cedar_lea

I know AHRE has a vanilla nutmeg . . . I'd say it's more nutmeg than vanilla and not overly creamy so I'm not sure it's what you're looking for, but I figured I should mention it.

White Pine Ridge also sounds really nice to me. It gives the impression that there's something other than the pine there, which would be good for those floral and spice accents.

I love Forest Glen. Is it very spicy smelling? If not than the name's perfect. . . . if so than I'd probobly take the Forest Awakening name instead, making the spice associated with warmth and movement not wintertime.

Has anyone experimented with blending C-3 and Eco Soy? Eco Soy is supposed to have really low frosting so I was wondering if it would help my C-3, but I don't want to sacrifice the scent versitility C-3 is giving me.

You could do an apple pie with fresh baked bread for the first, apple for the second, and spice for the third.

Following this thread too. So far I've only played with the peaks liquid dyes & I'm thinking that I need to get something a little better suited to soy because I've had crazy frosting. I was planning to try the EVOs (and probobly still am) but the cost is a little bit high for me (CS shipping and JBN almost $10/bottle) so I'm hesitating. I'd love to hear what others have worked well with people. I'm using C-3

That sounds wonderful. I'll definately have to look into that one when I have the chance.

Wow melon. I wouldn't of thought of that. But I'd totally do it & call it Orchard Picnic! I bet it will smell great. It is my opinion that anything CAN be mixed with anything else and smell good if you get the proportions right and throw in a supporting note here and there. It's like colors. All colors CAN go together well but sometimes it takes some creative accessorising.

I like the cherry lemonade idea. I love floral lemonades (orange blossom/rose water, like you get at mediteranian restraunts) so I think any floral notes would mix just fine. Another one I've played with and enjoyed is cinnamon and cherry. I think it smells fun like candy, carnivals and warm summer nights. You'd probobly want to add a sweet note too it too. Other ideas -- bakery scents -- cherry pie, cherry tart Musk scents. Actually a cherry vanilla musk combination was a fairly popular perfume a few years back. You could get a similar affect with any heady scent really: jasmine, patchouli, amber, even some of the perfume scents with a fun cherry edge Oh and has anyone mentioned chocolate? Chocolate cherries are kind of classic. Or you could mix with an almond and get more like a marchino cherry.

I haven't actually gotten any chemicals yet, but I've got a list of ones I want to make a peony scent that gets the candy notes I smell in peony flowers. The part that I'm stuck on is most of the chems need to be deluded to 10-1% to smell right & are cloying without some delution. I'm pretty sure I could figure out how to delude them enough to make a perfume, but how do you delude them to the right amount to be used at 6-1% in a product? I'm sure the math would be differnent depending on which chemical it was, but I'm not sure how to begin with that kind of calculation. From what I understand if you were to use them strait in a fragrance oil it would be a little yucky smelling because of the strength. Now this is all theory because I haven't broken down and bought any. It's hard to justify when money's tight and FOs are cheaper. Have you actually gotten any chems yet?

This is actually alot more complex of a question than it seems. I've been spending time on perfume message groups working on answering this question. The base answer is that they are nearly the same, aside from alcohol and other base perfume componants used to make the fragrace able to go on the body well. Both are a combination of aromachemicals and/or essential oils that are blended to make a scent and deluded to not be overpowering. Some of the chemicals perform well in candles or body products and some don't so that's going to be a difference (I've seen charts on which do what well). I'm still working on figuring out the specifics (how much do you delude the aromachems for use as a fragrance oil for example), but someday I will learn to make my own FOs.

This totally made me laugh thank you. Of course we had a fire scare a couple years ago (candles were not involved) and my brilliant cat says OMG fire -- I'd better run someplace safe like the attic, so I end up on the 911 line saying "I'm not out of the house I'm getting my cat from the attic, but I promise I will be soon" I always think warning pictures are slightly hillarious. My friend AJ calls the one about drowning on 5 gallon buckets the "Don't put babies in buckets" sticker

Thank you for sharing. I do alot of review reading trying to decide what scents would be best for my needs and it's nice to know who's info is skewed. I always wonder when I don't see any bad reviews if theres something I'm not being told/

I'm also craving a good Sandalwood for summer. I'm planning to try one of the Mysore Sandalwoods, mainly because I like the idea of it & I can't imagine it smelling badly . . . just need to decide between Oregon Trails & Scentworks.

In summer I always go for "exotic" scents -- Sandalwood (used lightly), tea, lemongrass, ginger, any of the Hawaiian florals. Something reminiscent of year round sun and travel. Althought I will say that most citruses and cotton candy also feel summery to me.

Does it smell like rum? I know there's a Bay Rum that's a cologne scent that's really popular & a bay rum that's a type of rum & I'm just trying to find a good rum scent.

the 1oz to 1lb is the easy way to think about it. it's acually 6% FO. It gets complicated when you're doing the math out in percentages sometimes because you have to remember it's 6% of the total not 6% of the wax you put in the container. As for fragrance it changes whenever it interacts with anything, fragrance in wax isn't the same as fragrance on skin or fragrace in lotion. It's just the nature of the beast, so likely you're just noting the changes and not liking it quite as much as the scent strait from the bottle. Likely a different company's FO would perform different and you'll like it more or less. So trying to get the scent to be exactly the same as the bottle is probobly just not going to happen. The question is really how is it burning? If it's burning like it should try a different fragrance, if not play with the wick & the scent might change some. I'm a complete noob so bare that in mind. Stella's written a ton of great posts on wick testing so that might be a good place to look for more info.

I've never smelled this so this is just a random scent impression -- If you want to go heavy on the lavender use a pumpkin that's more pumpkin than spice. The closest I've had to this is a lavender creme brule at a restraunt & I think that the pumkin scent would be similar in some ways the creamy sweet of the custard. On the other hand if you want to go with the pumpkin spice I could see the lavender as a scent that mingles with the other spices and adds interest while letting the basic spice blend be the star.

So I'm still trying to decide where to get a good rum scent from. I know I want to order some sandalwood from Oregon Trails & I couldn't tell from thier description if this is a cologne type Bay Rum or a rum type Bay Rum. Who's actually smelled it and can give me a bit of a description?

Currently I have a WM burner for testing and a scentsy one. I do like the WM one better. I work at various WM & I've heard conversation on how well they are selling. I see this as a good thing because it means more people using wax melts & that should translate to more people intersted in melts in general.

I've never had a beaded ring not break on me after a couple weeks. . .

Speaking of general wax . . does anyone happen to know what the actual dimensions of these containers are? It seems like one of them should be the in the price and size range I'm looking for, but the numbers listed can't be correct . . http://www.generalwax.com/glass-container-jars--lids---gift-boxes/glass-containers---jars/cate_104/p___Z905500.html http://www.generalwax.com/glass-container-jars--lids---gift-boxes/glass-containers---jars/cate_104/p___P0798458.html http://www.generalwax.com/glass-container-jars--lids---gift-boxes/glass-containers---jars/cate_104/p___P0798676.html

So I've been slacking on my wick testing the past few months and I think it's because I started with a fairly large container. I love my origional container design and I don't want to abandon it, but my set up is a pretty big production & the amount of wax used on each test is a bit $$$ so it's being a little discouraging. So the thought occurred to me that it might be better if I started with something smaller. If I did something with a similar shape and diameter than I would know a bit more where I am going when I'm ready to set up the big ones & theoretically I'll want more than just my tall candles someday anyways. So I'm thinking that I want a nice cylendrical shaped container that's about 2.5" diameter and uses .5lb of wax or less & isn't expensive. Any suggestions on where I should start? I've found a couple that seem similar but don't have good dimensions listed on the website & a few that I seem to be having trouble deciding if they are the right one for me so I figured I'd get some outside input. Thanks!

Do you have any sweet carmel-ish FOs you could mix the Brandied one with? I've been playing with pear and carmel type scents and it's a wonderful combo. You wouldn't need much to get a sweet edge to it.

Thanks again Stella. I'm going to look into the EVO dyes. I've had near equal frosting issues no matter what FO I use. The only thing that's actually helped was tempering to the point of practiacally unpourable, which made no frosting and cracked (grrrr hadn't had that problem until that batch). I'll just keep playing and adjusting things until I find something that works, but changing dyes seems like my most rational next step. I'm having a hard time visualising doing melts without any color at all & I've been doing too small of batches to do much of a pastel, but as always you give good info. I hadn't thought of heating the FO. I always add it hot and have to wait forever for the wax to cool enought to pour (I seriously stirred that thing for 15 minutes). So that's something I'll play with too. Also I tried a portion cup and it seemed to frost less that the silicon ice cube tray I was using so I'm going to look into playing with those. It's an adventure right! I'm not quite giving up on it yet.