Ilona

it is my hobby. I barely make a profit (actually I don't think I've made a profit yet!). I cover costs and give candles as gifts to everyone I know. It's a great way to make the postman, school teachers, the girls at the gym...etc all smile, especially when they are having a grumpy day. Nothing like a great smelling candle to cheer someone up. ilona

thanks for that! A nice compliment. I guess my MA in creative writing is good for something. LOL Instructions are dry though. I may reword them one day when I'm at a lack of something to do.

thanks thanks! Yes they are all my pictures. I took them all of my candles. Was not easy. So thanks! I need to put in another page with scent descriptions, but not for a week or so. This was hard enough. thanks again.

oops forgot the link! www.candlesoy.co.uk :embarasse silly me

So I FINALLY have a website. I made it myself with sweat and migranes. :highfive: I decided to just do invoive ordering as a shopping cart is too above my abilities. I also only have one kind of candle, one size one price. And I'm a full time graduate student so this is how I make my extra (food and shopping) money, by selling candles to my mates. I hope I get one or two orders. I'm not expecting much. Anyway have a peek and let me know what you think Thanks all:D ilona

I use 135 too and after a 2-3 week cure it was amazing. But the test I burned after 1 week did not throw. So I suggest you wait a few weeks with this one. The french vanilla is great as well. I have some MC that do so well and a few that don't throw at all.

hows the throw on the royal aromatics one? anyone use 135 with RA oils? how do they work for you?

How does this scent throw? It is at 10$ for 1lb on ICS so I wonder if it preforms well?

I use ecosoya 135 which does act picky sometimes. The MC sugar cookie did not throw at all, nor did the GL, NG, and the others. They smelled great OOB but in wax had no throw. What I use is the ICS one and it throws great. But I've had to test a bunch of brands that just didn't do it. ICS and TSW are ones that work well. Good luck! Ilona

I LOVE the taper. OMG I want one! That is so shinylicious! ilona

OK here are the last of my bunch of testers. The blue tart was poured not slushy as I save what is left in the container after I pour probably poured @ 130-140ish. It still came out frost free. The light purple one has mica powder in it so it has teeny sparkles and not frost or air bubbles. The pink is my recycled Yank** container. If you know how to get that enamel off ley me know. The last one is a picture of a ecosoya 135 with no additives. Just on its own. I poured it slushy, tempered, with heated glass, and you can imagine my shock when I woke to discover this pattern (is it Jesus?) on the glass. I'm sure anyone using soy can relate to these mystery frostings. Why they happen? WHo knows. Anyway, that is why I am posting all of these. Hopefully someone can take what I've found and make it even better. That's how it works right? Till we find a way to have a 100% frost free soy candle. Wouldn't that be wonderful! Anyway I hope this helps. I'll do my best to keep details up on here. I've yet to attempt a black candle. *gulp* Have a great new year! ilona

This next set are unlit candles where I did not heat the containers just to try and see what happens. Surprisingly no frost again. The purple one in this set shows my unfigured out frost issue. This candle was poured in one of my moms jars and it was just crappy glass. I hit the top and sides with a heat gun to try and fix it up (tops still not smooth, I'm awful at heat gun!) and I hit it pretty good, melted a good 1/3'' pool on the top. I was expecting major frost because if I even hit an untreated 135 candle with the gun for 2 seconds it frosts like crazy...but the two photos show the ONLY frost that appeared. Not bad eh? I pour slushy and tempered, so they are not as interesting as the burn resuls one, but you can see that they look pretty frost free. especially since I didn't heat up the containers. Oh and the swirls you may see are just the reflection of my flash as I did this all tonight. I'll try and get some daytime pix.

These pics go along with my post on how I've virtually eliminated frost from my soy candles without crisco, or vibar etc... Here is the link: http://www.candletech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40852 As for these photos, I took them tonight with what little I have remaining after xmas and my siblings raid of my candle stash. These are candles that I am testing out new wicks in (the Wick It Premier Line, they are doing v.well) So the ones that are burned you can see there is almost or nothing of frosting on the candles. The green candle has a teeny spot that is the only crystalized formation, and I had that candle going on a long burn for appx 6 hours to test wick safety. Normally a burn like that would have pits and be completely frosted, but I was shocked to see it set up so clean. Here is the first set. They were both lit for about 3 hours and has a full 1/2 inch melt pool, so the wax was completely melted to the edge and has had a chance to solidify. These tests were last week so any frost would have already formed by then....

I'm about to post some pics of the no frost formula in the gallery. These three are a sample of my recent test candles. I'm testing wicks, but the later two have both been burned for a few hours with deep melt pools and as you can see no white frost after they have cooled and set back up. I tested these last week, an no frost as of yet. The blue is one of the extra eax tarts I poured. It was poured not slushy, but surprisingly still no frost. Hope this helps. i.~

Bed bath and beyond has them on clearance for 99$ and you can use one of their 20% off an item coupons. I may have one if you need it then PM me. They even accept the coupons 1 month after the experation date. Also if you have a linens and things coupon BBB will honor it. No ideqa why, but they do, and vice versa. I have a linens & things right down the road and always use my BBB coupons with no hassle. Ilona

I add a teeny bit of BW to it and it solves the problem. Then you don't have the softening of the wax and lowering MP with so much container soy with the VB. Since BW is sticky it becomes flexible, but you do not have to adjust wicking or anything. I would try with 1 TBS PP and see how that works and go up as needed. I use appx 2TBS PP but I think 1TBS would suffice. Good luck! ilona

OK, just because so many of you have helped me with my R&D projects, I will devulge my no frost secrets. I do most of the above, with waiting to pour, tempering, etc... But a few weeks ago I did an experiment and I am SHOCKED at how amazing it is working. Normally I add BW to my ecosoya 135 (I love the way the 135 throws so I wanted to make this work). Yes the cooler I poured the less frost there was, and no way could I ever heat gun tops as that would be a frost nightmare. Then one day I was wondering why the 135 frosted but the same brand ecosoya Pillar wax never frosted, no matter how dark I colored the wax. Sooooo I tried adding a bit of the ecosoya PB to my BW and 135. PERFECTION!!! and can you believe...NO FROST ON THE BURN LINE! Also perfectly smooth tops even after burning. I will try and post some photos. But... and there is always a but... I have not tried this mix with pouring at higher temps, I still temper and pour slushy. But I did notice that the extra wax that I pour in tart molds to save (I reheat to get what sticks to the sides of the continer so the wax is not slushy but clear) the tarts have NO FROST! Also with 90% of the tests I've done with burning, wick etc...I remain frost free. I also get no frost when I hit it with a heat gun. A damn miracle!:whoohoo: HOWEVER... There was 2-3 times with a certain FO that when I hit it too hard with the gun it did frost. I think this was due to the room temp as well. I need to test those FOs again to make sure, as I think I pushed it too hard with the heat gun. Yes it is amazing, and I am dancing around the room with my discovery. Honestly I think this is something like what GL is selling as I got the idea to mix the PB after reading about their new wax blend. So that is how I'm dealing with my frost issues. I still have to try various pour temps to see if it will work if I pour at a non-slushy state. I just haven't had much time due to xmas, and refulling my whole families candle supply before jetting back to the UK for school. Let me know if this works for you! Please, I'd love to get feedback. Also if anyone is a 135 user and want to try my formula but does not want to buy 50lbs of BW, PM me and maybe we can do a swap. I can send you some PB and BW. But I'm flying out on Jan 5th to the UK so it will have to be in the next couple days. Good Luck! Ilona

Hiya! I am a devout 135 user and have all but knocked out my frosting issues. But I ran across a link raving about a soy that gave no frost even after burning. I can't find it for the life of me. I've been on here 2 hours looking for it. Anyone remember what brand? And not the CBA. It was something recent. I am wondering if it was the GL, but I'm not sure. I've been tweaking my 135 because the throw is great. But I'd be willing to test out another wax only if the throw is same or better than the 135 and has resolved frosting issues. Or was it a dream I had?? A soy wax with super HT, CT and no frost?! Yes I must have been dreaming. ilona

Wow! The sticky looks wonderful now! Thanks to everyone who contributed. I use it often, especially when I am placing samples orders. That way I don't have to post a thread about "what FO are good from _____" and wait for responses. I just peek at the sticky. Whenever I get a FO that preforms exceptionally, I PM Vicky. Thanks Vicky for all your work. Best, Ilona

Thanks for letting me vent. And thanks for the kind comforts. It still has not arrived. I did get an email saying they shipped it. Henryk you are right, now I don't have to run like a crazy woman trying to pour, wick, test, blend etc... I can sit back and perfect them. They will probably be better as I will not have the stress of a deadline and I can take my time making them just how I want. Miracuously Sat morning I got my package from TSW (that I ordered on Wed! ) and I had Bayberry FO in there. So I made up a couple soy pillars that I colored light green. I know it wasn't actual bayberry wax, but still, I hope the "luck" of bayberry will work for my father, who is having health issues. I'm not really supersticious, but I like to have hope. Anyway thanks to all of you. Oh by the way, if any of you have bayberry experience, or a link for a good how to, let me know. I was planning to blend the bayberry was 50/50 with soy Ecosoya PB. I wonder if that will be too brittle? Henryk have you done bayberry/BW? Thanks! Ilona

Thanks! Yes the UK supply thing is awful. To pay £3 for a apothicary jar! Or £1 per tumbler? That is crazy. Not to metion how much soy wax and FO is. I ship my FO from the USA as I get 2x more for the UK prices. I would love to use 11oz straight edge tumblers, if only I could find a good source with decent pricing. Oh well. Thanks! Ilona

I'm so so so bummed. I ordered bayberry wax last week from candlewic so I could make xmas tapers and it's not here. santacry I tried callingthem today and they are closed. There was nothing on their site about xmas hours, but still, I ordered them on the 16th! Really I was so excited to have a real bayberry wax taper for xmas eve. I'm shattered. I wish suppliers knew that sometimes people depend on them, especially for the little things - the wax was the only thing I ordered from them. Ho hum ilona

OOps. I should have looked at the date. :embarasse sorry!

Could you post a contact or web site so we could get more information? What a great little santa gift! ilona

So I am trying to make a couple of hurricane candles with pictures as xmas presents and it's not working. santacry I'm wondering if it may be a wax issues. I am following directions exacly but when the candle slips out of the mols (easily) the wax on top of the photo just crumples off and the picture falls. I've been making candles for years and this is my first time with canes, so I know my basics with temp, cooling etc. What I am thinking is that is it possible that it is the wax itself? I just ordered some 5055 with 180 micro and release to play with, but right now I am just using some generic paraffin. Would the wax be the problem? Or is there a trick I am missing? I wanted to make a tinkerbell cane for my sister but it isn't working. santacry Any help would be much appreciated. If I can find a way to work this out by xmas it would be amazing. Thanks! Ilona