Shisha

For EOs, my patchouli-orange and patchouli-tangerine blend in lotions, shea and soaps are hands-off to everyone but me. Tried Patchouli/Orange in a candle last night---not much throw but the scent I got was divine too.

For FOs, Scentworks Mysore Sandalwood, Sweetcakes Yuzu and Brambleberry's Nag Champa are my personal favorites.

I market mine as Luxury Salt Spa Bars---a smooth stone of salt and soap that gently exfoliates as it cleans. This essential-oil scented soap won't lather much due to its natural sea salt content--but it doesn't need to. One wash and you're hooked.

No problem & don't get me wrong---I love soaping. I've experimented and tossed lots of batches because I love mucking around with additives and unusual oils/butters/FO/EOs, and I refuse to to rebatch on the grounds of time. Regarding the appearance of rebatched soap---For my own personal use I couldn't care less what a bar of soap looks like as long as it smells good and feels good---but my remarks about rebatching come from my particular experiences as a soap seller. I have been selling for quite a while (phasing it out now) and have always had trouble selling rebatched bars as they have a homemade look that the snobby people in my area don't seem to care for, although other marketplaces may love the rustic or handcrafted look.

Rebatching is cool if you wanna do it and your marketplace doesn't mind it....I'm just not into it.

Hey Jane, good question. My answer probably won't apply to MP, though, as I make cold process soap and it's just a different animal.

Most of my soap recipes are between two and three pounds---making less is hard with CP because of the lye. In a one pound batch you get your measurements off by a few grams and suddenly you have soap that's lye heavy (or the opposite--soap so superfatted it goes rancid in a month.) In CP soap I use 1 oz of FO per pound of oils. So there's 2 to 3 ounces right there to make maybe 10-12 bars of soap---and if the scent is too light, there's virtually nothing you can do. Rebatching is so timeconsuming it's not even worth considering for me, and it tends to lack aesthetic appeal anyway. If my batch seizes up or if I get pockets or brains or any other common soap malady or if the scent I picked doesn't meld with the oils and just smells bad, that's three pounds of oils ($$$, especially olive oil) and three ounces of FO I have to give away or throw away.

By contrast---tonight I poured six small jar candles from a pound of wax. My wax cost about a dollar, the color chip about a dime, my wicks a few cents more. I used jelly jars I had on hand, and a sample-size 1 oz FO. I now have six lovely candles to test, all with different wicks, and if one doesn't turn out well, the others still may. I can even melt down the poorly wicked one and repour it so it's not wasted.

It's the scale of soap making that makes it expensive. You can melt a little wax but you can't pour a little CP soap. It's always at least a couple of pounds.

See my thread "I died and went to candle heaven!" or check out www.genwax.com for a SoCal supplier. It's not perfect but it helps out a bit if you use their wax.

Gas is so crazy right now that Ontario to North Hollywood would probably cost the same as UPS ground. I paid 3.59 a gallon yesterday. Yikes.

muffin cups. This was years ago. I learned right quick that soap sticks to metal like nobody's business. Then I moved on to the stage where everything looked like a mold. The styrofoam that came packed around a new appliance? Molds (large ones). The top of my deodorant stick? Molds (small ones). Coffee cups that someone at work threw away? Molds waiting to happen. Finally I just found myself a nice wooden log mold on Ebay and the mold mania died down.

I'm not so sure anyone else in this house thinks I'm lucky. Right now the kitchen counters are covered with testers, and there are two different tart warmers going full blast with new tart scents. Family members have been compelled to learn the terms "hot and cold throw" and have been alerted that there will be a pop quiz on wick size and container variables by the end of the month.

wow--lovely!

or else sweet orange essential oil will cut through that junk like nobody's business!

I'm in the South Bay area just a few miles south of LAX airport. Not exactly a short drive to Genwax, but at least it's a reasonable distance (maybe 60-70 miles round trip, I'm guessing?) I think I will still need to order my wicks from someone else---the ones I've gotten from the classifieds are so much nicer than the wicks they sell.

So far I've used two or three of my SC FOs in candles--I have tons of the 1 oz samples to choose from because I've been doing B&B for a while now. I've used Raspberry, Sandalwood Vanilla and Spruce Garland and they worked very well.

I've been doing B&B and incense for years now but just started to get into candles a month or so ago. I am used to having to order all my B&B stuff (FOs, oils, lye, bottles, etc.) from faraway suppliers so I was surprised to find out that I had an actual candle supply place less than an hour from me, in the Los Angeles area (Genwax). I went there a couple of weekends ago but got there 20 minutes before closing (i didn't know they close early on Saturdays....) I felt like I was at a smorgasbord with my mouth sewed shut---there was so much to look at and they were shooing me out!

Today was their big sale weekend and I again made the trip. This time I had a whole three hours to spend there and I was in candle paradise. They have dozens of FOs to sniff, dye colors to choose from, and molds to fondle. Whoo hoo! I ended up buying 10 pounds of paraffin and 10 pounds of C3, as well as some of the Naturewax votive wax (V-1). I bought some of the additives I hear you all mention as well as some colors to play around with....and their FOs were irresistable, I got some of those as well. Votive holders (green glass) were 4 for $1 so I stocked up (thinking gifts, eventually). Walked out $75 later with a full trunkload. Good lordy, I thought being a soapmaker was a money drain. Candles appear to be equally addicting (especially since you need far less FO, which tempts me to buy MORE, even though I now have enough to stock a fair-sized FO shop, if there was such a thing and thank God there's not.)

I had more fun than I've had in my last few birthdays put together. And I came home and made some tarts, so I can see how I like my new scents. Mmmm. Wax definitely beats CP soap in the instant gratification department!

I'm making tarts. I had never even heard of them before coming to this board, and now I'm hooked. Too, too easy and fun (and doesn't take up much FO, so I can use my little testers.) I'm also going to be test pouring my new square votives I bought from Lindsey in the classified ads! Yay!

I have had this happen with my incense sales. I used to sell my hand dipped incense nicely packaged in a poly bag stapled with a hang tag. People thought it was just another brand of incense and would ask "don't you have any hand-dipped?" (even though the sign clearly stated HAND DIPPED...first rule of sales is that people don't read). Finally I bought a big display and started selling the sticks naked (mix and match your scents and bag them yourself.) Muuuuuch better sales & happier customers. I don't know about candles, I guess I'll see for myself when I start selling.

I am just starting with candles but I have an incense and b&b business, and I have gone to some lengths to find local wholesale suppliers. (I live in Los Angeles so I am lucky, we have a lot). In some cases local vs. long distance has really influenced my business decisions. There are certain things I don't carry because the price of shipping to me would be excessively high. It's hard but you have to think practical. When I decided to get into candles I decided that to make it work financially I would need to use a wax I could buy locally. I am fortunate that I live near GenWax so it worked out. But I am still tempted to order a lot of things I don't really need.

I love their Mysore Sandalwood. To me, it's as close to the real thing as it gets. The Sandalwood Vanilla is too sweet for me, personally, but it's a great seller. If I can get someone to sniff it, they buy it (in soap and body oil).

It's funny, I hated the smell at first, but I grew to love it. Now I use it completely unscented with no problems. Some people find patchouli EO covers the shea scent well, if you like patchouli.

Wow! Now I see what you mean!

I've not had anything that large, but perhaps I HAVE had a bit of mushrooming. I thought (for some reason) that mushroom thing would be in the wax, not the wick, so I was anxiously looking for some kind of wax shape to appear....

I'm doing this with my leftovers---the extra wax goes into a cut-off milk carton with two wicks inside. It's going to be a monster when it's finished, but at least nothing goes to waste!

I'm going to be making some Green Tea & Lemongrass for summer baby shower favors. Seems like everybody I know is expecting and now that I'm doing candles, everyone wants favors!

I'm going to melt down some votives I made last week and redo them as small container candles. It was actually container wax that I tried to use in a votive mold. The result was not pretty although the scent (buttercream vanilla) is wonderful!

I'm having a hard time picturing the dreaded mushroom. I am a novice candle maker (lots of experience with incense and bath&body but just starting out in wax). I use C3 from Genwax (only about 1/2 hour away from me, luckily) and so far I have made about 25 container candles, mostly small (votive size) ceramic pots because my sig other is a potter & has lots of tiny pots from his beginner days. I'm thinking the mushroom might be something that you get on a bigger candle (?)because I have not yet seen any mushroom like stuff happening on these small pots. Would love to see a nice clear close up photo, if you have one. TIA!

I buy from Carol at Kimmeric, she sells on Ebay and also has a website called www.kimmericstudio.com, very fast & friendly owner who sells blanks as well as original tag designs, some with perforated ends (for gift giving). No affiliation, just a satisfied customer.