bunkie68

Someone mentioned an additive that helps keep vanilla scents from discoloring. ??? Anyone have any idea what exactly this might be?

I'm going to have sugar scrubs in November's Little Black Box, and I'm wanting to include a Christmas/winter/holiday-type scent. What might work best? A more green/pine/forest sort of scent, or a more foody/cinnamony/vanilla type scent? I'm really having an indecisive moment here, so any thoughts are appreciated! And for what it's worth, right now I'm leaning toward Cranberry Balsam from NG, simply because I love it and it would be a little different from lots of the things you see available.

I'm going to have to try them out! I need some labels and was wondering what a good place to order from might be. So glad I found this thread, and I'll post reviews after I've ordered and gotten the labels.

I'm looking for a good chocolate scent. Not necessarily a bakery-type scent, just a good chocolate that's almost drool-inducing. I might combine it with other things, I might not, but I want a good rich chocolate. I'd love to hear what you like!

I forgot about my thread! I found the NG Cranberry Balsam and it's just what I wanted! I'm debating whether it would do well in scrubs - I'm doing samples for November's Little Black Box and would love a good holiday scent.

I like the Peaks Genuine Leather - it's really good in V-1.

Don, I'd tried C-3, but 1 oz. of it to 15 oz. of V-1. Maybe I'll try your suggestion and see - it can't make it any worse, I know that.

Bethany, you could be right. I got good reviews from someone who'd tested my Red Velvet Cake bubble bars, nary a mention of the color. My boyfriend, however, tested the Dark Chocolate Solstice and said the bubbles were great, but it turned the water a really nasty shade. So you're right, you never know. I like the recipe I used with the RVC better - maybe that one doesn't turn the water as badly. I'll just mix 'em up and see if they sell. I just can't figure how I see other e-tailers making all kinds of scents that are pretty colors, that don't turn brown even with vanilla in them.

I'm glad to know it's not just me having problems with V-1 (although it stinks that we're having them). My tarts have been cracking like mad, sometimes breaking while they're in the mold. I was thinking it was a bad batch, as my early experience with V-1 was fantastic, with the exception of some bubbling on top of my tarts (oh, how I wish that was my only problem now!). But it sounds like it might just be a general problem with the wax, which stinks. I'm to the point of wondering if I should look for a new wax to use - I love the easy release I get with the V-1, but it's not worth it if I'm never sure when I pour if my tarts will crack so much that they're not even suitable for sale. :undecided I've tried darn near everything - adding coconut oil, adding C-3 (although not as much as Don suggested - I used 15 oz. V-1, 1 oz. C-3), pouring hot (up to about 175 degrees), pouring cool (down to about 130, and at that temp, I found that the wax was setting up before I could pour it all - and I'm making small batches, 6 to 8 at a time), and while some batches of tarts have turned out better than others, none have been what I'd call good, and it certainly hasn't been consistent. I may try pouring cooler and remelting the wax when it starts to set up, but I'm just about ready to throw in the towel with the V-1. I can't take orders and not have a reasonable expectation that my wax will perform for me.

I haven't yet decided what FO I might try - seems like the ones I have a lot of are all foody and likely to have vanilla notes! And I checked the description of PG&SC, and it does indeed mention "a touch of vanilla". :undecided So if anything with vanilla discolors this badly, how do people make bubble bars in scents like, say, lavender vanilla, and have them not be doo-doo brown? Is there something comparable to UV stabilizer for bath and body products? (I'm thinking the UV stabilizer is just for candles, right?) All the scents I like and want to make bubble bars in seem to have that darned vanilla, and I don't think brown will be a real big seller.

I heat mine on the stove on low heat (hey, it works for aluminum cookware) until the little residue that's left melts. If there's enough melted wax to worry about pouring, I pour it in the trash. I wipe the wax out with a dry paper towel and wipe it down again with Cajun Clean. Works great.

Cara, I'm guessing you know from personal experience. So what scents have you used that haven't turned?

I'll do that - thanks!

I wondered if that might have been it, or if there was just something inherent in the recipe (without the FO) that made it do that. I'll make another batch and try the most non-foody scent I can think of and see what happens - Pink Grapefruit and Sugar Cane should be safe.

I tried my hand at bubble bars, finally. I used this recipe http://www.candletech.com/cgi-local/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=bbrecipes;action=display;num=1099939492 and used Red Velvet Cake as my FO. They set up pretty well - not super hard, but firm enough not to fall apart when you pick them up, and still easy to crumble - but they turned brown. ??? I know vanilla scents turn brown, so I thought maybe the RVC had some vanilla component in it. I made another batch using Dark Chocolate Solstice as the FO, and again, they turned brown. ??? I know the bubble bars I buy from other e-tailers aren't brown - is it the FO I'm using doing it, do you think? Or something I just haven't thought of? Is there anything I can add to keep them from turning brown? I might like to experiment with colors at some point, but that won't do any good if they turn brown. Any help, thoughts, etc., is greatly appreciated!

I get mine from MMS as well, and I like them. I've never ordered from anywhere else, but the price seemed reasonable and they shipped pretty quickly (I'm in Texas, so they aren't real close, and my order was still here within a week).

I've tried that - no good, at least not enough to correct the problem. ETA: And for me at least, if I added more than about 1/2 tablespoon, the tarts started to lose the easy release quality and were more difficult to get out of the burner once they'd been melted. The cracking improved slightly with the coconut oil, but it didn't go away by any means. CareBear, thanks for the suggestion on the KY-143. I may try that out, if I can get it in a smaller-than-a-case size.

I've been using V-1 for my votives and tarts. Starting out, it worked like a dream. Poured beautifully, released wonderfully from the molds, smooth as silk. Lately, though, I've been having issues with cracking big-time, and nothing I've tried seems to help. I'm running low on wax and am going to have to order more, and I thought I'd see if there were other options out there - I'm loath to invest in a case of V-1 only to have it keep wigging out on me. So, I've tried the V-1. I've also tried the RobNat palm wax from Taylored Concepts, which works well and releases nicely, but its density is less than that of the soy wax and I find tarts made with it are more prone to get banged up in shipping. Yeah, tarts are made to be melted, but no one gets excited about opening up a box of wax crumbles when they were expecting pretty star-shaped tarts. Are there any other waxes out there that have the same easy release quality that I love about the V-1? If you know of any, or have any suggestions as to things I might could try to get the V-1 to go back to its previously well-behaved self, please, please share!!!

If you get any e-mail purporting to be from Paypal or eBay and have doubts, you can forward it to spoof (at) paypal dot com or spoof (at) ebay dot com, and they'll let you know if it's legit. It's amazing how realistic some of them can look, and kind of scary.

Oooh, those look yummy!

Thanks for the compliments, y'all! I hope no one mistakes them for food - they smell fabulous, but I'd bet the taste would be a little off. The tarts are 2 oz. and do have to be cut in half to fit in a standard tart burner. I'm still stunned that I can make stuff people want to pay money for.

These are Chocolate Raspberry Drizzle tarts, using the NatureWax votive blend (I never can remember if it's V-1 or V-3 ) - the bottom layer got a bit too cool before I got the top layer poured, but I think they turned out OK for a first effort:

http://www.acemart.com/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=J5-12&cm_mmc=GoogleAdWords-_-Catering+Disposables_Souffle+Cups-_-884612281-_-portion%20cups%7C-%7C100000000000000038210 Is this what you're looking for, or similar to it?

OK, so I'm looking at just experimenting and coming up with my own blend of oils. Here are the ones I'm considering: shea, sunflower, avocado, coconut (either virgin creme de coco or fractionated coconut), jojoba. I've not worked that much with oils, so I'm not sure of the feel, how easily absorbed one might be versus another, that sort of thing. As for proportions, I reckon I'd just experiment a little bit at a time. This may be a silly question, but I see some oils have recommended usages at pretty low percentages, where some (like shea) say they can be used at up to 100%. For a body gloss where it's all oil, should one that has a higher percentage of recommended use be the predominant oil in the blend, or do the percentages matter as much since it's all oil anyway and is it more just a matter of preference as to feel? I'm trying to get any input I can before I hit "send" on an order - I don't have money to burn, so the more info I can get, the better!

Hmm. I'll have to check it out and see! ETA: No, that body glaze sounds like more of a light lotion, rather than a body oil. But it was worth a look!