cgoff

I give people a dollar off if they return the jar, as that is aproximately what I paid for them, I certainly don't reduce my profit margin on them. I have some customers who typically buy 5-6 candles a month, and they're the ones who most often return the jars.

That being said, I am VERY careful about reusing jars, as there can be some liability in that. Most often the "reused" jars don't get sold, rather they are given out to friends/family or I burn them myself.

I mark the jars using a Deco Color marker (permanant market that works on glass) underneath the warning label on the bottom of the candle, and I NEVER reuse a container twice. It's not worth the risk.

http://1stopsquare.com/marvy/markers/paintmarker.html

I LOVE this scent, I actually bought 5 pounds of it last year, and it's about a third gone.

What wax are you using?

I have had very good luck with C1 and the GW444 with this, no so much with C3.

OR you could go for broke, and double wick it using 4's.

I use an aimflame, I bought one of those flexy hose lighters too...and the ignighter died after the second fill up.

-Chris

Moonshine,

I read that they suggested the HTP ones for the C1 and C3, so I figure I'll buy a mix pack so I can size them right.

Unless someone has been using these and can tell me which wicks are right.

https://www.anchoronline.com/specials/country-comfort-jar.html

-Chris

So today's update! I talked to the place I have powerburning both C1 and C3 samples, the C3 continues to give oddities after it cools, it looks just like the pictures I posted above from my sample burn. The C1, however, is giving even more scent throw per their observance than the 444 used to. They were described as DAMN strong, even more so than the original ones...this could be good...less FO is less $$ which would equate to cheaper oil changes. =)

The C3 continues to dissapoint...even the cold throw on day 4 of the never burned candle is substantially lower than either the 444 or the C1...I think I have found my new wax in the C1.

I'm not sure if it is how I'm pouring or the FO's i'm using, but the C1 I have is totally creamy...I hope that my supplier didn't swap the two accidentially (I just got small batches for samples). I would be pissed if I ordered 250 pounds of C1 and ended up with what I think is the C3 now.

-Chris

OK so far, I'm not all that thrilled with the C3, it looks like an alien landscape when it cools. It did the same thing on initial pour, and again after the first burn.

The C1 was smooth as can be.

The mix I'm using is 17 ounces of C3, 2 ounces of FO (I think this is Candlewic's Apples and Maple Bourbon) and no extra additives. It is double wicked with LX24's (these containers are really wide at their widest part, so even a single LX30 doesn't give a full melt pool.

The scent throw is pretty good, although not even close to the 444 with this load.

I made them, and waited a couple days, so although I'm kind of breaking my normal 7 day cure time...I need to make a decision pretty quick, as my 444 supply is getting closer to it's end.

I'm going to light the C1 tomorrow and see how that does it's first burn.

I use cotton wicks, depends on your container size but mine is 3 1/8 and I use a 60C for most and a 62C for those heavier scents. You are using too much fo which will increase the soot and mushrooming. Some scents I use .8 or .9 oz pp and some a full 1 oz pp. I live in a humid area and if I use too much the oil does not completely bind with the wax and comes to the top after the candle hardens. I usually find this out in the testing stage and then scale back on the fo. I've tried the CDN and HTP wicks and for me I couldn't get over the bend in them, even twisting them didn't help much, so personally I prefer a round wick over a flat one. Be sure to keep any wick trimmed or it surely will mushroom.

I live in Massachusetts, and I have never had any of those issues, when cooling, I place the candles into my special insulated cooling box, which has a "raised" floor using a wire rack, individual insulated dividers between the candles, and an insulated top. As a result the candles cool very slowly, and from the bottom up.

The C1 came out flawless, where as the C3 came out all crazy looking, like some weird cyrstaline growth had actually extended to over where it was poured to, and there was a giant divot in the middle as a result of this growth.

I heatgunned it down no problem, but we'll see how they fare after some power-burns. I gave one of each to my tester at the garage down the street.

As far as FO pooling on top of the candles, I have never had that issue, and I use a TON of FO. My candles do soot a little unless you keep the wicks trimmed, and they do mushroom, but both are easily fixed with the a pair of scissors.

Chris

I'll try that Stella, I found that with the 444, as long as I let the candles cure for a 5-10 days before burning them they burned with no problem and the scent filled a large room (like in a 4 bay automotive shop where many of my candles are burned) without having to use multiple candles.

I am friendly with one of the guys up the street who owns a shop and he burns them all the time because he said they're the only candles which can cover the smell of oil soaked concrete, so we trade candles for oil changes for our cars. It is also the place where I test-burn many of my new scents/wax blends and see if he gets complaints or compliments.

-Chris

What are you guys using to wick these? I tossed some of my LX wicks in just to try, but I was wondering what you guys are using. I use a pretty high scent load in most of my candles (normally 12-13%) so something that helps combat mushrooming would be amazing.

I thought about trying HTP, anyone have experience with this combo?

-Chris

Do you know if this price includes the lid or is that separate?

TIA,

Kim

They are lid included, which is why 1.50 shipped was a great deal. I just like that they look more like candle jars compared to the canning jars, and I'm not selling them, it's just my hobby...so getting it on the cheap is super great!

I don't think the smaller ones I ordered have a lid

So I am in the same boat as you Stella, 444 or 464 is a 6 hour drive from me each way, and a new local supplier (45 minutes away by car!!!) of C1 and C3 http://gacwholesale.com/ I took the plunge. I called him and he shipped me 5 pound testers of each, which I actually got today and started to test with.

I do use a very high scent load (2oz added to 17 oz wax for 19 oz candle, or 12.8%) and was getting great results with the 444, a tsp PP of USA, and 1/4 tsp of UV inhibitor added to the presto pot, not each candle.

I heated to 200, added color, then FO, stirred until 175, poured into the jars inside my cooling box (insulates the candles while cooling so they harden w/o caveties)

I'll see how these work, and let you know what I find. I have them double wicked with LX24's in my golf-ball jars, I made 2 for each the C1 and C3, one with no additives, and one with the USA and UV. I'll take pictures after they dry.

-Chris

SO I was almost out of my standard containers for my candles, and I was poking around online, and I found that anchor hocking had their 16 ounce jars for a buck each.

https://www.anchoronline.com/specials/country-comfort-jar.html

They also have these 8 ounce flared jars which are $0.70 each.

I got 100 of the 16 ounce jars and 40 of the little jars shipped for under 50 bucks too...so all said and done the big jars were under 1.50, which is a LOT cheaper than I can get anything locally.

Just figured I'd share a nice find.

Chris

A new distributer for C-1 and C-3 just opened a warehouse in Fall River, MA. It's G A C Wholesale and you can pick up cases there if it is close enough to you. I know it is about 30 minutes drive south on route 24 from Candlechem. If you need it shipped, it should be cheaper than from PA. to the New England states.

So I just called GAC, they're going to ship me some 5 lb testers, if this stuff works comparably to my golden brands 444..I just found a new supplier an hour away instead of 6!!

-Chris

Yea, even with Candlewic's (which is the closest supplier to me) shipping rates, it doubles the cost of the wax for me, and makes this hobby a bit too expensive. Candlescience is even more, and even with Peak's discount, they are so far away from me that they're even worse. I'm debating whether or not to suck it up and drive the 5 and a half hours out there. I figure if I pick up at least 5 cases of wax, which I will definitly do, I would save more than the cost of the shipping by a bunch. I just wish that CandleChem carried other waxes. They do sell EcoSoya CB-135, but they charge 82 bucks a case, compared with 53 for the GW444 at Candlewic, plus it's still an hour's drive one way for me.

Where is a good local goldenbrands supplier when you need one! Or amazon...I wish they sold it on Amazon Prime...I'd totally have that stuff shipped to me that way.

-Chris

OK so I was having the same issue, and my solution was to turn my presto pot up to 200 degrees...I use the GW444 not the 464, but it hits the pour pot and is still around 190 or so, and then I add color and FO. The glass i use is 17 ounces though, and the volume of wax definitly makes a difference, if you are pouring several at once, it will retain heat MUCH better.

As far as adding FO to the pour pot then dumping in, I tried that, but I found I wasn't getting the same scent throw after the candles cured.

I pour mine HOT, basically 30 seconds after adding the FO, and I have a small plywood cabinet I made that insulates the candles so they don't cool too quickly. I almost never have to heat gun tops becasue of the slow cooling. This makes clean up of my pour pot super easy as well because nothing is slushy yet.

One quick tip...to clean up pour pots or any other wax covered stuff...get an old pot full of boiling water and dunk them, the wax and oil separates from the pot and it's left in the water.

I do this outisde in an old lobster cooker to clean everything including my wax towels and just ladel off the wax into a 5 gallon bucket of cold water. It's much more eco friendly than using TONS of paper towels, and I just re-melt the wax for my camp-fire starters (paper cup filled with wax and cotton batting).

-Chris

I poured a bunch of testers this weekend. I was heating to 185 (GB464), pouring into pour pot from presto, then adding FO. Midway through, I stuck the thermo into the pour pot after the wax pour, and the temp was at 175 before adding FO. So it was dropping 10 degrees before adding FO.

I know most say to add FO at 185...so what I did was add the FO to pour pot, then pour wax into pour pot.

Are there issues with this? How do you do it?

So we are about out of soy wax from when candlewic was running a free shipping deal in 2010 and i ordered 500 pounds...

I was wondering if anyone has seen a good deal on shipping? In Massachusetts we have only one supplier, and they don't carry the golden brands soy wax, only the eco-soya, which is nice, but it's 80-90 dollars a case instead of 50-60, and that makes this hobby even more expensive than it already is.

While we aren't dead set on using the GW 444, we are looking for something which performs similarly with a similar price.

Any suggestions would rock!

Chris

I am interesting in possibly trying to make Pillars ..preferably with a soy / palm or palm blend. No parafin.

Does anyone have any recommendations on which works well and what wicking you are using for say 3 " dia pillars

Thank you.

Debbie,

I think I am in the minority, but I make my own pillar wax. It is SO much more expensive than container wax, and I can get very similar results by adding palm stearic which is cheap.

I use my normal GB 444 container soy and add 10% by weight of palm stearic.

The GB 444 costs right around half as much as Ecosoya PB at my local supplier.

Chris

We've been out of candle making for a couple years now. Between remodeling a house and having a baby, candles just fell by the wayside. Well we're ready to get back to work on candle making but much to my dismay we've lost our jar supplier (greenleaf) I've searched high and low and I'm having no luck at all Mind if I ask where you lovely people purchase your jelly jars and square masons? Paticularly if you are from the midwest I found a distributor in St. Louis... with a pallet minimum. It would be nice to need that many!!! Someday perhaps! I will keep searching and if I find someone, I'll be sure to share the info

The chepest prices we found were from a company in Texas, I forget the name, but we live in Boston, so shipping killed them for us. We did actually end up with a local place who was a little more expenisve for the glass, but we could pick it up, so we didn't get hosed on shipping.

Pick up a yellow pages and look for Jar suppliers, that's how I found mine, and they sell tons of candle specific stuff. Not everyone has a website.

Chris

Its too bad when a soy candlemaker has to bash a parrafin candlemaker.

by saying" regular candles are petroleum-based, therefore giving off the harmful black soot that contaminates the air we breathe as well as staining our walls and windows." This quote was in our local paper yesterday under new business in our area. I would think that someone who has faith in their product would be speaking about the positive side of their product and not knocking someonelses. Takes all kinds to make a world

I think they are quoting this study I saw online about a California EPA scientist who identified like 11 different carcinogens in the fumes off of Paraffin candles.

And as far as "harmful" black soot...well they are just being idiots, but I can attest to the fact that it DOES stain walls and ceilings.

In college I used to live in a house with 3 other roommates, and although noone smoked, we burned scented paraffin candles constantly, mostly from Yank-me, (several in every room...many lit and left burning 24/7 until they burned out) to cover up the smell of 4 teenage boys living in a small house. By the end of the year, there was black discoloration on the ceilings of the rooms in which we burned candles.

It's amazing we didn't burn that house down to the ground.

Chris

I am new to candle making and am going to be making some candles this weekend and was looking for a bit of help. I'm using Ecosoya CB Advanced (which I found out is not the greatest for scent throw.)

So here are my questions:

1. What is the longest you cure a soy candle for?

I did "lose" a candle when I made a my first whole batch...I found it like 2 months later when cleaning...normally though i suggest my customers give the candles a few days at least (most of what I make is made to ordrer) and stuff for craft shows or flea market always get at least 7 days.

.

2. Will curing help with scent throw?

I find it helps with hot throw, cold throw doesn't seem to make a difference.

3. Can I add anything to it to help me achieve a better scent throw?

I find that I can add around 2 teaspoons per of vybar 103 per pound of soy wax, and can add even more fragrance oil normally around 2 ounces per pound, but any more vybar and the soy wax burns weird. Otherwise try adding some coconut oil if you are making containers candles, or even some crisco.

Have fun and good luck

Chris

*edit* 4627 is a soft Paraffin made by IGI which tends to mix pretty well with many soys

I'm so tired of reading on various sellers' sites that their soy wax candles are superior partially because soy wax is water soluble.

IT IS NOT.

yes, it can be cleaned up with hot water, or soap and water, but that doesn't make it water soluble.

vent over.

Don't you love people who failed high school chemistry...oil isn't water soluable...and soy wax is hydrogenated soybean oil.

Soap acts like a dispersant, which is why it cleans up with soap and water.

I just remember my motto when I see these shenanigans...if you lie to your customers...it will eventually become clear to them...and they will leave you behind!

Chris

Ok, I know this is a bit odd of a question, but does anyone know who actually makes the LX wicks? I buy them from a supplier, but who is the actual manufacturer? I'm looking for their logo for my website.

Chris

I have used Peak's 'Amish Harvest' in paraffin votives, and it was kick arse strong at 1 oz / lb wax. I made it up in 70/30 container wax a week ago, same ratios, and am burning it this weekend and it just is not that powerful (wick is burning perfectly). It's just middling. So how are some of you really getting awesome throw in soy using 1 oz of FO??? I'm thinking of going down to Ollivander's and getting a magic wand.

I find that my scent throw depends on the fragrance oil I am using. I've been very lucky with the stuff from candlescience, in that if I stick to the FO's which they say are very strong...they don't dissapoint. For my super-scented candles, I stick to 2 ounces per pound, I just toss in around 0.5 ounces of Vybar 103 per pound (yes in soy) to prevent bleeding and the cold throw alone will nearly knock someone down.

I haven't tried any of Peak's scents though.

Chris

I have been asked by my grandmother to make her some jar candles which are tall and narrow, and I am looking for a pretabbed wick supplier who sells eco 2's (or similar which will work in 2.5" wide glass containers with GW444) in 9 inch lengths.

Candlscience requires a 5,000 wick order for a custom sized wick, and worst case scenario I will order from them (after all, it IS for my grandmother and who can put a price on that ). But I was wondering if anyone knows of a supplier who will let me order longer pretabbed wicks by the 100?

Thanks!!

Chris