TallTayl

Just make it as-is and learn from it. No big deal. There are no rules about castor. Some like it, some don't. Some like it at high %.

I love Mann Lake molds! Some of my favorite workhorses came from there.

(Cross post from welcome thread) Hi and welcome. The only thing from your list that you need to make soap is the sodium hydroxide. The others are not required to make a very nice soap. Benzoin can be a skin sensitizer and is not often used in soap these days. Sodium lactate can be a hardener, but a few extra days in the mold, depending on your soap recipe and technique, will eliminate the need for that. Stearic acid is sometimes used to harden a soap that calls for very soft oils. More oils with naturally occuring stearic, like palm, tallow, lard, etc. will eliminate the need for an extra ingredient. For local sodium hydroxide try hardware stores like Ace for instance, asking for Rooto brand or Roebic. Both are 100% lye/sodium hydroxide and make a very nice soap. Online sources ike AaaChemical, EssentialDepot, TheLyeGuy among others have lye for internet purchase. Good luck!

Hi and welcome. The only thing from your list that you need to make soap is the sodium hydroxide. The others are not required to make a very nice soap. Benzoin can be a skin sensitizer and is not often used in soap these days. Sodium lactate can be a hardener, but a few extra days in the mold, depending on your soap recipe and technique, will eliminate the need for that. Stearic acid is sometimes used to harden a soap that calls for very soft oils. More oils with naturally occuring stearic, like palm, tallow, lard, etc. will eliminate the need for an extra ingredient. For local sodium hydroxide try hardware stores like Ace for instance, asking for Rooto brand or Roebic. Both are 100% lye/sodium hydroxide and make a very nice soap. Online sources ike AaaChemical, EssentialDepot, TheLyeGuy among others have lye for internet purchase. Good luck!

Mine lasted less than a year before flaking. To be fair, i make things with a fair amount of sodium which is kryptonite to teflon. So now it is used as a hot water bath vessel.

To start a co-op i would do a gauging interest thread to see if there's enough to make the minimums. Then, I'd contact her to figure out the minimums of those popular oils. Some are 16 lbs, some are $400 minimum. Not sure if she wants to do the bottling, or if she would prefer a co-op host to do the legwork. It 's an open detail to work out. I don't mind hosting if there's enough interest and the total costs of oils and freight come out favorable. Want to start a GI thread?

I think it was Cold Process Soapermakers or Soapers Retreat, but will need to search in a little bit. FB groups are not that easy to search sometimes. I have maybe 8 oz of Saffron and Spice if you need it.

Try cutting one bar. If it's too soft, wait til tomorrow. You will learn your soap's needs as you go. Every recipe is different.

She is open to co-ops. Many have just 16 lb minimums, so if there's enough call you can still have a full line of tested, proven winners. I have interest in 6 lbs of celestial seas. 10 more and we're there. Other forums and facebook groups are looking to co-op too.

Don't do Western Union. It is not insured like a cc transaction.

Awww, it's nothing personal. The number of scents to carry will vary from maker to maker. If that seems like the right number to you, and you can keep up with production for all of them, then it sounds great.

Are you hot processing? I CP using the heat of the lye solution to melt the hard oils, so i don't notice any change at all.

I aim to master bw blends in tins Chris. The issue i'm always bumping into is that the tin height too short relative to the width... There' not enough height to get the heat circulating enough to burn right and consume the wax without practically over wicking and getting those tins super hot. I have purchased "pure beeswax" tins from famous makers to see the magic, and honestly was kinda underwhelmed. Resorting next to multi wicking

Tam1116, must be location based. Shipping on 4 lbs from them to me yesterday was only about $12. I got that same shipping sticker shock trying to order from PureFragranceOils.com at $9 a lb to ship. Eek. Before giving up the ghost i should probably give them a call and see if we have options.

I have to blend the beeswax with something like palm kernal oil to lower the MP. Most of the melters I have seen are geared for the 120-ish *F range.

I see all kinds of things on places like Etsy that are all kinds of unsafe. Pure Beeswax in glass containers is just one of oh so many. I have been experimenting with blends, and even at 50:50 beeswax:container soy the wax is just too hard, and requires a very hot wick to keep from tunnelling. Beeswax makes some darned fine pillars though. Mine burn similarly to palm candles, down and then out, consuming all of the wax safely and with a beautiful glow.

I agree with you! The beekeeping operations around me in the Midwest scrape the cappings, then spin their wax out of the filled supers. The foundation (plastic or wax) with the comb are returned to the hives for the bees to refill.

How deep should the pool of liquid wax be (roughly) in a beeswax container candle before the candle is put out and left to solidify before burning again? Beeswax is not suitable for glass containers. The heat required to obtain a full melt pool in beeswax would require a very large wick and would generate far too much heat to be safe in glass. The melt point of beeswax is in the neighborhood of 146*F. Do people recommend doing two pours for beeswax container candles? (I have tried but because beeswax shrinks so much it often results in wax from the second pour dripping down the side of the first pour in places, giving a blotchy appearance that I'm not so keen on). Beeswax forms caverns inside the candle around the wick. Those need to be prepared for (relief holes) and filled properly to prevent flares. Is it possible to get 100% pure beeswax to adhere to the side of glass containers without using any sort of chemicals? (I've tried heating the container before pouting but the wax always shrinks away from the sides). No. The shrinkage is normal and will never behave as a container wax designed for containers will without loads of additives, making it not a pure beeswax candle.

I've been using many of their oils in soap, b&b and candles (bee and soy) for the past 6 years or so. Some are among the best sellers and best in class (Hello Lemon Verbena!) quick shipment, reasonable prices and a wide assortment keep me coming back. They make my short list of supplioers for sure.

I get the tins with the center marked from Candlescience. On the unmarked ones, id probably cut a little template that fits inside the tin out of mylar, paper, cardboard or something with a hole in the center big enough for the wick tab to slip through.

Are you asking about essential oil or fragrance oil? Patchouli essential oil smells different from batch to batch, year to year. As it ages, it gets thick, syrupy and smoother. Fresh patch eo is not all that great. The only patch FO i have liked is from Moonworks. It is the closest to the real thing and priced similarly to the eo.

There is no way i can think of to make organic soy wax, the commercial oil is extracted using hexane. It's not like you can squeeze a soy bean and make oil drip out all clean in any great quantity sufficient for main stream consumption. Then hydrogenation is another non-natural process. I live in the Midwest where GMO soy beans are grown as far as the eye can see. Not one acre is even grown as organic. Those would be smaller, specialty operations. Like you and ChrisR, i make beeswax candles using cotton wick. IMO the goal is not to make the impossible all organic beeswax candle, it is to make the best quality beeswax candle possible using minimally processed ingredients. Don't hate me when i tell you i color and scent many. Plain, inscented beeswax candles had no appeal in my market. As soon as i added scent and color sales improved dramatically. It's a shame beeswax candles do not command the prices to reflect how expensive and time consuming they are to make. They burn far longer than any other wax i use, making them extraorgpdinarily economical. They are a labor of love for me, and a way to keep nostalgic products available.

The MSDS does not detail safe usage rate limits, it just tells how to ship, store and clean spills... Maybe if enough people begin to demand IFRA certs for body safe things they will provide that necessary information. I cannot count how many times i have checked an IFRA and found ithe FO or EO had extremely low safe usage rates for various body applications, like lotion, deodorant, and yes, even soap.

Oldglory, is that the infamous SheaLoe? So many of the novelty "butters" are like that. Having INCI available for ingredients, including wax, is pretty useful.

I wish they would provide IfRA certs for the body safe ones too. I have requested and was denied several times. We have to take it upon ourselves to be certain it is safe for all body applications at usual levels. I hate to assume like that. I do love many of their scents though!!