cedar_lea

Wonderful! I'm definately going to pick some C3 up and play. . . if I'm making tarts will I need steric acid to make it less container-ish?

Just when I thought I had the forum search all figured out! Thank you! You have no idea how many times I've tried to look up a supplier and growled about the no two letter word thing. It never occurred to me that there would be a way around it.

I wasn't sure about the container blend thing for tarts. I thought that I had heard of some people using them for tarts. I do have another local supplier that has some pillar wax, but I'll have to contact thier craft product buyer to figure out what type so I hadn't gone there yet.

Thanks for setting me strait on the soy. The only thing I hear about it is people here either complaining about HT or being really happy and loving it so I didn't know what to think.

This is basically me trying to decide if it's worth it to randomly pick some up for home scenting & play. I know I'm not at all willing to consider another wicking project at this point, but melts are something I use pretty regularly & would love to make some up myself.

See . . . . now I want some of that! I have an obsession with gold candles & I know I can blend a good gold color . . . in fact I could probobly make bronze and amberguise and pewter and silver . . . and and and. . . .

These forums are horrible! Always giving me another thing to want to do!

I also figured that I should mention that I can't search for this. You can't search for a two letter word. Links would be appreciated.

Just figure I should mention that I tried before someone decided they needed to remind me that the forum has a seach feature

Sorry about the repost. I posted this over in wickless yesterday and after thinking about it some I realised it would probobly fit better over here. . . .

So with shipping prices being a huge budget factor I've been trying to familiarize myself with local suppliers.

I just noticed that a supplier here in town carries Ecosoy Advanced, C1, & C3. Now because mixing scents is my first passion I don't really want to bother with something that is going to be too fussy and reject half my blend as soy seems to have a reputation to do . . . but it would be really nice to be able to pick up a lb of wax whenever I feel like it and throw some tarts together with my current scent obsession.

I know that I'm not going to get 100% FO tolerance, and I expect my scents to change a bit while burning, but I want there to be a decent chance that a scent will work. I've only worked with Glass Glow and so far I've been pretty satisfied with the scent, and really everything about it. I'm intrigued by soy, but all of the reports of it's scent issues have me really hesitant to actually try it . . . but local supplier would be really nice so I figured I'd see if it was worth considering.

Would checking them out be setting myself up for a world of frustration or is there one that is likely to be a great find?

I love the sheen. I don't think I'd seen palm looking quite like that before. Do they look like annodised metal in person?

Also another Hello from Oregon. Did you enjoy your snow? My mom's down on the south coast too and she said she got some.

In a completely different angle I recently made some soap colored with carrot juice that I scented with a neroli blend to make a bright and uplifting sunshiney soap. You could probobly also do a vanilla citrus along the same veins to capitalise on the buttermilk aspect.

So with shipping prices being a huge budget factor I've been trying to familiarize myself with local suppliers.

I just noticed that a supplier here in town carries Ecosoy Advanced, C1, & C3. Now because mixing scents is my first passion I don't really want to bother with something that is going to be too fussy and reject half my blend as soy seems to have a reputation to do . . . but it would be really nice to be able to pick up a lb of wax whenever I feel like it and throw some tarts together with my current scent obsession.

How versitle are these three? Would checking them out be setting myself up for a world of frustration or is there one that is likely to be a great find?

Can you describe what some of these smell like? I know there's descriptions on the website but multiple noses are always useful.

I was figuring I would do the colored bottles too. . . . or just color it. I tried putting a little soap color in my sample but the two drops I used was way too much so that's something I'll need to play with when I get more. Like I said I was mainly testing consistancy and my scent blend. I just figured I'd mention the clouding since I was trying to get all of the info out because alot of review are "I like ___" and I'm always wanting more info.

Laura -- what kind of a homemade base are you using? If your getting a nice long scent from it that could definately be an interesting option.

Actually it was probobly closer to 4ml. I put 2 pipette squirts in it. I was mainly just testing the consistancy and if I liked the blend I'd put together so I wasn't being as exact as I normally would. But yea that's probobly a heavier fragrance load than I should have used. . . .

Does that mean if I was playing by the rules my scent wouldn't last as long as it does? because much less time and I don't really consider it worthwile. . but texturally it is really great.

Generally I'm happy with it.

It lasted 8 hours (by then it was faint but detectable by folks other than me) and I wasn't using and really strong heavy scents, only a tiny amount of vanilla and chai FO could be considered basenotes.

It's not oily. It is definately wet and takes a moment to obsorb but not anything that could be described as oily.

I'm enjoying the lack of alcohol. It's nice not to have to worry if the alcohol scent is too strong and offputting, which most people I know say about all inexpensive perfumes and some high end ones.

I am definately experiencing some clouding. I did use vanilla so I expected some of that, but occasionally it looks like it's seperating and that's worrysome so I'm considering looking into a different base. It works to shake it. It's also possible that I got my percentages off since I used the 1oz sample bottle & had to estimate since my scale doesn't work at that small of measurements. I would say I added around 5ml to the 1oz bottle.

Other opinions and comments appreciated as always. I didn't see anyone saying anything about this base so I figured I needed to share.

OK I'm wierd. This is seriously my views as a customer, before I knew why a person might double wich.

1-wick: Nice, standard, expected, and wonderful

2-wick: Wierd looking. Looks like someone had trouble getting thier candle to burn right and decided to put another wick in there. Why would you do this?

3-wick: Totally elegant and high class. 3 wick candle = expensive candle I'd never buy myself but am totally honored to be given as a gift.

I couldn't possibly tell you why that is. Probobly has something to do with being given a very nice 3 wick candle when I was younger.

OK As I sit here digging through scent reviews I figured I'd thow the question out to everyone. I'm looking for scents for melt & pour soap. I blend all of my oils so trueness is something I generally am concerned with. I'm also dealing with a pretty tight budget & trying to stretch it as much as possible, but I'll sort though the options there once I have the information. Here's my wishlist. What have you all smelled that I sould be looking at?

A dark rose: something deep and elegant vs powdery and light. a little on the heady side

A strong heady amber

A good peppery carnation

A violet that is more on the green spicy side than delicate and powdery. A plus if it's a light colored oil I could use in clear soap

A fern or moss that is nice and damp and green, a plus if it's a light colored oil I could use in clear soap

A green tea that smells like tea, not flowers

An allspice (could also be a pumpkin spice or a christmas spice) that's strong, spicy and skin safe, and not very dark colored -- I'd like to use it in a clear soap

A clean fresh scent (rain breeze ect) that doesn't smell like laundry detergent or flowers

Thanks all you wonderful FoHos!!

Threw in another 1/4lb of base and some tumeric and the color stayed bright. Hopefully it will be all better now. Thanks for suggesting the spice

Yea. I'm ablout to go rebatch because it's really rubbery . . .

There was a thread on another forum about a month ago about this. I don't know if you need to sign up to see it but here's a link.

http://www.thedishforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=150868&hl=making+butter

OK so I went ahead and mixed it up. I ended up using 3oz (fluid) because that was the minimum I needed to get a reasonably bright color. It turned out kind of a butternut squash yellow. I also used two tbs shea butter, and I'm just hoping that this is proportionally acceptable. I'll know in a few hours if it needs rebatched. The soap I got on my hands was still nice and bubbly, so that's promising & if it hardens well it should be OK.

Just figured I needed to update the thread since I possibly answered my own question & so nobody needs to ask it.

I've read that it can be used in melt and pour as a colorant ect. How much do I use? I couldn't find it in any actually recipes just as an additive.

This is very interesting. I've always done the oil and water. I'd kind of figured it was like a double boiler. I put a pool of water on the top of my burner and floated a few drops of oil in it. I have tried it with just strait FO and it burnt off much too quickly, down to a boiled brown sludge and definately smoked. I don't think the tealight burners heat the water fast enough to make bubbles jut scented steam.

I'll admit that I had wondered if there was a better way.

Just realised that I didn't actually post when I saw you got the pics I requested

They look really great! You have a good eye!

I figure if I ever did a show I will display by scent. This is because I am first and foremost a scentcrafter and would want to highlight that aspect of my ability. This is also because I will likely have several differant shaped products (in my perfect fictitios world) and it would encourage someone who likes the scent to maybe get candles and soap or something. It's also really easy to build a great looking display with similar products of different heights (mechandising is my profession).

However if I were someone that only sold candles I may have 3-5 different jars in 15 scents & a rainbow of colors. In that case I'd do it by jar because it would basically be by price point. I'd invest in some risers and scatter the scents to make an eye catching cluster of color. That way people would be drawn to it and be like "I want to smell the blue, now the green, oo look there's a teal over here . . . Oh how am I ever going to decide?"

Step 1: burn your candle. Actually watch it and see if it has any issues. In fact burn 2 or 3 for consistancy. Remember you like candles and this is fun!

Once you've done that you should know where to go from there. I don't think that testing needs to be a huge production, but you do need to know what issues your candles may and may not have. You will likely decide that your wicking is imperfect (because what are the chances you got it right the very first time?) and should be able to do research to figure out how to correct your issues.

Repeat the process when you change anything ever.

We didn't use anything when I did my soap but it did take some time of gentle working at the edges to get it to give. Maybe next time I'll try the freezer, I just didn't understand why it works so I didn't bother.

My SO said Old Spice too. You're not alone.