Craftedinthewoods

I got into making soap today with my mother in law and we used olive oil because we had that on hand. We stirred for an hour and we were still unsure if it traced. It was thickened, but the book we used said to pour it even if it hadn't traced after an hour. Now, several hours later I checked my mold and the soap is as liquid as when we fist poured it and the oil was layered on the top. I stirred that back in, but now I wonder if we should try to heat it up again and mix it better to reach the trace. Please help. I hate to throw this olive oil away!

Candle Cacoon's cappuccino hazelnut, masala chai and creme brule cafe all have fantastic, full bodied scents.

I've posted this already in the natural wax threads, but it was suggested I try it here... I'm wondering if anyone has ever heard of essential oils not actually binding (bonding?) with wax in a candle so when the candle is burned the eo actually burns off before the wax, therefore not having a scented candle all through the life of said candle? I've heard this from a candle maker and can't find any chemistry type info to support this or not. I'm thinking about adding a few EO candles to my line, but maybe it won't be worth the time & effort of testing... and I've heard from others that eo are expensive so will up cost of candle and may not sell anyway. Anyone who is successful with eo candles, it would be great to hear from you. I really have had only 2 customers ask for this over the last 7 months of doing craft shows and hitting the wholesale market in shops... so who knows??? But I've got the thought in my head now and I'm curious about the facts.

Lychel is great! She has helped me a ton and been very patient with my questions. I use her oils as I can pick up when I visit family there and I love the unusual fragrances. I've had amazing responses from my patchouli candles. Those who love patchouli have told me this patchouli is the best they've smelled. (I'm personally not a fan but it sells.) Also, this holiday season Candle Cacoon's pine scent (I think it's called winter woodland whispter) had been a huge hit! I repeatedly hear from customers that it is the best pine they have ever smelled. I agree!

Thanks, I'll post another thread. I would like to try making a few after Christmas. I already have some lavender oil from a different craft project so that might be where I start.

I've had just a couple customers ask me if my candles were made with essential oils. Only a few of my scents "contain" essential oils but they are still a synthetic FO. I began thinking about adding a line of candles made with only EO, so I asked my supplier about using EO in soy candles. She told me that EO on it's own will not bind with the wax and will therefore wick out of the candle quickly leaving unscented wax and an unscented candle. I've done a little searching on line and will plan to do more as this busy holiday / craft season calms down...but I haven't found anything about the chemistry of EO binding with wax (or not) Has anyone heard that EO will not bind with wax? Do any of you make scented candles with EO and have a great scented candle throughout the life of the candle?

I'll have to play with the freezer thing. So far I heat jars in my oven and pour into hot jars. MOSTLY this solves any wet spots I saw earlier in my candle career. I may have an occasional wet spot and I wonder where that came from when all the rest look fine!

Thanks, I took my candles out and brought them back in.:tiptoe:

I have a craft show tomorrow and have put some candles in my car tonight. If it freezes will it have a negative effect on my candles?

So do you just ask you homeowners insurance co. if they will cover you? This kind of thing makes me crazy! Does anyone ever sue a cigarette company for someone leaving a cigarette in an unsafe place & starting a house fire? Can someone sue the stove company for a fire started by leaving the stove on and setting the newspaper down on it? How can a candle maker - weather its one of us or if it's a big company like Yankee candles - be held liable for someone burning a candle in an unsafe, unrecommended way?! Afterall, isn't that why the instructions on our chainsaws say don't operate in the bathtub?... just so no one can sue them if they happen to cut off a limb in the tub? (sorry I may have taken that one too far...)

How did you do that quote thing? You answered separate parts of a quote... Candle Cacoon sold me small packs of cdn-4, 6, 8 & 10. It isn't on her site, but she had them for me to try. So do you wick to achieve a full melt poot in the first 1 hour 45 minutes when testing votives? In my early base tests (wax without scent) I burned for 3 hours and got a full pool with my cd 10 and cdn 10 but the flame was so high I didn't like it at all. Too hot! I don't think I could get a full melt pool in the first 2 hours without wicking up so far as to get a hot flame. (that's why I tested for 3 hours at a time...) When I tested so far I tried not to interfere with the candle. It sounds like I should be positioning the wicks if they are curling over or leaning? I also saw in some of my tests that the larger wicks were burning so high that the wicks got 'floppy' and bent over and drown themselves. Have you seen this? I took that to mean the wick was too large. Sounds like selling votives includes much customer education.

Can you share the (approx.) number of candles you've sold at a show? (especially a holiday show) I have a huge month of craft shows. 1 in particular is a monster show - the biggest I've done - it is a 2 day show and I'm unsure of how much to bring and have ready. I took my biggest summer / fall show to date and multiplied that by 4 to make an estimate of how many candles (and supplies) to have on hand. Do you think that is enough? I'm not sure since people will be buying for gifts this time, not just for themselves.

No I don't add anything else to my wax. My understanding is that I don't have to with the EL votive wax. They pour nicely, slip right out of the molds and don't have any cracks or flaws in them. I think I'm happy with that part. About selling them... Yes I've backed off until I do more testing. The wicks I use are cd 6's & 8's. I've been happy with those for some other candles I've made. Initially I tried several cdn wicks as well but the cd's gave better results. I use wick pins so the wicks are centered and tight. I don't add dye to any of them. So how do you recomend testing these. I'm guessing... I'll repeat the same tests I've done by burning 3 hours at a time and recording results. But I'll also do several torture tests again - burning them all day and see what happens. I've only tested them in tight fitting containers. Do you ever test yours in the rolly polly containers or something else too big just to see what happens?

OK - thank you for clarifying your thoughts. I do appreciate any input as I am new to votives and I DO want a great product to match the great ones I already sell. No I didn't take my new votives to my candle party last night (which was a huge success!). I didn't want to sell a candle that I had doubts about. So I hope you don't get too tired of me asking more questions about votives so I can get through this new phase of candle making. So, to begin with... I'm using the same method to make the votives each time and each batch. I know that is imperative. And I'll continue testing. If I wick up to achieve a full melt pool sooner (and avoid that funny hang I mentioned earlier) I find that the flame is large and bouncy and the glass gets pretty hot. That is why I wicked down... even though the votive has wax hang on half of the votive for the first 2 burns or so, the flame is never too hot and big and the wax hang clears off by the 3rd and 4th burns... and by the end of the candle it is still not burning too hot. Does that at least sound like I'm on the right track??? But I have to ask about those few morons that will try to burn things down with our candles... Can a candle maker really be held liable for someone burning a votive (or any candle) in a way that is unsafe? I have safety warning labels on the bottoms of all candles, on my labels I state to follow the warning labels, and on my new votive label I have printed "use only with tight fitting voive containers". I mean, if votives are so dangerous how can any large candle company sell them?

Yikes! I'm sorry about your job. It is pretty scary to be in that place. This sounds easy to say, but I thing you should go for it with your soap. Maybe in the beginning you might need a 'small' part time job to take up the slack? But start writing a plan about how much soap you would need to sell to make a living on it and then go from there... Where can you market that much soap, how much would your supplies cost you weekly / monthly, how much time would you need to spend (don't forget to count marketing time - go to every store you can think of and start hitting the craft shows), maybe think about web site... These are just my quick thoughts, but it might help to write down a plan. It would focus your thoughts and give you a goal. Good luck!

OK - I get it... But help me understand??? When I burn my votives (the 3 scents I've burnd 6 to 8 of) The end results are all the same. If I keep burning them at home, what will change???

Just wondering if anyone has experience with liquid soap making? I just ordered a kit on line and will try it soon. Did I mention I've never made soap before? For some reason I just got a liquid soap bee in my bonnet and have to give it a go.

OK - I've only been testing for 2 weeks!!! Yikes - what can happen if I seem to have found a wick for a few scents that burns down nicely?

I began testing my first votives 3 weeks ago without any scent to find my base wick size. After many tests I began testing different scents. I've been testing these first 3 scents for about a week now. (I've tested 6 to 8 of each scent with the wick size I chose.) Is that enough testing? I have been making container candles (& selling) for about 9 months and feel pretty confident about my testing proceedures. Although I admit I still feel a bit uncertain about how a votive should burn... in many of my tests the votives take several different shapes during the first 2 burns before finally reaching a full melt pool. But the end results of the ones I plan to sell are a clean container and a nice flame (not too hot & large). So back to the pricing... How many votives can be made in an hour or 2? I know I have much room for getting better and faster and that will bring my cost down.

I'm making my first soy votives and have 3 scents to sell at a candle party tomorrow night. I have figured my cost of materials and time (I know I will get faster with more practice pouring votives) and then following business advice I double that to get my wholesale price. Then I am to at least multiply that by 1.5 to reach my retail price. Problem??? Well, at least looking on line I can't find a soy votive for more than 1.75! That isn't even what my wholesale price should be according to my calculations! Can anyone tell me what you charge for your votive candles, and how you arrive at that number?

I use EL votive blend (soy), up to .8 oz. FO per lb of wax (depends on which FO - some are super concentrates and I use less). I heat wax to 180 ish then add FO and pour at 170. These instructions came from the person I bought the wax from. They are 2 oz. voitves. Also, is it not realistic for me to shoot for a 15 to 17 hour votive? 2 of my scents so far I've achieved a 16 to 17 hour burn with a clean container at the end (although they didn't burn the same way... but the end was a clean jar). But others I've tested will have a clean container at the end of only 12 hours - and smaller wicks burn to 15 -17 but the containers aren't clean. grrrrr...

Ohhhh, It's my first day on these forums and I'm afraid I've put my foot in it!!! Please forgive me if I sounded like soy is better and that's that! I should clarify - my own target market has developed from several friends of my mom's who are moving from burning parafin candles to soy. So when I began making candles that is where I started... because soy candles are hard to find in my area. I have never even made a parafin wax candle, but when I started with the soy, I sure fell in love with it! Anyway, the following are what I share with interested customers (I am not a hard salesman - I first ask folks if they are familiar with soy wax and if they say no and want more I tell them...): - I have read that since soy is a vegetable based wax, it won't have the toxins that are burned off when burning a petroleum based wax. (Is it fair to say it is a natural wax?) - Soy is also made from a renewable resource (although I don't know how they make it so maybe the process of making soy wax is not too green... I don't know), - Soy wax burns at a cooler tempurature than parafin so burns slower - lasting longer. I admit I haven't tested this myself as I do not make parafin and cannot judge if a purchased candle would be a good test comparison, but I have read this on several different web sites about wax & candles. - Lastly, people love hearing that soy wax cleans up with hot soap & water. That simple thing has been something many people love to hear about soy wax. That being said, I have found this thread very interesting and I will spend some time looking into the links others have posted. I fully appreciate that everyone has their own needs as far as marketing & even hobbies go. I have nothing against those who use other waxes... Soy just seems to work for my purposes and needs.

I am wanting to add soy votive candles to my product offerings. But for the last 2 weeks I've been testing votives I've made and have not been able to achieve the same results twice! I'm being very careful when pouring to keep the temp right around 170 with my heat gun. Yet when I test burn I never have 2 votives burn the same. I burn in tight fitting votive containers & no drafts. Yet one may leak the wax down around the base and then there will be a large hang on one side while the next one (same scent, same wick) will burn evenly with only a little hang up. On another side by side votive test one may burn quite nicely and the other (again - same scent same wick) will have a little tired flame that seems to be drowning! When I've tested a larger wick that minimizes any hang - the votive only burns for 10 to 12 hours. That doesn't seem acceptable to me since you can buy quality votives that burn 15 to 17 hours, according to their labels at least. (I've seen this on line) I'm not familiar with how a votive should burn as I have never been much of a votive user myself. But I have a line of container candles that I'm very proud of and am beginning to develop a great reputation for and I only want to add a votive that measures up to those standards. I need advice, Please.

Interesting comments... It can be hard to try and sell yourself as a 'green' candle when by simply burning the candle chemicals are released. But making soy candles is a better alturnative. I have only had 2 customers this year who said they do not burn candles because of the carbon released and chemicals in the FO. I simply smile and tell them they are right - candle burning is not for them... Anyway, I do happily share the benefits of soy with my customers - many do not know the benefits - and I educate them how to get the most out of their candles. This includes trimming wicks, optimal burn times, avoiding drafts, etc. (you all know this stuff) Anyway, when those burning tips are followed, it reduces visible sooting to virtually nothing. So if a customer came to me asking about a sooting candle I would find out how they were burning & extinguishing it and them gently suggest solutions (back to the buring tips above). Please excuse me for writing a novel. :rolleyes2

Type of Soy or Soy Blend you use? EL millenium soy Additives if any? none Preferred dyes? dye free Preferred wick (Not sizes)? CD & CDN Pouring temp you recommend? 140 What you do to prevent frosting? not a problem What you do to prevent rough tops? heat gun Do you do anything to prevent wet spots? warm jars