xaipre

I can pour water in my honey jar and it will not mold. I can pour water into my bottle of olive oil and that won't mold either. The only thing in the recipe that might mold is the oatmeal, but from it looks to me like the oatmeal will soak up the honey and the oil pretty quickly in the recipe, meaning that any water contact will not imbed itself in the oatmeal. GSE as an antioxidant doesn't make any difference when it comes to mold. GSE extract that is commercially prepared often has chemicals in it that is also found in kitchen cleaning products. Not all bacteria is bad bacteria by the way. Without bacteria and mold we wouldn't have yogurt, cheese, and prime steak. Those don't turn anyone green. All I'm saying is that this recipe already has a preservative. Honey has been tested to resist all decomposition for over 100 years. I don't think one can say that about any other synthetic preservative. Before one goes around adding synthetic chemicals I think tests should be done to see if the honey is more than adequate. It might be, it might not. But I think it should be given a chance.

Honey is a natural preservative. I don't know if the amount of honey in this recipe is enough to preserve the whole thing for a while. My gut feeling is that the amount of honey and oil will keep this mix good for a while, i.e. free from mold and so forth. As for bugs, well I think even the Philosophy Gingerbread man scrub I have in my shower at the moment would attract bugs if I left it uncovered on the floor. My thought it to make a mixture and then test run its longevity by leaving it uncovered and covered in different parts of your house and see if it molds or attracts bugs. Sounds pretty icky to me too, and it could be a long process. But after about a month or so you should have a good idea about how it keeps. Then you could always put an expiration date on it, so 3, 6, 9, or 12 months from when it was made, perhaps with a note that it lasts longer if it is kept refrigerated and an advisory to always keep the lid on it when not in use. Customers who want chemical-free products would be willing to live with a product with an expiration date, I'm not sure about the masses though. Customers may, of course, neglect the product and let it go bad, but with an expiration date you can simply say that you are under no obligation to accept a return after that date. I mean, sunblock expires in about a year or so, and consumers live and learn with that. If you think your consumers are favorable to chemical-free products, I think it is worth testing.

Does hemp burn badly because it is not braided the way cotton wicks are? Has anyone had good luck with hemp cored wicks? (Hate to get coy, but having hemp in the candle description might give me an edge in the market I am going for, even if it is just a little bit). Also I was looking at this beeswax candle maker http://www.cheekybee.com/beauty.html which claims to have an "all natural plant fibre wick". It seems to me that cotton qualifies as an all natural plant fiber, but was wondering if anyone had any idea what else this could be (if it's not hemp, I suppose it could be hemp and they don't say that in order to have an easier time getting wholesale order in the US). I have heard of using the vegetable string cores of some plants as wicks, at least, they were used as wicks before the cotton wick was invented for mass production, but it is really hard to tell from the pics if these candles are anything like that.

Thanks for all the quick replies and great advice. I have been on other "business" forums (i sell old textbooks on amazon) where people are quite less than nice on giving any advice. As much as I would love to play around with colors and fragrance, I should keep it basic I guess. Simple beeswax pillars for now for me! That will be cheaper at first too. Thanks for all the links to suppliers. Now I have to go buy some stuff. :tiptoe: Once I get the basic melting, molding, burning process down I'll experiment with some color and fragrance. I hadn't thought of rose scent. I was thinking more along the lines of kitchen-ish scents, like vanilla, or strawberry. I'll see how it turns out and let you all know! But yeah, I have been looking at my local library at books, and I can't find much specifically on beeswax. Guess it's mostly trial and error for me!

Hello, I am new here. Just spent about the last day straight poking around these forums. I've learned so much! But I thought it was time to ask my first question... My Father in law has a honeybee hobby. After he retires from the police force next year I was thinking about going into business with him, turning his honey hobby into a small business. He already extracts honey and jars it in the raw form (which is absolutely awesome honey!) so I am hoping to acquire organic certification for it, perhaps also biodiverse certification. In addition to honey I have been exploring value added honey based products using honeybee by-products. Keeping with the raw honey organic/biodiverse slant I naturally thought of 100% natural beeswax candles (as well as soaps, but right now I am concentrating on candles, one thing at a time). I don't consider myself to be a very "crafty" person (gluing ribbons around milk lids in an effort to make christmas ornaments just about puts me in the looney bin) but candles I think I can do. So my question is this. I want to start experimenting with making candles now, so that within the year or two when the business starts I have some recipes and experience already. I know everyone here recommends getting a starter kit for beginners, but I have not found any yet which include beeswax. I am wondering if it would be a good idea to start off with simple paraffin first, then order some beeswax later. But as I understand it, these two have very different properties, so I don't know if it will be worth my time or money to start making candles using products which won't be a part of my business anyways. But beeswax is so expensive to buy (my father in law is in europe, I am in NY, so I can't experiment with his current beeswax), and I am still in school and on a tight budget. I also want to experiment with hemp candlewicks. The environmentally-friendly niche I'm going for values hemp over regular cotton, and I have yet to find any cotton wicks which are graded 100% organic. I have only found one supplier so far for hemp wicks, Village Craft & Candle, based in Canada. They offer three sizes of hemp wicks, small medium and large (http://villagecraftandcandle.com/categories.asp?cID=18). Again, I'm tempted to just start making candles with regular wicks, but I would also like to learn how to work with the hemp that I eventually want to have in my business inventory. Does anyone have any experience with Village Craft & Candle? Will there be any extra taxes on things shipped from Canada to the US? I have started just making a wishlist on peak of some beeswax, thermometers, and pillar molds. My biggest hope right now is to just test and maybe give some candles away as Christmas presents to family in return for some feedback. That's why I would like to actually start with the beeswax and hemp product that I am hoping that they will buy from me later. Just want to make sure that its worth it. Oh, I am not looking to make a killing off candles, just a little something to make gift baskets with along with the honey and soap (eventually!). And the business will likely be based in Europe somewhere, probably the UK. Any suggestions or suggested shopping list would be very helpful.