TallTayl

Many of them are bath and body safe to reasonable levels. This rep is good about sending IFRA. The black raspberry vanilla, for instance, is soap safe up to 42%. IFRA categories described: https://cosmeticobs.com/en/articles/cosmetics-glossary-5/ifra-969

I am crossing fingers and toes we find some shining stars to share.

round 2 is on the way. Some sound really interesting! TANGERINE GINGER MANDARIN + MYRRH DOWN TO EARTH RAINBOW MOSS SUGAR BEETS SANTAL AMBER SUN-RIPENED BLACKBERRY CLEMENTINE CORIANDER STRAWBERRY VINE PURPLE CARROT & SAGE STRAWBERRY RHUBARB JAM ARTICHOKE & KALE GARDEN HERBS FRESH CUT STEMS BLUE HYACINTH

I think you’ve concluded already that the black smoke sizes are just too large. The wick cannot consume the fuel being pumped through it. You’re using two entirely different waxes in your candles. Each wax likely requires a completely different wick size and series. Pillar blend is designed to leave a shell on free standing pillar candles. trying for a full melt pool in a pillar candle is counter to what the wax is made for. It is made to burn down then out, slowly melting the shell further down in the candle. If you wick for full melt pool in the top of the pillar blend in the candle you’re likely going to be in trouble when that wick reaches the container blend lower in the candle. 464 is a container blend designed to turn to a mush/slush as it burns within a container. It is designed to reach a wider pool than pillar blend. the middle area where the 464 and pillar blend meet will produce a different challenge as those two different waxes blend for a time. The two will compete to burn and might not burn as expected. You may need to test new wick series to find one that might be able to handle the wide differences in requirements. Bleached square cotton wick is fairly generous with waxes. Premier 700 series may handle the challenges. ECO might work. CD series has a fairly narrow set of waxes it performs optimally in. According to candlescience’s wick guide, LX is the first choice for pillar blend, but not recommended for 464.

Tempted to do a happy dance, but don’t want to jinx myself. Black raspberry vanilla is B&B safe… Im going to make a soap sample to see if it smells as good in soap as it does in the tester candle. And if it smells better than Crafters Choice version. Cross your fingers!!!

Amen to that. it seems the definition of “tunneling” is different from person to person. tunneling, to me, means hang up that will never melt. Like the candle leaves an easily measurable even shell of wax from top to bottom. The shell is like a hurricane lamp candle. You could pop a new candle right down the middle of a tunnel. “hang up” eventually clears as the candle burns safely from top to bottom. If I had to measure, I’d say less than 1/8”- 1/4” thick and shrinks in height as the candle burns. The wax from the walls of the hangup slowly weeps down the glass exposing fresh scent to the flame with each minute. This type of burn leaves the glass well within the temp safety standards, and doesn’t “burn out” the fragrance like a full, hot melt pool does. The candle smells as fresh on the last burn as it does on the first. While researching wick manufacturer technical documents I realized that their melt pool dimensions, flame height and rate of consumption rarely (IMO never) intend for full melt pools. High end Candles I’ve loved to burn for decades never reached full melt pool. The wax gently melts from the sides into the pool. Hang up slides down the glass during a burn leaving a squeaky clean container by the end without ever hitting a full pool. Those candles never produce soot during the longest power burns. They are light and forget types without worry of a candle causing a fire from being over wicked.

For this type of project, we would likely co-op the buy. Meaning, I buy the 25 lb (or more) kegs and bottle it for members who want to split with me. I’ve held several fragrance co-ops for this forum and others in the past spreading hundreds of pounds of fragrance joy to the world. I don’t want to be a retailer, but co-ops make my world go round.

The shrinking flame is possibly due to: - fragrance (or color) clogging the wick - undersized wicks… (or wrong wick series altogether). the increased temp in the lower half of the burn generates more heat, melts more fuel and pumps that fuel harder through the wick. If the wick is undersized for the viscosity of the wax it can just not move the fuel faster than the flame eats with wick material. -the solvents in your fragrance Super frustrating when a candle is perfect at the top and fizzles further down. It’s why testing all the way to the bottom saves heartache and embarrassment later on when it happens at a customer’s place. CDN are CD series wick treated with a second sodium chemical bath to help them withstand more acidic veg. They can be great in certain blends, like coconut primary blends but less good IMO in soy primary blends.

made quick 100 gram testers of the top 4 last week. coco83:sp487 70:30 premier 740 wick 9oz glass jar, standard type. Straight sides. 8% FO load Black Raspberry Vanilla Strawberry jam 1 strawberry jam 2 Pinion pine I lit the black raspberry vanilla in coconut/palm wax last night. fragrance notes: I don’t smell vanilla in this one, just the tart black berries. Perfect! This is my all time favorite scent profile for fruit. It will blend well with other notes meaning the options are wide open for varietals. I’m aiming for a blackberry jam eventually. ct was nice and tart. Clean. 10/10 ht was quick and clean. 9/10. Could likely use a wick up as I went really conservative with premier 740. The scent wafts through my open living room, dining room and through kitchen. Not overpowering (I can’t taste it in the air) but definitely pleasant and inviting. BRV is on of my favorite fragrances in bath products. I’ve never been able to smell it in any candle wax while burning before. This candle is a treat. It’s always a popular scent in other products, so excited that I can now possibly offer it in a candle I can be proud to sell. will need to test in soy next. The lab only scent 1oz, so I’m being as thrifty as I can with it. awaiting IFRA. I was told that some of these samples may be B&B safe and worth testing out. Woooooohoooo!

@AudraT fragrances make a HUGE difference, don’t they? The solvents used can dramatically change a burn in the same wax, and between different waxes. This is one of the reasons I’ve begun to work more closely with the fragrance labs we use for our own candles.

so happy you’re giving so much thought to candle safety. Makes my heart happy! You’re first and foremost looking for any potential for the candle to cause harm to the person burning it. I have forgotten that candles were burning in my home, as have every other member in the household. My stomach turns at the thought of causing someone harm from one of my own candles. lean into the ASTM standards as you observe your candles. there are many posts and videos about ASTM standards on the forum. I’ve been meaning to collect them into one page to compare. soy waxes are a troublesome bunch. The way they melt makes perfection in candles a moving target. Does the flame grow the longer the candle burns. does the flame flare periodically during a burn? does the flame flicker and sputter excessively with no drafts? does the candle produce excess soot? does the wick begin to lean over toward the container walls as the wax softens? Many flat, coreless wicks cannot support themselves in softened wax, and lean over which can cause glass failures. As melt pools deepen, look also at the wax below the clear pool. Soy and soy blend waxes turn to thick sludge before fully melting, meaning a pool can go from “perfect” to complete clear liquid seemingly almost in a second. forum masterminds, please weigh in on your own observations as you test candles intended for others to burn.

I think I just found a good Rocky Mountain Christmas twin! It’s direct from our own lab, so if it works well, we won’t be held hostage by a retailer for it any more. I put it in wax just a few minutes ago and will report back in a few days when i light it. Out of bottle they smell identical to me.

Oh happy day! A lovely package just arrived. It was nice to have a scent break from yard work and house projects in preparation for graduation house guests and party. My First impression Our of Bottle (OOB) thoughts: 1) Black raspberry vanilla. Super exciting. It’s tart and sharp. I am crossing fingers and toes that it works well in my waxes as it will make lots of people VERY happy. 2) strawberry Jam #1. Warm and sweet. Super excited about this one too. Should blend well with tart rhubarb in a blend! 3) strawberry jam 2. A little less sweet than #1. Not quite as strong? If I didn’t smell the #1 I would not have any thoughts other than it is a nice sweet strawberry jam. 4) Pinion Wood. If this one throws well I think we can finally dry tears from missing Rocky Mountain Christmas from elements bath an body. I will love this in a candle during the winter season! (Please throw. Please throw!) 5) cedarwood amber. I get a strong hit of dial soap in this one. Not bad, just not sure what I expected. Looking for cedar wood without adds that would hit plain wood notes strongly in candles. Cedar is one we never can get to throw well no matter what variety we have tried from Every varietal EO to all the fo. They are usually all weak OOB, and don’t burn well to boot. 6) mahogany teakwood. It hits like cologne. I think it’s the BBW dupe? It smells like it should throw well. My People tend to love true wood essences, like standing in a wood shop. 7) frankincense & myrrh. It’s soft. Lovely. I’m used to the frankincense carterii that is a bit sharp. I’ll test it but would prefer something closer to the essential oil and resins. 8. Nag Champa. I pick up a LOT of baby powder in it. i soap a version of nag champa that is really popular that contains more floral notes. I’m going to make a few candles and melties with the fruits now. I just can’t wait!!!

Here’s a list of what is in the mail now ( if I read the email correctly). - sandalwood mahogany teakwood (I hope this isn’t cologne 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻) - black raspberry vanilla - pinion wood - cedarwood amber - nag champa - frankincense & myrrh - strawberry jam 1 - strawberry jam 2

Welcome to the Craftserver family. you will fit in here just fine. 😊

The first set is on the way. The second is not yet ready. I’m looking forward to learning what they decided to send their collections include popular hotel/spa, BBW and similar dupes, and original blends.

Hi! I wish I had better fragrance dupe solutions for those named scents for you. The experience I (and all of my fragrance partners) have had since the start is finding the "best". It's expensive to shop the options and be disappointed with the bottles that arrive. I have given away thousands of $ in craptastic fragrances that all claimed to be the best but flopped in my products. The suppliers by state list may give you a head start. The only retailers I occasionally buy a few essences from these days include Wholesale Supplies Plus (an outlet for Crafters Choice), Aromahaven/Rustic Escentuals and 1 or 2 from Elements Bath and Body. All of these retailers have been purchased by an investment company and make changes without notice. None of the most popular places others like ever worked for me . I ended up having to get custom made fragrances direct from several different labs. You might try some lip balm flavors in your melts. Elements bath and body has a nice strawberry jam flavor that has been out of stock for a while. It is usable in other products than lip balm, but doesn't perform well in things like soap, candles, etc. Crafters Choice has several strawberry essences that may work. CC brand fragrances are often available at other retailers who bought the licensing for it. Good luck!

Hi and welcome! When wicking tapered glass, choose a size for the bottom of the candle to ensure it won’t get too hot during the later burns. Wicking down may help several of your issues. It sounds counter intuitive but a smaller wick that consumes less wax can help develop a larger pool during a burn. We generally don’t wick with the intention of full early melt pool as it often creates safety issues later in the candles life. If the candle glass exceeds common safe burning temps at any point during a burn it is considered a fail. As long as any hang up clears by the midpoint to end it is a win.

It’s good to see you! I loved that oldie but goodie fragrance too. It’s been so long since I smelled it. If there’s enough interest, we can always have our lab make it for us.

A water discount only makes the soap easier to package more quickly. It would not change how the soap reacts to being exposed to water. The water introduced the soap during use will still soak the bar and be the same as it is now after a use or 2. if you desire a longer lasting bar that resist turning to a mushy lump with normal use, that is a job for oils/butters/fats that obtain more “durable” fatty acid profiles. Think about a stack of paper. A tightly bound ream of copy paper is hard as can be, but will swell and soften to mush when exposed to water. That’s like oleic acid. A stack of plywood is more resilient than thin paper. that’s more like stearic. Oils with higher % stearic are sturdier when exposed to water than oils high in oleic. balancing the two will give a long lasting bar that bubbles and is gentle. Commercial soap typical uses high % of palm oil because it performs like people expect soap to perform.

Hi and welcome! We all get that feeling of excitement tempered by a little overwhelm. a quick look at the INCI list on the Stephenson site (https://stephenson-kbuild-production.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/product-technical-document/06-solid-surfactant-range/crystal-opc/CRYSTAL-OPC---INCI-&-Specification-Rev-21.pdf) shows: The base is preserved with phenoxyethanol at between 0.5%-1%. I’d look at their processing guides on their site to see if another preservative is indicated when making products with the base. https://stephenson-kbuild-production.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/product-technical-document/06-solid-surfactant-range/crystal-opc/Crystal-OPC-Processing-Guide-Rev-2.pdf if you were to want to try making it some day, you can play with those ingredients in those ranges to figure out what you like. Lots will vary based on your particular source of the ingredient and the techniques used to make it. good luck! Have fun 😊

The Ikon Art kit arrived super fast! I burned through 4 sheets learning how they work. I made a LOT of mistakes. But, I’m learning, so it’s all good. Even the worst screen print on my muslin packaging is better than the best stamping job I’ve done regardless of ink. lesson 1) cut the sheets into smaller pieces. I went through 4 before learning that. My bags vary in size from 4x6 to 12x12. I focused on the smaller 3 sizes and could have saved a lot of screen material since I use tape to seal the edges to print. lesson 2) don’t overexpose the sheets. When they say 25-30 seconds per exposure, they mean it. The ikon Art kit uses a 25w or 30w UV lamp. Mine are 50 watts. And I used 2. Once I backed off to 1 lamp and cut the exposure time the images washed out so much cleaner! these first bags were with a water based ink. Later ones used plastisol. I prefer the plastisol over the water based. The impressions are cleaner with no bleed. Woot woot! I have a screen with old fashioned emulsion drying now. Once it’s ready I’ll expose an image on it to compare. There’s a big learning curve with coating the emulsion. overall, for these small items I recommend the Ikon Art sheets with the speedball frame. I tape down the small screen stencil onto the speedball frame and print away. Then peel off the image stencil and can pop another onto the screen in minutes to print something different. Both ways are pricey to start, but will save me loads of $ sending the jobs out. Bonus that this whole process of screen printing is so much fun!

As for hardening, what we usually mean is solubility, additives like sodium lactate make the fresher bars feel “harder”, but do not change the way the soap wears with use because the fatty acid profile of the oils used are what they are. Solubility means how fast the soap softens or wears away during use. We can all agree that a cured olive oil soap is “hard” enough to leave a mark if you threw it at someone. We also all have experienced that the same olive oil soap turns to mush more quickly than other oils when exposed to water. Sodium lactate can’t make a weak number in the solubility category magically wear longer. Sodium lactate can just make that soap easier to package sooner without smearing or denting. oils with more stearic acid, like cocoa butter, palm oil, etc. will naturally wear more slowly than olive oil, canola, etc. regardless of popular additives. palm and lard are used in soap formulas worldwide for long wearing soap for a reason 😊.

could be a number of things: short shelf life oils like grape seed, canola, etc will often dos even when freshly opened as the hydrogen bonds in soap just lend the molecules to oxidation. could be proximity to metal dust, use of metal utensils, etc. could be the fragrance oxidized. Could be it got hot/humid or exposed to sun too much. Could be impure olive oil. Olive oil is one of the most adulterated of the oils, often cut with canola or soybean. I had soap turn completely orange from adulterated “pure” olive oil from a grocery store. Hard lesson for sure! trying to remember the soap golden rule to minimize the potential for dos. Pretty sure the combined Linolenic Acid total in the formula needs to be less than 15.

That's oxidation, like rust, on soap. It may have been exposed to some metal. Or some of the oils in the formula were shorter shelf life than what that soap required. Oils like canola, almond, soybean, etc "rust" quicker than Palm, coconut ,etc. Orange dots/spots on soap are often called DOS - Dreaded Orange Spots.