer generates a report showing my sales for the quarter so this is not very difficult. I file my taxes online and it only takes about 10 minutes a quarter. Federa Tax Id- Even without employees, you may still want to apply for one of these numbers. My suppliers (I own a video store) require this number. Without one, you have to use your social security number which I did not want to do. What type of buisness? The easiset is a sole-propieter. There are other types, but this suited my needs and was easy. Of course owning a buisness makes your tax return a PITA!!! That's what I'm furiosly working on now. If you do contact the IRS, make sure they send you the small buisness kit. It has all kinds of information of how to keep your books and what kind of records to keep. It also helps you to know what is deductible and what isn't. You should start by registering your buisness name with the county clerks office. Make sure that you get several certified copies (1 for you, 1 for the bank, and 1 just in case). This has to be done every ten years. I think it cost me $10. If you don't have employees you don't need to register with the TWC. :0) Make sure you save your receipts, but I would hope that you are better organized than me. LOL. I just threw all of my receipts in a box and now I am desperatly trying to go throught them and get them organized so that I can file my tax return. It's best to do your bookkeeping each week or so! Oh, I almost forgot the property taxes. The tax accessor will tax all of your fixtures, inventory, and buisiness equipment. Sorry for rambling and the spelling. My spelling is aweful! Hope some of this helps and makes everything clear as mud. Anyway, back to my box of receipts I must go!