Jami

I use liquid stevia to sweeten my flavor oils. It is an all natural sweetener that diabetics use safely. I have used it for a long time as an artificial sweetener. It takes just a drop. If you use too much, you have a licorice after taste.

I wish the container palm was as easy to wick as the pillar palm!! I am STILL trying to wick the container. I am getting close but still ending up with a little shell of wax on the glass. I use LX wicks for my pillars and they are great but I can't wick a container with it. I have been using the CSN wicks from CS for container palm. Maybe I just need to go down to a smaller container for the palm. I have been working with 3 to 3 1/4 inch diameters. I really want to single wick these but have seen others have great success double wicking them. I have seen Stella talk so much about the CDN wicks that I ordered a sampler pack to play with.

10 - 20% paraffin should help. I have played with everything from a 90/10 down to a 50/50 blend. I settled on a 70/30 blend because it helps with the scent throw, makes pretty candles, and cuts down cure time without using too much paraffin. I use IGI 4627. Some don't like it because it is messy to work with. It is almost like scooping out a thick vaseline. I have tried several but for me, the 4627 provided the best combination. There are other container paraffins less messy like IGI 4630, J223 and J50. It is entirely a personal preference

Bobbie, soy is prone to frosting. It seems you are using alot of dye though. For 1 lb of wax, 2 or 3 drops of dye is all I use. I pour when the wax looks like the consistency of tomato juice which can be referred to as "slushy stage". I don't use a thermometer any more for that. I have put my jars in a box to cool and left them out on a table to cool. I still got frosting. You will probably almost always get frosting with certain colors but try cutting back on the dye and see if that at least reduces the frosting some. You can also try zapping the tops with a heat gun. While that might help, don't be surprised if you see a little of the frosting come back through. The frosting drove me NUTS and I started using some container paraffin in mine to give me smooth frost free tops.

I single wicked with my hemp. They burned great. I did end up with a mushroom on certain scents when I was testing at 1 1/2 oz per pound of FO. When I went down to 1 - 1 1/4 oz per pound. The mushrooms diminished quite a bit. I hate mushrooms but unfortunately it is just the nature of some wicks. I still have a few of these jars that I should experiment with the CD wicks. I have changed jars and haven't played with what I have left on the Platinum jars.

It is the clamshells from Millcreek I am sorry to say. I had to throw mine away. Not only are they thinner compared to the other clamshells I have and the quality isn't near the others I have used. Millcreek's affected the smell of several tarts that I poured in them but my other clamshells don't. The only reason I ordered them from Millcreek is because I had an order I needed from them and thought I would save on shipping. The clamshells I use now are much thicker and I have NO problems with any scents in them. I had always bought mine from ICS.

Just because a label is waterproof does not mean the label you print is waterproof. If you aren't using waterproof ink, it WILL fade or smear off. (referring to ink jet) I have been having luck with my acrylic spray but I have also ordered clear labels to put on top of my printed waterproof. I personally don't want the expense of double labels so as long as my acrylic spray is working. I am going to compare the spray with the clear labels. As long as I can get my acrylic spray to do the job, I am sticking with it. If not, I will use the clear labels on top for shower gel only and the spray for other body products. I am not going to go through the expense of a laser printer until my ink jet dies. The ink cartridges for laser printers are expensive

Do you mind if I ask how much liquid silk you use in your formulas? I have looked at it but because of the cost I passed. If it is a low percentage (1 or 2%) it wouldn't be so expensive. Thanks!

Those look like the 8 oz Elite Platinum Mason jars from Walmart. If it is, I hate to say this but people ended up using them for wickless candles because they are so squatty. Wicking them is kind of useless, the burn time would be next to nothing. I have sucessfully burned the 16 oz size but I used the super large hemp wicks for that size. LX wicks didn't cut it (even the 30). Others have tried up to a CD 20 on the 16 oz size but it started puffing black smoke as it got down into the jars. Maybe you would want to try them as a wickless and see what the interest would be from your clients. It sure would make your life alot easier

I agree that it is a palm wax. I add 10% soy to mine without affecting the crystalization. I think I read somewhere that others mananged to go as high as 20% soy in their palm wax before it started affecting the crystalization. My hats off to that company if they can single wick that jar using palm wax and getting a clean burn all the way down. I sure can't do it lol

I found that CD 10's work best for my own 70/30 blend in the 8 oz jj. I used a CD 12 for pure soy. I would at least test one with a CD 10 and compare it to your CD 12 to see if you can elminate your problem. Geek, somewhere in my research, I had read the Parasoy was closer to a 50/50 mix and the Perfect Blend was a 70/30. Are you not finding that is the case? I tried the perfect blend before they changed it and had a time with cracking and sink holes so I didn't pursue it. The parasoy to me did burn similar to my 50/50 mix but mine doesn't smoke like KY's did. Vickey is to afraid to release her %'s for some reason.

I was using the 444 with my 4627 but ran out of my 444. I decided to try the 415 in place of it and went down to a 50/50 blend. I am getting a nice throw from my candles. I personally prefer the 444 but the blend with the 415/4627 had alot stronger throw than the 415 by itself.

I had a sample pack of eco wicks from CS and I liked how sturdy they were and the burn I was getting sooooo I ordered a pack of 100 of the eco 12's. I got them today. I was NOT thrilled with this batch. They didn't have the same sturdy wax coating on them the samplers did. Actually they were kind of flimsy. I thought at first maybe some wax melted off them during shipping but there is no indication on the bag they were in that wax melted. I buy my CD wicks from a supplier on ebay. EVERY batch I have ever gotten from her have been great. I think the wax coating on the wicks are awesome and helps when I am pouring a candle so they don't become flimsy. The upside of ordering a big batch is that you don't have to wonder what each batch will be like. The downfall will be like I had today, I am stuck with 100 flimsy wicks. *sigh* As far as I can tell, the wicks I have gotten have been the same size, just the wax can vary that they dip them in.

For reasons listed on this post, I started just doing my own 70/30 blend. At least this way I know what percentage and what wax is involved. I would have gone with a supplier in KY if they were more willing to at least divulge percentages so we know type of wax we are working with. They wouldn't even give out that. What a crock of baloney. Why would a supplier be so afraid of losing business by divulging a % of the blend? Can I try and make a blend myself like I am doing now? Sure I can but right now its not a big deal to blend it. I don't want to retest at this point. When I have more time to retest, it will be with a wax that I KNOW is at least the same ratios so I am in the ballpark of my testing parameters. People have migraines when burning paraffin. I don't want to be responsible for knowing that I may have caused someone else pain because I was too afraid to divulge I use 30% paraffin. If they know up front I have paraffin in my blend and tell me they can't burn it, I have soy available. It's only fair to the client to let them know what they are burning. I strive to have my client base built on good customer service, reasonable costs and a good product. If listing my ingredients on my BB products is enough to send them off to another supplier, I didn't do my job to keep that client. Just my

I absolutely love the emulsified body butter recipe in the recipe section. I wasn't real confident that mine was going to come out since it was the first recipe I ever tried but it was awesome. I did have one heck of a lotion batch when I wasn't paying attention and didn't fully put my stick blender down in the bottom I have made a few batches since with tweaks here and there and just love how versatile it is. Big kudos to you!!! What sugar scrub recipe are you using? I think I have all the ingredients for some scrubs but not sure what recipe to start with lol

I have this base from a different supplier in Ohio. I am going to test a little more tonite and will see how my FO's react in it. I will keep you posted. How long did it take before your base turned brown?

I looked at the ingredients for the WSP body butter. I know there are those who like it but I frankly wouldn't buy it. The ingredients leave alot to be desired. NDA and Just Scent have body butter with alot more beneficial ingredients in it for the skin such as SAO, sunflower oil, jojoba oil, grapeseed oil, and even includes cocoa and shea butters. WSP has sunflower oil. These butters are an emulsified body butter which there is a recipe on the BB recipe section. I have played around alot with that recipe and love it. The fact that NDA and JS have alot of the same ingredients without me having to make it was a big seller for me. I won't have to heat the base either if I add anything. I would do a search of the ingredients to see the benefits of the product and feel confident you are offering the best ingredients for the skin compared to other products.

Thanks Stella!! I had done a search for them on google and saw JBN to be about the only one that had them. I just wanted to check to see if maybe someone else had them that I order from and just missed them. I will get some to try

Stella - I keep seeing you mention CDN wicks. Those are the only wicks I haven't tried lol Would you mind sharing where you get them? I would love to give them a try.

More isn't always better and I have found that out the hard way Try cutting back your FO a little and see if that cuts down the smoking. The candles I have tested that ended up with some soot around the top of the glass did better the second time around just by cutting back on the FO. If you still have smoking after you cut back THEN you can try different wicks. Or you can do it vice versa, yank out that wick, stick another one down in the candle and see if you still have smoking. Isn't testing just sooooo much fun :lipsrseal lol

Yep a little dab of black is what I have read to get richer darker colors. I don't have any black so I have never tested it. If it is just a test candle, give it a try with one little dab of black to give you an idea of what it does to your colors

Hey Kandle - How did your testing go with the blend? I have some 415 wax here and have been trying it with paraffin but this peaked my interest.

Hey miz - I know we were doing some comparisons of our blends and I FINALLY got around to trying the 415 with 4627. I had cracking around the edge of my glass. I thought the 415 sat so long that it dried out or something. I wonder why that blend is cracking when the 444/4627 didn't Have you gotten that frosting under control yet? Which wax was your son burning to get such a good throw?

Top you have peaked a curiosity mode in my mind lol I remember trying C-3 when I first started but I have tried just about every wax out there since. If the C-3 throws really well and I want to continue with a 70/30 blend, would the C-3 be a good combination with the 4627 paraffin? I really like the 4627 as gooey and messy as it is lol I will do a search too because I have never thought about this combination until now.

Shari, I started out with the blocks. I would "shave" the block like I am grating a carrot with a small hand grater. I put the shavings into a baggie and crushed them up a little more. A thought that just came to mind (its almost 2:30 a.m. so watch out for my thoughts lol)........It might not work BUT..... how about weighing the chip then weighing your shavings to get close to the chip weight for your color. The blocks might have more coloring so it may not work well, not real sure. If nothing else, you can either weigh your shavings and write notes as to the weight per pound or even use a 1/8 tsp measuring spoon for your shavings and document your colors to see if you need to go up or down for your coloring. I hate to say this but I use a 70 soy/30 IGI 4627 blend with liquid dye now. I put 3 drops of my red color and get a beautifully red candle. A clogged wick could be one that the flame dies out and you have trouble lighting it and getting it to stay lit after that.