Judy, USMC

Keep the name. I get the "Oohh, look, $cent$y" comment all the time when people see the clamshells.

Sticking the wicks in partially cooled wax is old school ...

Guess I'm an old school kind of gal. Started out with paraffin over 15 years ago ... and did it the same way ... wait for it to start setting up and then center the wick. Of course the jars had a sweet spot that kept it centered. Never had a wick drifting or floating complaint or problem. Started using the silicone high-temp bathroom caulk when I came here to research soy.

Really innovative technique - kudos for the concept. I'm located on coastal Carolina and don't think they would sell there ... but would do well in our western mountains. Maybe once you get the mountain perfected you could work on a beach?!?!?

Just wanted to share an experience one of the other crafters (not a member here) had selling sprays. She got some base and loaded it to the max and sold it at a North Carolina Farmer's Market. One of her customers came back after a week and complained (quite loudly) that the spray damaged her furniture.

FO will "eat" the finish off wood furniture and can stain walls and fabric. If you intend to load a base up I'd recommend that you put that warning on your label along with instructions not to spray near furniture or walls. The customer went to the market manager and they put the pressure on her to give the lady the $50 she was asking for to get the table top re-finished.

It's a little weird trying to judge the color of the wax when it is still liquid. Colors are ALWAYS darker ... and lighten up as it solidifies. My trick is to put a drop on a white paper towel and let it dry - then place a second drop directly on top of the first. That will usually give me a ball park sense of what the final color will be. And I'd start out light-handed on the dye because I could always add more. HTH

I use 4786 and it is a 2-pour for container candles - it does shrink. Never tried to make melts with it straight. In containers I only noticed dimple-y tops when I inadvertently cooled them fairly qickly in a draft.

I've had the same problem with mixing up wicks a couple of times. Now when I'm working with 2 different sizes I'll mark one with a Sharpie. 3 different sizes will get one unmarked, one with a black mark and the third with a red mark.

Just have to remember to write down which mark goes with which wick!

It's just getting to be my bedtime ... so you are not alone. There are a couple of us night owls here.

Spamming - reported ... still going on as i reported. 7 posts when I started & up to 12 now! Crazy

95% of the time I don't wash. This is where a hidden cost comes in to play with pricing. The cost of electricity is a cost (as well as the water charge) ... not to mention depreciation on the dishwasher. If there is no substantial difference in adhesion I wouldn't bother. (I do wash if it's obvious there is a coating on the jar.)

If it were me, I'd run a test making a candle with a spritzed one, dishwashered one, and one out of the box and then choose which one to use. The time it takes to make these 3 testers could save you tons of time and money in the long run.

At the top of the page (right under the question mark of What's New?) is a tab for FAQ (frequently asked questions.) The Co-op info is towards the bottom of the page and has another link regarding co-ops - - - HTH

BBW (Slatkin) makes the candles but not melts/tarts. I will get dupes of their oils when customers ask for melts in those Fragrances but I won't make them in candles.

Judy... I just saw your question.. I don't know if you found it yet or not but............ There are videos, on YouTube, for the crochet process. I was going to try that, because I've NEVER knitted nor crocheted a stitch in my life but my mother is a master crochet-er... Just type in Sashay Scarf Crochet.

Yep - I did view the video. I'm having a problem at the end. The video really doesn't show you how to finish it off. The crochet part is really easy & fun.

I make the Kohair bears from First&Main and am looking for similar kohair-looking lambs. With the troops returning to the base we are expecting quite a baby boom. Already getting requests for them scented in Baby Powder and Bedtime Bath.

The ones from Aurora and Fiesta are great but the price point is a tad high for me $3.50$4.25. I try to keep retail around $12.50 so it's affordable for the younger troops. But when I add in the "fixin's" and packaging I'm closer to $15.

So does anyone have alternate sources I can check out? Thanks for any help!

Are you trying to just pour into the cube portion? I've never tried that. I pour all my clamshells almost to the top - where it will come out as a solid bar that users can snap apart. I feel like I'm missing something with the question ... Marty, if the answer doesn't sound right please pm me.

They have thousands of scents! I never found a list - or any descriptions. I went to their facility and told them what I was interested in. They brought sample bottles and I chose from there. Take for example White Cake - They had ones that OOB were a deeper vanilla flavoring aroma, another was more cake-y, the third was sweeter like cake with frosting, fourth had more of a buttercream frosting tone. And those were just 4 of the dozens of variations they had. As with any FOs some worked, others didn't ...

Dealing with a manufacturer is completely different than just ordering from a supplier. IMO if you are serious about buying in that large a quantity be very, very specific with your description of what you want. And if you are looking for several different FOs it would be worth a trip rather than trying to request samples. I'd recommend that the first step sould be giving them a call to find out what their procedures are and if they charge for samples. HTH

I've dealt with Arylessence in the past. They are a manufacturer and usually had a minimum of 35#. I'd venture to say some of the suppliers get their oils from them.

Just ordered for the first time during the 25% off ultimate oils (sale is over now.) The % was off and they did a payment correction before it hit my credit card ... and order was received in 3 business days. First blush - I'd consider them a good supplier and would order from them again.

Wondering if anyone else has noticed the change in strictly soy candles? The scent has definitely changed in some partially burned ones from 2 years ago. Paraffin & palm remain the same. I think that since the soy is veggie based it may have a definite shelf-life ... now it's got me worried about my melts.....

Guess Adam didn't appreciate any of the advice. All of the posting done trying to help has been for naught. His last visit here was September 13th. Hopefully he's taken the information and is working on the basics ... but I personally doubt it. All that time spent by posters trying to be helpful may have been wasted on him ... hope it can help someone else who knows how to use the search feature & is not so impatient and is willing to use it.

I posted it because there was no other way to get ahold of her. If it was wrong, sorry

No mtt, not saying it's wrong. It's just that with all the spam we've been getting, and all the spybots trolling for emails to hack, a lot of us wouldn't post our emails. You're braver than I am ...

I'd prefer contact via private messages here before giving out my email to everyone on this board...

Unfortunately, the PM feature will not be available until you have been here at least 30 days and certain number of posts. If I remember correctly, you may NEED to post your email on your personal profile to get responses. It's rare that anyone (like MTT) would post their email in public.

From past experience, some fairs (especially the indoor ones) refuse to allow open containers of potpourri. Both buyers & vendors can be alergic or sensitive.

Omg, this does smell awesome! Went to Bath & Body just to smell it and bought two! Hope it has good ht!

It threw well for me but I had a bit of a problem with the burn. At times it looked like it was ready to drown out about an hour into the second burn. Bought 2 at 2 different locations and had the same problem. I finally wound up lighting it up to melt the wax and then pouring the melted wax into some 4oz jelly jars so I could put it on my Hotplate type melter.

So, you're saying the JS Peppermint Bark smells more like white chocolate?

To me it smells like peppermint bark which is white chocolate with crushed up red & white peppermint sticks. Yes the top note is the peppermint but - to me - the chocolate undertone is definitely white chocolate and not milk chocolate. IMO Peppermint Patty is the peppermint/milk chocolate combo.

To me, it's dead even -- I smell equal chocolate and peppermint. Makes killer cp soap!! Just and FYI: the chocolate in PB is much different than say a peppermint patty type FO if that makes sense. It's not a rich sweet chocolate as much as it's a clean baker's chocolate maybe?

Just like the taste difference between milk chocolate and white chocolate, I'm picking up the white chocolate aroma and not a fudge note like some generic chocolate FOs. HTH