EricofAZ

er.. typo... quality

So I realize the EO forum has come around from the old days of just part of the FO forum.  EO has its own forum and that is great!!!

Most of us here use EO's for candle making or soap making.  I'm kinda getting into herbology and ayurvedic cooking and nutrition.

The question I have is what sources do you think are pure decent EO's.  Not stuff that is cut with carrier oil and FO's and whatnot.

There is Young Living, expensive but they have farmland.  There is de Terra, the CEO and others from YL that broke off and outsource the EO's.

I have bought from Herbco.com (affordable) and some is very potent like the Oregano that raised a water blister on my hand and some not so potent like their frankincense.

Prices of EO's like chamomile range from $20/oz to $120/oz. 

I have learned that price does not = quality..

Thoughts? Advice?

Thanks everyone.

Eric

sowwy.  i'll send you some brain bleach.

George Castanza would call it shrinkage.  Top it and it will be flat.

These issues are very highly specific to the wax, the additive and the FO and wick.  There are over 800 wicks on the market now.  So to really help you, we need to know these things.

I realize nobody wants to give out their "secret" but the real deal is that folks here have already branded themselves and figured out their style and are pretty cordial about helping others.

Eric

I have a huge container of raw wicks.  So, um, IF, I prime them, they are primed in something with a much higher meltpoint than the wax they are intended for.  Micro wax is good.  I get it good and hot (over 200 F) and let a few feet of wick to stay in long enough to get rid of the bubbles that come out.  Then drape it and let it cool. 

I have used unprimed too.  So here is how I decide....

If the wax I am using has a low MP, meaning that the wax pool will be deep and bowl shaped in the container with the deepest part around the wick, then I prime the wick so that it will stand up and not wilt over.

If the wax is higher MP and I know the pool will be more even rather bowl shaped, then, well, I might just twist the wick and use it raw.  It primes itself well enough during the cooling process and will stand up because it is not in a bowl of hot fluid. 

Eric

Edit:  Oh, and if you like to twist the wicks, twist the primed ones before they dry.  And I rarely use braided but when I do, they are unprimed because about the only wax I use braided in is palm and that is hot enough that the wicks soak up the wax during priming.  Be careful using palm in glass containers with braided wicks  Glass temp can get pretty high.

The soy/paraffin debate has gone on forever.  What I have not seen yet is how GMO soy affects us when it is burned.

By the way, there are palm specific additives.  I would not use the regular stuff that is for soy or paraffin.  Palm burns hot, very hot, and the wrong additive can change the crystal pattern.  I just use palm plane and right out of the bag.

Eric

I have used palm.  Vybar is something that I use for parafin to increase the amount of FO that I can add,... but only if the wax is not already blended.  Some of the IGI is so strongly formulated that Vybar does nothing. 

If your mold has very slick pure sides, one of the tricks is to let it cool overnight then put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes, then take it out.  The wax will cool more and at room temp, the mold will expand faster than the wax and you will get your candle out.

If the sides on your mold are scored or have marks from a scrub brush, well, um, toss it and buy a new mold.

Terry, no particular reason other than I am lazy and used only one presto pot so the first bit in the mold was without dye.  Then a little added for the next, then a little different for the next, and on to a bit more.  Eventually it gets dark.

I suppose if you wanted to have multiple presto pots, you could mix it up a bit.  It was just easier for me to start out white and add for each pour.

Edit:  and just put the mold on an angle and let it cool for a minute, then move it to another angle and cool, then add, rotate, angle, cool.... rinse repeat.  That's how you get the waves of the ocean.

- Eric

Only time I use EO's is in candles and I list each EO with the common name and the plant name. So folks can figure out what I use, but the ratios are private.  I do list most in quantity first. 

Anyone into computer graphics for a hobby?  Modeling, rendering, etc? 

Programs like DAZ Studio, Softimage XSI, Maya, Vue, Poser, Blender, 3dsMax, Terragen etc?

I very much enjoy making 3D models and sometimes enjoy setting up a  good landscape scene from time to time.

Those were palm wax, so a bit harsh.  Paraffin and soy can respond better in the method I mentioned above.

Here's an old pic.

Fascinating post.  Well, Berts is out of business but she did have some awesome forrest scents.  And they did go well with higher than normal FO to wax ratios.

If anyone can figure out what she did, please, let us all know.

I'm guessing that forrest scents would work.

As for color, think upside down.  I can't find a video so I'll try to describe how to make it.....

If you want a 3 inch wide by 4 1/2 inch tall piller (or any similar shape)...

Use the right mold, load your wick and seal it on the closed end, use a wick holder on the open end. 

Make your wax with whatever additives you want and whatever piller wax you choose...

Add your FO.  Stir.

Pour a half inch into the mould.

Let it cool just a bit.  Add some light blue dye to yer pot.  Not much, keep it light.  Pour a little more.

Take your mold and tilt it one in all four directions.  DOn't swirl it, just tilt it to you, away from you, to the right, to the left.  Go have a piece of salami and relax for 2 minutes and repeat.

THen darken the blue.  Pour a bit more.  Rotate the mold just a bit and tilt towards and away and right and left. 

THen add some darker color, green,

Add more mix and repeat.

Then darker color, brown,  Repeat

Then maybe get it really dark and repeat.

If you do it right, it will be black or very dark brown on the bottom and white on top.

I tried the LX a lot but they sooted on me.  I bought a pillar from Rustic Candles in Tucson which is famous.  Was an LX wick from what I could gleen and observe. It sooted.

I know folks like LX.  I am guessing that with the right mix and average or low FO content, the LX would work fine.  

There is a reason why there are so many wicks.    Happy testing!

Well, here in Tucson in July when it is 110 degrees reported to the nation (thermometer in a white box 100 feet in the air) and 186 on the asphalt, and 125 degrees at the 5 foot elevation where most of our noses live, um....

Well, imagine an ice cream cone in a furnace.

Er, um, .... You melt hotter than that and pour hotter than that, right?

PS:  Kitty Kitty / aka Einstein, is still very active and perky at 13.  She says Hi to everyone.  She still cackles like a dolphin.

Says container paraffin wax, no additives.

To me, this is the stuff that comes from China.  General Wax used to sell something similar.  MP around 125 to 130.  Yeah, it adheres better than higher MP waxes.  That's a no brainer.  But it doesn't mean it adheres perfectly.

Says if you add vybar or stearic will change opaqueness or hardness. Sure, yes, because it is not one of the IGI waxes that already has these additives.

I do use wax like this from GenWax to dilute some of the harmony or J223 or J225 or J50 waxes from time to time for special purposes (over scenting). 

It shoudl probably hold about 3 percent FO at max and maybe double that if you use the vybar.  Probably no need for stearic unless you want to make pillars. 

I don't use additives for color, only for FO content or EO content.

All that said, it is cheap or "competitive" by today's standards. Should be cheaper.  This stuff is pennies in China so please don't comparet it to IGI wax.  Might be fun to buy a slab, add some vybar, and experiment.  And if your experiments go like mine, HTP or ECO wicks would be good to use.  Cotton core also.

I think I did it once.  I'm with Vickie, the pull away was an issue.  The heat was not.  Heck, that is what votives in containers are about. 

If you are concerned about the heat, get one of those IR thermometers and measure the heat of the glass at FMP burn.  Should be well under 174.  Preferably around 140.  But more important, the gradient.  If the top is 195 and a half inch below it is 100, expect a fracture and leakage. 

First off, your FMP should occur in a half hour.  Your max burn for custometers should be 4 hours (yes, do test to 8 or more, but recommend 4 for the customers).  If it takes 7 hours to get FMP, then you are underwicked.

As for sooting, often that is an overwick problem (which you apparently don't have).  So my next thought is that at 9 percent you have overrun your wax capability.  Most IGI waxes can take that.  If you are not using a good IGI wax, consider a suppliment.  There are additives that can maybe help your wax to hold your FO load.  I have gone to 18 percent with some waxes.  Don't recommend it.  But it is doable. 

The RRD is a directional wick.  Are the ones you bought built for the right direction?

I can't say much about the cotton core because I use those in paraffin, not blends. Soy has its own personality.

I have had great luck with HTP wicks and ECO wicks for reducing sooting when boosting the FO content in any wax concoction that I came up with (except palm, palm likes square or braid wicks).

HTP and ECO are my fallback wicks.  No matter what I do, no matter what the experiment, I seem to go to the HTP or ECO for a reference burn and ultimately end up choosing one of the two for the final.  There are over 500 wicks on the market and I have about 300 of them.  I like playing with wicks.  I keep coming back to these two.

those gel dots don't work for me, they melt when I pour at temp.  I'll have to look at where I got them, but there are foam stickies for the wick retainer that work very well.

And.... don't forget....

The dollar glue gun with a dollar pack of refill at the dollar store.  They work just fine!

I zoomed in and to me it is not  a discoloration, it is a pull away.  Never saw that at the bottom only before, but that is what it looks like.  Some spots on the right side of the image that don't appear to be jpg artifacts, so I think I am in agreement with the above on the shrinkage.  There is a glass distortion that, to me, is a giveaway.  If it was a color shift, I would not expect to see the glass distortion.

I think the candlesafety site says 175 degrees is max.  I find that too hot.  175 degrees will burn third degree in 5 seconds.  The McDondald's hot coffee case was 165 degrees and that burned 3rd degree in 7 seconds.

Personally, I prefer to wick so that the jar can be held with some discomfort but not burning.  Unfortunately, it is tough to do that and still get a good melt pool unless I play with the wax formula a bit.

I also think it is unnecessary to have deep melt pools.  Full diameter within a half hour, yes, but the really deep ones smell great the first time and then towards the end have nothing left to offer, other than hot glass.

I make these all the time.  Ususally a cheap and high temp paraffin wax.  Doesn't matter because you're not going to burn it.  I found some glass pieces at a dollar store (hundreds of them) that will take a tealight or a taper. 

I put the glass upside down in a pillar mold.  I start pouring until it is covered and starts to solidify a bit. Then pour with other colors and do the mold tilting thing, or whatnot or just make it white.

When it is cooled, I take it out of the mold and use decals on the side to spruce it up.

Folks either put a tea light in it, or a taper... but... the cavity in the glass is large enough for your battery operated LED light.

I have a presto that has the heating coil molded underneath the pot.  So basically the entire pot gets hot but no direct exposure of the coil to the wax. 

The turkey fryers (which have the advantage of holding more volume) have the coil inside in direct contact with the wax. 

I have no idea how the professional high capacity wax melters work with regard to the coil (some I think have water/oil jackets and again, back to the idea that the wax is not in direct contact with the coil.

So I was curious as to what folks think about safety.  To me, having the wax in direct contact with the heating coils seems a bit unsettling.

At what point do you retire the coil or replace it?  I think I know what happens when the coil breaks or burns a hole (saw that on a stove once when I was a kid, shot a flame out the hole in the coil about a foot long).

Any feedback?  Stories?

Eric