ckelley116

Eh...I used them my first holiday season in business. I used Mulled Cider, Christmas Pear, Mrs. Claus's Cookies, Anise Cookies (which I renamed Pizzelles), Christmas Eve, Snow Storm, Roasted Chestnut, Cinnamon Bun, Oatmeal Cookies and Gingerbread. Mulled Cider was ok, nothing special. Christmas Pear was more spice than anything, and it didn't sell well. Anise Cookies smelled good, but basically only members of my best friend's Italian-American family purchased it. Mrs. Claus's Cookies was a good, basic sugar cookie scent. It sold pretty well with vanilla lovers. Christmas Eve smelled kind of artificial, like Pinesol and sugar. Snow Storm was weird...it claims to have spearmint, but all I smelled was medicine. Roasted Chestnuts was vile. I couldn't give it away. Cinnamon Bun was pretty good. It sold well. Oatmeal Cookies smelled good but more like maple syrup than cookies. Gingerbread was just a spicy scent, it didn't smell like gingerbread. Hope that helps a little...there were a few in there that were passable but nothing I would go back for, and nothing that would make me want to try any of their other scents. Hope that helps!

Hi, I only use one from them - Fresh Linen - but it's plenty strong in SOS concentrate, 1 oz pp in both CBL-129 and IGI-4627. In fact, it's one of my best sellers. I recently ordered 4 more for an Easter project so we'll see if they all hold up as well. The site provides some information regarding usage and concentrates. You might find this helpful: http://www.saveonscents.com/usagerates.php I wonder, though, what exactly they mean by "save"...they're just as pricy, if not more so, than most of the suppliers I use!

I would also be really careful about having a 5-year-old there with you! Accidents can, and do, happen, and hot wax is nothing to mess with - not to mention the fact that some FOs smell good enough to drink (Peak's Cabernet Grape comes to mind...yikes does that one smell good) and 5 is still young enough to not be able to tell the difference. Heck, when my sister was 5 she drank Easter egg dye just because it was orange - even the fact that it was pure vinegar didn't detract her

I've done Jelly Beans in the past, also Marshmallow...and Peanut Butter Cup (those were my favorites of everything my mom put in my basket, hehe)

I picked up a bottle of Bayberry/Eucalyptus that apparently did not have a lid on tightly...so yeah, now the carpet (in my rented apartment) is dyed green over by my workshop. I scrubbed it as best I could and it is a lot lighter now than it was but....still noticeable. I'm hoping that when we move out if the landlord notices it, I can get away with pointing out the horrible condition of the rest of the building and he'll see that his problems are far worse than a slightly stained carpet :rolleyes2

Me too Luckily I made jewelry for a few years so my hand is pretty steady...otherwise my jars would be a mess!

I've discontinued the hex jars in favor of straight sided jars and am selling the hex jars at 50% off. I think that's why I'm selling so many of them right now! I did have a great (well, I thought) idea back in the summer. I bought a silicone mold to make tiny Christmas cookie melts, scented them with Oatmeal Raisin with raisin wax embeds, Snickerdoodle (topped with real cinnamon), Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter, Sugar Cookie and Gingerbread men. I put 4 of each (2 gingerbread) in the 8 oz tins and decorated the tins with holiday scrapbook paper I then sprayed with fixative. I thought it was the most adorable idea ever - miniature, meltable Christmas cookies - and the people I told lavished heaps of praise upon me for my creativity I've sold one, and it was 5 months ago at a Christmas in July sale. I also filled gold organza drawstring pouches with snowflake and pinecone melts, in C&S "Winter Wonderland", and haven't sold any. Maybe it's my area?

Re: the 7.75 oz and 12 oz. straight sided jars from Fillmore - here's the response I got from David Keyes at the company (who, btw, is incredibly nice and helpful!): Colleen, I checked on the future of the jars you mentioned below and they are not going anywhere. The manufacturer has a strong market for both jars and does not have any plans to discontinue. They are also good sellers for us and we will continue to stock them. No worries! Thanks. David G. Keyes Fillmore Container Inc.

I use Fillmore's 7.75 oz and 12 oz. straight-sided jars with lug lids. They don't call them salsa jars, but are they? If they are I'll be seriously POed since I JUST started using them in November. I checked Lone Star as someone mentioned above and those 12 oz. jars have a larger diameter than my 12 oz. jar so I'm hoping beyond hope that mine will be ok. I'd love to continue ordering from Fillmore, too, since they're so close to me. I e-mailed them and asked if there was a chance my jars would be discontinued. Their customer service is great, but I'm prepared for a vague response, if I get one at all.

I adore that company They're in Ohio and I'm in PA, and I ALWAYS have my order within 3 days of placing it. And I've never gotten an FO from them I didn't like. All of my new holiday fragrances are from them, and I think my Summer 2010 fragrances will be from them too.

I don't use that wax but I do use 4627 which is also a one-pour paraffin blend. How big is the diameter of the apothecary jar? I checked Candlewic's container selection and they said their 10 oz apothecary jar is 3 7/8" in diameter. If that's the case, your zinc wick is way too small. Judging by Bitter Creek North's wick guide, which is what I go by since I only buy their wicks, you should use a 51-32-18 as your starting point and adjust from there. Also keep in mind that one-pour waxes sometimes require a bigger wick size to begin with. Also going by BCN's wick guide, with an HTP wick you should start with a 126. RichardLOZ had a good point. Knowing what kind of oils you're using is absolutely crucial to successful wicking. Depending on the density, you might need to go up a few sizes from the starting point. Just keep testing. It's a pain in the butt, but worth it to make a great, safe candle

Not sure if that was directed to me or not but I don't use jelly jars so I wouldn't be any help there. Sorry!

I use the comfort blend. It's NOT as soft as Vaseline. At least in my experience, I still had to work to get a good handful of it. It is very soft though, and sticky, and messy. But I've found the finished product more than makes up for the mess! The candle itself will still be soft once it's poured and cooled. Just touching a fingertip to it will leave a print. But again, whoever told you it was the consistency of Vaseline was greatly exaggerating. I haven't experienced any soot with the comfort blend (I use HTP wicks). Can't speak for the 6006 since I've never used it.

I get mine from Bitter Creek North. They sell 12-packs for $11.88

My wax was Candlewic's CBL-129. The customer service there, while very nice about the whole thing, swore that nothing about the formula had changed. I couldn't get the wax to a point where I was happy with it, so that's why I switched. It was a pain in the butt at the time but I'm very happy with how my candles turn out with 4627. I know the discussion was about FO's but the whole thing struck a chord :smiley2: It just seems that it might not be just FOs that suppliers are changing, but waxes too.

Thanks!

Hi everyone...I was wondering if someone could tell me where I can get tin-tie coffee-type bags, preferably with the window? I need a physical store that carries them. I know of online suppliers that sell them but this is for a party this coming Friday and I don't have time to wait for a shipment. I've tried craft stores like Michael's and AC Moore but they don't have them. Any help would be great! Thanks in advance!

So cute!

^^No that wasn't it, I'm familiar with "wet spots". I can't describe my issue other than to say that there were white "masses" sprinkled through otherwise dyed wax. Like in my aqua-colored "Ocean" candle, it literally looked like the white foam on a crashing wave (kind of cool considering the scent but it definitely wasn't what I was going for. And it didn't look so good in my bakery scented candles). Some were small but others were huge in size, and looked almost like fish scales - flat and silvery. The discoloration went all through the wax, not just on the sides. It was bizarre. I used it in some tins as well and it's evident just by looking at the top that there's an enormous air pocket - or something - almost the entire diameter of the tin. You can see where it's turning white beneath the top of the wax. I test burned a few after noticing this and nothing happened that was out of the ordinary. If they are in fact just freakishly huge air pockets, they didn't affect the burn at all. Still, I didn't want to sell candles that looked like that so I just switched waxes. I still get the occasional wet spot from 4627 but no fish scales in my container candles

Hmm...maybe it was just my bad luck. It's a shame because before I started getting the bubbles, I loved it. I loved not having to buy separate waxes for containers and votives/tarts. But I'm glad it worked for you!

This is an old post, I know, but I was wondering how the CBL 129 worked out for you? That's the only wax I used up until about 2 months ago, when I realized that the last two cases I purchased were, for lack of a better word, defective. No matter what I did, the candles I poured were pretty much tie-dyed with giant bubbles and air pockets (some up to 3 inches long, across the entire diameter of my larger jar candles) within a day or two. I know it's not the way I worked with the wax, since I didn't change a thing from my normal method, and then when I did change things in order to try to figure out the cause, nothing helped. So I figure it had to be the wax, especially with 2 50-lb cases doing the same thing. Did this happen to you?

Hmm that could explain what happened to my old container blend wax. It was perfect from day one, but with the last two cases, the candles started getting some really bizarre air pockets and bubbles in them no matter what I did. I mean HUGE ones. I was completely dumbfounded and rather than waste any more money on it I just switched to 4627, which I found I like better anyway.

I use HTPs as well. Love them, so clean burning and no trimming necessary!