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When testing my candles just to determine wick size I don't melt them down. Just take a pliers and pull the existing wick out and plop a new one in the old wick hole, take a heat gun and smooth the top back down. Works great. Once I am sure that the wick will work, after a few burns I will then make another candle, usually by remelting the excess of the first candle and adding to it to make a full candle that I can completely burn. I know it does not address your initial question fully but I'd not recommend heating/reheating waxes more than once honestly and this will save you a TON of time. Bruce from Wicks Unlimited was the one who initially got me doing this as it is how he actually tests customer candles for them.

The roses are actually carved and dyed pieces of birch wood that is put together on a teardrop shaped styrofoam piece and glued in place. The wood pieces are very thin and I think there are only 5 or 6 per rose. If you drop fo onto it, it will saturate the rose and the foam and glue will be eaten away. They are just not meant to be over saturated with scent is all but since they are wood and porous will not hold the mother load of scent Spritzing them is best and what most places recommend to get a layer of fragrance on them without saturating the center. HTH!

To me it has an odd smell but I've made liquid soaps and they had the same smell. It's not strong but it's there. Kinda like how some people can't stand the cocoa butter smell of lotions and can smell it over everything! I think this smell is like that...may not be something most notice but some can't get over. LOL The soap could be anywhere from a clear to a yellow to a green or brown depending on the oils. Color is rarely indicative of weather a natural soap is good or not. As long as it does not smell actually rancid and it's clear, no little floaties or mold in it I'd say it is fine.

Sorry about that! Your English seemed perfect! What I meant was if you are pouring your second and later layers maybe a bit too cool, they may not stick to one another. I make candles also and learned years ago when pouring layered pillars that I needed to heat 10* hotter for my second pour. I found the same applied to making soap. So if I pour my first layer at 130* I pour my other layers at 140*. After pouring my layer, I spray with alcohol to get rid of any trapped surface air bubbles, let it cool until it is warm but solid then spritz again and pour the next layer....I've only had a few fall apart over the years doing that. HTH!

I wonder if you are not maybe pouring the subsequent layers too cool?

They have that for me one "must have" fo. LOL

A lot of places don't have secure sites but do have secure cart severs (a secondary company that serves just to collect personal and credit card data, Mals-e, which is what KY uses is an example of this.) The only non secure info you transmit is your name etc. All card data is collected using a secure server. I have personally used Mals myself and know others that use it and have for years and it is perfectly safe. Never had a problem Oh I also recently ordered from KY no issues

Are you using the alcohol just before you pour the layers and also are you using enough? I've found actually dampening them to work best. I did a few log soaps with column molded soap embeds last year with no issues...I used a big ole butcher knife to cut thru mine.

I am for the most part a non geller. I soap room temp and actually avoid gel UNLESS a scent will cause a reaction and a partial gel or I know the color ends up better if I gel it. This soap in this pic below is soaped room temp and not gelled at all: And this one here is fully gelled: If I don't gel that pink it looks dirty gray Both soaps are made with the exact same recipe aside from the gelling and feel identical in the end of the cure process

With melt n pour soaps I always spritzed my layers with a bit of either rubbing alcohol or witch hazel just before pouring the next layer. Never had another one separate after doing this. Works like a charm!

Glass is a great heat conductor, I expect a glass jar to get hot as a candle is burning, thus the reason for the nifty warning of not moving a jar with molten wax in it or moving while burning. If your jar is not getting hot, again, I expect glass, tins etc. all to get hot (you have hot wax AND a flame in it) your wicks may be too small. Some degree of heat is normal. I look for and tell others to look at the melt pool. Ideally you never want the depth of the melted wax to exceed 1/2" after an extended full burn. I don't mean a power burn of 8-10 hours, but a normal 4 hour burn cycle. If your melted wax does not get to a certain point heat wise your throw will be minimal. You don't want the glass so hot that you burn yourself standing next to it (yes, that was exaggeration!) though because too hot and the glass can shatter. It's a pretty fine line between just right and too hot.

With the eco advance and a jar with a total diameter of 3 7/8" try two CD 10's. That has worked well for me in my testing over the years. The other option is two HTP 83's again this worked well however I do admit I prefer the burn of the CD wicks. You may be able to do a single wick if you used something like a HTP 126 or 1212 but single wicks in that diameter from my experience can be a hit/miss situation depending on the scent in soy waxes. HTH!

I always like Vanilla Grapefruit in the summer...it's just fresh! It's one of my best sellers year round but sales on my body products and soap in that scent explode wholesale starting this time of year. In my opinion it is a can't miss fo for summer!

My poor wallet. LOL I do have jars, all the supplies, but no more time or space. What the heck, it's just another project!

Thanks for sharing! I am on a quest to find a mold that I like that does not cost me a small fortune! Billie, can I "borrow" Wayne? LOL You are mighty lucky to have each other!

That looks simply fantastic! I have everything to make cream soap, belong to a list regarding it and have yet to plunge into making some. Is it hard or just time consuming? I am DYING to try it now!

The only true oxide I use is black but I've used it in M&P with good luck I blended mine with distilled water and glycerin (if you plan to do this and leave it in a bottle I'd recommend preserving it to prevent beasites! ) and then add just a small amount until you reach your desired color. It should blend in fine if you dissolve it first. If you don't dissolve it in something you will likely get specs. Alcohol like the other poster suggested will also work and the alcohol will evaporate in the soap

Most people antique their own, in fact I am not sure you can buy them already done I have done this with both paint cans and regular tins...just plop them in your oven on a clean cycle and it happens OR you can also use a propane torch (careful! They get hot!) which leaves a less uniform look. HTH

ROFL!:laugh2:That is funny!!!! My husband refuses to even look when I get shipments...even when he has to go pick them up! He says it's just my over expensive hobby I remind him that that over expensive hobby earns me a living! Men

Yummy! I love spearmint eo soap! Did you put crushed dried spearmint leaves in it? It looks awesome..so natural! I love it!

If you are having problems with them sticking try a few things. First it could be that your pouring temps are too low. Silicone is very sturdy and should withstand anything you'd pour into them within a normal candle making temp range. Second, you could try spraying the molds with either a silicone spray (usually found at here in the US easily in automotive stores) or non stick cooking spray before pouring. This should help a lot!

For a lot of them soy pillar should not be an issue. The only problems I have encountered with soy pillar waxes as a whole is they tend to be more brittle than a paraffin which is relatively flexible. If your molds are not extremely detailed it should work out fine. Details tend to crack off using the soy pillar blends You "could" also blend the soy pillar with palm and that may also work out leaving a more matte finish

Hi Richard! I have a bit of experience with EO's and soy. Hopefully this will help you some. I've tested a variety of different types of EO and found that for the most part two things happened with "most" citrus oils. First is that they often burned off during the cooling and or burning process due to the heat produced. There are exceptions to this such as ten fold orange eo. That did not burn off and was FANTASTIC but also quite a bit more expensive than standard sweet orange eo which is pretty cheep. Secondly due to the natural components in oils such as citrus, mints, some cloves and some eucalyptus, there was a screming obnoxious fuel smell when burning. BLECH! I have tested some that did excellent! I did not have much luck with lavender no matter what amount I paid for it, but I had and continue to have excellent luck with Lavandin Grosso, a hybrid lavender. Throws like a bomb! Patchouli is excellent as is Ylang Ylang but make sure you get a 2nd press or first. They are much nicer and throw better IMHO. I did OK with Geranium, and Cedarwood Atlas was OK too. I really have not set up any new testing with EO's in about 7 years but when I did sell them I had a few blends that did great for me. Sadly not enough to keep a business all in EO. Fragrance oils just tended to as a whole most often work better for me. There are some people who don't want that and you can always work a small number of EO scented candles into the mix to please almost anyone

Fragrance oils are a combination of both synthetic and natural compounds that are blended in a solvent base. Essential Oils are natural plant derived compounds. The synthetics are just chemically synthesized oils. It is very hard to explain and sometimes harder to grasp it all. I was overwhelmed when speaking with a perfumer about what all goes into the process. There are over 2000 compounds typically used in manufacturing of fragrance oils. As for the best wholesaler, sadly no such thing. There are a lot of good resellers out there that sell EO but pricing is so variable on most that I would not say any one is best. It's best to look at a combination of pricing, shipping etc and test from there

I wasn't aware that I was defensive. I clarified that yes indeed that was me.