TallTayl

Good to know there's interest! I have made dupes of these TSW essences so far: Pink Sugar Dragons Blood Black Espresso Vetiver Tonic Am willing to offer those too if there's interest.

Great tools are totally worth the investment! So glad you like it. Thanks for sharing

On duping, some places say they "can" dupe from a soap or candle wax, but those soap or wax components will always be a part of the final fragrance, if that makes sense. When i send out fragrance for duping they need about an ounce of the actual material in liquid form so it can be processed in the gas spectrometer. How big of a drum are they talking? 10lbs? 25? That's not really all that much if several people love it!

I've been reading a lot of different "new" techniques for HP that are just different spins on old, traditional commercial HP. Many use lots of sugar, water, sodium lactate and dangerously high levels of heat. The best Hp i ever made was my usual formula with "full water" and a crock pot. The trick is to not over cook it and not over whip air into it. Plasticizers (like sugar added to the lye solution), or adding oils or milk toward the end of the cook really smooth the pour. When making HP, it helps to hold on to a bar or two to watch how they age. The new hyped methods claim no shrinkage or water loss. But then they never weigh the soap after it is cut to find they do actually shrink and distort.

I can list some in the Classifieds for anyone interested. Still need to finish testing, receive the IFRA certificate and get pricing. T This formula is mine and won't be available at any retailers.

When making many short runs of different scents in different configurations, I use two large prestos: one to melt cold wax, one to fill pour pots. Those pots heat fast, so there's little down time waiting. There's little to nothing left in the pour pots since, like OG, I weigh out exactly what I need for the containers being made. If any quantity is left, it gets poured into a silicone mold to re-melt later. Or I pour into a special candle to burn myself or to give to a few special customers that love the randomness. When making longer runs, where pour pots would become a pain, I do color and scent in the presto. Any left over (usually none as all is measured by batch) goes into a silicone mold to be remelted later. If it's not needed, it can go right into the next run of similar scent candles. When using the pot to scent and color, just wipe it out well with paper towels and I never have a problem with color or scent transfer. Layered candles I can see needing several presto's depending on how many you are making. Or when I need to do that with short runs, pour pots on an electric griddle keep things just melty enough. Any bigger batches in the 50lb jacket melters are usually uncolored and unscented, but I rarely have to make 50lbs of any one scent/color. I have seen some factories that do, and they just clean out the melter well and go on with their production day.

Tonic ust came in. Oh my WOW it smells great! I sent out the original version (prior to the reformulation to phthalate free). The dupe is phthalate free. Also received the dupe of Dark Espresso Vetyver. Super strong and delicious OOB. I had been using the ones from DS and PFO until this came back. The TSW dupe is far and away the best of the three. Once I get them tested in soap and soy wax I'll share results. Fingers and toes crossed...

Neat tool. Have you standardized your mold sizes?

I love just using the soap pot itself to swirl. Pouring bits of color around the main color in the pot then putting right in the mold takes no time at all. The colors can get deeper into the mold too.

Give them a call. The 7 lb containers are big and need a certain dimension box to package safely and within the DOT regs for shipment. Once out of the special rate dimension boxes the USPS and UPS rates are crazy. You may be able to order seven 1-lb bottles of the FO along with the one single lb of the other and fit into a better dimension package, like USPS flat or regional rate. Well, that is unless the flash point of the FO requires it to travel by ground. AHRE is one vendor that has refunded shipping overages to me in the recent past without my even asking. They are great to work with.

For soy i settled on 8 oz and 16 oz tin for most. One specialty scent 4" wide cast iron. Beeswax, ceramic candle holders about 3" diameter Palm, 3" wide status jar and 2 oz status jar. Phasing out palm though, in favor of more beeswax containers to complement the beeswax pillars.

I don't give any away until i dial in the wick. It took a few tries to see what wick series and sizes worked in my container before adding in fragrances. You will have many variables to control when making candles. The most important to my learning have been the following: Wax (with soy batch to batch variances mess with burn in in addition to brand and type) Wick series/manufacturer Wick size Container width Container depth Container shape (squares are harder to wick than round for instance) Container sides. Curved or tapered sides are more challenging than straight sides. Container material (glass behaves differently than metal, which is different from cast iron which is different from aluminum) Fragrance Color Try to change only one variable at a time so you know what is really happening. Pick a wax, wick, and container. Make a candle or three. I do unscented to get a solid baseline. Figure out the wick for that combo. Then try a fragrance in two or three candles. Cure and Burn one and see if the burn qualities changed. If they don't burn as well, figure out the wick. Retest by burning the candle at the recommended burn times from start to finish. Candles burn at the top very differently than at the mid point and at the bottom third. REpeat for all new scents, colors, containers, etc. Hang onto one for a month or six, then burn it. You sometimes see they burn quite differently over time. Some fragrances i need to wick down. Others need to be wicked up a size or two. I don't give anything away until i am confident it burns properly from start to finish, nothing worse than giving away candles and having them tunnel and flame out. Well, worse would be burning way too hot and sooting, smoking or catching fire. Don't be in a hurry. mastery of chandling takes a long time.

Welcome Poppie! Settle on in with a nice big cup of your favorite beverage and take some time to read through the veggie wax forum here. You will find many recommendations that seem to conflict with the exact same common theme: test test test. Peak Candle (the sponsor of this board) and many other online vendors listed in the suppliers list offer a number of soy options in small quantities along with equipment, excellent fragrance oils and containers. You're super smart to turn to professional grade materials Tin cans may give you extra challenges as you learn the process. The material variances, thermal properties and dimensions are challenging, even for seasoned chandlers. Wood wicks are not the easiest to learn either as they have natural variances in performance. But... As you begin, i heartily encourage you to pick one wax, one container and a small set of fragrances that are easy to get early successes with and have at it. Be prepared to cure your candles for a week, sometimes more, before test burning. Unfortunately chandling is not an over night hobby to income generating venture. If/when you decide to sell your candles, make sure you look into product liability insurance to cover yourself.

I make tiny tester batches in individual silicone molds. 4 oz of raw soap and a couple grams of FO and away we go! I test 18 or so FO At a time this way. Saves me from wasting resources.

It's not very strongly scented. I expected more "something", maple maybe. I hoped blending it may bring that something, but still searching. I won't be buying that one in a bigger size either.

just tried it 2:1 Maple Toddy and WHiskey. Still too much whiskey. Added 1 more hot toddy and 1 vanilla oak. A little tobacco and I think we have something gooood.

The best citrus essential oils (IMHO) are from cold pressed peels. Like Candybee noted, it takes a LOT of peels to make any decent amount of the actual essential oils. You can infuse the peels into vinegar, for instance, for a nice smelling cleaning liquid

Good to see you back around Sister Interesting use of found materials to solve a mold problem. I have resisted making 2" 'pillars' - really thick candle sticks - just because they are a smidge too narrow. I'll give the vent pipe a try and see if the 2 1/4 or 2 1/2" works better. For beeswax (I use it with no parafin) I use metal molds - seamless aluminum and formed unknown metal for most pillars with release spray. Silicone i use for other more intricate designs. Plastics like the clear have been hit or miss for me, mostly because they don't seal easily. THe heat release may be slower with the thick plastic venting, which may help with the overall candle. If you don't mind a flat top, those molds should work great! BWT-Square Braid has no up or down. Square braid has 4 sides - If you look at one side the V will go up. Turn it and the V goes down. Repeat. Two sides go up and two sides go down. What I do to help along an even burn is twist it a few times before pouring the molten beeswax. It will turn slightly as it burns. Though, honestly, even when I've not twisted, the square braids when wicked appropriately burn evenly from top to bottom.

I'm kinda in the same boat Daisymay. Not sure what to think of it - but it needs "something". Maybe it is power of suggestion, but all I smell is soap. I'll make something small and see how people like it before I jump in. But a couple of the other 19 samples I bought keep me opening the bottle for another sniff. This Old House - reminds me of walking through a really old Victorian home where the tapestries, stained wood floors, lingering candle smells all jumble into that smell you can't put your finger tip on. The description did not do it justice Can't wait to warm this and see where it goes. Thinking the Maple Toddy mixed with CS WHiskey is worth a shot.

Shipping is a huge thing, you're right Trap. Chefmom is a potter too. I wonder what coolio things she has made for candles! I'll snap a few photos of bowls shortly. I want to enjoy the beautiful weather a wee bit more today.

Let me carve out a little time between today and class day (Tues) to throw a few things and see if anything comes close to the form you like. The narrowing bottom on the one you uploaded a pic of makes it interesting to wick. We are on week 3 of an 8 week cycle (meaning we don't get to glazing until week 8 so it will be a while before anything "final"). Until i find a kiln of my own i am stuck on a loooong schedule Then, i'd like to send something to you to play with as i test the same on my end. I sure would love a few pieces like that to decorate around my house for Christmas time! A friend who lives in Idaho may like the moose/elk and of course the pine trees and bear. Thanks for some inspiration

Those are beautiful!

I infuse dried, whole hops into my lye water and a very small trace scent comes through. Not sure if hops oil (guessing it is hops infused into oil) would impart a scent or not. Leaning toward not, or nut much, but it is worth a small batch to try.

What a great design idea! Bowls come in so many shapes. Do you have any examples of shapes you like? I've been so focused on stuff that complements my ren line that i forget about other fun stuff

aww thanks. Since that last post i picked up not one, but TWO wheels. My daughter likes to play on her wheel as i work on mine. Last session i played with mugs. Trying to find "my" style and handle fit. Am getting there-finally. Next, our own kiln!I'll post mug shots soon. Will probably fill them with wax and sell as fund raisers this fall. Might as well raise some $ for local charities and get rid of a few extra pieces at the same time