Chefmom

To calculate how much oil to start with for any loaf or slab mold I've always used the formula that is all over online Length of mold x width of mold x depth of mold x .4 = total weight of oils in formula It has always worked for me

The pattern on the top of the candle makes me think that they are pouring the wax at a very thick consistency. As a baker....I'm guessing somewhere in the area of Chantilly cream to sponge cake batter. I have no idea what temp that translates into with soy wax tho...

Oh my gosh!! I caught my daughter doing this...I had to have an intervention with her about proper candle care!! If I want to know how customers abuse candles all I need to do is give one to my daughter. She breaks all the "rules". I bought these cool little bamboo sticks called cuticle sticks at Sally Beauty Supply and I use those to push the wick over, they have flat ends and are perfect for wick pushing, even in a deeper jar. I've given them to her...I'm not sure if she is still using them or not.

I make soaps with as high as 40% lard and I now only use the commercial lard like in the photo above. I have never had the piggy smell that I can smell in my lard soaps. Years ago a family member gave me a lot of fresh fat when they butchered their hogs and I rendered my own lard. THAT soap had a very defined "essence of last nights pork dinner" to it that never faded. It developed the worst case of DOS I have personally ever had and then the mice raided the storage cabinet and they greatly enjoyed the soap that winter. I never rendered my own fats again and have had really good results from commercial rendered.

If they were in Kansas they would have to change their name to Flats... ...just sayin...

They have several products that I really love. I love LOVE the hydrating body mist. Just a spritz and a rub after toweling off and it absorbs so quickly and my skin feels so silky. I can't say that the fragrance lasts any longer than any other product that I've tried. They also have a light hand and body lotion that is the perfect light lotion. Just a tiny bit and it covers quickly and a large space and absorbs very quickly leaving the skin nice and smooth with ZERO greasy lotion feel. And there is a thick lotion too, I forget the name tho. It's very thick, and again covers a lot of area for a small amount and it takes just a little longer to absorb than the light lotion but ZERO greasy after feel. I've been pleased with all the products I have tested from there, but these three stand out the most in my head that I went back and ordered more of.

I checked Peaks to buy a case of wax over a month ago...I just checked again and it's still out of stock. A LOT of waxes are listed as out of stock. I have a small list of things I buy there, but I'm not buying until I can buy the wax as well.

I've used Crisco and vegetable shortening in my soaps from the very beginning of my soap journey with great success. I have not had the DOS issues that others are seeing, but that can also be how soaps are stored etc. I'm a long term curer...so I've had soaps for years. The worst cases of DOS I've ever had was from 100% lard soaps when I rendered the lard myself. The mice also enjoyed a lot of that soap... The other DOS I've had was from when I went several years without making soap and then wanted to make a batch and used an old bucket of palm oil. The oil smelled fine....but the soap quickly went rancid. Years ago Crisco brand reformulated and it swept the cake decorating communities online that people were having issues with their tried and true buttercream recipes. I quickly switched to store brand shortenings which still used the trans fat that Crisco had reformulated against. With the new zero trans fats nationwide all shortening has now been reformulated with palm oil. So...I really didn't know what the new formulation would do with my soap and I was really irritated over the whole thing...tho I'm not really sure why. I still haven't used the new formulations of vegetable shortening. Instead I changed my formulations and have replaced shortening in my soaps with liquid soybean oil and soybean wax. I read about a year ago how one of the soap blogs (I think) was making shaving soaps with soywax, and since soywax is really just ultra hydrogenated soy oil and vegetable shortening is a mixture of oils and partially and fully hydrogenated soy oil....hmmm. So far...I am very pleased with the results and am still playing around with the exact ratios etc. I do like the wal mart tallow/palm shortening and it is my husband's favorite base in pine tar soap. However he doesn't care for that base without the pine tar. Go figure. I've never used canola oil, I was pleased with soy based oils I never moved onto some of the other "grocery store" available oils. I do like safflower oil in my blends and I rarely see people talk about that one. The coolest thing about soaps is that there are so many different opinions. It comes down to our skins needs, our local environments and our own experiments. But...I don't think I would want to be a newbie these days....that might be information overload!!

Essential oils can be the culprit to the sooting of your wick. I have never burned palm oil...I really don't have a clue how it burns on its own. If you really want to break things down I would pour one container with just beeswax, and another with just palm oil and see what they do side by side before mixing them. I have read recently about people mixing 50/50 beeswax and coconut oil to make container candles, with the coconut oil supposed to make the candle pour smoother and burn better as a container. Essential oils are expensive...some are bloody expensive. I would never add a very expensive addition to anything unless it proved to me a worthy expense. Meaning I've tested without, and with and can make the justification for the expense. While on the surface, using beeswax and essential oils looks like a more high end and natural way of making a fragranced candle you might be shooting yourself in the foot unless you can make it worth the added expense. Essential oils are going to change once diluted in wax, and their properties are going to change once they are burned. If you are going for an aromatherapy kind of thing, the best way is to keep the essential oils as close to their natural state. Fragrance oils are synthetic, and for candles they are designed to be burned in wax or heated and the fragrance released through heat alone. I have found that people who do not want synthetic fragrances are willing to accept they won't be able to burn the heavily fragranced candles that fill your house with fragrance. I make a whole line of fragrance free candles for people who love candles, but not fragrance for that reason. I personally buy fragrances for soap and candles and what ever supplier I'm buying from, mostly to consolidate shipping. If you read through the fragrance forum here you can read about all the various experiences with fragrances, throw, shipping, service and of course tons and tons of personal opinions on each one. Lots more than I can type out.

Over the years I have narrowed down a handful of recipes. But I do love to experiment. I have been known to cook up a huge batch in my crock pot and split it into 10 parts and superfat with different oils just to compare side by side. I found out this way that my daughter likes shea butter...hates....hates cocoa butter. Which is funny. I LOVE cocoa butter. Also, cocoa butter, when superfatted will bloom in soap, just like when chocolate is stored poorly and that grey fat bloom comes up to the surface. Cocoa butter forms a crystal looking bloom on the surface after 2-3 months cure, sometimes sooner. I will never make just one recipe. Every person in my family likes a different recipe, for different reasons. So I have different recipes available for people to try. A few times people have come to me to make "this recipe with that scent" because they have found their own preference with my base recipes. Even though I have narrowed down quite a few bases it won't stop the experiments. I just like to try newer versions and test them, and my family is very used to 20 questions after a shower and being asked to use two different soaps side by side.

Testing, and lots of it is the only way you will know the needs of your candles, especially when you are making your own blends with non traditional waxes. There is info out there on beeswax, and on palm, but none that I know of when they are mixed together. I make beeswax blended with soy pillars and have done a lot of testing to get them the way I want them. Are you making a pillar candle or a container candle? Either way you will not achieve a full melt pool across on the first burning. If your flame is big and sooty then it's not burning with a complete combustion and something in the blend is off. Are you using palm oil? Or palm wax? A #6 wick is very big and if you are using a container it's going to be really hot once it burns into the center and bottom. Essential oils are sometimes used in fragrance blends for candles, but in their natural state they are not for burning. Sometimes it is best to stick with what each item does best and not fight against it. Essential oils work fabulous in steam distillation, either an electric unit or a simple oil diffuser with water and burning tea light (my personal favorite).

lol I used to use those...my daughter stole mine when she started making her lipstick. I moved up to the larger milk steamers (I think that is what they might be called....I'm not a coffee drinker). She makes lots of lipstick now, but still prefers those little milk creamers.

I don't know about embeds, but when I am pouring tealights or small molds and votives I use a pour pot that is for making espresso drinks and such. I'm pretty sure it's about 20 ounces and I only fill it half way. It pours with good precision, and I keep a large pour pot filled with the wax I'm using in the water bath to keep it hot, then just fill the little pot as needed. I have a lot less spillage and it just pours better, but yes...I don't fill it full.

Basic melt and pour soaps are pretty easy to make. A few cute molds, some fragrances and a couple of colors and you can make some cute novelty soaps. When my kids were little we did m&p soaps as little gifts and things they could help make because it's just a matter of cutting the blocks and over a hot water bath (I don't own a microwave) until melted. Naturally you can go into lots of different pouring techniques and make some very unique soaps, but the complicated part is simply the organization of keeping your colors separate and yet still melted while swirling and doing more complex techniques. M&P in use is up to the user. I have sensitive skin and live in the country with hard water. Melt and pour doesn't like my water and takes forever to lather and my skin really doesn't like any kind of melt and pour soap. I had some leftover from a project (gift basket) and I had the leftover bits as hand soaps. I stopped using them, preferring my own soaps, and my daughter started using them for facial soaps. She actually liked the fact that her skin was tight and dry after use (at that time anyway) and she wanted me to make more. So I bought some sample sized pieces and made her some soaps. After testing she preferred the basic clear glycerin that Peaks carries (I think it's SFIC, but don't' quote me). She said any of the white solid bases...plain, shea butter, cocoa butter and goat milk versions just didn't lather and she could only get some lather from water too hot for her hands. After all that testing she finally came over to the dark side and found some of my homemade soaps did suit what she wanted in a soap. Making soap, and safely using lye can be scary in the beginning. Especially after reading about safety and such. Just like learning to use a Chef's knife or the first time you deep fat fry on the stove, you need to learn the safety. I only mix mine outside, I make sure that when it's time to mix the lye or to add it to the oils the pets are in their relaxing nap stage of the day. I prefer to make it when no kids or husband's are at home. When they are at home I'm constantly reminding them that a lye container is here, or not to touch something etc. In the beginning keep it simple and it becomes as commonplace as picking up that big knife and carving up a watermelon or getting something sauteing on the stove. If you are already making candles you know all about burning safely and especially heating wax safely and good ventilation when pouring etc, using lye just adds to safety knowledge in my opinion. And there is lots of us around to help you through, no matter what you choose to do.

My best guess is that it might take an extra week or two to cure out the additional water. I doubt there will be much difference in the soap from previous batches, it just will be a touch soft longer than usual.

When I first started with dipping tapers I used paraffin because I had a bunch of it and it's cheaper than beeswax to play around with. It's a royal pain to dip. It doesn't build up nice layers and gets rumply looking. In my opinion beeswax is the optimum dipping wax. It dips beautifully once you find the right temperature and get into the zen motion of dipping. It takes practice but it's quite meditative. The real downfall is you need a lot of wax. A LOT. Just to keep the container full while you dip, and extra melted and ready to top off to keep the depth in the dipping container. As for wicks, square braids are my go to with beeswax tapers, it will take a bit of experimentation depending on what size you want to make your tapers. I don't make as many as Tall Tayl, so I made my own dipping hooks from old metal clothes hangers.

I'm definitely in! I love the whole mad scientist part of testing. I have some old baking pans, I'm sure I can get one to work with a big block wick test. My regular stock is 6006 and 464.

What you describe is cream soap. It's yet another different kind of specialty soap, and there is a tutorial with photos and recipes at the soap making forum. http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=49652

Personally if you are really wanting to be exact I would take it literally and measure the liquid oil and weigh it. Then weigh the melted butter after measuring it and repeat with the beeswax. I mean come ON....tablespoons of beeswax just makes you shake your head. It comes in different size pellets and blocks...so the best way is weight. Even trying to measure a tablespoon of the pellets will always give you different results in weight. Measure it all as liquid form, makes notes and then convert to a percentage and measure with grams from there. Then you can repeat a successful recipe over and over in small or large amounts.

If you are really wanting to double wick that jar, and using ECO wicks I would back down WAY BACK to ECO .5 or ECO-1 for a double wick. ECO wick series once it gets above ECO 2 or 3 they get crazy big and hot. Always start small with the ECO wicks and tweak from there. Personally I think they need to add more in the series like ECO 2.5 and 3.5 because the jump between 3 to 4 and to 5 etc is really big.

So very adorable! Thanks for sharing!!

I bought some of these jars...I just love them. They got pushed back tho. But...I would say that HTP-93 would be a good starting point. Other wicks for that size with 6006 to start would be, CD-7/8 - LX-14 - ECO 1 or 2

Since tarts/melts are only warmed to the point of melting I don't see an issue. I see lots of candles with glitter and herbs and stuff sprinkled on...that makes me cringe! Glitter the jar if you need sparkly, keep the fire as safe as possible!

Yes...I know that the gloves are "single use" and "disposable" and when I worked it wasn't my money buying them...but my Grandmother taught me frugality and so I would get a good 4-5 days use out of each glove by just carefully positioning it against the shortening/lard so that I could slide my hand back in for another use. My system was pretty easy, I put a piece of parchment on top of the scale, then dug out handfuls of shortening and weighed it, then just plopped the shortening into the mixer, scraped it with a spatula and even the parchment could be reused that day at the shortening area. Keep everything organized and close to each other and the mess is contained. I also like debratant's idea as well. Using a hot knife in one hand, and a gloved hand in the other you can get larger pieces out of the container. Our hand's are truly our best tool. Always close by too!!

...think...disposable plastic gloves. Like the food service people use. Put the whole bag in a closeable tub to keep out dust, and you can cover your hand with a glove and just dig it out, then stick the glove on the top so you can slide your hand back in. It's how I would do vegetable shortening and lard when I worked in a bakery.