Desertrose

Hi Koala girl. We're in Perth at the moment but planning on moving back "home" to NSW in July. Where are you? Yes! Making tonnes of one thing without knowing how popular it's going to be is not a good idea, and you know I SHOULD know better because years ago I used to sell country crafts at the markets. Ahh but, all this wax is so tempting - just to see how they turn out with the different colours and all! Problem here being too that this time hubby is in on it, lol, which is wonderful in one respect, but he and I have such different tastes and I think this is causing us problems - especially when it comes to colour! (He made some BRIGHT yellow - I mean almost flourescent yellow, votives the other day, that make me feel sick looking at them, lol!) I know we'll get the hang of it sooner or later and that a certain amount of experimentation is needed but some of our mistakes are coming at a high price! For example, we jumped in wanting to do a line of "all natural" uncoloured soy candles with essential oils and then found ( through reading here) that citrus essential oils often don't do well in soy because they give off a fuel smell. So there went a whole batch of candles - they really do smell awful! Not only that my husband felt quite sick while he was making those, so I'm glad we didn't buy TOO many essential oils as they certainly are powerful! And here I am writing this post today and what has hubby come home with? Yet MORE molds to experiment with, lol!

I feel like we're getting ourselves into a bit of a mess here and it's proving to be- as you all know, quite costly to be making mistakes when starting out! Our main problem - as we now bury ourselves in all the testing of the fruits of our creation, is that we're lacking a clear direction as far as how we really want to "present" our range of candles and it's showing as we look at our slowly expanding collection. Luckily, because we have currently run out of money we simply have had to STOP and take a real long hard look at what we've been doing. Our biggest mistake at these early stages is not having a clear idea of exactly which candles to make and how to make them look good together for the purposes of selling them at markets.(which is our goal!) How they look together, I feel, is the most important thing or else your stall might reflect a disorganised, wishy washy business mind! (Or minds , as is the case of hubby and I) Among the many votives, tart melts and soy candles in tins and jars, we have a mish mash of pretty looking pillar candles (in pastel colours - especially our chunked pillars done with darker chunks and white overpour), next to plain feathering palm pillar candles (in neutral and earthy tones), and then we have our rustic looking chunk candles done with very dark overpours. Individually they all look nice, but together - envisioning them on a table at a market stall - well.....it just doesn't gel visually! Then there's the crystalising container palm in glass jars which REALLY look out of place because they look so......well, "pretty" and fairy like with that ice look. Just getting the colour combinations "right"- all the colours next to each other, is proving quite difficult! I'm guessing this is a common mistake for those starting out in the world of candle making? Having all the temptations of the different waxes and colours, fragrances, containers etc? It just get's the creative juices fired up doesn't it! We've made quite a lot of pillar candles already, but we're not even sure if THOSE are going to be popular sellers! Not to mention that the 2 inch tall skinny pillars we HAVE to have to complete the set of three varying sized pillars, are proving to be a complete pain in the butt to wick! (If we had known this we would never have bought that sized mold to begin with!) So......I don't know if there already IS - I haven't found one- a thread similar to this already on the board ( and if there is I'd love to read it!) but if there isn't perhaps those of you who have already made tonnes of mistakes when starting out, could perhaps impart your wisdom here on what NOT to do I think WE are going to have to go back to the drawing board and really sit down and work out a proper plan before we spend any more money! Tracy

We tried a non stick cooking spray with these ice molds we have here but it was still not completely slipping free of the molds. I mean, they come OUT, but leave a very thin layer of palm wax behind. I'm wondering whether, because they are meant for ice, that the material used to make these molds is slightly different from the silicone ones that are made FOR candles. Perhaps the ones we've got are not completely smooth or something since it wouldn't really matter with ice? Then again, maybe using the soy pillar wax would work better than the palm anyway. I guess we'll just have to buy some soy pillar wax and try that.

Thanks! We have been experimenting at home here with a couple of rubber molds - really meant for ice, but they were in the shape of little fruits which we thought would be cute for melts. Unfortunately with the palm wax ( we don't have any soy pillar wax as yet!) and with the molds being rubber we found the wax tends to stick and is hard to get out. It's left a residue of wax too and will be quite difficult to clean, considering we can't just put them in the oven to melt it out! These molds from the US we're looking at are silicone. My husband is guessing they will be different/easier to use, since they are meant for candles. Ideally we'd like to get metal molds but I haven't seen any in the tiny fruit shapes? Oh my goodness......we're spending so much money as it is...This is really becoming quite an addiction, lol! At the very least, we'll have tonnes of "goodies" for friends and family for Christmas and birthdays I suppose! Tracy

Hi, My husband and I have been looking around at some of the candles being made in the US and I must say Australia is so dead dull boring when it comes to candles ! lol! You guys just have so many interesting and imaginative molds over there! We absolutely adore all the "bakery" type candle melts that you have - cute little cinnamon buns etc, and were wondering if it's possible to make these using the soy pillar wax? I think what's generally being used to make these, and all the "grubby/primitive type candles is paraffin wax? Has anyone made them using the soy? We're only looking at the melts at this point, and are hesitant to order some molds from the US (Quite expensive to buy and ship across) until we have some idea of whether or not this will work well using soy. We'd like to try and keep all our candles either palm wax or soy wax, but I keep seeing all these wonderful things you can do with paraffin, so I'm in a bit of a dilemma really. Anyway, would love to hear from anyone who has experimented using the soy pillar blend to make anything bakery or primitive like? Thanks! Tracy

Good! thanks

Thanks, that makes sense yes... Last night we had a whole lot of varying sized jars burning and it was the very smallest one - with a huge melt pool - (too big as the jar was getting too hot) that left absolutely no residue whatsoever. Trick is, as you say, getting that balance right. We will continue to test different wicks. For the excellent scent throw we're getting though I shouldn't imagine too many people would complain about a little residue.

Thanks! See, here we are experimenting with making soy candles and we've never actually bought one and burned one to see how they look! Seems a bit silly, I know.....but that's why I'm asking because we don't have a clue how they are "supposed" to look. We've used two different sorts of soy waxes, one is 100% soy and the other has some sort of vegetable additive. All our soy candles in the jars, regardless of colour or fragrance,type of wax, and even wicks seem to be doing the same thing, leaving this milky residue. I have noticed though that the more burn time we allow, the more that milky residue seems to melt - but it's still there. I'm guessing then, that this is quite common? Does it perhaps have to do with the lower meltpoint of soy - as in, it's not getting AS hot in the container as say palm wax would, therefore the residue is not melting as much? Basically, I just want to know if our candles look like this, if this is acceptable to sell, or whether this is simply undesirable and we should keep trying different things? I guess upping the size of the wicks? Though we have varied size wicks in each jar as it is and there doesn't seem to be much of a difference? Tracy

Hi there... Just starting out here in the world of candlemaking(I am the wife of RichardLOZ) What a complex business this is turning out to be! Our children are beginning to complain because all we ever talk about these days are wicks and wax! I have yet another soy question. Our soy jar candles seem to leave a film, where they have burned down around the glass - kind of like the residue buttermilk in a glass might look? It looks messy to me. Is this how they are supposed to look? Tracy