TallTayl

I have been following along the FB group. Her business was based on fragrance dupes and recently started expanding to colorants, etc. Someone sends in an ounce of FO, she has it duped and sells it. The videos and photos on that site show it very soon after cutting. Many discolor more over time, but are not updated to show that. Make sure you request IFRA certificates before purchasing FO intended for skin use. Some, like You Snap The Whip, ended up with very, very low (less than 0.5%) usage rates for soap and other skin use. Someone above wrote that it is too soon to have feedback. That is true. While they may soap easily, there is little to no feedback about fading.

I don't refrigerate mine either.

Hard wax i drop on a concrete floor woth force. Soft wax i use a wire to pull through.

Sometimes the best answer is another question... I usually ask, "What do you mean?" Then the right reply for the situation is made a little simpler to choose.

This is a difficult question to answer. Generally, when people ask me if it is lye soap, they want to know if the soap is free of detergents/surfactants. Sometimes the answer they seek is more nostalgic, as in, "is this the old fashioned lard soap like grandma used to make?" SFIC and other melt and pour bases do contain some "soap". What separates them from what was coined "natural" soap is that they also contain ingredients (like surfactants/detergents, added glycerin, glycols, sometimes alcohols and other chemical additives) to allow them to melt repeatedly with heat, then resolidify.

Lanolin is a lipid, treated like oils and butters. it has a "required" HLB of 10, meaning you need to use the right blend of emulsifier to balance the formula and keep the lanolin in suspension within a hydrous emulsion. http://www.theherbarie.com/files/resource-center/formulating/Required_HLB_for_Oils_and_Lipids.pdf

The high oleic version is slightly less prone to DOS.

You can do the same using an emulsifier, like polysorbate-20. Even alcohol as >20% of the total blend will emulsify the fragrance and help preserve the blend.

Keep on plugging along and master that wax! Testing takes time. There's just no way to short cut it. Burning that same candle different ways over time will be enlightening. Postage to ship a great, finished, tested candle is cheap compared to possibly leaving a bad impression with one that burns poorly. What's the saying? You have one chance to make a first impression. Might as well make it a good one =)

i poke a pin size hole in the silicone and just send the wick through - no pin.

Love love love all of those Chefmom!

Gorgeous is right! The instructor knows the shrink rate, but i cannot picture in my head what 12% shrinkage will feel or look like without first seeing it, kwim? How much bigger do i need to throw the bowl/vase/mug to get what size i think i want for the end. Some were fired on Saturday, i guess i will have my answer tomorrow if i can make it in. Two of my bowls were busts. One cracked the whole way through the bottom while drying. Too thin, booo. The other i poked a hole through after trimming. Double boo.

Primal Elements manages a pretty brisk M&P business.

Chefmom, i would love to see pics of your work. There's something about pottery that has always drawn me to it. It's fascinating!

I can see how this is addictive. Trying to take a very conservative walk on this new path. Typically i dive in never caring how deep the water is. I can see a wheel and kiln in my studio, but am standing on the brake to not let them in right away. I think i freaked out the teach a little when i walked into the first class with a (short) list of specific goals. The list is kind of following along with his lesson plans. I wish i could move the pace along just a weeeee bit to get through first firing and see just how much this clay shrinks! Patience is being tested i tell ya! Do you have your own kiln chefmom? Have always wanted one, even if it is just enough for glazing and maybe some glass slumping. My inner magpie loves shiny things.

I have some, shared by a friend who has tried it. She "thinks" is adds "something". It is in the currently running "lather lover's swap round 2" elsewhere. I will upload the videos of the sink tests to my youtube channel along with the first round so you can see if it does anything visibly to the lather quality.

How recent is the IFRA certificate? The Fo could have been reformulated since the last cert was posted. Or the IFRA guidelines could have changed since the last cert. Best to ask. If it was not skin safe because of performance in CP then an awful lot of common retail FO's would be delisted pretty quickly.

Class has not gotten that far yet. Supposedly they will be glazed during the last class which is the last week of Feb. so in 8 weeks i should be through the entire process for several forms. I so want to throw some tumblers for candles!

The "all oil is bad" argument is so hypocritical. A big thing going around for DIYers is crayons into lipstick. The argument they use is that the crayons are nontoxic, so ergo they must be safe for lips. Crayons are made from paraffin. Do soy candle evangelists deny their little ones a box of coloring crayons? Probably not IME. And the whole "other things are made from crude, so they are all bad" is a farce too. Water is in lots of things. Not all water is good. That does not mean all water is bad. Plenty of oil based products are fully refined, inert and proven safe. Plenty of poorly made candles of all waxes leave soot. As said above a poorly made candle will burn poorly, i don't care what wax is used. Those marketing statements above are just another straw man argument.....

Have you tried a fruit zester? You can make scented and colored blobs of your wax that will end up as small sprinkles in a short amount of time . I use the zester tool on soap to make tiny confetti.

Either EO or FO would work. The product contains oils with just enough surfactant/emulsifier to make the oils distribute in the bottle and still float/spread over the surface of the water of the "throne" to trap the odor. You could make something similar without water. A dropper bottle with fragrance and surfactant/emulsifier

Tks for the kind words of support i love seeing everyone's creative outlets so much.

Looking forward to making shaving bowls next week (if i can sneak one or two into the program)

This week we worked on traditional types of bowls. Thank goodness trimming gets rid of the mess i left on the bottoms, eek!

Organza, muslin, burlap or other fabrics work great for car freshener holders. I hang one from the directional post or the gear shift on a column type so it's near an air vent.The salts have never broken down ever IME.