Welcome to the Soy Revolution Deana! I know how you feel, I was so excited to get going I made alot of rookie errors too. First I'll address your wick issues. The diameter of your container determines what ply (size) wick you need. The wider the container the higher ply your wick needs to be so your candles have an even melt pool (the whole top needs to melt or else it'll tunnel-the ply was too low). I have only used wicks from my wax company CandleWealth because they are all natural, pre tabbed and easy sized (size 1 for up to 11/2 in 2 for 11/2 - 21/2 and so forth)plus I've never had any trouble. The only thing I can think of for the wicks drowning is that either you haven't let the candles harden completely (at least 8 hours) or the wicks are poor quality or too small. Second soy wax usually has a very strong scent throw but some fragrence oils (FO) are poor quality. You seem to have alot of sweet scents and those in my experience are the strongest. One other thing is you could be adding the FOs at too high a temp which can destroy fragrances, I reccommend not adding FOs until right before you pour and adding the max amount (follow your wax instructions on that temp and amount) What is the look, texture and smell of the FOs? Do they smell strong in the bottle, look dark and thick? If so then your problem could be your wax, some 100% soy blends do not have a powerful throw. I'd keep trying waxes until you find one you liked, there are blends with other vegtable oils added to improve throw that are still all natural (I love NVSoy from CandleWealth). Those bubbles were just air bubbles which can be dealt with by a top pour or my fave blow drying the top for a minute. Hope I helped. Have fun:)