JacquiO

I had to reply to this because I definitely notice a difference in hot throw between a cured tart and a freshly made one. I made them from a paraffin pillar blend. If a strong tart is made it has a great cold throw right out of the mold. In couple of weeks that cold throw will lessen considerably. That’s how you know it has cured. A simple way to test the difference: take 2 tarts from the same batch. Melt the 1st one right away and put it in a large room, the kitchen or bedroom for instance. Wait for 30 minutes. From a distance from the warmer see how strong the room smells. Try the other one in a couple of weeks. Then you’ll know the answer to your question. Good Luck, Jacqui

I'm going to be trying to use candlewic's soy 125 for the jars and their soy pillar wax. I used to use their custom paraffin votive/pillar blend with tremendous success, but now I'm looking to go au naturale (candles that is). I like that fact that they are so close. I get my orders practically overnight. I've been reading some back posts and there been some mixed reviews about soy 125 wax. I'm wondering if anyone has been very successful with these waxes. Hmmm.

I've made a lot of tarts (in the thousands), I hate having excess wax so I pour any additional votive or pillar wax into tarts. I might add a splash more fragrance oil when I heat up the wax to pour the tarts. I kind of test the limit to what percent usage of FO my wax will hold and try to keep it at maximum. As far as scent throw. I use SOS ultra concentrated fragrances. I've never gotten complaints from my customers, they just keep coming back for more tarts. Get a good concentrated FO. Should be strong almost to the point of unrecogonizable out of the bottle. Sometimes it's good to try manufacturers or wholesalers like Save-on-scents or Wellington. Manufacturers/wholesalers often give you an option of concentration. Retailers in order to maximize profits may buy oils in high concentrations and then cut them down to a all-purpose strength. I'm not saying that to bad mouth retailers but it's what I do for my 1/2oz. bottled oils. It doesn't undermine the quality only the strength. Even makes them more palatable to the nose. Which you don't necessarily get when trying to sell a concetrated FO. Also it's important that your tarts cure for 2 weeks before testing. This is the best way to determine how well they throw. HTH.

I'm sort of in the same dilema and this is how I decided to approach it. I know my test jars hold 10oz liquid. So I weigh the wax 10 to 12 ounces. Liquid and solid ounces do differ so I would probably weigh the wax a little more than 10 to first see what the jar will hold. Since I don't want to burn an unscented candle I will add FO to the usage I want. Starting with 1oz FO per pound of wax. There is 16 ounces to a pound plus the ounce of fragrance so I'm looking about 5-6% usage. That's should make for a strong fragrance. I don't know ideally what your wax will hold. But calculate from what percent usage it recommends. So instead of pouring fragrance for a pound I just want ten ounce. Divide the jar amount (in my case 10) by a full pound (16). I get .625. I would need to add a little less than 2/3 (.667) of an ounce of FO. I have nifty little ounce measuing shot glass to help me size that up. And keep in mind candle making does not have to be an exact science. Now if your FO usage should be less than 1oz say it's 3/4 ounce per pound. Then times that (.75) by .625. Then you have just under 1/2 ounce FO for your 10oz pour. Basically what I want to accomplish is melting just enough wax and adding just enough FO for 1 jar candle. Letting it cool and cure and then test burning it for a few days. If you really want to take the scientific approach keep a note of your measurements so you can tweak them on the second test. If you want to test 2 candles with different wicks at the same time than just double your efforts in the 1st pour. Two tips: 1. If you have wax left over after your 1st candle. Let it cool and weigh it so you can elimanate the excess in your second try. (Also if you have a wax that needs topping off remember to add extra weight for shrinkage) 2. If some of your FO won't absorb into the wax (you have a little oily pool at the bottom of your wax) you are using too much. Adjust your usage. If you don't and you don't think the candle throws strong enough add more scent next time. Keep in mind candles need time to cure for the best hot throw (you can wait 5 days but 2 weeks is best) I've probably given way too info. If so I apologize. Using this approach I should be using less then 1 oz FO on each test candle therefore I can use a different scent for each. I am working with only 12 1oz samples. Let me know how it goes. Happy chandling, Jacqui

Well I've decided to make the big switch from paraffin to soy. I've ordered some soy container wax and soy pillar wax to try out. The containers (round apothecary jars) have a 3-7/8 inch diameter and they are about 3 inches deep. I'm curious about wicks and hoping some members could help me out and save me several projects worth of testing. My supplier recommends RRD-47 nst2 and I'm also curious how hemp wicks would perform. Any one with experience with these in the above mentioned size container? Any other suggestions? As far as pillars. I'm just interested in making votives for the time being. Again they recommend RRD-34. What about hemp 838? What else works good in soy votives? Thanks in advance.

Thanks Mizbizzyb for the Peak's plug. Yes Alan is a wonderful moderator and I'm sure Peak's is a fantastic candle making supplier. One of the wonderful things about this board and why I signed on in the beginning is that it allows candle makers the freedom to discuss all product lines and suppliers unlike some other candlemaking boards I've seen. Unfortunately Peak's is a little too far out of my way to consider as a main supplier but as far as raw materials are concerned I've found some wonderful suppliers right here in the New York area that work quite well for me. When I asked about suppliers what I'm actually looking for are wholesalers that sell finished products in the aromatherapy line. Such as unique and cute tart burners, incense burners, aromatherapy diffusers, candle holders, perfume bottles and the like. For all resellers out there if you have finished products that sell well please share your sources. Thanks so much, JacquiO

Thanks for the welcome but I'm actually an oldbie not a newbie to the board. I originally joined candletech when there were only around 200 members on the board. I've been making candles since 2001. I've worked with many different types of wax with the exception of gel and spent last year selling handmade votives and pillars at craft shows. I really want to expand into the sales arena and am looking for experieced advice.

Hi All, Thanks so much for your help and advise. I've been in business for two months now. It started out strong the first month then slowed down the second but this past weekend business has picked up and I think will stay strong through the holidays. Everything seems to be selling at the same consistency with the exception of Essential Oils which I've put on clearance. Thank you Glowlight for the suggestion of selling votive candles at 6 for $5. I've been moving a lot of my handmade votives. I have some stiff competition in this flea market. I'm competing with five other candle, oil and incense sellers but I've already experienced my fair share of repeat customers which leaves me feeling really good about this business. I've been very surprised about how popular fragrance oils are. I started to bottle them in 1/2 ounce increments just to move some of my candle scents. Last month I had to order FO's just to bottle and sell. I get a lot of requests for body oils as well. But I haven't had the cash flow to make the initial investment plus there are a couple of sellers that carry designer dupe body oils. Not that I'm worrried about the competition. Incense is also another big seller, nice profit margins too at about 200%. Could do better if I made it myself but too much hassle. The quality of my supplier surpasses my market's competition and I have had customers tell me so. I've had repeat customers fill up $10 to $20 worth of incense at a time. I also have to thank my newly wed husband for all his help and support. He enjoys selling in the market and has also become a newbie candle maker to help me keep up with the demand. I'm very lucky to have found a man that can share in the enthusiasm. It's been a lot of hard work but I'm living a dream made real. I've always wanted to go into business for myself and I've always loved flea markets. Making your dreams a reality will require a lot of hard work and in some cases economic hardships, there will be set backs but it's a learning process and when you start from the bottom there is only one direction that you can move in and that is up. PM me if you have any questions or just need someone to supply those simple words of encouragement - "Yes you can!" Lots of Light and Love, JacquiO --Original Message-- posted 7/25/2005 Hi, I'm opening up a booth at an indoor flea market in August. I'm considering items to sell and I'm curious as to what some people have experienced as best sellers in the line of candles and fragrance. This what I'm considering. Handmade Votive Candles Soy container candles Wax Tarts Tart Burners Stick and/or cone incense Incense Burners Essential Oils Body Oils Carrier Oils Since this is a new business I'm starting and any help or advise on what you've sold and particularly what sold well (including scents) would be greatly appreciated. If you could include information about your suppliers that would also be very useful. Thank You, Jacqui

Cedarwood SandalWood Orange Blossom or Neroli Ginger or Ginger in Combination (like Ginger Peach) Happy dupe Carnation Frankenscence and Myrrh Egyption Musk Oriental Musk or Spice

Hi JimC, This may seem like a silly question, but I didn't notice any mention of this from the other replies. How long did you wait to test burn your candles after pouring them? Scented candles need a chance to cure. It usually takes about two weeks before you will experience a strong hot scent throw. If you burned your candles just a day or two after they completely cooled you probably didn't get a very impressive scent throw. Wait a couple weeks and burn them again. Please let us know if you smell a difference. Joyous Candle Making, JacquiO