Melly

Thanks guys, Im almost done the votive binge, i've poured over 2500 in the last 3 weeks, and never want to see another votive as long as I live.

Ever since I became pregnant, the smell of ocean has made me gag. So of course people keep buying it. So I had to struggle through a votive restock. Poured 96 of them as fast as I could, made up a seperate pot for the repour, and did my repour. I look at the scale and whats sitting on it? My FO for the repour. I forgot to add it. So now I have to remelt them all and add the FO that is missing.

I use a wire whisk as well, easy to clean up (I keep it upside down in a pour pot and just scrape the few beads of wax off the bottom when hard) and great at mixing stubborn fragrance oils as another poster said, plus can't beat .96 a piece at walmart. I have several because I misplace things.

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I poured lye upstairs once and ended up burning the finish off my countertops in little specks. Now I only measure and mix in the basement, then bring the container upstairs when Im ready to begin soaping. My son gets securly locked behind his baby gate. Luckily he is terrified of the stick blender, so He stays out of my way and screams "Too loud mommy" from the far side of the living room. Im working on cleaning up my downstairs workshop for soaping in once the warm weather hits, right now its too cold to ever hope for a gelling soap down there.

Im subbing mine down with soy and canola, RBO is just as expensive as olive by the time I add in shipping if not more so. One of our grocery stores here has Pomice for $6.50 for 2L, so I may give that a try. Next move after that is to approach a restraunt supply store for a barrel of it.

Thanks guys, moving the repour up sooner, and burping the pins seems to have solved the problem.

Very possible, I sometimes have wax under the wick pin when I unmold, is wiggling the resolution for this?

It's my new best seller, I do mine banana yellow.

How many of you poke relief holes in your votives. I never have, but always seem to have problems with small air bubbles rising up from the sides of the votives as I am doing my repour, almost like air is trapped between the mold and the wall of the votive. I pour in a very cold basement, and Im wondering if maybe the wax is cooling to much and pulling away from the sides. I blasted each one with a heat gun to melt it a little, and still had the problem, not as frequently, but it was a real PITA to blast each votive and my repour wax got cold. Anyone else had this problem and how did you fix it? I usually blast them with a heat gun, but now im repouring almost 100 votives at once, and by the time I go back to fix the bubbles , the wax has cooled to much and it leaves a gaping hole.

TIA

Melanie

I have the one from the soap goat coming. Its similar to the one that Kangaroo blue sells. I drool over that b&b soap set on for crafts sake, it's like being a kid and wanting an easy bake oven all over again.

Hi, sorry it took me so long to get back, I bought a coogar cs melter, direct heat. It was $895.00 Its melting down 40 lbs of wax now, been going about 2 hours and is almost all liquid.

I tried, the only luck I had was buying melon wax chips. They are almost exactly that colour.

A good wake up call is right. Im sorry to admit that I was reading this with a pitcher of lye water on my counter, and my 2 year old in the living room. He's gated out of the kitchen, but there has been times when he's broken the gate down, or i've forgotten to chain lock the door. I could not imagine this happening to my baby boy.

I only have enough molds for 3.6 oodles at a time

Extremely cute UPS guy just dropped off my new 175lb wax melter!! Now to get hubby home to set it up so I can pour oodles of votives

Nope, wouldnt risk it, if your looking for inexpensive molds, I started with a baby wipe container, some people use milk cartons, lined card board boxes, cat litter pans, rubbermaid or martha stewart drawer organizers, pringles cans. Lots of much better options out there.

Absolutly Gorgeous!!

I have one happy little soap recipie that I wrote myself, and I use it every single time, I like keeping my base the same and playing with my colours and scents instead. I sell so I have no problem moving it, test batches I give away to family and friends or hoard in my linen cabinet till I use it (makes my towels smell good )

You can use PKO in place of coconut or combine it with coconut like I do, I use 12% coconut, 10% palm Kernal. There is also alot of other oils you could sub for or use with olive oil. I like to use soybean oil at about 10%. I am also considering adding 10% canola aswell. Rice bran oil makes a nice substitute. Olive however, does add alot to the bar even if it is a little pricey, at least its easily available at the grocery store,which is a plus for any beginner soaper.

Question #1, if you used the full water amount, the soap will remain soft for quite a while, almost like fudge. set it up to cure and give it about 6 weeks, it should be fine. It will begin to harden a little after the first few days and continue on, If it never does harden, we would need to review your recipie with measurments and lye/water amounts.

Can't answer #2 sorry, tried m&p once and didnt care for it.

My lavender FO soaps beautifully, no Acceleration, no discoulouration. If your nervous about it you could always make a small batch first, but ive never heard of any problems with it.

Plastic shoe boxes here too, make sure they have a 5 on the bottom, holds the scent in forever. You can also add a cotton ball soaked in the scent to the box and this boosts the scent even more.

I like the flakes, but they are way more exspensive then just PKO here, sooo... I plan on sitting infront of the tv one day with a veggie peeler and a couple pounds of palm kernal oil to make my own flakes. I use mine along with coconut oil 12% coconut, 10% PKO gives a nice lather without drying my skin.

Oh hunny dont buy it at a drug store, it will cost you an arm and a leg, you will get cosmetic grade rather then food grade, check with a home wine making place or order it online from a supplier.

You definatly need it for the fizz factor, baking soda is just not the same.

It is usually one favour per person. I have seen males and females get different gifts. My aunt did do one favour per couple, but it was a small family wedding and all the couples lived together, the favours were full size candy dishes packed full of chocolates.