Candybee

Those are so beautiful TT! I love, love, love the colors! They look like a very skilled craftsman made them so you've got that in you for sure!.... those would look lovely in my home! LOL

Silicone liners are the bomb! If you are not using them for soapmaking they make a great investment. They are easy to clean and can be reused over and over again. Plus the soap just pops out. They can be pricey thou. Re coconut-- so far I have found that Soapalooza's Hawaiian Sandalwood makes a nice coconut scented soap. Don't know what happens to the sandalwood notes but only the coconut comes through. Who knew? But that's what I have been using for a coconut soap. My customers that love coconut swear it smells so good and coconuty. I have some coconut milk FO from Peaks. Haven't used it in CP before but its one I have in line to soap with in the next few weeks. Will let you know how it goes. BTW-- Soapalooza's hawaiian sandalwood riced on me and seperated the first time I used it at 1oz PPO. So I use it at .7% and that works fine. The ricing wasn't too bad as it was super easy to SB back into a good workable batter, but the oil seperating out was a pain in the butt. So if you try it start out with .7oz PPO.

I wonder if the OP ever got a melter. I would love to hear about it and which one they went with.

If I still had my old pictures I could show you how they used to turn out with the vibrance micas.

Thanks for the compliments! I won't be happy until I can get my hands on the micas I want. I'm just not made out of money though so for now I have to keep using them. Sigh..

Getting ready to do my orange 10x scented soap today. It also has some cinnamon, allspice, and clove EOs in it. I am making an orange spice scent. So, to anchor it I am adding a bit of litsea cubeba and a bit of patchouli. Will let you know how it works when I'm done!

If anyone sees a bargain on one of those standup molds thats what I want! Especially one that comes with a divider. Want to do a Fung Shui Yin Yang swirl! Oh that would be so awesome!

My gut feeling tells me the CD would be a better wick for the tins than a zinc. I used zincs in my parasoy blend in apothecary jars. In my case the zincs worked better for me than CDs. But I never used tins so IDK which would be best. Good luck with the zincs. Let us know how they do.

That would be weird to test at 8% and then use 6% for your candles. It doesn't make sense so wherever you heard it from its not the best advice for candlemaking. Since I sell candles and want the best scent for them I use 6% as a general rule. There are a few that are the exception. For example I have one I use 4% and one I use 8%. If they don't work at 6% I move on to another fragrance for the most part. Using more fragrance doesn't always mean the candle will smell better. Too much can clog the wick, cause excessive sooting, mushrooms, or you can lose some of the more complex notes. If you are planning to sell then you have to look at the whole picture which includes the cost of using a higher amount of FO. Especially if its not necessary.

These are scented with AH's Lemon Verbena. Its a great scent and one of my best sellers. Well after several batches of soap using the new Mad Oils micas I have to say I am disappointed. This one has Maniacal Pea and Bright Yellow Raincoat. Again the colors look washed out and this time I didn't use any TD. The yellow is a nice soft yellow so I will keep that. But the green is just way too faded for me. Same thing with the Orange Crush. Too peachy, faded, and not a true orange. I guess I will have to replace them with the tried and true Vibrance micas from Nurture. I always had brilliant soap colors from those. I am not giving up on Mad Oils. It's quite possible I just picked a couple of mediocre ones.

Thanks Sonoma! Although it looks like a good drink too! I may end up drinking it all. LOL

Those sure are great prices. I notice they also have the same slab mold I got from BB for a lot less. Those are good deals! Thanks for the link! I am also excited about their 'bright red' mica. This may be the best true red mica I have seen so far. Now I know I am gonna end up buying that! LOL

I got that too. It was too light for me and that was in palm wax!

My soap room is my kitchen! Its also my candle room! LOL So I always have to make sure its all cleaned up after as I really hate wax, soap, or fragrance oils in my food!

Does Kefir discolor soap? Thinking of trying some in one of my scrub soaps but I don't want to use anything that discolors it.

Frosted glass and colored glass are another option. I am beginning to catch on to the colored glass look. At first I didn't like it but now I do. Besides, if you use colored glass you don't have to color the wax and that can save a little bit of time and money.

I used to mix just 2. One each of soy and paraffin. I do like a 75/25% ratio thou. Thats a good solid blend. Like JC said, if it works for you go for it!

These are Ginger Lime from Elements. The smell better than they look! LOL The soaps are very soft and 'cake' like this morning so I will clean them up when they have hardened a bit more. The colors didn't come out the way I was hoping. I think I used too much TD as they are really washed out. Its supposed to have a green soap base with white and orange swirls in it. My tops always come out nice but the inside needs a lot of work.

I have used the vibrance collection micas from Nurture and have to say I love all of them. They are the original POP micas TKB carried then dropped. Nurture picked them up, reformulated them and renamed them rainbow. Now they are called vibrance. What I love about Mad Oils micas is they have a sample soap picture you can see how the color will come out in the soap. That helps me a lot in deciding what colors to buy so for now I am testing out Mad Oils micas. They just got their neon colors in and I can't wait to buy some and try them out! The only mica I had trouble with was the rainbow raspberry. Its now raspberry vibrance and I haven't tried it since the name changed so not sure if its been reformulated. The color is awesome but it did bleed. Hoping the vibrance one doesn't. But for now I am using the Mad Oils Voodoo mica. Its a hot raspberry and so far I love it. Check out my rose soap, that one has the Voodoo mica in it.

Who's Blue Spruce? CS? I've only tried it in palm and thought meh... it just didn't have that wow factor for me. Smells great OOB thou.

I have the "neon" micas on my list. Mad Oils just got them in so my next check and I am gonna get me some! Seems the only true yellow and orange I get is using the neon yellow and neon orange. Also, I love mixing neon yellow with neon green for a neon lime green! Gonna try that with my coconut lime soap when i get the neons.

Happens a lot. Thats why you see more larger floating candle molds. When I made them they only used the small fluted tart molds that hold an oz of wax. Now you see much larger molds. Anyway, the small floater candles would sink flush with the top of the candle so if any waves or ripples happen in the water the candle drowns!

Its the nature of paraffin wax to do that. Most chandlers just embrace the wet spots otherwise they can drive you crazy! You could try heat gunning the sides of the jar but no matter what you do the wet spots tend to reappear. BTW-- an LX24 for an 8oz jar sounds too big in my experience. Unless the jar has a 3" plus diameter then it may be okay.

I never ordered from them either. What are some of your favorites? any you love to soap?

I think if you are careful to watch your iodine level stays at 70 or below, and your fatty acids linoleic and linolenic combined are 15 or lower you should do fine. I use a couple of oils that are prone to DOS. Then I learned to watch the profiles on soapcalc and have never had any DOS since then. So as OG says you can use and experiment with oils that are not as stable as others successfully if you combine them with very stable oils. Its all in the recipe!