al58

Thank you Stella! I could not agree more with every point you made.

Fun facts: Synthetic fragrances can contain as many as 600 different chemicals. The nine major starting chemicals for synthesis of aroma chemicals are: turpentine oil, C2-C5 petrochemicals, benzene, phenol, toluene, xylenes, cresols, naphthalene and cyclopentene. Ah, the sweet smell of benzene in the morning...

So that's how you do it: you insert one French word in the brand name and you can sell at insane prices... Who wants to buy my Waxy Mélange candles? Only 300 $/oz. Actually, that name is growing on me... dibs on it!

It's quite possible, but it would help if you could tell us how much your testers weigh. Let's say, to follow Patience's example, that they weigh 30 oz between the two of them. At 9%, this means they contain 0.09 x 30 oz = 2.7 oz of fragrance. The rest, 30 oz - 2.7 oz = 27.3 oz, is pure wax. If you add the two candles to the batch, you'll have 27.3 oz + 70 oz = 97.3 oz of wax in all. To get a 7% fo load, it takes 0.07 x 97.3 oz = 6.8 oz of fo. Since the testers already hold 2.7 oz of fo, you need to add 6.8 - 2.7 oz = 4.1 oz of fo. You can calculate the real quantity you need by replacing the 30 with the actual weight of your testers. Hope this helps!

Holly: Just a (possibly silly) thought, don't know if this would be practical or not, but what if you put your jars under an overhead food warmer like they use in restaurants? (Such as these: http://www.heatlampworld.com/index-overheadwarmer.html) Dunno for sure whether those things would be warm enough/not too hot/generally safe for the purpose of melting the top of candles before a repour, but maybe worth looking into if it will save you time in the long run??? Well, I told you, it's just a thought. Andre

Er... duh... my candles are, like, pillars... so how do I put a lid on them? But seriously, I've been wanting to ask, how about curing pillars? Should they be kept wrapped during the curing time, or left in open air? Does ambiant temperature make a difference? TIA. A.

Ginger! (Already mentioned, but worth mentioning again.) Adds a touch of spice to that sweet fruity smell. Refreshing. Regards, A.

Hm, sorry, this correction is not clear, I should explain better. The numbers Ruby posted are properly computed, it's the units she got wrong: her values are in cubic inches, not ounces. It happens that the numbers in fluid ounces are approximately half those in cu.in. The right values are, roughly : 7-8 oz. for the 3"; 16-17 oz. for the 4", and 32-33 oz. for the 5". Cheers, Andre

Hi Ruby, Your formula is correct, but you must have made a mistake doing the calculation. Your figures are exactly 2x what they should be. Andre