Jeana

Cocoa powder works great. You can achieve many different levels of brown, just depends how much you use. I premix it in a cup before adding to the batch.

ok, thanks. I have three different cream soaps I want to make. Have you guys tried adding strawberries to a cream soap? I got this idea while eating strawberry shortcake at a farmers market. Strawberries are supposed to be really good for your skin topically. I have this vision of pretty red and white soap, but I bet it goes tan like all the other fun pinks and purples.

So your basically using it to superfat as you would an oil. What excess fat percentage range do you use for the batch if you are planning on adding the cream? I typically have my excess fat range fall between 5 and 6%. I use the The Sage lye calculator. I'm just trying to determine if I should make any changes to the normal excess fat range I use. Barbara, are you adding it at light trace too?

In this article http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/beyondbasics/ss/How-To-Make-Milk-Soap-With-Heavy-Whipping-Cream_15.htm the author says there is so much fat left over compared to regular milk in soaps that the superfatting should be adjusted so the soap doesn't go rancid. Do either of you make and adjustments to make up for the higher fat content?

I've done milk soaps, but I've never soaped creams, like whipping cream. Does any one know how much cream to use in a batch? Is it like 50% of the liquid or something like that? Seems like diluting it would just be milk soap then anyway. Is there a difference of using cream or milk in soap? I like the feel of the milk soaps.

There are two types of vanilla eo. There is the type that is steam distilled and then there is the type where the beans and insides are infused in a carrier oil. You can make the infused vanilla oil very easily yourself, so it would be much cheaper to try than buying it from the health food store. I think it also smells better, not as bakeryish. I've wondered about this a lot myself. My only concern is if it will smell strong enough with only the infused oil scenting it.

I may have missed it but did you confront the owner with how you feel about the situation? Have you come straight out and asked if he is not going to carry your candles any longer? You said you left on bad terms. Maybe he thought you weren't interested in selling your candles out of his store and longer, so he found something else. That's not dirty that's real business. Was he getting any money on your special orders picked up in the store or delivered? If not, I wouldn't be happy with that either if I was him. If he still owes you money make sure you communicate that very clearly to him with very clear numbers, like have an invoice in the mail or in your hand when you speak. Sounds like he thought your vacation and other perks were your payment for the candles. It may take a while to bounce back, but if you were selling that well there you can do it again. Get a small office space and sell out of there. Put an ad in your local paper letting all your former customers know where you can be found. And like everyone else said step up all other types of marketing. Try reinventing some of your products too. All successful businesses change regularly.

I like this one. I use it in soap and candles. It measures over 900 degrees. http://www.harborfreight.com/non-contact-laser-thermometer-96451.html If you put thermometers in the search area several digitals come up. The prices are better than getting them from candle supply stores.

Sharon, it is candlescience not candlewic. I always get samples from candlewic with no issues. Maybe I should get the samples from candlewic and forget about getting them from CS. Eric, I am using an all veg wax, that's why I need a little larger wick. Now it is much too large though. I was thinking they may have been mislabeled too but why wouldn't the spool of lx 8 work then. I've heard of people getting bad wicks before. I wonder if the wicks changed in this batch, but it seems I'm the only one with the issues. I just hate going back to testing something that has been working for years and out of the blue for no reason doesn't. Candles are so annoying!

I use LX 10 wicks in my tealights. I've burned hundreds of them with my old lx 10 wicks with very consistent results. Recently i ordered an LX 10 spool and got very different results. I thought it was the wax I primed the wicks with so I ordered some of Candlescience's primed and tabbed LX 10s. These too burned much hotter and had a much higher flame. I am using the exact same wax. The only difference has been the new wicks. I even pulled out some old tealights and burned them up against each other. You can see the difference. In the photos, the end tealights are the new LX 10, and the center candle is my old LX 10. I contacted CS about this and of course they suggest trying LX 8. I have an old spool that always produced a smaller flame than I like, which is why I used to use LX 10. I asked them for a sample of LX 8s in a newer version. Seeing how I have spent thousands of dollars with them, and just placed, two orders in the last month you'd think they could send a few to me. But instead tell me I have to buy them:sad2: Anyone else having this issue?

They have a template I want to use. So I paid the subscription fee and can't figure out how to start designing. Hopefully much easier than I am making it. Of course I can't get any support on the issue either. Would love some help if anyone has experience with them.

That is just too cute! The faces of the ducks are adorable. I also think it is cute how you took the photos of them glowing.

Very nice work! the color theme is really nice.

Thanks, just check with them today. They only have two sizes of oils. 35lb or drum. I could drive there easily but the prices in the end are pretty much the same as what I am paying to have the oils shipped. You should check out Oils By Nature. Their palm right now is only $47 for 50lbs. They are closer to you than they are to me so shipping might be better than from CA.

OMG I'm in Poway. We should get together some time. I'll PM you.

The same thing happened to me. I had to call a hazardous waste place to drop it off. Ours was free. They keep the container though. Seems like a waste but sometimes my soap was ok and sometimes it wasn't. I couldn't handle the inconsistency. It was nice to use fresh lye again after that.

MissMori what part of CA are you in? I was just looking at what I pay for shipping to order my soap oils, its time to order again. The last time I bought 50lbs of coconut oil from Soapers choice it was close to $42 for shipping. Now they raised their prices to $60 for 50lbs of CO. Good thing OBN still has it for $50 and their shipping is only about $35 from OH. Still that is almost double the cost thanks to the shipping. I keep looking for someone who sells oils at real wholesale prices here in CA. For a place so big we have so little (or nothing) for oils for soap, or for waxes and glass for candles. At least I can go pick up my lye. Lovemylabs - check with a chemical supply store near you for your lye. Just seal it really well in a totally airtight container and you can keep it for a long time that way. I pay $41.25 for 55lbs with no tax or shipping.

shoot i didn't even notice that.

I made my own spray for dusting (like Pledge) I'm still using it, it lasts for a long time. If you're interested I could share the recipe. I had a customer tell me she uses brewed tea to clean her wood floors, she said her floors get very clean using this, something about the tannins in the tea clean well. I use essential oils for a lot of cleaning too. Kind of depends what you're wanting to clean.

ok, that makes a little more sense. I'm not sure how this business contact got to my personal page, but she has requested to be my friend. I have my privacy settings on Friends only. Even with privacy settings set to friends only anyone can still send a friend request. She isn't someone I'd like to include on my personal page, but I would like to keep in contact with for business. What do I do? It seems a little rude to decline her friend request but tell her to "like" my business page. Also, I noticed that "Fan" pages can be created. I just created a regular business page when I made my page. Are they the same thing? Another question, does anyone know if there is a way to add to the tab options that say: wall, info, photos ..... I would like to add one for reviews.

Hi Derek, wow your first post . I do have a separate page name (facebook.com/mybizname) I just started putting this on my cards and on my website, so they are hopefully going to that page directly and not using the search. I guess they could search pages with my name from my card but if I give the direct link for the business that wouldn't make sense. So if someone is on my business page and they request "friends", and I confirm, and my security settings are to allow friends to see my personal pages, doesn't that give my business page friends access to my personal? It is annoying how confusing this is to me. I don't get why I couldn't just set this up for my business and be done with it.

I'm having trouble keeping my personal facebook page separate from my business page. Now when people find me on my website or from other business related avenues, and want to be "friends" it is going through my personal page to ask to be "friends" Totally not what I want. I don't care who looks at the business page, but I don't want EVERYONE looking at my personal page. I'm very new to this, and only really signed up to have a business page. Can anyone explain how I can keep these pages more separated?

That was smart of you to call. It makes sense the person who owned the card thought the charge was fraudulent seeing how he didn't really place the order. Wonder how many other charges she made on his card?

that's funny! Or visa versa, huh?

Well as usual I guess I'll be stuck with a brown soap I was hoping I could get some colors like these https://www.vat19.com/dvds/wine-soap-gift-crate.cfm I found these on a wine soap search. I like the idea of looking up the characteristicss of the wines and trying for a scent that matches. I also like the sound of black raspberry vanilla. Where do you get yours icecold? Pomegranate sounds good too. Sweet and crisp not too foody.