Chefmom

I consider myself a pretty well read person.  I can go toe-to-toe with any chest beating self righteous individual when it comes to natural, organic etc.   I start polite and let them make their points first to see where they have learned their information from before adding my knowledge to the conversation.  I don't get nasty or mean, unless I have to.....

I have NEVER read ANYTHING that proves essential oil candles are anything beneficial to the air quality or aromatherapy value.  I have read plenty where people are trying to convince others that their "natural" soy or even beeswax will somehow clean the air, improve your health and a whole lot of horse puckey.

Combustion is combustion is combustion.  You get complete combustion or incomplete combustion.  ALL combustion produces "stuff" in the process.  ALL combustibles are from natural sources, straight up or refined from natural sources.  You burn it, you get stuff.  That's about as scientific as I can put it, I'm a Baker and an Artist not a scientist. 

If a customer is questioning the use of pure essential oils over a synthetic fragrance I smile and point them to a water vapor system with a tealight or electric warming plate or reed diffusers.  If they don't mind the tealight, that is what I recommend and it is what I use myself.  I use a tealight warmer, a little water in the top and a few drops of essential oils and it gently puts the scent in a small area, some will fill my living room and drift around, but usually a small area.  If they don't want the burning of a tealight then just plug in one of the many lightbulb wax warming systems with the same water and a few drops.  Don't let the water run out and problem solved.

I know I have read in the descriptions of fragrance oils that essential oils are used in the blend sometimes.  So they have to be as safe to burn as the fragrance oil is.  What is safe to burn?  Does anyone REALLY know.  It all depends on who paid for the study to be done as to the trustworthyness of the outcome.

I agree with the "hemlock is natural" and it's funny because I have used that EXACT line myself!!!!  Hemlock grows all around here, I'll bet very few people know that. 

Chew on the plant leaves and you get a lift, refine it down to a white powder and you get cocaine that can kill you....but it's NATURAL!!!!

I use the double boiler system and it works very well for me.  I have a presto pot, so that I can make candles away from my kitchen stove.  But i use the presto to hold the water and then put the aluminum pour pots into the presto to heat the wax.

I have 6 pour pots.  2 are just for the wax, one for container wax, one for pillar wax.  I have a little colored yarn tied on the handle so I can tell the difference at a glance.

The other four rotate for the candles I need to pour.  While I am setting up, I set my presto with water and my wax in the pour pot to about 175* using the presto thermometer.  Then I set up what I need and lay out the difference containers or molds etc.  Then I take an empty pour pot and weigh liquid wax into it, depending on how much I need.  The bulk wax gets set aside while I put the measured into the presto to heat to the right temp (faster with the smaller amount of weighed wax), then color and fragrance, stirring, temperature taking etc and pour.

THAT pour pot gets set aside if I need to do a repour (like for a pillar) and I repeat with the next pour pot.  I can rotate them when they are empty quickly because I wipe them clean between uses with paper towels.

It's about getting a system that works for you.  I can pour many testers in a short time because I have the wax liquid and ready to go.  While I am pouring, I put the plain wax back in the presto to stay liquid and I top it off as needed with fresh chunks of wax.

I would not recommend adding scent to the jar with the liquid wax simply because the point of testing, is just that, testing a candle made with your system.  If that is going to be your final system, then test away, but it is better in my opinion to stir the fragrance into the wax before pouring to ensure an even incorporation of the two substances.  You have to have a repeatable system so that you can make candles consistently. 

Funny thing...I'm a professional Baker and Cake Decorator....and I didn't even think of it!!  Grrrr......

CAKE BATTER!!

How brilliant!  Especially since you can bake in a loaf pan, which is very similar to a loaf soap mold, then cut up the cake just like the soap would be cut.

Yup.  Brilliant.

I have test many, many waxes over my years with candles.  In the end you can't make a wax do what it doesn't do.

You can't make a cow lay an egg.  If you want eggs you have to find a chicken.

If you want 100% soy, then you embrace soy wax and all of its attributes.  Every wax has it's ups and downs, every wax has its own set of rules....science dictates those rules.

You can tweek the commercial waxes, you can buy raw ingredients and blend your own.  In the end experimentation is the only way you will have definitive answers for yourself.

I make candles based on what end product I wanted, how I wanted it to look and burn.  I make scented containers that are palm and parasoy, paraffin and beeswax and beeswax blend pillars and votives and hand dipped beeswax tapers (probably my favorite to make and burn).

I think in the beginning people are in a rush to make soap!!  It is exciting to find out, research and then plunge in.  There is so much to read now online than there was when I first started and it is easy to get carried away with the soap bar recipe with EVERYTHING in it..Oh, olive oil has to be there, and coconut too, and don't forget shea butter, ohhhh some kind of clay.  And salt, yes.....don't forget that way cool color swirl you just pinned....but, but then there is salt too.

You can read and read all day about all of these great additions in soap and it can be very hard to step back, slow down and start with just one thing.

In the beginning I followed other recipes, with as many as 6-8 different oils in various amounts.  I didn't know a thing about a lye calculator, so I followed the recipe.  The only EPIC-fails were my first attempts at cold process milk soaps.  I ended up really loving the life and depth of the hot process soaps and so that is the path I took.  I had no clue that my first soap recipe had close to 25% superfat, but DAYAM was it nice on my skin.  And bubbly too.

Once I learned what I liked and did NOT like in soap I started to narrow down my preferences, like anything its a learning curve.  I read more and more, made more soap, and learned that sometimes a great bar has very few ingredients in it.

When anyone asks me where to start I give them the basic 50%olive, 30%palm, 20% coconut.  Make it.  Learn about it and then go from there.  For heavens sake DON'T make a 10 pound batch as your first soap!!  Use one addition at a time and see what it does different.  Sometimes an expensive add on, makes little different in the finished bar.

Alas, most people don't listen and they rush to make a soap worthy of 200 hits on Pintrest. 

I have to remake a batch of hot process that I screwed up pretty royally last week.  I was going to try a large version of a 1 pound experiment from last month when I had the soap traced and cooking in the crock pot I was putting my ingredients back in the cabinet and discovered that I used more shortening and coconut oils than I should have.  It was pure user error on my scale...  >>>hanging my head in shame<<<

I spent the hour+ of cook time scrambling to run numbers to discover that I had 18 ounces TOO MUCH oil in the batch.  I was going to superfat with shea butter, but scratched that, ran the whole thing through soapcalc and then went ahead with scents and color swirls.  So far so good, the soap is at 18% superfat, and I have a different recipe that I go 20% on, so I'm hoping they cure and are good to go.  >>crossing fingers<<

Plus I tried beer soap for the first time.  Cold process, so it's a long wait to see how it turned out.....that's why I like hot process.  I can test quickly and at least have an idea of what is to come.

That is weird I typed that in and got 165 results but I did not use the " "

I did not use the quotes in the search.  It came back with no results.  None of the searches I have tried have brought back any results.

I'll try what Joannec suggests next.

Well, nothing I search for comes back with results.  Too few letters in words, "removed" from search, or I'm searching too many times in too many seconds.

Even when I typed in something I knew should bring up results like "palm container test" I get no results for this search.

Not sure what I'm doing wrong, this isn't my first pony show....search wise, but it's a shame, there is a lot of info on this board....it's just a heck of a lot harder to find......

A huge part of this board is its past cache of valuable info on candles, techniques, wicking etc.

Where did it go??  I have lots of notes that I have written over the past couple of years, but I still come back and do searches for others experiences with various types of waxes and wicks etc.

Nothing comes up in the searches.  Its as if all of that info is just gone.

Is it gone?

I organize mine in the multi colored "photo' boxes from Michaels.  They are cool, heavy boxes, go on sale for pretty cheap, and stack really well.  Then they are sorted by supplier and then alphabetical. 

TOO many fragrances??

I can agree with CandleScience and Lavender.  Of the ones I have tried, that is the closest to my nose to essential oil.

As for rose, I like the CandleScience Golden Rose.  Most roses are slap you in the face!!  This one is pleasant and rosey without the slap. 

Lemon......please!!  help me on that one!  I haven't found that "one" yet....still looking though

This does sound really interesting.  Especially to try out a fragrance that you are on the fence about liking or not.  Or a blend test...Hmmmmm......

So.....is there any hard and fast rule for ratios?  I have rock salt on hand as well as Kosher, sea and canning salt.  Hmmm, might have to play.

The inner test kitchen technician in me is coming out......

Email received!

I have no issue with the basic banner ads.  I get the need to have them.

What will make me NEVER come back is the ads that are on auto play.  All I did was move my mouse across the banner on the screen and the add automatically popped up with a V*E*R*Y L*O*U*D video playing.  I did NOT click on the add in any way.  It began playing just from the mouse moving over it.  I keep all my volumes set to low because I am sound sensitive and somehow this ad is able to blast out the windows.

I have my browser set for no pop ups, but these ads seem to by pass that setting.

That will chase me away.  I will not browse a forum and have to fight with the ads.

I primarily make candles, but I have been making the wax melts to be able to offer beside my candles.  I have not thrown myself into the wax melts like I did candles, but I think I might have some advise.

In my honest and humble opinion....the wax blend should do what you want as a wax.  It looks good in the end, it pops out of the molds or clamshells etc that you are using, it is easy to clean up, it needs to fill the desire that you want in the end.

After that, you want it to carry that scent as long as possible....obviously.  However, all fragrances are different and some will work and many will not.  So in the end, make the wax what YOU want and then find the fragrances that work with that wax.

If you try different waxes AND different fragrances...then you will succeed in making yourself well and truly nuts.

Maybe try your wick, but with a taller neck on the wick tab. That way there is some wax left at the bottom of the jar, and it can't suck up every last bit....making for lots of soot and hot jar.

And in my opinion it is the woman's own fault about the mark on her wood surface. You should never burn a candle of any kind without something under it. That is just wood surface protection 101.

OOO oooo oooo ooo oooo

This is a scam!! Big time!!

Cake decorators online are always talking about this scam!! Don't bother with them anymore.

In the cake world this is how it goes....

You get an email saying...usually in bad broken english. I need a wedding cake for 500 people, I want it to be vanilla cake with buttercream frosting. Please tell me how much that will be.

So.....the cake lady sends a quote back. The cake will be $1000, but where is it being delivered to?

They respond. We have our own shipping person. All we need for you do to is to make the cake, and our shipping person will pick up the cake, you do not have to worry about delivery.

And the kicker. They tell you. We are sending you a check. It will cover the cost of the cake, and there will be additional money in the check for you to pay the shipper in case when they pick up the cake.

IF you fall for this. You will make the cake (out time and money) and then SOMEONE will come and take the cake and take the cash. THEN your bank will contact you after the fact telling you the check was bogus and you are out ALL the money!!!

SCAM. Big time.

She will want you to make the candles, then use her shipper because real shipping is just SOO expensive and her shipper is reasonable. She will want YOU to pay the shipper from the money she "sends" to you. You will be out product, time, and lots of money.

Run. Run away.

If the pottery is handmade it is probably glazed inside. Clay is porous and so if it isn't glazed at least on the inside the wax would be soaked up by the clay.

If someone took an unglazed piece and then painted it or sprayed it in anyway I would not think that is safe to use for a candle. It would get too hot and may release fumes.

The glazes in pottery making are fired at several thousand degrees, so the heat from a candle will not release any fumes.

You can not spray into an unglazed pot, it has to be done when making it, and then fired in a kiln.

I have a close connection with earth fragrances. When I was a child, my favorite spot to go and think was in the woods. It was a big rock outcropping on a hillside that was covered with moss and I would lay on the top of the rock and read and think etc. I remember the smells were damp moss, rich earth, trees and fresh air.

Forest and earthy scents are still my favorites.

While I have not made cheese myself, I have read several books etc.

Everything i have read indicates that cheese wax is for cheese and you should stick with it. If you have ever felt a piece of wax from cheese, it is very flexible and soft. I would think that it is food grade paraffin and then the mycrocyrstaline for the flexibility.

Once you have some in hand maybe play with proportions on your own, but for the beginning at least I would stick with the wax for cheese.

Also I have never tested so many at one time before. I made 5 batches with different amounts of the waxes I want to use. Some are just paraffin some are parasoy. So what's the best way to test, sondoo I melt them all at one time just in deterrent rooms or different times?

Did you use the same fragrance in each wax combo? I would not test different combos at the same time. You won't know if you are getting good throw from one, and poor throw in another if the good one covers up the bad one.

Also, if you used different fragrances, well, even in different rooms you have the potential to carry over and really make yourself sick. Some fragrances just don't mix, and I have been chased out of my house when I poured two incompatible fragrances back to back.

I would just pick one, and test it in one or two places and then write down everything. Keep good notes and you will thank yourself later. Trust me!!

I have a case of 4625 and yes, the slabs are sometimes broken when it arrives. Mine was damaged by UPS in shipping, but hey, it's just wax and I have to break the slabs up anyway.

The outside of the box has a white label with the LOT# and it is marked 4625. Peaks ships the cases of wax as they come from the IGI manufacturer. So if the wax is broken and crumbly then it could have happened when it was shipped to them.

When they ship an individual slab, they wrap it in a plastic bag, but the full cases ship out as they receive them.

Also, my 4625 isn't creamy at all, it is more opaque. It isn't like raw paraffin and translucent, but something in between.

I agree with Imc, Peak's has excellent customer service. ANY issue, give them a call. The few times I have had to call, or even type chat on the web-site I have been satisfied completely.

Since the mod podge is on the inside of the jar my concern would be that it can't handle the high heat put out with a flame when a fully poured candle is inside the jar. A tea light burns at a much lower temperature, but a regular candle is going to be hotter.

Also, would the mod podge break down in that heat?

They are cute, I wonder if they can be washed after the baking process. And.......what kind of fumes do they make when you bake them in the oven? That would be my first concern.