beekeeper_sd

Well, since I am a commercial beekeeper by trade and sell everything from candles to bath and body to honey and honey food products, I wanted to encompass everything, keeping in the "bee" theme, sell "delightful" products yet keep things "simple". Thus Simply BeeLightful was born! Wal-lah

Don't use cooking spray. I tried it once and it left little pits in my candle because it bubbles when you spray it on a surface. I agree with Faerywren, I have made molds from pvc pipe before and simply cut the pipe in half, used rubber bands to hold it together and it worked surprisingly well. I made a large square mold once out of a plastic deck post cover. It also worked really good. It can be done!

Try Mannlakeltd.com They are a beekeeping supply co. and have very nice molds.

I would never burn beeswax in a glass container either but I guess that's just my opinion. BTW we do not use chemicals in our hives.

As a commercial beekeeper I would have to argue with the analogy that beeswax obtained from a commercial beekeeper is laden with harmful chemicals. Most beeswax rendered from commercial beekeeping operations is "cappings" wax (the wax bees use to seal their honey comb with). As such, it stands to reason that most commercial beekeepers are not tainting their honey and wax with harmful chemicals. For one thing, it's illegal to use miticides and antibiotics used to control disease while honey supers are on a hive during a honey flow. Therefore, honey supers generally do not contain honey comb that has been treated with chemicals.

So, although there may be a lot of commercial beekeepers using chemicals to treat their bees for diseases, the vast majority of beekeepers do not regularly melt and sell their foundation wax. And, most commercial beekeepers use plastic foundation that is coated with beeswax and is not melted down.

beeswax would do a beautiful job

I too am a commercial beekeeper and have been making beeswax candles for some time now. My recommendation is: Don't do containers, especially glass! The candles burn way too hot to be burned in glass. I have done some small tins but was never happy with the way my beeswax candles burned. I use silicone molds for all my 100% beeswax candles. They worked beautifully and I never have to repour. The most important step in making beeswax candles is to let the candle cool in a fairly warm room. I never pour candles unless my room is at least 75 degrees or higher and, actually, 80 degrees or more is better. Yes, it gets hot working but the candles do not crack and do not need to be repoured. Good luck and enjoy the beauty of this wonderful wax!

Very pretty. Bet they were time consuming.

Make your own, it is so easy! Also tubes are better than tubs IMMHO. From Nature with Love has wonderful oils and butters for making lip balms.

I love your labels. Is the background pre-printed or did you add that with the label design?

I make beer soap and add The lye without removing the alcohol. I've never had a fizz. I always use flat beer so the carbonation doesn't affect the fiz.

Ditto.

I think I poured the beer in my pitcher that I mix my lye solution in and let it sit in the frig overnight to let it go flat. I was disappointed that I didn't get more beer fragrance as I was attempting to make a beer shampoo bar.

Micro is still too slow and too much hands on work. That is why I am thinking pressure cooker. It should allow me to be hands off the entire process. l

Not trying to be rude or anything but why do you want to make soap "hands off"? That's the best part about making soap! I love watching the process and knowing that I can make wonderful hand made soaps with my own little hands! lol

I use it in all my soap (of course I'm a beekeeper so it just comes naturally) and I still get wonderful lather. I does harder the soap but I'm not sure about preventing ash. I had not heard of that until now but now that I think about it I haven't had my soap ash for a long time. I think it just depends on your recipe and, once you get that down, unless you have really bad environmental issues, you're not going to get ash in the first place. Oh, and I also add honey to my soap (again, the beekeeper thing).

I made my beer soap to use as shampoo. I like it!

I do make a citrus, pumice soap. Love it. Just like Lava. I got my pumice from From Nature With Love. You don't need to order a whole lot because a little goes a LONG way.

Good luck. I got a used dipping vat about three years ago and haven't even used it yet. My husband even built a rotating hanging rack from an old bicycle tire so I could dip seven frames of candles at a time. (Sigh) Hope things go well for you and don't forget to post some pics of your finished products! P.S. I was also going to do beeswax.

Great mold! I agree, I love swirling colors, especially in beeswax. I have a floating leaf that also looks great with swirled colors!

There is nothing more beautiful than the glow from a light yellow, sweet smelling beeswax candle! In my most humble opinion anyway!:rolleyes2

For a long time I used old coffee cans but most of them are now plastic.

Don't they have electrical sites available? I have thought about doing this but thought it would be a PITA, i.e. bugs and dirt in your candles, time to wait on customers while dipping candles, the MESS, etc.

If that's what you call playing around, I'd hate to see what you do when you get serious! Those are awesome!!!

I have been wanting to try making my own laundry soap. Anyone care to share their recipe? I'm not going to sell it, just want it for my own personal use.

You can still use the molds if they are not too badly torn. Just fit the torn edges together as tightly as you can and then wrap a rubber band or two around the mold. I have used molds that are torn really badly.

The only other thing I could suggest is to make a candle with the mold, then make a new silicone mold from the candle.

Good luck. Post some pictures of the candles you make with these molds!

Beware going the corporation way. I have a friend that incorporated her business and, even though she had NO employees except for herself, she had to pay unemployment taxes to the government.

An LLC offers the same legal protection as a corporation without all of the red tape of a corp.

Never tried it but I would think that beeswax would be too hard for crayons. Besides, if you don't have your own, it would be quite expensive.