JanetsCandles

I've been sampling Vanilla FO from various places and none of them are quite what I'm looking for. And I'm betting that asking here will save me a lot of trouble.

I love Vanilla Passion from Peak. But it's not quite what I'm looking for. I'm specifically searching for the smell of vanilla extract. It smells the same as Vanilla Essential Oil as well. Does anyone know of anything in the FO that would smell the same?

I've been working on these type of candles, but haven't gotten it perfected. I'm not comfortable enough to say I'd take the order to have it there by the end of July. There are a couple of wedding candle places though that might take it, but I'm not sure what their lead time is.

I agree with Envy Candles on this one. You'd want to go wholesale, not at direct cost. Most of my wholesale customers will ask for a specialized product to try, but they automatically pay me wholesale for it. It's never been an issue.

Straight acetone or mineral spirits should work if nothing else. Just be very careful with it, they are harsh chemicals and can burn your skin if you're too sensitive to it. And make sure you wash it well afterwards. And don't pour the stuff down the drain either.

I work with beeswax, but honestly not nearly enough to tell you where to start on a candle of that size. One thing to remember, beeswax is very viscous. It needs to be wicked up usually, like soy does. But I'm honestly not sure if you'd be able to get a good burn with a single wick on that diameter. I'd suggest checking into multi wicking.

Pretty awesome!

Completely understand the stress with the divorce and what comes after. I was there a while ago myself. Hope things get settled for you soon, and hope they turn out better than you expect.

I just looked at their site, it's odd if it's just a relocation that they are discontinuing a lot of their product and selling fixtures as well. That sounds like either serious downsizing or going out of business instead of just relocation...

I was thinking of a candle maker up in Missouri that I used to go to when I lived in the area (oh years and years ago). She had a brilliant setup and I don't think I disliked any blends she ever had. One thing though that she did was on my mind because I'm not sure how she did it.

She had a policy that if you wanted a specific blend, including a perfume or obscure type scent, she would blend it. Usually would get it done within a couple days too (so much less likely that she ordered it). So I'm curious if anyone knows how she pulled it off. Especially with some of the perfume scents. They were accurate. Some of the perfumes I recall she worked with, I just can't find a supplier, so wondering if she somehow blended them herself from bases and if anyone would have an idea of how to start working with that. I blend other things for their combinations, but nothing like that...

Well, I've never purchased directly from them myself, but one of my customers (a wholesale customer) purchases their oils for making blends to anoint candles with. Any of the candles they use the oil blends they make (using Save on Scents oils) smoke like crazy and smell horrible. Admittedly it could be from a number of factors, but just the things I've smelled from there, I didn't care for them and so haven't purchased.

I'm curious as to what you guys think of various processing groups.

I'm in a "small business" type situation still. Work from my home, wholesale a lot, do craft fairs. So far it hasn't been an issue, but I'm wanting to potentially get working on getting credit card processing that I can take to fairs. I'm also possibly setting up a storefront, so will be looking for a POS terminal as well. Trying to get an idea of options, and frankly I'm not overly trusting of just what I see on the websites of various merchant services groups.

So, do you guys use any CC processing? Are they good for you? People you don't like, they're shady, shifty, problematic?

I actually made them into a tropical fruit salad type scent. Strawberry, orange, coconut, lime, watermelon and a couple others mixed in with apple over the top. My kids asked after smelling it if I could make a real fruit salad for them to eat. I took it as a compliment.

Yay another oops related to heat guns today. When using a wire rack to elevate your molds so you don't accidentally delaminate the countertops (don't ask), keep in mind that laying your arm on the portion of the wire rack that you were just aiming the heat gun at will give you a nice new skin pattern to your arm. It's probably better to let the mold move instead.

So tried a set of chunk candles, scented it with a set of fruit type mixes. Here's the result in the votives. I loved the way the colors swirled into a fire type pattern.

We have 2 HP printers and they work pretty well.

As random as this part is though, I think it's appropriate. Came across a web comic yesterday about printers, so sharing. http://theoatmeal.com/comics/printers Printers are the bane of our existence some days.

Originally Posted by HorsescentS

Don't pour FO into those little plastic Dixie cups, it eats through the plastic; use the waxed paper Dixie cups instead.

Dollar stores sell little stainless steel cups that are perfect for measuring.

That sounds like something I'm going to start working with. Been doing the paper cups, but it seems wasteful to me if I'm just using a single scent oil.

Do you mind sharing what wick you use? My son is wanting to make dipped pillars & I have no idea of which wick to start with. TIA

Depends on what size you're making. If it's small, go with 12 or 15 ply to start. You might be better to just check to see if you can get some samples from a supplier and test what would work best for your wax formula.

Oh yep, I've done those too. Also, most wax removers will eat certain types of plastics too. I've had a few very interesting messes from that!

You might be better off to find a starter kit, it's cheaper to start that way for a hobby and usually runs about $20 or so dollars. Most of the ones I've seen have the wax in the kit as well, so no extra cost. Many of your local craft stores should carry a kit, if not there are plenty available online.

Some basic rules of thumb that I can think of for someone brand new: Never use a pan that you plan to use later for food. The scent oils and waxes we use for candles just aren't meant to be eaten. Always remember that a wax fire is much the same as a grease fire, don't use water on it. Always use a double boiler type system when heating wax. And watch it closely. You never want the pan to go dry, the wax can overheat. Never heat it in the microwave!! I've seen old coffee cans used for wax melters, nested in a pan of water. Soup cans work too. But honestly the starter kit would be a better way to go, it has a pouring pan in it and you can use it as a double boiler insert. Never ever ever use one straight on a burner. Also never use straight wax in a pan directly on the burner. It can catch fire.

Holding the wick straight without a wick tab fixed to the bottom of the container is too time consuming and really is unpractical. Wicks will float in wax, and they move when cooling unless you have it fixed to the bottom. You can use glue dots instead of hot glue in a pinch. But make sure it's centered. Pushing it too close to one side of your container could make the glass break.

Honestly, I'd suggest doing a search online for tips for beginners, or better yet, get a book for it. We can tell you a lot here, but you might get quicker answers that way. It is a very time consuming hobby and yes it can get very expensive. I've been doing this for over 4 years and can say I've easily spent over $10K on supplies and waxes and things, but I'm also running a business at this point, so it's gone far beyond a hobby for me.

LOL Pixie, I've done similar. And learning the hard way that even the tiny X style wick locators just don't work for a 2 inch pillar. Actually bamboo skewers work better for those for me, propped up over a couple cups. Need a longer wick, but hey, no weird stuff in the candle when it's set.

Scented, I've done that one too. Overdip into very hot pigment really sucks. Oh and the cleanup is horrible.

Vanilla Passion is a good one, one of my best sellers and it blends well with a lot of other scents. Cedar is good, smells just like fresh cut cedar wood. Lilac, Lavender, Rose (smells authentic, not the chemical rosey smell you get in some lotions), Macintosh Apple, Cinnamon smells like Red Hots candies. Orange is just a straight orange smell. I don't think there are many I've found from there that are not good.

Plumeria (just the floral) gives me a headache every time I use it for someone. I think that's just my body though. But BBW's Plumeria is good for me. Love the scent and no headache.

Well, so I'm starting this thread because maybe others will join in with the idea, and maybe it'll be a good place for newbies to come and "learn from my mistake."

What prompted this idea was today's trial and error failure. I got a heat gun not long ago, and am still learning a few things with it. So today was working on a new type of candle and needed the heat gun to get some air bubbles released. And promptly forgot that the mold sealer putty would probably get hot and ucky when I was using the blasted thing. I'd put the pillar up on a wire rack so to get the bottom (Top of the candle) with the heat gun so it would be smooth. I just came back from cleaning up a massive wax mess from that experiment... Whoops.

Anyone else have some oops moments you think someone should think about before making a new type of candle? I'm sure we've all done stuff like this. :tiptoe:

That looks very cool! Can someone point me to the tutorial please?

http://www.craftserver.com/forums/showthread.php?59826-Class-Wave-Candles-%28by-Scented%29&highlight=wave+candle Looks like the right one. I just went looking for it myself.

French color has a minimum order of 25 lbs on their fragrance oil, just to give you an idea of the quantities and amounts you'd need to come up with in fluid cash. Another thing you might want to check into is how close your nearest supplier is, on both sides, and if you potentially have a good candle makers base there, basically are you going to have a worthwhile investment, or are you going to be sitting on a couple thousand pounds of wax?

I'm using zinc core wicks, so far no problems. They do mushroom if you forget to trim them down though. But think I need to increase my FO content. Using 6% for this batch (start low, work up). Not bad on throw, just not as good as I'd like.