Tereasa

Wow... Sleeping Waters... it's calming, soothing... yet, it also gives me shot of mystery, reminds me of 'still waters run deep.' I think the name is perfect. It's elegant, mysterious and steeped in the history of your environment. I love it!!

Daystar, IMO, is the best.

I don't know if anyone here is a Gene Simmons fan... and I'm not, really, but for some reason I was watching his show "Family Jewels." His son is in a band, and they were trying to find a name for the band. Gene's advice was: "break it down into it's simplest form. That's your name." Now, as controversial as he is, he is one thing... an excellent business man. A friend of mine who is in marketing gave me this advice: make it simple. You don't want someone saying "it was something creek or river or lake candles" or trying to spell a hard-to-spell name to find your website. I asked my boyfriend to spell 'essential' He said e-s-s-e-n-t-u-a-l. I asked him to spell wax. He got that one. And, this is one of the smartest, most educated people I know. My point is, not everyone is a good speller.Having said that....my suggestion is to close your eyes and think what defines elegance to you.... what defines the feeling you want people to have when using your products... and there's your business name....

I have to second that.... I didn't like working with the C3. I used to use KY 125/cottonseed exclusively and really liked it. But, to each their own!

I think ICS has one....

ya'll are very welcome... I hope I've been a smidgen of help. I guess I should have said that MOST of my FO is 8%... that is the highest I'll use. Some I drop down to 6%. If I can't get good hot/cold throw at 8%, I figure that FO just isn't for me. As far as LX wicks.. they work great for me. I've tried many, many types. I think RRD or CD would be my next choice. But, I get a good HT, good melt pool, and nothing bad happens with the LX, lol. I'm venturing into the palm wax bandwagon now. I just poured my first glas glow candles last night and so far... WOW!

One more... I know you THOUGHT you could eye the middle of that jar...

I use straight sided jars, diameter of 2 7/8", LX 18 for most scents... occasionally go up to a LX 20 or down to a LX 16. Mushrooming hasn't been a problem... I'm playing with redig-glo dye chips right now. I usually use liquid dye, but there's this crazy part of me that enjoys trying different things. Initially, no matter how much I stirred, there were fragments of dye chip left... so I tried melting it with my heat gun just prior to pouring my wax. Believe it or not, this has made prettier candles. Although I had pretty candles before, my tops are smooth as glass now. GB 444 is my favorite wax I've ever worked with.... so far, lol.

hmmm... why mess with the best?? LOL... can't beat BJBC....

I use GB444, LX wicks and average 8% on FO. I've had great success.

And Kleenex brand Viva are the most absorbant!!

Candle Science!

Wildberry Mousse (in GB444, 8%) has an amazing cold throw already for me. I'll let it cure and post the testing results if you'd like. Edited to add: Their Med. Fig, Sage & Pomegranate, Creme Brulee and a few others (sorry, cant' think of them and too lazy to get my notes) are amazing as well. I love CS!

for my wax to cool... My name is Tereasa (not just a pithy forum name, eh?)... I've lurked here for a long time and finally decided to say hello to everyone. I started making soy wax candles in 2001. I bought soy wax because it was cheaper than paraffin (joke on me, eh?) and thought, as many do, that I'd have an instant and lucrative business. Well... I made some candles... they all turned out brown because yellow and blue make green, but without a color wheel... welllll... brown. No big deal, I tell myself. My co-workers and friends were soooo supportive and bought these brown things. Only to have to come back and tell me that they had no scent. THEN (backwards, I know) I did some research. I was mortified about the chances I'd taken. I haven't sold a candle since. Anyway... that's my beginnings... I'd like to think I've made some forward steps in my endeavors, lol... Anyway, having said that, I thought it might be all right to post some things that newbies may need to purchase that perhaps they haven't considered... chime in with anything I miss, please! From the Store: Burn Cream, band-aids, stongly consider goggles, lots of steak or whatever to appease your DH (or significant other)... maybe nothing else because that would cut back on fragrance shopping. From the Book Store: Uncommon Four Letter Words, and How to Properly Use Them in a Sentence Everything You Need to Know About Mantras (let it cure... ooohhhhmmm.... let it cure....) Get a publisher for auto-biography, Just One More Vanilla! Anyone else have suggestions?

Very beautiful!!

There are so many things that can affect hot throw... quality of oil, ability of oil to work in your particular wax (and this seems to vary from one chandler to another), wick, jar. Thus is the joy of soy wax... finding the right combination that will work for you and you alone. The answer isn't to keep adding more and more FO though. That will lead to worse consequences.