daniedb

Okay, I *know* I've seen a post on this topic, but I did some searching, and didn't come up with anything... I know that many companies offer their own brand of 100% soy wax, and they are all called different things...but is there any difference between them? Isn't 100% soy is 100% soy is 100% soy? Or do they do different soybean oil/other additions ratios? I have been very happy with EZSoy, but I have always wondered why people who complain about frosting try different pure soys - is there really a difference?

I bought a Yankee today. :tiptoe: The Cranberry Chutney is amazing. I LOVE it. I bought some tarts and I'm burning the Cran Chut and it is spectacular, I've got to find a dupe. I just HAD to have a candle I didn't make, and since the board was down, I couldn't go browsing through y'all's websites, and it was a jonesing I just couldn't ignore...until I bought a candle. DTs have been averted, but now I'm in the shame stage, coupled by a little of denial (no! I did NOT buy a Yankee!) and perhaps next will be a little anger (damn it, self! what have you done feeding the corporate, mediocre product machine?!) and perhaps I'll get to acceptance soon...but right now, I just needed to confess. Danie sneaks off furtively sniffing her beloved cranberry chutney tarts whispering "my preeeeeeciousssssssssssssss"

With the CD wicks, the MP will tend to favor one side or the other, because the wick bends toward one side of the container. I don't worry about it as long as you have a clean burn, because both sides will even out once you get past the 2 hour or so mark. Also, I would suggest just sticking with one FO right now - trying to test more than that is going to drive you NUTS - since each FO acts differently when bound with wax. Just choose one you don't mind smelling, and perfect that one. Your CD 18 is nowhere near going to clean up those sides - try the CD 22 again, with that amount of FO, burn the jar for 4 hours and see what you get. If you're going to double wick, which is *much* easier, I suggest using 2 CD 7s for that size jar, start there and see where you get.

Okay now, see, I LOVE LOVE LOVE that! I think that is beautiful! And I don't want to be just a negative harbinger of doom or anything, but I actually prefer the ingredients on a back label - I do two labels, one for the front with just the name, details, and ingredients and directions on the back. I prefer that look, because it's much cleaner and simpler, and it seems that it would go with your image. If you choose to keep the ingredients on the front, I still love it, it's beautiful!

Well, see, now I'm not feelin' the keyhole, now that it's a shorter, fatter keyhole, I don't think I would recognize it as such right off the bat. I'm not a big fan. Do you really need the keyhole? I like just the simplicity of the beautiful, deep orange door.

Why do you people hate me? Why do you want my husband to disown me? Why?!

Hi Anne, and welcome! My best advice is...don't give up! When you want to sell every item you own and be finished with the whole thing because you can't seem to get it wicked right, get a stupid scent throw, or dye without frost, just take a break and don't do anything rash (like chunk your wax through the window, LOL)! Just keep plugging away! Welcome!

Whoops, I did mean 8 hours - I based the simple calc on that number, I'll have to edit it. donna - interesting point...are you sure that the FO was completely burned off in that moment, or could it have evaporated during gel? I'm not very familiar with anything but CP, so I don't know the reactions that happen in CPHP, I'm sorry!

I was just reading this month's Yoga Journal, and I was browsing an ad from a nutritional supplement maker. It says, "The oil blend that enhances skin tone, aids digestion, improves concentration, diminished PMS symptoms, maintains healthy cholesterol levels....supports cardiovascular and immune health..." etc, etc. Of course, there's an asterisk, and the disclaimer is, "This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to cure, diagnose or yadda yadda." So...as long as I have a disclaimer that "this product won't actually cure you," I can say about my eczema balm, "A healing product that will banish eczema forever!" Yeah...I didn't think so. How in the world do they get away with that? I know that herbal supplements currently don't have to become FDA approved, but how can they make these amazing claims and not get in any trouble, when we have to be so careful?

My mom's been using my eczema balm as a scar remedy and she is raving about how it's helping. Here are the ingredients I use: unrefined shea avocado butter emu oil borage oil EPO wheatgerm oil I think if you whipped together some unrefined shea and emu, you'd probably get a really fabulous, healing product.

Interesting results, thanks for sharing them. If I may impose a purely quantitative conclusion, which I disclaim as totally accurate, due to many underlying factors, not the least of which is the unknown of the arc of the rate of the evap, I come up with a very simplistic equation: 8 hour of 200+ temp = 20% burnoff and using that rate as the most that can burn off, so we will use that as our benchmark, although the evap rate will by lower at lower temps (another assumption, but logical) therefore.... 30 minutes of 130-200 temps using the above equation is = 2.5% burn off which is .025 ounces if you use 1 ounce of FO, which, IMHO, is fairly negligible. Perhaps enough to make those who are particularly concerned about burn off to add an extra .5 ounces or so, but nothing that I'm going to lose any sleep over. Again, I understand this is a highly simplified conclusion, based solely on one experiment with a number of unknowns...but enough that I think I'll quit worrying about screwing up my candles if I add FO close to 200. Thanks again, TOMH - very helpful.

Sweet...they're baaaaack! I just exhausted my supply from last year's stock up session, so I'm glad to know, thanks!

Michael, sounds like you have two very different demographics there - on one side Seattle, on the other, Phoenix, LOL! I also don't dye my candles. I charge the same amount as I would if they were dyed, so I don't undercut other chandlers who have mastered the art of coloring 100% soy, and I do very well with my look. Hasn't hurt my bottom line...people really like it, and it's something a little different than most other candles offered in the same $ range.

I doubt you would find any information from a fragrance supply house...after all, you would be competing with them for customers, and I can't see them describing how best to do that! My best thought is to call a place like IFT to talk about buying and reselling from them. www.iftfragrances.com

donna - the first (and only, so far) batch of CP soap I made, I used Rosemary Hydrosol as part of my water percentage. When I added the lye, and it started heating up, you could smell that puppy a mile away - it burned right off...and it was obvious. I know that burn off is a reality, but I just don't know if brief temperatures under 200* can cause it to happen, as opposed to the longer and higher temps that lye water reaches. That's a good point you make, that is *can* occur - I should have clarified...it is a fact that it *can* burn off, but I just don't believe that it happens when you add FO to wax at 200. Again, I've been wrong a time or two in my life, so it could happen again. And yes...I guess this is a two-pronged pondering. 1. Does a significant amount of the actual weight of the FO burn off when adding FO to wax at 200, and 2. What does the change (or absence of change) of weight of the combination indicate? Can scent burn off if the weight of the FO doesn't change? I guess my proposed experiment has created more questions than answers, LOL! I'm really enjoying all the different points of view and different facts that everyone is bringing to the table.

Re: the tart thing - if you weigh a tart before you melt it, then you burn it until the scent has been totally dissipated, I would be shocked if it didn't weigh much less, not just because of the wax evaporation, but because of the FO burn off. I have a tart burner in which I keep some wax and add a squirt of FO to it when it's no longer fragrant. That's an interesting idea, Geek. Are you saying it was a sales ploy to get the person to buy new tarts instead of just adding FO to the old wax? And I agree with TOMH about the FO composition. It's not just EOs and then a bunch of carrier/filler oils - there are a great deal of synthetics that provide the fragrance. Of course most, if not all, of them have a few drops of EO, but the actual fragrance also comes from a great deal of benzene thises and hexane thats that make up the vast majority of the fragrance. Tess makes a good point about getting the EO in a FO to that temp, but I wonder if, since it's incorporated into a much greater amount of synthetics, if it changes its composition when binding with those components, and is therefore less likely to evaporate, and in general, becomes more stable as it is incorporated with more stable components. That is what I'm trying to figure out, if a consistent weight would point to a negligible amount of fragrance being burned off, or if the fragrance can burn off without affecting the weight. And please know that I'm the FIRST in this discussion to admit that I could be utterly, horrendously and completely mistaken. Burnoff may be a very real thing that happens all the time, and affects candles in a very real way. Just because I think it's a myth doesn't make it so. I absolutely know that I may go on to prove myself wrong, if I can figure out an experiment generally agreed on as reliable. I just want an answer...and I can't find anything but the claim that high temps burn off FO. Nothing to back it up, no proof or studies cited. Like the "paraffin is going to kill you and your children until the nth generation" argument...just a bunch of claims that have nothing solid backing them. Anyhoo. I'll call IFT and see if someone there can give me more information about the composition and how temperature affects it.

I just use my regular lotion, but unscented, on my baby. I would say that anything without a nut oil, mineral oil, lanolin or any other allergenic substance would be a great baby lotion. Maybe just using grapeseed, and AKO with some Vitamin E added. Hmmm...makes me want to experiment.

When you say "caves in", does that mean that the wax melts and burns straight down the wick, without reaching the sides of the jar? If so, that's what's commonly known as "tunneling" and is caused by too large a wick. If you are looking to make candles consistently and with frequency, I highly suggest ordering wicks online. It's not only cheaper, it's also easier to find the perfect size for your jar. You will find that most people have favorite suppliers, but for wicks, you can buy from any of the larger companies, and be sure that you'll be getting a good one.

So, I'm convinced that it's, overall, a myth. I agree that sustaining very high temps for a long period of time can certainly burn off the fragrance after a time, but I can't believe that adding FO at anything under 200* would be detrimental in any real way to the fragrance density. I did some searching to try and find any facts that determine the validity of the argument one way or another, but I'm coming up empty handed. I'm thinking of doing some factual experimenting. Here's my proposal - four identical amounts of wax and fragrance. Each added at a different temperature: 200, 180, 150 and 120. Allow to cool to an identical temperature, then reweigh. If the fragrance "burns off", wouldn't it be reflected in the amount of fragrance oil? In other words, isn't "burn off" the evaporation of the fragrance oil itself, and not just the burning out of the fragrance in the oil. If so, wouldn't this experiment give us a good idea about the validity of the burn off argument? And last question: who has a micro scale, LOL?! Mine only measures to .1 oz and 5 g, so I don't know if the results would be as accurate as would be helpful.

I use soy, add FO at 175-180. It seems to me that logically, fragrance burnoff is a myth. It takes approx 30 minutes for a 2 pound batch to cool from 180 to 100. When burning a candle, it burns for at least 3 hours at 130ish, so a relatively brief high temperature can't possibly burn off much. I usually add 1.1 instead of 1 ounce, just in case I'm wrong, because even if there is such a thing as burnoff, then I cannot possibly fathom it burning off more than .1 oz when I add it.

Candles or B&B? I've been using an FO from MMS that I think is a dead-on white choc, but it's prob. not going to be great in candles.

You know what, I forgot completely to check to make sure mine were B&B safe - remembering the ones that I threw in there, I'm fairly certain that at least 4 of 5 were, but I may be the lah-hooooooser that added the non-B&B one. I'm so sorry, if that was me.

In a pinch, you can buy some Glad Press N Seal and use that - there are logos imprinted on the stuff, but there are enough blank spaces that you can maneuver around them. When I used it for my last-minute emergency, I just cut out a square, pressed it around the top rim and ran a sharp knife around the edge to cut off the excess. Worked like a charm.

Can't be the Body Shop - right? You can spill the beans. Don't the ingredients look more like a detergent soap (like 99% of the bar "soap" on the shelves now) than a real true lye-and-oils soap?

i think the panthenol will give it a slip or feel that won't occur w/o it - it won;t hurt to test a batch w/o, but i don't think it will feel the same unless you have something to sub, does that make sense? youcan def use b/w for candellia, i think the rule of thumb is 2x the b/w as candellia is harder. it's a veggie wax in case you're marketing no animal products. sorry for the horrid typing, sleeping toddler on my chest...i'm in heaven!