TallTayl

Less vague suggestion:

for container candles, I found with nearly all waxes that a container taller than wide works best.  Short wide containers are the most difficult to wick.  3” wide x 3-4” tall jars are a sweet spot for the majority of waxes I have worked with.

jars narrower than 2.5” or wider than 3.5” are the most frustrating to wick. 
 

resist the urge to wick for fast full melt pool.  There’s a lot of questionable advice out there about wicking. Safety first! 

Welcome to CraftServer! 
what a fun project. As for what wax, etc, this is such a tough decision. Equal numbers of people prefer soy to paraffin to beeswax to coconut. Nobody will agree. 😊  Every wax has its own strengths and struggles. Learning curves are about the same.

if you have a supplier reasonably close by you will save on freight costs. When I started out I picked too many waxes and got confused and frustrated. once I slowed down, settled on one wax that I could get at more than one supplier, and learned it inside out in one container I saw real progress.  
 

your wick choice will depend on your wax choice. 
 

fragrance retailers are a dime a dozen.  You’ll likely try out many before you find the perfect scents for your goals. As with wax, nobody agrees about who the “best” fragrance suppliers are.  All have duds and winners. 
hit up the suppliers by state list to see who is near you 😊. That will give you a start.

I had a lovely chat with my fragrance rep today. We pondered the future of my fragrance library, which til this point, was aimed at fragrances that work for both soap and candles.  
 

as you all know, not all fragrances made for both bath products and candles perform well in both.  We face the struggle every day with retail fragrances.  They can be “ok”, but not the fantastic performers we hope for. Fragrances designed for excellent performance in soap use different solvents than those made for excellent burn and throw in candles.  Adding more of a soap fragrance to a candle doesn’t usually improve the burn or throw of the candle. The struggle is real. 
 

I requested a range of fragrances designed specifically for candles to test out for the forum.  Some “may” be ok to use in bath products, but these will be formulated specifically for candles/melts/sprays. 
 

if this venture pans out as planned, I’d like to share a rotation of seasonally selected candle fragrances made just for us with other forum members.  We will need to work and think a couple of months ahead to test and decide what to co-op together. 
 

what do you think?

I've been playing with screen printing for a while with mixed results. It's time to step up my game and stop stamping and start printing.

Anyone here make their own screens, or use premade screens to print things? I'd love to work through some things with you.

7 hours ago, James223 said:

Greetings everyone,

 

I have a company in Europe that specializes in candle making, all kinds, home, church, grave type of candles. At the moment, i have few quotations for palm oil with the price around 1400 EUR per tonne. Currently, the market seems a bit down and despite lower prices than few months ago, we are still too expensive to some customers, not to all, but for some. I would like to know if anyones has any other offers for palm oil that are lower and has similar problems currently on the market. Of course this could also be a incoming recession.

 

Best regards.

The US palm prices are still really high. Coupled with record high freight costs, all waxes (and oils, fragrances, containers, etc.) are frustratingly high with no end in sight. I make ceramic vessels and was just warned clay is going up AGAIN on may 1 - IF I can get stock since shortages are still a problem. 
 

I wish we could get candle waxes for .70 per lb right now 😕

the over inflated prices are hitting retailers that cater to smaller sellers. Every day I get offers for “free” fragrance with every bottle purchased. The pendulum swings and eventually rights itself but it is a total pain to weather it out.  

To swap wicks it’s super easy to pull with a pair of pliers and stuff a new wick in to continue testing. Or, if you like a tab, do a “wickectomy”. 
 

remelting a completed candle is tricky since you need to get all of the components back to the original melted homogenous state and cool at a rate that lets it all set up properly.  

It could be as simple as a bar soap that has been diluted into lots of water.

what type of wool are you washing? Raw fleece for spinning? Wool clothing?

Adding, I’m happy to co-op this exact one if we can combine 25 lbs of interest. 
As-is from elements the price starts at $28

plus:

freight

bottle

payment fees

shipping to you.

for $28 per lb, their old retail, we should try to negotiate them bottling it.  heck, if they did the co-op part with our 25 lb of interest it would benefit everyone. If as few as 5 of us preorder 5 lbs each it should make it simple for them to treat as a normal order with no risk. 
 

On 4/15/2023 at 4:49 PM, doglvr said:

They cancelled that one (my favorite) and Patchouli Honey, Ginger Lime, and others I have always used.  They told me their sister company (and I don't remember the name, sorry) might carry something similar.  I did look, but holy cow, a one ounce sample was 8.00!!  Buying the larger sizes was equally as ridiculous in price.  What a shame.

 

This upsets me so much.  If there is enough interest we can have it duped ourselves.  The common risks of if being not quite exact will always be there.  I’ve had 8 or so of my must haves made and all were super.  The lab also has a 25 lb min, but prices per lb are usually a little better than the one offered by elements.

You can use pretty much any fragrance you like on them. Doterra may be on the pricier side, considering you can get pure essential oils in bigger quantities from many retailers.

Welcome!

best of luck to you in your new journey. Take time to enjoy the process. There will be many frustrating moments, but you will learn something new with each day.  Take thorough notes!

What a fun puzzle project! 
 

I’d start a Google search for any CAS documents for the candles and work backward from there. Some sources say they’re all paraffin.  Some say soy paraffin.  The CAS docs would show the wax types and range of proportions if you can find one. 
 

as you’ve probably discovered, “soy wax” varies so much from brand to brand, product to product that it will take ages to find the one closest to what they use.  Ditto for paraffin.  I have not burned one of those candles in decades, but remember somewhat how they burn. 
 

I would not worry too much about how fast it melts in the container.  Instead, I’d keep focus on a clean safe burn, with the hot throw I love.  Keep tabs on the temperature of the glass container to make sure it isn’t getting too hot through the long burn.  C3 can be rather hard to burn with all of its soy additive. Perhaps try a more basic soy, like Midwest Soy, GB 415 or similar.  Those two tend to be the most basic with fewest additives.

That is a high per lb price for a keg! They’re charging the old per lb price bottled. 
 

another person I know of is interested in this FO. Perhaps a co-op would solve some of the cost issues? Though, bottles and second freight will be an additional $2 per lb, approximately. 

I wonder if they would consider the special order 25 lb size like their mother ship, WSP does. 

1 hour ago, so-soy said:

Hello all, unfortunately my favorite and best selling pine scent has been discontinued from Elements. Anyone know of a dupe or good replacement for Rocky Mountain Christmas? 

Oh NOOOOO.  I know a few people that will be horribly upset by this. 

16 minutes ago, Noob82 said:

Another question if I have a great burn test but my HT needs to be stronger would raising it 1 to 1.5% require a new test or would it be so minimal that it should bee good?

Any change needs a full test.  Fragrances are made of so many different aromachemicals and diluents that anything can happen.  
 

in my Sweet Amber or Frankincense fragrances 1% increase will halt the burn. The aromachemicals clog the wick and smother the flame.  

in WSP Oakmoss Sandalwood a 1% increase will cause the candle to melt into a puddle. 
 

Hot Throw is a delicate balance. Once you find that sweet spot, though, it is magical! 

When I perform Baseline tests for new waxes, it is to test the bare wax lot for significant variations.  For instance, coco83 and 444 changed with every single shipment I ever received. The baseline tests alert me at the beginning if something is drastically wrong with the wax without adding in the many other variables of candles. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to figure out what is wrong with candles after they’re already made.

If you are a baker, a similar test is “proving” your yeast.  If the yeast bubbles away in the proof your bread will likely rise and bake well making for a tasty dinner.  If the yeast proof sits all dead like in the proving bowl your bread will likely be a total fail.  Knowing at the start that the odds are in your favor saves time and money (and keeps you from going hungry).

I make a small test candle using the same type of container for all baseline tests of the same wax. You could choose a 4 oz jelly jar, for example.  Some use a maxi tea light. The point is to use the same container size/type/material for a quick candle to see if that new box of wax will be a source of nightmares or joyous dreams. 
 

Find the wick that best performs for the naked wax in that single small container and note in your candle log how it burns (flame height, temp of the jar, pool depth, etc.).  In future lot tests you will compare notes to ensure you’re starting with the same fuel (within your personal range of acceptable). If the small tester candle burns similarly to the prior case lot(s) you’re likely  safe to use whatever wicks you’ve identified in the past for your candles/fragrances in that wax.  If it burns notably different you need to hit the production pause button and figure out what to do to solve the burn issues.  
 

Occasionally the wax lots fall too far outside of the “acceptable” range.  One lot of 444 just would not burn in the test candle. I knew immediately not to make anything with that lot as it would be a customer service disaster to replace/refund terrible candles.  One lot of coco83 burned so much hotter than prior lots I knew not to make candles with it until I completed thorough testing to compensate for the dangerously hot burn with existing wicks. It’s easier and cheaper to not make a candle than it is to recall “bad” or unsafe candles. 
 

Adjacent thought: this same baseline test can be used for new wick shipments.  I’ve had some wicks of the same size/type just not burn well. I used a trusted wax lot to identify the problem quickly and inexpensively. The goal is to limit the variables to quickly identify the root cause of a problem. 

10 hours ago, MN2021 said:

 

Thanks for your response. It unfortunately looks like I'm just still having the same trouble as I have been since I began this last year. I know people recommend waiting a few days for paraffin wax to cool before testing it, but I have seen many people on this forum state that they wait a few hours up to 12 hours with great success. I don't have the proper wicks for the 4630 right now, but the cold throw is still very minimal even 36 hours later. 

 

I have some candles purchased from a few companies and their cold through is unbelievable. I can leave the lid off and smell it in a 500 sq ft space without ever even lighting the candle. Does this mean the fragrance they used was very strong to begin with before it was added to the wax? Is it possible for the the scent to be stronger in the wax than before it was blended in?

Probably the most important lesson I learned about reading peoples’ opinions on forums and Facebook groups is that I don’t often agree with them. What is strong to someone else or smells “amazing” to someone else is just kind of meh to me. And vice versa.

as far as the comparable strength in retail products, I assure you the big hitters do not buy from the retail places most people just starting out buy from. retailers buy in different concentrations to hit price points their customers are comfortable with. They reformulate often without notice.  I exhausted most of the retail market fragrances over a decade and learned to buy my own formulations wholesale direct from a lab. 25 pound minimums are scary, but then I know I’m getting what works best for my products to my market.

you may find different luck with places like Keystone Candle (they purchased the rights to many Peak Candle formulations), crafters Choice (through several resellers-most commonly Wholesale Supplies Plus). Elements Bath and Body has some strong ones in their collection. Rustic Escentuals has a couple I have liked. Brambleberry has had a few, though many have fallen into reformulation so I can’t vouch for the strength of some I liked over the years.  

Hello and welcome 😊

Some of the loss of fragrance could be “candle nose”.  Your nose will be overwhelmed with fragrance while making your products, then lose sensitivity for a while, making the product seem weakly scented until the senses readjust. 
 

some of the perception could be the fragrances themselves.  Some retailers just don’t offer as potent a strength as others.  Finding those that work best for you comes with a lot of trial and error.  all retailers have duds along side others that will work great for you. Many that people love I can’t smell well, and Vice versa. 
 

your waxes all seem like commonly used blends that many use with success. resist the new “advice” about cooling your wax  to its flash point before adding to the fragrance. Your selections mentioned all need to be melted to 180-185*F to completely dissolve the components of the waxes.  Stir well as it melts to ensure even distribution of all the ingredients.  By the time you decant the wax into a pour pot and add the fragrance, the temps should have dropped quite a bit.  Adding a fragrance to wax at 160*F or above should ensure everything stays well blended.  If your wax is a palm wax Blend, you’ll likely need to melt to 200*F just to ensure the components of the palm are fully melted. Well designed candle fragrances easily withstand 200*F with no loss of potency, just for clarification.  One of my most loved fragrances has a flash point of 119*F, and is fully scented when added to 200*F palm wax, for example. 
 

You may find some categories of fragrances are more potent than others, such as cologne and floral types.  Bakery and cologne types tend to work particularly well with the soy blends.

finding sources of fragrance that please you is a frustrating process, but worth it when you hit on some you absolutely love.  Sometimes you can stumble onto a classified ad for really old fragrances being destashed that work exceptionally well.  The last few years have marked a strong swing in retail fragrances to keep price points in line with what their customers expect. Many reformulations of fragrances due to supply chain issues and updates to safety levels have made it very difficult to keep up. Used to be that you could pick pretty much any bottle from any supplier and make a strongly scented candle/melt/whatever with 3% to a max of 6%. I long for those bygone days. 

It’s very helpful to learn how to baseline test waxes. Unscented in a smallish jar will alert you to any major changes before you get too far into production and get into a pickle. 
 

I’ve had too many lots with significant variances to not baseline test. It’s quick and easy. 

I’ve fermented pineapple, an other fruit waste, into tasty vinegar, but never took it this far to make cleaning products. I bet it smells heavenly! 
 

At the start of the video you’ll see the vinegar  “mother” thick disc floating at the top of the vat.  My hens love the natural mother from making kombucha and vinegars. 
 

my daughter is studying something similar for her AP research project using local produce waste. Hopefully she can carry it through university and one day have a local solution like this ❤️.

has anyone else made fruit vinegars? Apple? Pineapple? Other?

I would try alcohol and mica.

C3 can be pretty great all alone. Especially with excellent fragrances.  

C3 usually holds more than 6%. Unless the formulation changed I used up to 8% of the weaker fragrances with no issues. 
 

heated to 180-185, poured what I needed into pouring pot, colored, added scent at no lower than 160. Stirred down to cloud/slush point and poured into containers. 
 

cd wicks worked well for most all fragrances I used in it. 
 

i have not used your sb1000, but c3 took most other paraffins well. 

a Lot of the clean versus dirty burn comes down to the wick - whether a traditional wax or an oil. Did you try either fiberglass or bleached square cotton wicks with veggie oils?