RobinInOR

Octagonal votives were the only ones I did. The roly poly, and the 'hurricane' that bulges at the bottom, then constricts and flares at the top, also fit.

Octagonals also burn a bit differently since you can't get a tight fitting mold. On mine, after an hour, the melt pool "breaks through" the edge and the holder fills up. Eventually your melt pool is like a little container, and the wick has to support that wider size. I usually started testing with a wick that was a size bigger than a standard votive.

Yes, I assumed it was a mass mailing. And I *am* on a secret pal site, forget which one it is.

And I never respond to mass mailings.

The Herbarie has it in flake form - that's where I got mine. http://theherbarie.com

Yes, I received it as well.

Box. If you look at the USPS site at the envelope rates, there's all sorts of new rules on whether it's stiff or can bend, and the rates are higher than usual if an envelope is not flat. You can't assume 1st class postage anymore is a standard rate if it's under 13 oz - now the limit is 3.5 oz, and size and shape do matter

I'd go priority.

The only thing I have against "lotion candles" are the people who make them and don't label them like cosmetics. If you make them, follow the FDA rules. The people I usually see "breaking the rules" are chandlers who don't know anything about cosmetics and labeling requirements.

Make a good blend, label it properly - go for it.

Well, I'm kind of extrapolating from my experience with it in soaping - it's more prone to DOS if heated, which is an oxidation. It has twice as much linoleic acid than olive oil, and linoleic acid is unsaturated, with 2 double bonds. The more double bonds, the more prone to oxidation it can be.

It could very well have a higher smoke point, dunno. Just kind of a gut feel from my usage, and hearing others' experiences with RBO who have high humidity climate. I've never had any problems with it at all. I love RBO, that's all I use. I don't like OO.

I bought spools and primed them - just cut a length, dunk it in the pot, and run it through a paper towel in my hand to get the excess off. I primed them so they were easier to use with wick pins. I don't prime wicks where I've placed them before the pour.

Regular marigolds are Tagetes, not Calendula. They're a totally different genus.

I make a salve that I love with RBO infused with Oregon Grape, and beeswax. I do all my infusions in RBO, since I don't use olive oil. I just have to be careful about heating it, because RBO is more sensitive to oxidation than olive.

Yes, use your creativity and start different lines or business divisions. That's one reason I got a generic name with an LLC - I can have that as the parent company, then I can do a bunch of DBAs if I want, and they'll all be registered to the parent company.

Or if you don't want to go that far, you can just do lines - feed off your colors a bit, something little to tie things together, a few changes here and there.

Your logo and name is great. You've take a common term and spiced it up.

A week full of 90F days, now 70F and cloudy for the weekend. Good market temperature though

After market, will start working on the wedding order I got a couple of weeks ago. Rose soap, swirled black/pink, and black/green. Hopefully I'll get the swirls right and can quit worrying about it.

I also got my mineral makeup kit, so will be playing developing something new

What's cooking for your weekend?

http://www.candletech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51489&highlight=lotion

http://www.candletech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45596&highlight=lotion

http://www.candletech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39541&highlight=lotion

http://www.candletech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36790&highlight=lotion

http://www.candletech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35079&highlight=lotion

http://www.candletech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31487&highlight=lotion

http://www.candletech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33231&highlight=lotion

etc etc etc. Search the general and soy candle making forums only with "lotion" as the search term.

I agree. 50/50 is the physical limit of NaOH dissolving in water. You're asking for problems in having free lye not mixing in and you won't get much difference in effect between 50% and 45%.

I started with using just coconut, since I can get it locally. But to get the lather I wanted in our hard water, I tried a combo, and it worked in my recipe better than having one or the other. I don't like high coconut, and PKO by itself made my formula too brittle.

Since I finalized my formula using both, I just keep on using both

It's tough, but keep sticking it out. I also work a full time job in IT (I'm a business programmer) and do my business on the weekend. By the time you get home from work you're too tired to work on b&b, and weekends might be filled with farmers markets or making product or actually talking to family. My FM has 2 other soapers in it. I don't worry about it anymore - I'm different than they are. Sure it's easier without any competition - but competition also gets you thinking about how you can differentiate yourself. At least if someone buys something from your competition, they're still getting good stuff and not buying commercial products. Any time someone buys good handmade is a victory (even though we'd rather have the $$ for it).

Just don't try to grow too fast. I stay small - I'm developing products for when I retire. That's when I'll go full time - I'll have had my name out there for awhile, gotten known in certain circles, developed some cool stuff that works for my customers.

But it does get old, sigh. This morning was pouring 3 batches of soap, then running in to work (an hour away) to fix a computer problem (waiting for some data now), then going back home to try to do 2 more batches.

So if you use this test kit from Snowdrift you can by-pass the whole lab testing arena?

I've heard good and bad things about the kit - it's age and shelf life, whether it was accurate or not..

So if someone buys a product I sell contaminates it by introducing more water or other bacteria, they are at fault and won't come after me for money?

Not necessarily. That could mean 1. Your preservation broke down. 2. You somehow contaminated the product. 3. Nothing could have saved any product they contaminated. The real question is - if it got into a horrible situation where someone was truly harmed - if you didn't have your testing done - how would you *prove* that your product was OK?

But all the people selling the body butters (products without water and without preservatives) must not be too afraid of thier customers introducing baddies into the products.

Products without water are less likely to have contamination - there is no free water for it to grow. This is kind of a fallacy, because users might introduce water through wet hands, or there might be humidity in the air that condenses out into the top of the packaging. But it's *much* safer than any product with water in it.

I don't sell my lotions, but I am developing my own and do send it out for testing at the microbiology lab at the local college.

There are 2 types of tests you can have done. One is a "challenge test", where they contaminate your batch to see how well your preservatives hold up. Another is an aerobic plate count, that is usually done for each batch you do. This checks to see if there is any contamination in that particular batch.

Usually one would do a challenge test once your formula was complete, then an APC on each batch you make.

Challenge testing is spendy, about $400 or so. Some people do a "poor mans challenge" - they bottle up 3 bottles of lotion. Send off the first new one for an APC, to make sure there's no initial contamination. Then they use a bottle for a few months, and have the partial bottle tested. That tests how well your preservative lasts. At the same time, have the third bottle, that's been sitting on the shelf for a few months, also tested. That shows the shelf life of your formula and preservative. APC tests can run $40 or so.

Proper testing does take a while, but that's the only way you can be sure. I'm in the middle of testing my own lotion - it's been about 6 months since I've finalized (I think) my formula. I just do lots of APC tests.

Great company. Be careful if you look around, you might get sucked into their mineral makeup

I don't even think that's a legitimate ingredient list. Where's the foam coming from? I doubt the b chloride foams. and the extracts sure won't, and the water won't.

They've left out all the important stuff, which for something that's classed as a drug, is a bad thing.

Most of the alcohol,propylene glycol ones I tried didn't mix into lip balms, if that's what you're trying

Look at their chocolate flavorings - those are oil based. The ones used for other candies are usually water or alcohol soluable.

Well, it's sort of a holiday - Happy Fathers Day

I've got to work again Sunday for my day job, so this weekend won't have too much scent to it. Patchouli, honeysuckle, and maybe some new blend of EOs - I just got an order of some new ones and they're all yummy. I think I'll test out a new rosemary blend.

Trying to talk DH into coming with me on Saturday to market. We'll see - he doesn't sound too enthused.

Have a great weekend!

Glad it worked for you. Was going to answer, your 16.10 is your 7.85 + 8.25 - the groups are additive, the 2nd grouping/zone adds on to the first, and so on.

Here's a bit of my setup - it's old - I haven't used it in 2 years or so, the $ are out of date, but this is most of my shipping setup.

Plus, you have to remember to send the weight in from the store page. And on the checkout page, they selected the shipping zone - that's why I have the 2 character state name, so they'd know which one to choose.

You can do it in Mals, but it isn't really easy, unless they've changed things around.

What I did was duplicate the UPS zone charges into the Mals shipping section. Unfortunately, they have fewer sections than UPS does, so it took a bit of work to mush it together. But you can get it to give a pretty close estimate.

Another way is to go with premium Mal's - it has real time shipping hooks to UPS and USPS.

ZenCart is similar ot osCommerce, because it started with the osCommerce codebase and split off into an easier-to-modify store/cart.

Most extracts I've seen are water or alcohol based. What you could do is use infused oils in your formula - then you could use chamomile and nettles and all sorts of other interesting herbs.