TallTayl

... Never mind... .

Those melt pools are too deep much too quickly. By the time that reaches the bottom you will have some scorching hot glass. Do you have any photos to post so we can help you figure out what is going on?

Nolded, underlined, italics part.... One inch deep melt pool in one hour of burning? Waaaaaay too hot. Dial that back to one wick. By the time that reaches the bottom half of the candle you will have some major heat issues.

Too much wickToo much fragrance Too much color Any combo of the above. That 12 oz status jar is only a smidge over 3 inches in diameter. Not really a double wicker IMO. I am a little confused about your double wick... When you say double wicked, did you put 2 of the wicks recommended for a single wicked container? I mean, if the wick guide stated (made up)size XYZ12, did you put 2 XYZ12 or two XYZ6 that could be half the size?

Even the hand sanitizer gel is considered a drug as it is intended to kill bacteria. Commercial brands have been lab tested to assure the bacteria are, indeed, being killed as promised on the label. Several retailers sell the base that you can scent though. Edited to add an example: https://www.elementsbathandbody.com/Hand-Sanitizer-Gel-Base.html Most sanitizer gels are just alcohol at a specific % defined by the FDA, thickened with a gelling agent like a polymer or carbomer (not unlike Sterno). The alcohol content can easily class them as HAZMAT, so be very, very careful if you plan to ship them.

Sure! The mushroom results from incomplete combustion. As you get lower in the jar the burning conditions change (air convection, temperatures, etc). The extra heat "can" help with those harder-to-fully-combust components.

First, what BBW sells in the liquid form is not soap. It is a syndet (synthetic detergent, surfactant). The stuff in that bottle compared to liquid soap is apples to oranges. Soap, true soap, is naturally antibacterial with a pH in the 9-10 range. Liquid soap is made with KOH versus bar soap made with NaOH. Cream soap is a combo of both that is a whippable paste. BUT washing with either syndet or true soap in warm/hot water for long enough will accomplish the same thing: mechanically remove bacteria and such from skin. We tend to over use anti bacterial additives in cleansers, don't we? Just washing hands often enough would do the job without helping to create superbugs. In any event, i would not make any product labeled specifically as "anti-bacterial". Specific words like that are an invitation to the FDA for a site inspection and C&D since it crosses the line into a drug. A soap maker friend was the lucky recipient of a surprise visit from the FDA a couple months ago just because a couple soap scents on her web site contained words like "smells medicinal" and "anti".

Those threads saved me a LOT of time dialing in the wicks for palm!

Have you tried twisting the wick that is slightly too small? Sometimes i can get that half size that way.

The NG one smells like spiced gumdrops. I never found one, so i ended up blending one of my own for the absinthe lovers in my crowd. The main notes in real absinthe are wormwood, sugar and fennel/anise. A burning element could be added to represent the way it is sometimes presented (over a sugar cube burned on a silver spoon).

Same as Chris here. If properly stored, good quality fragrances will last for quite a while.

Have tou ever tried lecithin for hard to work with fragrances? I add a bit to my FO before adding it to the soap and usually it gives me plenty of time to work.

Are your new molds urethane rubber? Those stick sometimes on me too. I Get them as clean as possible, then spray lots of silicone release spray. Once they are primed up with release spray i can get several tapers out cleanly before needing to spray again. Seems the pour temp recommended is awfully high. My beeswax gets to maybe 150-160 tops. If poured too hot i find they don't release very well. I don't let them get completely cold or they do stick more in my urethane molds.

Here's a recent IFRA cert for cinnamon leaf: http://www.crafters-choice.com/PDFs/ProductDocs/IFRA451CinnamonLeafEO.pdf .5% is really really little... .005 is the multiplier. Looking for cinnamon bark....

I wish they posted IFRA certs skin safe does not mean at all levels. NG had a cinnamon that was listed as skin safe, but at ridiculously low levels in soap, like .05%. Wave it over the soap pot and you're at the limit.

Tks. Has anyone tried it next to the original?

Did I read Earthen Oak is being worked on???? Rhonda had said that it was French Vanilla Oak. I found a couple that were very close (NG and AH/RE), just not nose hair burning strong like the one from MW. I need the MW one for a signature blend.

Will say that even though you can smell through the perforated wrap, it is not usually really knock your socks off. My in-person faire soap sales fell when i shrink wrapped, and returned better than ever when i stopped shrink wrapping. I changed to tight fitting glassine bags for my in person events. The trade off was inclement weather. Shrinky dinked soap outlasts all other wrapping. Glassine was a mess in humidity. I ended up re-bagging quite a lot of soap when our humidity rose to the 90% range this summer. WS customers ask for shrink because it keeps the product looking pristine in retail shops. What i love the system for is prepping WS orders! I shrink the items "bulk style" (like 25 lip balm tubes in a bundle) and boxes of serum bottles. It really protects the products and makes quality control on both ends a snap.

I use small glassine bags, then wrap a paper cigar band that coordinates with the other scented products i carry around the whole thing. For different box sizes i have had luck with places like YourBoxSolution.com and the stock box program at Colbert packaging https://store.colbertpkg.com/DSF/storefront.aspx?BzYVUpXe9LF5VsBsGSRYxTqeVkGFVx6ueIEWCEaXH5pf1a31QE+HCh8psTcezm7jP6R+4ovF864xk7IHxQxVTpfc9kGhSRGwnwAiaEx89PurnkkYGZQo8w==

"Coconut based cleansers" is not even remotely an accurate way to label.... Nearly every surfactant (including SLS, SLeS, SLSA, SCI, cocobetaine, etc. -anything with lauryl in the INCI name) is a coconut based surfactant... Not all are "harsh" or stripping or any other bad word people associate with "bad" shampoos. What that label suggests to me is they use SLS and/or SLeS and are afraid to write that on the label since people associate it with harsh. Yet people love how "gentle" Dawn is. Strange, isn't it? Every commercial shampoo in our local stores contains SLS. Other proteins, conditioners, etc. help reduce potential irritancy of the cleanser, if that makes sense. Personally, i like SCI the best combined with disodium cocoamphodiacetate for humans and pets. The combo works very well on my animals from horses to chickens to dogs. They are hard to find and can come with a steep learning curve. The Herbarie carries a lot of gentle cleansers and proteins. The chemistry connection sells some nice surfactants too. Or, just buy a commercial one, dilute it very well and call it a day

CP soap is rough on dog fur and skin. pH aside, The superfat in soap contributes to residue that sticks to the hair and skin making it really difficult to completely rinse. What often ends up happening if it is not completely, thoroughly rinsed is the dog gets dirty wiicker and smells misty, not to mention s/he gets very itchy. A very dilute, gentle surfactant, like DLS mild liquid or baby blend from some place like the herbarie, will do the job very well. You don't need much to wash a dog, especially since it needs to be rinsed so well. A teaspoon in a gallon of water is all it takes. There is merit to the Dawn (minus the vinegar which serves so little purpose in this case). Dawn is SLS and SLeS with water and thickener. A drop of dawn in a gallon of water will gently clean without leaving residue. Most people just use way too much.

IMO, cedar mellows once it is in something (cp soap or wax). The patch may become more noticeable then. I would make a small something. Then decide.

You can go in pretty much any direction with that. Orange, fir, pine, vanilla....

I don't care for one second what wally world offers. Their customers are not my customers.

Dunno But how hard with the tubes. Supposedly they work along with a traditional wick (inside the tube). Winter is supposed to be long in my neck of the boonies, so lots of time to play.