Crowded House

Shh... quiet, Bruce. We're talking about Pourette!

I like CD's and LX's.

what do you mean?

I mean it's awesome for being a relatively inexpensive FO. One might expect the "best" chocolate scent to be more than $10 a pound.

BCN's closeout chocolate brownie.

This. Shocking, really.

I don't have my notes here but I think I used a CD-18 with a 2.5" tumbler (ETA: 415 soy).

It was a while back...couldn't get much throw out of the scent itself, though, so you must be onto something!

I need at least 4oz to play with. If I don't like the scent by itself I like to try it with other scents to see what sort of a mixer it makes.

Four oz bottles are usually such a ridiculous price, though. $7.50 or thereabouts for a 4oz "sample"? Bleah.

OK, I made a tester out of AH/RE's Sweet Amber Musk and I have to say, although the cold throw is gentle, innocent, and sweet, the hot throw has a spice and HOT scent to it that I didn't detect at all prior to lighting it. I smelled no 'sweet' in the hot throw at all, and very little musk.

It was almost a cross between amber and fireplace, and I don't think it was the wick, either.

A nice enough scent, but the cold throw is completely misleading on this one.

Anybody else try this scent and come across the same thing?

Yep.

I dip a Q-tip into the FO bottles and put them in a plastic bag for about an hour to see how they mix.

So which marijuana did you buy?

I have learned to "embrace" the wet spots, so to speak. They don't bother me that much.

I just see so many "solutions" to them here that I was wondering what the long-range outcome was for those folks.

I love tins, too. Wish I could find the gold in more than just 2, 4, and 6 oz. size.

I've read quite a bit on this board on the various ways to counteract wet spots...pour temp, heat gunning, ambient temp, etc...

Are those of you doing these things finding that they are permanent solutions in any way?

I mean, you've poured correctly, in the correct ambient temperature, cured in just the right humidity and temperature, perhaps heat-gunned out any pesky wet spots that might have cropped up anyway. No wet spots! It's perfect!

So then you put it in a box and send it to yourself. Your candle spends 3 days in uncontrolled temperatures and humidity - it's cold, or hot, or humid, or dry.

Does your candle come back wet spot free?

Just curious. I have not found this to be the case with my own candles, but if there is someone out there who has, and would like to share their experience, I'm sure any technique they found to permanently control the container adhesion of a wax that will actually grow over time would be very helpful to us all.

TIA

I second Riekes, although they have a $250 minimum order, so if you're not sure this is the glass you want you may wish to try a sample from somewhere else first.

Hmmm...so the rates for lighter packages will be going up, and the heavier packages down?

Sounds like a plan. Their rates for 40+ lb. packages were ridiculously high compared to the private carriers.

I wouldn't bother with any FO that required a 25% load unless it was a special order, and priced accordingly.

I use 6-9% and get around 24-30 hours out of a .8oz tart. My sense of smell is pretty bad, though, so if I can smell it well then the scent usually makes normal people cry and run away.

Have you tried other testers besides the people in your house?

That seems incredibly high. Is most of your cost in the packaging?

ETA: This was in answer to the OP.

Just do it really politely so you don't potentially offend any bystanders.

Yikes! I am sorry to have caused such a stir. I have spent hours searching both the web and this forum and I haven't found anything like what I am looking for. I didn't mean to offend I was just hoping that someone might have a resource I hadn't yet found!

There are a few good ideas in this thread, in case it didn't come up in your search. I searched under "unique tart molds".

Lately I pulled out a bunch of my one burn testers that had sat for several weeks and decided to burn them for me. Went through several burns and to my surprise, most of the wicks did not mushroom at all or very little

I would make the assumption that you need sharper scissors, because the mushrooms might be from trimming the wick and leaving the top in shreds for the first burn.

Ambient temperature does seem to affect soy wax more than you'd think it would. I have seen it affect frosting, sink holes, wet spots, cracking, and even burn rate with as little as a 5*F variance in ambient temp.

Try pouring in a room that is heated (or cooled) to above 76*F and see if that helps.

I tried a CD-10 in EcoSoya PB once, vanilla and coffee FO. Way too big, like a tiny citronella candle, or an inverted wax rocketship or something.

They're talking about stearic acid.

Ah. Thanks, Top.

08/20/2002 - Updated 08:50 PM ET

I don't get this part:

Some paraffin candles are made from animal fat.

I thought tallow was made from animal fat. Are there paraffin slabs that are a tallow/paraffin combo?

I guess I should have clarified Mando Wicks.. I was merely referring to the length.. My first impression was a lack of pride in craftsmanship.. sounds like this may be the case.. I don't have enough experience with 100% soy to know for sure.. I thought perhaps it may have shrunk.. thanks for the info..

Interestingly, I have noticed that if a soy candle sits unburned for a very long time (like a year or more), sometimes it grows.

Perhaps the manufacturer expected the candle to sit for a while?

I love the fact that their candles are "Organic" :rolleyes2

Actually, the "organic" claim was removed from that site shortly after the last big "outrageous soy claims" thread. I found that interesting.

(and no, that's not me)

I just wish they were being produced with a lid as well!!

You can purchase somewhat tacky-looking black metal covers for them, if you wish. Riekes has those as well.

FO's; I know this is probably a taboo question here, but are the craft store scents worth anything? Are these the ones that I see suppliers say are cut? I ask based strictly on convenience.

I have not personally used FO's from craft stores, but I have never heard a good report about them.

I used an 8oz mushroom can to weigh out my FO. What's the best way to get the scent out of the can when I am done? I flushed it with hot water, ran some dish detergent through it, flushed some more, wiped it out, then put it in the oven to completely dry it.

When making testers I use glass baby food jars and find that just a bit of soap and water does the trick.

Do I need ot cover these, or can I just let them be free? If I should cover them, at what time should I do this?

I don't think you have to cover them except to keep the dust off. If you wish to cover them you can do so as soon as they finish cooling, or finish "setting up".