JacquiO

where do you get your Lick Me All Over and Butt Naked, if you don't mind saying?

My main FO supplier is saveonscents which is located in Brooklyn. Here's the link: http://saveonscents.com/

They have A LOT of fragrances (including many designer duplicates) the majority of which are skin safe. The have manufacturer and cosmetic grade. You can use either in perfume and body product applications but you can only use the manufacturer's grade in candles.

PM me if you have any questions about this company or their oils and the different concentrates. I've been using their oils since 2003.

Also wanted to mention peaks has Jamaica Me Crazy (so does SOS) that's another fun and fruity body oil scent.

Starr,

So is the FO figured to dry or melted weight?

The weight is the same if it's solid or melted. She's talking about the difference in weight and volume. Unfortunately it can be confusing since ounce increments can be used when talking about volume or weight. For instance an 8oz jar doesn't necessarily hold 8oz of wax that you weighed on a scale because the jar sizes are in volume that is fluid ounces. 8 fl oz of grape jam may weigh a lot less then 8 fl oz of wax.

If your using the same type of wax or wax formula every time and if you weighed it out in your pour pot and marked out your pound or two then there's not going to be any discrepancies. It's when you change waxes such as from container to pillar, or soy, palm and paraffin where your weight and volume may differ. If you have a good scale with a tare function then you can forget marking your pour pot at all. Just tare out you empty pour pot to zero and weigh your wax as you add it to your pot.

I really recommend owning a good scale. I've seen the Escali one like I have on ebay for $24 with free shipping.

Preferably you want to weigh your fragrance oils and any other additives you may want to use.

You figure your FO usage based on the weight (not the volume) of your wax and what your wax's recommended fragrance load usage is. Your wax supplier should know what fragrance load is best suited to the wax you are using. Most waxes range between 5-12% fragrance load. If you use too much FO then your wax will not be able to absorb it all and you will have a greasy puddle at the bottom (or top) of your finished candle.

You figure your fragrance load like this. If your max fragrance load is 5% then multiply 16 by .05 which is .8. so use .8oz or 3/4 oz FO per pound of wax you pour.

Most people go by the general rule of thumb and use 1 oz FO per pound of wax which is about a 6-7% fragrance load which is safe for most waxes - some palm and soy waxes may need to be a little bit lower. Some paraffin pillar waxes can hold up to 12% which is almost 2 ounces per pound. But generally with a good FO that's fragrance over kill.

Vybar is an additive for paraffin waxes that can help increase your wax's fragrance load.

HTH,

Jacqui

I don't even bother to clean them. They always pop out clean and if not I can usually just wipe the tiny bit of wax out with a paper towel.

Sorry I just looked on CS and Peak's sites and realized that neither had the ones I mentioned. Although CS is really limited. Peak's seems to have a much better selection of FO for Bath and Body. Just make sure whatever oils you use that they are skin safe.

Peaks has Channel No. 5. Which is very nice and again you may want to give it your own name. There is also Lavender which to me is my personal favorite l'eau de toilet that I get from L'Occitane. I also noticed peaks also has Sunflower, Freesia, Gardenia, Rose, Lilac, Nag Champa, Patchouli and Asian Sandalwood - all of which would make great solid perfume's or you could blend some together to make your own signature fragrance - like sandalwood blended with a little rose and lilac for instance.

Lick Me All Over and Butt Naked were my two best selling body oils.

You can always rename the fragrances but they are both absolutely delectable! Lick Me All Over is more on the berry side whereas Butt Naked is very peachy.

My recipe is very simple, citric acid, backing soda and an oil/butter mixture along with fragrance. I make sure that nothing with water or alcohol is added, as once the fizzing reaction starts, it is hard to stop. My bombs are hard without which hazel, so I never use it.

john3183, What do you use to mold your bombs? I saw you avatar and I really like the look of yours.

I went to the craft store today to see if I could find those plastic ornament balls but I guess it's too early. There wasn't much x-mas craft stuff out on the shelves. I found some silicon brownie pop molds that look like large gumdrops. I figured these could work until I get my hands on some ornaments.

I ordered my supplies yesterday from WSP. I'm going to try Asheebean's Bubblin Bath Bomb recipe first http://www.craftserver.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59442

I love the bubbling Bath Salt recipe I got from DeAnna_EC. I'm hoping these bombs foam up nice too!

This is all very helpful. I'm gauging interest for a bath bomb swap let me know if you are interested: http://www.craftserver.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86449

Macadamia oil is pretty pricey. I think it would be fun to soap with and the nutty scent it gives off would probably go nice with vanilla but I wouldn't make it a prime ingredient it your basic CP batches.

In there B&B recipe section theirs great recipes for beginner soaps.

I like carrie's 4 oil recipe with olive oil, coconut, lard and crisco.

Another great recipe is quietgirl's recipe with olive, safflower, coconut, crisco, PKO flakes and shea butter. That one works great with all kind of scents as long as your shea butter is refined.

You could also just use the coconut, palm and olive and leave the macadamia out all together.

Just make sure you run it through the soap calc.

saveonscents.com and probably a few other FO suppliers carry B&BW dupes. If you want to incorporate their fragrance line into your candles that would be probably get you the most bang for you buck plus produce a better throwing candle then trying to use B&BW diffuser oils.

http://www.saveonscents.com/index.php/cPath/291_306_307

The cheapest way to mail 2oz samples would be to use your own packaging and mail 1st class. If you use priority you will pay a minimum of $4.95 per package. 1st class you should pay about $1.80 to $2 per package.

I find small bubble mailers that would easily hold a 4-5 oz soap at the dollar store and they come 3 to a pack. You could also just use some plain manila envelops with your soap wrapped in bubble wrap.

These are the specialty candle markers I saw https://www.uchida.com/eUchida/so/so_prod/so_prod_list.aspx?Cat1id=10010

Here's the thread where I found the link but someone mentioned also that a magic marker worked fine so HTH http://www.craftserver.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85610&highlight=paint

This one brand you can find in craftstore but most of the acrylic paint brands you find with have a candle medium. http://www.decoart.com/cgi-bin/Products.cgi?Candle_Painting_Medium

If you go to your local craft store you should be able to find a medium for soap and candles that you can mix with acrylic paints.

You could try the melted wax dye but you would probably have to apply a few layers and it would be very runny. If your candle has a smooth surface you could try using a stencil made of flexible card board or thin plastic.

I don't think a sharpie would show up and if it did it would easily rub off. There are special markers I've seen online that are for painting candles. You could try searching the board for them because this forum is where I originally found the link.

Good luck

Adding CO hasn't really affected my wicking sizes - not as much as with the way some FOs can.

But like Stella advised you're gonna still need to test. You can up the CO to as much as 2 tbsps per lb if one isn't getting you the results your looking for. So it's good to start with small jars and test batches to see what works best in your soy wax.

I've never used the universal soy additive because the CO works so well for me I've never felt the need to compare.

I also use the CO in my ecosoya pillar blend but I cut it down to half a tbsp. It helps reduce the cracking issue.

The first thing you'll notice when using the CO is how much better the soy holds color. Whether using liquid dye or color blocks I've always had to add a lot of color to get just a medium shade and then it still frosts like a mofo. The first time I colored my CO enhanced soy wax it took less dye to get a brilliant red soy candle and with no frost.

Some people prefer USA some CO. IMHO it can't hurt to try the CO. You don't have to pay shipping to get it and if it doesn't work out you can always soap with it.

Like I said I have one and it never occurred to me that it resembled anything like feminine stimulation device. Not until this thread anyhoo.

I guess I just don't have a dirty mind.

Perhaps as compared to soapmaking, that may be true, but if candlemaking were so simple, this forum (and the veggie wax forum) would not have so many questions!

Well it ain't rocket science..

But I do have this to say about the this forum...over the past nine years it's saved me a lot of time and money.

Craftserver rocks!!!!

I have some pumpkin puree left over from my pumpkin pie soap and was wondering if anyone knew of any good face mask recipes so it doesn't go to waste.

lol. I have a perfume thing looks just like that except mine doesn't vibrate.

Now I'm going to be embarrased to carry it around.

Those perfume bottle shapes are a great idea for a handmade silicon mold. I would have never thunk it!

I wanna see pictures of the clear MP ones!*faint*

They look really good. I was watching the vid on that technique from goplanetearth and it's making me want to break out the ol' MP bases.

You can also use a cardboard box to slow cooling. If you can get a hold of a copy paper box with the lid they work great. The lids can be used for soy votives and the bottom box is great for going over containers and soy pillars.

I use coconut oil with the golden brand soy also. I get better color absorption and less cauliflower with the CO too. It's always worth a try IMO.

Yeah when I was testing soy waxes I like the Ecosoya Advanced the best of all. The C-3 had a better scent throw but the bubbles and air pockets were annoying to say the least. I improved the adv's throw by adding coconut oil and have pretty much stuck with it. Although I have used GB for my massage candles because it cost less.

I'm loving it!

Add 1 tbsp of coconut oil per pound of soy wax. That will get rid of the frosting and improve your scent throw.

You can get 76 degree coconut oil from Walmart it's called LouAnn coconut oil. One jar of it will make a lot of soy candles.

Hey! Isn't it good to know someone that's done a lot of testing and experimenting with ecosoya waxes?