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Follow the US DOT requirements as posted in secrions 3A and 3B on the USPS web site. http://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52apxc_011.htm http://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52apxc_012.htm Know your terms when you go in. Combustable and flammable are different. Print out the pages in the above links too. Combustible has a flash point over 141, but below 200*F. Those must go ground ORM-D. Some flammable liquids (FP under 100), not all, can also go ORM-D. Items with flash points OVER 200*F can go priority. In all cases, Tape caps extremely well, wrap in cushion and enclose all liquids in a waterproof bag. Follow the bottle size limits in the links above. Use as much dunnage as possible to absorb and contain potential leaks.

Good timing, as i am on a renewed strawberry search myself for soap and candles. I remember strawberries and champagne from MMS was nice last time i used it (3-4 years ago in cp). About to order strawberry from sweetcakes after hearing it is one of the best and most authentic. Can't wait to hear your opinions on the ones you choose to try.

Vicky beat me to it. 1mil minimum generally. Check with the events and locations you plan to sell at. Many of them will tell you exactly what they require.

Scented salt. Does not matter the grain size (table, sea, solar...) can be colored with dyes or micas. And is very eco friendly. And, since salt has such a high flash point, salt can be warmed on wax melters of any type.

Well, for soap, you can buy a liquid soap base, like from Brambleberry, and dilute it. Or you can make liquid soap yourself and dilute it. For surfactant body wash, TheHerbarie, Lotioncrafter and several other retailers carry liquid and solid surfactants and have formularies that give decent recipes. SwiftCraftyMonkey.blogspot.com also has loads of recipes and suggestions.

The photo looks like the soy wax is frosting. Caused by many things, like temperature when pouring, cooling, storing, etc. tons of info about frosting in the veg wax forum.

Are you looking for a soap based wash, or surfactant (syndet)? Depending on what you are looking for i have different suggestions.

PET seems to be the least reactive with most fragrance oils and some essential oils. HDPE often gets that "sucked in" look which shows the fragrance is reacting with the material.

Not every wick of the same name is the same from all suppliers. To me, that looks a little too hot in the pics.

That reads like a typical Nigerian scam. Since you replied, expect even more of those types of emails to come your way.

Butters high in stearic acid (mango, shea, cocoa butter, kokum, etc.) can all go grainy in solid lotions. Even if initially smooth, they can end up grainy over time (even if the butters are tempered). You can get around that using things like Caprylic/Capric/Stearic Glycerides (butter-ez) and/or cera bellina (polyglyceryl beeswax).

Plenty of reputable suppliers sell reasonably priced, great quality, uncut essential oils. As old glory noted, essential oils will not be exactly the same from batch to batch due to many things, like weather, soil, plant, etc. i think of eo's like wine: Some seasons are better than others, but all are pretty darned good. The suppliers section on this board lists quite a few options.

The container material (glass versus tin) and depth both make huge differences in how a cintainer candle will burn.

what fragrance % are you using?

I think you will notice a difference in CT if you do. To test, try a piece of press and seal over the top. Let it sit for a few days, then give it a sniff.

are the tops of the candles covered... are the containers closed up, like apothecary jar with a cover, or a tin with a cover... or a plastic dust cover on status jars...

are you curing your candles with open tops? and, as others have written, not every FO works well in soy. It takes time to find those that truly kick butt, but when you do, they are spectacular.

Generally speaking, anhydrous (no water) products do not require a preservative. Antioxidants, like ROE and Vitamin E will help keep the oils from oxidising as quickly as without. Now, if you are making a product that may come into regular contact with water, like sugar scrub, a preservative is recommended. The foaming bath butter bases i have looked at do contain water in the process to make them from powdered surfactants. Adding an oil "shouldn't" require additional preservative, but i would check with the manufacturer to be certain. Adding more water, hydrosol, teas, etc. may challenge the preservative more, so definitely check with the manufacturer if you plan to add those. Phenoxyethanol a preservative in your post above. EDTA is a chelator. For more info on your journey with new products, do check SwiftCraftyMonkey.blogspot.com for loads of great info to get you going.

Generally speaking, anhydrous (no water) products do not require a preservative. Antioxidants, like ROE and Vitamin E will help keep the oils from oxidising as quickly as without. Now, if you are making a product that may come into regular contact with water, like sugar scrub, a preservative is recommended. The foaming bath butter bases i have looked at do contain water in the process to make them from powdered surfactants. Adding an oil "shouldn't" require additional preservative, but i would check with the manufacturer to be certain. Adding more water, hydrosol, teas, etc. may challenge the preservative more, so definitely check with the manufacturer if you plan to add those. Phenoxyethanol a preservative in your post above. EDTA is a chelator. For more info on your journey with new products, do check SwiftCraftyMonkey.blogspot.com for loads of great info to get you going.

Blend a bunch of similar scents for some super awesome unique candles.

There's a sweet spot range with candle systems where the wick is just hot enough to combust the wax and fragrance without being too hot or too cold, if that makes sense. Hotter is not always better. I do not use wood wicks, so i cannot offer anything on those. If you want to know if your wick is impeding HT, you can just melt a piece of your candle in a wax melter. If you have great HT, then your issue is with your choice of wick.

I never blend anything with BW for a pillar. From what you wrote, there's a problem with the blend, or the wicking, or the wax itself. What are you trying to accomplish with the addition of coconut oil?

Welcome! I am a C3 user. The cure time depends totally on the fragrance IME. Some candles i get blow me away HT in 24 hours or less. Some take longer. I use 6% max, sometimes less. More FO does not necessarily mean better HT. depends on your wick, container, techniques, etc. i found that too much FO can change how the wick performs and actually end up with less HT.

Superfat is just extra oil left in the finished soap once the lye is all used up. Superfat can make the soap less "cleansing feeling" or less "drying feeling". Depending on how the recipe you are following is written, it can be: A) extra oil added at trace. Truth be told, no matter when you add the oils to cold process the lye will use what it needs, so might as well add it at the start. When you change the size of the batch this amount becomes challenging to calculate. Or a reduction in the total amount of lye used. This is the easiest IMO. All oils are in the pot, so no accidentally forgetting a special one added at the end. Your oils remain the same in your recipe. The amount of lye used changes the superfat level of the finished soap. The lower the lye amount the higher the superfat (extra oils left after all the lye is used up). Example... Let's say you are making a 16 ounce/453.95 gram batch of Olive Oil only soap. 5% superfat would require 2.059 ounces/58.37 grams of lye using soapcalc.net. 6% superfat requires 2.038 ounces/57.76 grams of lye 7% superfat requires 2.016 ounces /57.14 grams of lye 8% superfat requires 1.994 ounces / 56.5 grams of lye Etc. Notice the amount of oil remains constant. Hope this helps.

When you see a show advertised contact them directly and find when the application period is open. Many close application time months in advance of the event, and many great oncpes have a waiting list, so get your application in early. As you ramp up for opening sales to the public through craft shows or consignment, check into your state and local requirements for registering the business, insurance req's, etc. Shows where i live (IL and WI) have begun to require tax info and copies is insurance certificates before acception applications. As for labeling, i would do a quick search on this board. have never heard of a requirement to list wax and wick type or dating, but weight and warnings yes.