Carol M

Regina, I do hot proess, too, but I find that if I let the chemical reaction do some of the work for me, I don't need to stick blend all that much. I blend a minute or two initially to emulsify the lye water and oils and then just let the mixture rest for about five minutes. I repeat this two or three times, and I usually have trace. I also have a large Pampered Chef heatproof spatula that I use to stir and scrape down the sides of the pot; that cuts down on the SB use, too. Mine is the $9 Sunbeam from WalMart and I have been using it for close to 2 years.

Those are just too gorgeous, e! You are certainly an inspiration to anyone wanting to try the rustic technique; you've got it down pat for sure. Pumpkin Log is sort of a funny name, but I agree with PA; the real thing is to die for. The mother of a co-worker of mine makes and sells these for her church around Thanksgiving each year and they are entirely yummy; sort of like a version of carrot cake. She makes a thin layer (about 1") of pumpkin cake in a waxed paper-lined jellyroll pan; walnuts are pressed into it all over. After the layer cools, she frosts it with a cream cheese icing and rolls it up into a log shape and dusts it with powdered sugar. You chill it very well and then slice into pinwheels; it's really elegant looking.

I got some Posh Petals in recently, which I love. I haven't tried it in wax yet, but I want to. I'll probably do a votive first, just to see; their oils are $$, so sure don't want to waste it if it isn't going to work.

Mine, too, Lindsay. They haven't a clue; I was looking in the craft section near the quilting templates, and asked the woman working there. I have a HL about 35 miles from me; guess I'll drive down there one day next week when I'm off from work. I love that store anyway, so this gives me a good excuse:cheesy2:

Here it is pretty reasonable in bulk: http://www.bulkfoods.com/search_results.asp?txtsearchParamCat=1&txtsearchParamType=ALL&txtsearchParamMan=ALL&txtsearchParamVen=ALL&txtFromSearch=fromSearch&txtsearchParamTxt=4284 Reasonable compared to supermarket prices, that is.:rolleyes2 This is the shipped price, but they do have a 4.95 handling charge per order.

Shell, you got some great advice here, and a lot of people who care about you. Only you know what is best for you, but don't totally give up on what you love; make it a goal to work toward better health to be able to enjoy it all again. I'm certainly wishing the best for you; keep your chin up, Girl!

I'm not sure exactly what you mean. Do you mean that the votive completely liquified?

Okay, steer way clear of this place. I tried to call the customer service number shown on the Aloha site (as well as Paypal contact info) and it has been disconnected. The site said to 'visit our sister site, Kraftsmania', so I tried to go there, thinking there might be another number. I got a 'virus found and quarantined' pop-up. I'm thinking I need to go ahead and file a complaint with Paypal; according to the info on their site, my box should have been shipped no later than Thursday, the 25th and I should have received a shipping notice with tracking number by now.

Anyone here ever ordered from this company? I found some unique candy molds there that I was going to use to make emblem toppers for container candles in the luxury candle swap. I placed my order on 5/18, paid by Paypal, and haven't heard anything. I emailed them Tuesday asking about my order status, and haven't gotten a reply. The order is only $17 and change, but still.... They're in Hawaii, but they ship USPS, so you wouldn't figure there would be that much of a delay:rolleyes2

Actually, Kathy, I was wondering about that myself after I posted that. I guess I just assumed it was in slab form since it is a soy/para blend, but Astor V is paraffin and it's in pellet form, so I don't know.

Yes, it's definitely the SoyPro that I'm interested in. It sounds like a really good solution for some of the problems of straight soy. According to the ad in the suppliers' section, everything will be on the website this week; that way I can study the descriptions of the oils and decide which ones to try first. If it isn't up and running by Monday, though, I'll probably just call in an order.

I can't wait to order a test slab of this wax. I want to wait until everything is on the site, though; that way I can try out a few oils at the same time.

Also KY has some wonderful scents: Lemon Pound Cake, Orange Chiffon Cake, Coconut Cream Pie just to name a few.

Yes, the Rustic one is extremely nice.

For the clamshells, I've seen free-standing metal racks for those. Here's a pic of one: http://www.candletech.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1972&d=1128974925

Kangaroo Blue sells it, and also Florida Soap Supplies.

Boy, that soap is killer; but then, your stuff always is. A very classy display. As the others said, maybe when the market catches on, traffic will improve. Give it another shot later in the summer.

i only got a few of them ( 11) their shipping is just too high so not sure what im going to do if i love one or two scents. my shipping rate was silly. UGH They only ship UPS and, with their minimum charge, it is high for lightweight packages. Not too bad for bigger packages, though; you just have to order enough to make it worthwhile. I love RE; one of my favorite suppliers:cheesy2: They had a lot of very good scents of their own and now, with the Longwyck and SnC oils added, you can get most anything you want there.

I also notice the images are watermarked - I hope it is not a violation of copyright law to post them here... Yeah, I know if those were mine, I'd constantly be worried that someone would steal my pix for their own website.

Those are indeed pitiful specimens. I'd be afraid to even try to burn them with the wicks all cattywampus; the holder might overheat and break. But at least, they are showing the actual product, so anyone ordering them can see exactly what they're getting. I guess that's better than showing a picture of a perfect votive, then sending something like this.

As long as they're completely cool, I don't think it would matter how soon you bagged them. Of course, if they are at all "sweaty" from being in the freezer, you'd want to be sure they were totally dry first.

Top is right about your having to evaluate them individually. Just because they have uniform pricing, doesn't mean the scents are of uniform strength. The Bamboo, Goddess, Vanilla Grapefruit, WPC (love this one), Buttercream Crunch are obnoxiously strong and have to be used at a lower rate. But, on the other hand, there were a few that I could hardly smell straight oob (Peach Melba was one). I know people say never to judge oob, but I didn't even pour this one. Even though scents change in wax, I've never had one to get stronger in wax; it's unrealistic to expect them to be stronger diluted at least 11:1 in wax than they are straight. Overall, they have some really nice ones, though. Unusual scents that you don't find anyplace else.

What's the wattage on these? My favorite "candle warmer" is a Rival mug warmer, but I haven't been able to find those since Xmas. They are 23-24 watts and work so much better imo than the Cozy Up's at 17 watts. They're just too slow for my taste. If it were me, I would try out one of each candle I make on them and, if the container didn't get too hot, smoke, or in some other way act weird, I'd sell them.

It would depend upon the wattage of the tart warmer. If the wattage is very low, ceramic or Pyrex bowls aren't really satisfactory. With those, a metal holder is needed to help conduct the heat better. Right now, I'm using shallow 4 oz tins for that, but would also like to find something more attractive. One advantage they have is that they do come with a cover, so it makes it easy to remove the tart and put on the lid and store for later reuse. But it is impossible to remove the wax when solid because of the indented area at the top of the tin, so you have to pour the wax out while melted and wipe the tin; I'm not wild about that part.

The LLC is great in HP, but be prepared for discoloration. I have read about this since then, but when I made mine (6 weeks or so ago), I hadn't read that yet, so wasn't expecting it (didn't really smell "vanilla-y" enough to me for that). Not a dark chocolate brown, but sort of a taupe color. I'll use the WSP vanilla stabilizer in my next batch.