Candybee

Yep. I've had several orders come that way. Wicks all bent and going every which way. I prefer to order from suppliers that bundle and bag them neatly. But yeah there is nothing wrong with the wicks. But I agree its sloppy and shows the supplier doesn't care enough to ship them neatly.

I put the yogurt in my coconut milk soap and coconut milk in my yogurt soap!! Yes I know the soap will be fine but that has nothing to do with what I have listed on my website and soap boxes. I am still making today's batches so don't have time to run to the store to get more yogurt and the rest of the week my schedule is full. Sigh.... I hate having these senior moments and messing up the ingredients in my soap. I should have read the signs that I was tired today when I kept wondering why my scale was off when I had it on grams instead of ounces. That was my first clue you think?!!

Those are beautiful TT! You have just discovered a good reason to take up pottery! I've been working with a potter to make me some shaving bowl mugs to sell with my shaving soap.

Oh no! Another expense. I guess its better to be safe and have the wiring set up right.

Nice shelving rack! Glad you were able to find one to buy.

Oh I love, love, love those lavender and patch soaps! All of them look terrific.

Your recipe looks good to me. Just switch out the FCO for regular CO and you're good to go. I love experimenting with new recipes plus I am always tweaking on ones I currently use always looking for ways to improve them.

They look great! Watch out for the 16oz parasoy jar. I've used that wax with a different soy, Ecosoya 135 and would get sink holes around the wick periodically. But you could see them until you lit the candle and it would snuff out once it burned down to the hole. Only happened with large jars like 16ozer's. Don't know if your combo will do this but mine sure did. Had to poke around the wick all the large jars with a bamboo stick to find the holes just underneath the surface. When I found them I would just heat gun the tops to fill in the hole with wax.

Did you ever get it figured out? Sounds like it might have been the wiring.

I am having a similar problem with my dog soap. I decided to keep it simple and just call it 'dog soap with a,b,c, essential oils.' I think with your spray you can call it 'outdoors spray' or 'outdoors and woods blend' or something similar to get the point across without actually making any claims. You could also list the EOs or specifically the EOs that are the most well known as bug repellents that are in the blend. For example, 'Outdoors Spray with Citronella'. Hope that helps. Hmmm... that gave me an idea. Gonna call my dog soap "Outdoor Dog Soap with A,B,C oils."

The high oleic doesn't have the linoleic in it like regular sunflower oil. This is what I love about the regular sunflower oil. So that's why I use both so I have both the oleic and linoleic.

Doesn't Alibaba sell colored glass candle containers? They do have pretty large minimums thou but good prices for them. Fillmore Containers and SKS Bottles & Packaging also sell some colored glass candle containers but I think their offerings are somewhat limited. But no minimums so that's a plus.

How long does it take to melt down those 5 slabs of wax? Are you able to leave it on overnight if you want? Does it have a digital timer? Just wondering if you could set it to start melting so that by the time you are ready to make candles the wax is ready and heated to the correct temp. Now that would be very cool indeed!!

Welcome Miss Gamble! And congratulations on your upcoming nuptuals!!

Lots of good suggestions in this thread. Curing with soy is important. You will find with experience that some FOs take just a few days while others may take 2,3, or even 4 weeks to cure before you get a good HT. Then again, some FOs may just not throw at all in your wax and candle configuration. So the only way to find out is through testing. EOs can be mastered in candles but takes a lot of experience. A lot of folks wanting 'all natural candles' try using EOs to scent them and eventually give up. EOs do not work particularly well in soy or any candle. I have only known a few chandlers that have been able to master working with EOs in their candles but only after they first mastered working with FOs in their candles. If you can't get a FO to throw putting EOs in your candles is not the way to go. IMO wicking is your first priority, then your scent throw comes next. Not all FOs will take the same wick but knowing which wicks work in your wax will help you later on when you start working with different FOs. Like others have mentioned the bumpy surface is typical of soy. You can either embrace that or try different additives.

I bet it would be good with pumpkin, banana bread, cinnamon, apple butter, or baked apple type fragrances.

Merlin's Forest is awesome! Its hard to describe. I made a candle out of this a while back and even thou its burned down to nothing I refused to throw it out because I can open the jar and sniff the fragrance. One of the best men's fragrances IMO.

I love it. If you like Bay Rum you will like Dark Knight. I call it the bay rum on steroids. I love mixing it with Green Irish Tweed, or Black Irish, or Burberry for Men at 50/50% for a really good spicy men's type fragrance. Women love it too! I sell a lot of it... or did up until MW closed and I lost Dark Knight. So its good to know FB has it.

Another almond oil lover here. Lately, I have become addicted to sunflower oil in soap. I have a line of sunflower oil soaps that I use both regular and high oleic sunflower oil instead of olive. I just love what the linoleic acid from regular sunflower oil adds to soap. You just have to watch the fatty acid and iodine levels when using it. But I go as high as I can because it feels so good! It really makes my skin feel so soft more than any other oil I have tried so far.

Well I did get 10x to stick in CP. Although it was blended with clove, litsea, cinnamon, and some honey FO. Its my orange spice soap and you can smell the orange albeit its light but its definitely there. On the other hand every time I have used orange 5x there was no orange scent after about 2-3 weeks or extremely light. In any event, it was gone by 4 weeks of soap curing. Has anyone tried CPHP with orange? Or does it fade in that that too?

Woohoo! Now you can really churn out some candles with that thing! Congrats on the melter! Is it a 100 lb melter? Looks like you can get more wax in there besides 5 slabs.

Glad you like them. PA's goat milk recipe is very nice. Just remember to not use too much stearic in your soap. About 1tsp PP base is plenty. More and it compromises the lather.

I have a bergamot, rosemary, and pink grapefruit blend that has faded and wondered if those 2 oils are faders? I can smell the rosemary but the rest is faded. What can I do to anchor them and help the scent last longer? Was thinking of upping the bergamot and grapefruit and anchoring them with either litsea or patch or both. What do you think?

I love a good tallow soap and lard too. You know I don't think I have made a tallow and lard together soap yet. Hmm....

The one that almost every soap you make has in it? I must confess I am stuck on castor oil. Its very hard for me not to make a soap without it. I just love how the combination of castor and coconut oil makes a creamy lather. I have also noticed that my skin beads up with moisture beads in the shower much more with castor oil in my soap than without it. But I hate going over 5% castor unless its a specialty soap.