Sarah

it's a long story really. the item was damaged during shipping (to the point where i could not use it) AND they shipped to the billing address instead of the shipping address, and then refused to claim responsibility for any of it. they wanted me to pay all kinds of extra shipping to take care of it and told me basically that they didn't believe me that it arrived in that condition, even when i emailed them pictures.

http://www.candlesandwoodcrafts.com/woodendisplays.html

i had a pretty bad experience with this place a while back, so if you order from her, be careful.

Try using less FO. I don't use j225, but 2oz is a LOT for any wax. I use j223 and wouldn't go more than 1oz on most of mine. Does the j225 *need* more FO or are you adding it because you can?

yes, strawberry jam from bcn is very good, and very strong

thanks for the suggestions guys! i am off to work right now, but i'm sure i'll have some more questions for you in the morning.

time to upgrade

i hope to be getting a color laser printer by this time next month. so i'm wondering what everyone's opinions are on what's out there? any that you would recommend looking into or any i should completely avoid? i'd like to stay around $500.

any info at all will help, thanks!

i think you need your company name on whichever one you choose, and i don't like the last one, too hard to read.

and yes i've been to the keyhole bar

yeah, my bank pretty much sucked. i know that now and am no longer with them. i only ended up losing about $20, it could have been way worse, but still it was my money.

most of my charges were for online porn and some to yahoo ~ the genius that got my number was trying to start some small business stuff with yahoo. what's funniest is the company for the porn site gave me all the information they could give me when i told them what happened, including ip address, what information was supplied (they even used an old address of mine), email address. yahoo? they refused to give me any information on the accounts there because i could not verify my birth date. whoever was using my info had given them a fake one and i obviously didn't know it. so yahoo wouldn't tell me anything.

ugh. what a crappy club to be a part of, huh?

it's happened to me too. luckily you know you have a good credit card company that was on the ball with this. mine happened with a debit card, so the only reason i ended up paying very little of it is that i caught the charges right before they went through. they were internet purchases, so there was a time period of a couple days where the charge was there, but not completed. a safety net, i guess.

I have poured at 160 without problems, that's the lowest i'll go though. This is just from my own experience as to what works for me and what doesn't, i know that everyone has different experiences (and different waxes).

I am curious whether those who add at 120 have problems getting some FO's to mix in? And have you tried adding at higher temps and experienced an actual difference in the finished candles?

Michael, sounds like you have two very different demographics there - on one side Seattle, on the other, Phoenix, LOL!

haha, i think so.

there is a market for pretty much everything out there, you just have to find it.

getting info is a good place to start, and he's just asking questions. he's not posting a thread asking what he should charge for the his first candle that he just made

I heat to about 190 and add FO at 175-180.

Do you have trouble getting the FO to mix in when you add it as low as 120?

i'd just make your own recipe. it would probably come out better anyways. and candelilla is a veggie sub for beeswax, i don't have much info on how to use it yet, but will trying it out this spring, hopefully.

i usually follow this when starting a new recipe:

(from mms)

• An easy guide for creating your own lip balm recipes is this:
  
• 20% Beeswax
  
• 25% solid at room temperature oil (Coconut, Palm, Shea, etc)
  
• 15% brittle at room temperature oil (cocoa butter, pko, etc)
  
• 40% liquid oil at room temperature Sweet almond, olive, avocado, etc)

i usually go for around 1/2" or so, but when you get towards the bottom of the jar (and depending on how long you burn it) it's bound to get a little deeper.

keep in mind that email is not perfect. i have one person that i try to keep in touch with who has aol, and my emails go through to her about 20% of the time. also, if it's hotmail, yahoo, any of the free services, they are far from perfect. even my own email, using outlook, sometimes gets returned to people.

or ignore her. even if that is a legitimate email, would you want to get into a business relationship with someone like that? i'm guessing they'd do their best to make you regret it. remember that you can choose who you do business with.

haha, of course on certain days, i'm sure i'd be sending off some sort of reply to her like others have already mentioned.

i've got a little experience testing fo's, this one just wasn't a hit for me.

anyone have any luck with j223 for this one? i see of everyone who's mentioned what wax they use, no one has mentioned this one. i can get it to throw a little, but not at all what i would expect.

oh well, i might have some of this to put up for sale soon.

What do those of you who've used this one think of it?

I realize mine is not the only opinion, so i'm trying to keep an open mind here, but i really don't like it. Even knowing what it is supposed to smell like, i don't think that's what i smell. That and i had a HELL of a time getting this one to throw at all. I was surprised, i seem to remember i read quite a few good reviews of this oil.

On the other hand, i am ready to drink my pound of chai tea FO

i use mine with silicone and i love it. i have never had any problems with the magnet not letting the wick stick in the jar. and i only use a small amount of silicone.

i agree with raspberry vanilla creme (along with about a hundred others). i haven't seen that one mentioned much, but i made it in candles and a lotion tester, and everyone (male and female) love it. it has really surprised me, i knew it was good, but i didn't expect it to be a big hit like that.

just fyi, i had some issues with them concerning a credit card and ended up having to report it to my credit card company to get the money back. they didn't outright screw me, they sort of half ass tried to help me, but not really.

pineapple upside down cake and pumpkin fudge are two very awesome scents. i also used the banana crumb cake. i have tried the toffee apple crunch but i could not stand the smell of it. i've read other places that a lot of people like it, though.

i get good throw with this fo. try asking someone else if they can smell them. if you poured them recently you just might have candle nose

nice work i know how much time i spent in front of my computer back when i had my other website just for that damn search engine ranking, hehe.