TallTayl

Look up threads about cavitation on this forum. It happens with many waxes. I call them air pockets or cavities. I use soy and don't have the time or space to heat containers, fiddle with pour temps and such, so i pour warmer than most to the full height of the container. Pouring in two stages, like half way then the other half later, won't stop the cavities. Plus if using glass, you may get slight color variations at the pour line and even frosting quicker than in one pour. I have poured at all different temps from hot to slushy to try to prevent air pockets/cavities. Pouring my blend(C3) at or just before slushy still made cavities. So.... For containers I pour to the final height of the candle, let it cool at least until the sides and top are set. Poke several relief holes,focusing on the wick area. Some molten liquid does come up through the holes when i poke if working quickly. I let them set the rest of the way, poke a few more for good measure and pour the finish layer filling the holes and leaving a pretty top. Sometimes, depending on timing and what else is going on, i wait until the first pour is completely set and poke holes then do the second pour.

A tea strainer.

I would pitch it.

Incredible work. Gorgeous!

and a spiral inside one

Here's one I use for my shaving soap photos. The next batch will have thumb handles and brush rests. Trying to decide the shape and size...

Temps are pretty important when making hydrous emulsion. Did you use a thermometer? For instance, your preservative needs to be added at 140*F or below or it may not be effective. Fragrance is usually added toward the end, often with the preservative, but not always. I have never seen recommendations to add during the heat and hold phases. The FO line in the formula of the OP calculates to 1%, which is in line with typical formulas. Make sure to check the IFRA recommendations for the chosen fragrance though to make sure it is appropriate at that level. The comment just above about .15ml added to half a batch is different from .3oz. Point 15ml is about .005 fluid ounces . Make sure you use a good scale for lotion making. Volume measurements for lotion making may lead to very inconsistent products. I find measuring in grams is the most accurate, especially for ingredients like preservatives that have very low usage rates and tight safety tolerances.

When i buy bulk wick assemblies it comes bulk packed like that. They move around inside the carton a lot during shipment. Videos of the machine making them are fascinating. The machine feeds spooled wick through wick tabs, crimps the wick tab neck, cuts the wick and gravity gets the finished assembly into a box. Weighing wicks makes so much sense. If we had to pay the manufacturers to have them hand straightened or hand counted the cost would soon be unaffordable.

I made a few shaving bowls. Scoring the inside ridges is harder than it looks! Deciding on the shape and the handle, oh boy the handle, is tough, lol.

Supposedly as long at the mix was made with clean water etc. , and contains at least 25% alcohol (could be a % or 2 lower but i don't have my reference guide in front of me) it should remain free of typical bacteria, mold and fungi. I would still consider a preservative and a heat and hold of the water before making it. The fragrance should remain in emulsion when dissolved in enough PA. I love PA in room sprays. It takes so little to scent a room since the alcohol helps the fragrance suspend in the air longer than just water.

Thanks for the kind feedback I want my own wheel so badly.

Everything is better with wax in it, lol I love how well the stoneware transfers the candle heat. I can wick down and still end up with a nice burn.

Seems every vessel i make lately ends up filled with wax. He teases me about it every time i throw a lump of clay on the wheel and wet my hands. But, but, but they look so much better filled with wax! Love how the glaze did its magic here When it was time to learn lids i could not get into the lesson until i thought of something that i really wanted to do: cauldrons to hold my Faire inspired Witches Brew blend of mostly base notes.

And CP is a different animal. Plus, benzoin is a sensitizer with IFRA restrictions to worry about.

Could you dupe what you have infused into the finished blend?

I would make the recipe you came up with and see what YOU think. Every single soap maker has their own preferences. Not many people love the same things.... I tend to take the numbers on soapcalc and other calculators with a grain of salt. Kind of entertaining, but not the whole picture. You have a lot going on, so have your colorants, fragrance, molds, etc. all set and ready to roll quickly in case things speed up on you. We all go through the same bell curve when learning. We start with an available formula, then start on our own journey throwing everything in the pot in search of the best recipe, then as we learn we settle on something uniquely awesome to us. Keep your batch sizes on the smaller side so you can experiment a lot without having mountains of soap to deal with.

That is a very dicey thing to tread. The "implied use" makes it a drug regardless of the wording. Whether it actually works to prevent infection or disease becomes the issue. It has not been tested by the FDA, so the use as a bug repellant classes it is an untested drug. You could "try" to skirt it by calling it something like camper cologne to imply a scent campers like without implying any repellant properties. I sure would not want to be the one who was responsible if someone uses it thinking it is effective against insect borne disease... :-/ how, how often and how much is applied can all effect the outcome.... :-/

With a few weeks under your belt, you're on to a good start. My biggest suggestion is to cut that fragrance load. 6-8% should be more than enough when you have the rest tweaked. You will find that not one single wick brand or size works for all combinations of fragrance. First get the candle burning well and properly with no additives. Tins are a little challenging because of how they conduct heat, plus the short height does not get to create current til the very end. By the end those containers can get scorching hot. Then try a fragrance and dial that in. Then start playing with color. Every little change can have a very big effect. Then let those candles cure for a week, sometimes two, before lighting. 464 needs a fair amount of cure time to throw to its best. I started many moons ago with CS recommendations. Took months to test and realized i just did not care for that soy, container or wick combo. The final piece of advice is to give yourself plenty of time. A candle that appears ok today changes over the coming weeks or months, especially soy wax. Don't skimp on the testing. Chandlery is not a week long craft to master. Good luck to you! Once you "get it" candle making is totally fun and rewarding.

The reason for orange is also because i have 5x, 10x, and decolorized. I have some 5x grapefruit, but since it's so spendy and near to impossible to replace I am resistant, lol. I'll be doing 1 lb of each test so i can put sample collections together, and will need quite a bit of EO.Maybe round 2 could be straight up single distill grapefruit? Once lemon comes back out of the stratosphere I may look at that one too.

Lime seems to be the exception to the citrus fade rules. Everyone has a tried-and-true method for "anchoring". I have never found any of them to work. The most popular is litsea. All i ever smell when i add litsea, in any amount, is litsea. I really need to get that "anchoring" mythbusting experiment done. This could be the kick in the pants to just do it. I plan to do the experiment using Orange EO, since it is readily available and reasonably priced. If any of the tricks used in experiments work with orange, they "should" in theory work on any citrus i would think.

They are notorious faders, even if you can get them folded. Best rec, get a really good FO. Most FO of those also fade, usually quickly. ETA - WRT "anchoring" with litsea, etc. All I have ever smelled when "anchoring" is the litsea itself. Unless the other volatile essences are for label appeal, I don't waste the $.

Binder clips should hold the sides together.

I use 40 oz of oil in my 2.5x11 inch molds. Bars are roughly 3.25 tall, but i peak them, so they get to 3.5 inches as the tallest using a steep water discount. They finish cure at about 4.5+.oz I plan for 3.6 oz of oil per bar. On your 12 inch mold, i would use 44 oz, personally.

On the edge of my seat waiting to see how it unmolds!!!

The ROI on them is instant, so yeah, totally worth it!