bsones

I have, and I'm not a fan. To be fair, I'm pretty picky about pine scents (or any scent, really). That said, pretty much every pine-type scent I've tried from CS smells very artificial to me. Mistletoe also has too much other stuff mixed in--there's a really strong fruit note in that one, IIRC. I'm looking mainly for outdoors-y pine scents, not holiday ones. Sharp and green, sweet and earthy--like standing in a grove of pine trees. No fruit, no spice. Pine scents that I like include Yankee's Mountain Pine and Thyme's Frasier Fir (it's not a very good thrower, but I like the smell). Most of Yankee's other pine scents are good, too, though less so than they used to be. I bought a jar of Balsam and Cedar in their new wax formulation, and the throw was very light. Paddywax's Woodlands series has a couple of decent pine scents, and Archipelago's Birch (which is actually a pine scent) is okay.

I poured a bunch of pine testers today. It was mostly a parade of disappointment, but I thought I'd share my notes in case anyone else might find them helpful. For comparison, I have a small tester of WSP's Frasier Fir, which is a bit light, but also the most natural-smelling pine FO that I have ever found. I also have a small jar of Yankee's Mountain Pine, which is--by far!--the best pine-scented candle I have ever encountered. Natural, cool, green, and pleasantly sharp without being Pine Sol-y, and it throws like crazy. They claim that they use pine EOs in it, but I have yet to find an EO that smells like this candle. It's the best pine scent they have ever done, so of course being Yankee, they discontinued it. So, my notes. All fragrances poured at 8% in 3 oz. testers using IGI 4627... Mountain Pine (Peak): I've heard people rave about this, but I have no idea why. It smells almost--not quite, but almost--exactly like Silly Putty. I don't get pine or fir or anything remotely natural from this FO. Thumbs down. Douglas Fir (SOS): This is a newer scent that had no reviews on their site, but I thought I'd give it a try. It smells nothing like Douglas fir, but it does smell almost exactly like verbena. So much so that I'm sort of wondering if I might have gotten a mislabeled bottle. The funny thing is that it smells good--just not like fir. At all. Thumbs sort of up, but only if you are looking for a good verbena FO. Forever Pine (SOS): Kind of a woody base with notes of musk and perfume. Where's the pine? Thumbs down. Blue Spruce (Candle Science): This was perhaps the least disappointing pour of the day. It's not great, but I can at least identify it as a pine scent. It's not a green/sweet sort of pine scent--more warm and sharp with maybe a little bit of an apple note. It has a distinctly artificial smell to it, but at least you can tell that it's supposed to be pine. Thumbs down. Pine Cones (Candle Science): Another pine FO that smells nothing like pine. Or pine cones. A little woody with a hint of spice and a weird, sweet undertone. Like the Blue Spruce, it smells very artificial. The sort of scent you might expect to encounter in a hospital gift shop. Thumbs down. Fir Needle Essential Oil (New Directions Aromatics): Just to try something that should smell like pine. And it does, but as with most pine EO's it's really quite heavy on the turpentine notes (what people typically refer to as "the Pine Sol smell"). Not something that would be pleasant on its own, but a small amount might make a nice addition to a pine FO that needs some punch. Thumbs sort of up. Fir Balsam Essential Oil (New Directions Aromatics): Same as the Fir Needle oil, but a bit warmer and sharper. Same conclusion. The search for a good pine FO continues...

Nope, I haven't tried that one. Is it good? How is the throw?

Personally, I've found that the difference between what a FO smells like on a test strip (let alone OOB) and what it smells like in wax is so vast that I stopped using test strips altogether. If you really want to know how an FO is going to smell in a candle, then you have to pour one. I make testers with those little 4 oz. Ball canning jars, which hold exactly 3 oz. of wax. I melt 78 grams of wax right in the jar, and then add 7 grams (roughly 8%) of the FO that I want to test. Then I can check the cold throw, or drop in a wick if I want to test the hot throw. They seal up air-tight so that I can save them for later reference.

There are a lot of different interpretations on sandalwood out there, so picking a "best" really depends on your tastes. That said, my current favorite is WSP's Sandalwood, which is a straight-up sandalwood scent with none of the musk or floral notes that you often find in sandalwood FOs. It's a good thrower, too, at least in paraffin. Cold throw is intense, hot throw is a bit more mellow. Still strong, but not as overpowering as you might expect from smelling the candle cold.

Scent actually enhances the mottling effect of the IGI wax. The more scent you add, the more mottling you get. So you might want to try one with some fragrance in it, just to see how it looks.

It's a mottling wax. Probably their own blend, but IGI 1274 should be a good place to start.

I've never found any that are an exact dupe for the Thymes scent, but WSP's Frasier is indeed the closest. It's not exactly the same, but it's a great FO, and one of the most natural-smelling pine scents I've ever found. It's a little bit "flat" by itself; try mixing in a small amount of Fresh Dirt, which adds that little bit of sharpness that the FO needs.

Nope, just paraffin. I have some 6006 sitting around that I've been meaning to test, but I've never poured soy before. Nope, sorry--that's one that I haven't tried.

I love pine scents. I've tested a lot of pine FOs. I have a box filled with nothing but pine FOs--maybe 25 to 30 of them, from many different suppliers. Most of them aren't very good, IMHO, but I'm pretty picky. I like natural-smelling pine scents. If I catch a whiff of anything artificial, then it's a no-go for me. I hated all the pine FOs from Peaks and Candle Science. They all smell pretty fake, and Peaks' Mountain Pine actually made me feel a bit nauseous. NG has one pine FO that smells pretty authentic, but it's very weak (I can't remember which one--Pine Plantation, maybe? Something like that). Avoid Sweetcakes, too. Both of the pine FOs that I tried from them had a strong floral element, like someone hosed down a fake pine tree with cheap perfume. Yuck. Stuff I like: All of WSP's pine scents are pretty good. Windsong Balsam is a sharp, turpentine-y sort of pine--not a Pine-Sol smell*, but not at all sweet. Frasier Fir is a rich, sweet-green scent that is very reminiscent of Thyme's, but a bit... greener. Santa's Tree Farm falls sort of in-between--warm and green but not quite as sweet as the Frasier, with a bit of a woody component. It's probably my favorite of the three, but it's also the weakest. It doesn't throw strongly, even in paraffin. Lonestar's Pine is a very natural-smelling, sharp pine FO. A bit like Windsong Balsam, but it throws better. It's all pine--no added notes. SOS has a ton of pine FOs, and they are very hit and miss, but their Christmas Pine is a big hit. This is a sweet pine, but not as soft (or weak) as WSP's Frasier Fir. It throws really well (in paraffin, at least). It apparently contains some real Siberian fir EO. BCN's Sagegrass and Pinion leaf is also pretty nice, but it's not very pine-y. Heavy on the sage. *(Pine-Sol, for what it's worth, is made from pine essential oil. People often complain about pine FOs that smell like Pine-Sol, but Pine-Sol is what pine EO actually smells like).

I have an induction cooktop. It is extremely accurate, and can do very high heat (hotter than most home gas cooktops--it can boil water in about half the time that it would take on a high-powered gas burner) and extremely low, controlled heat. Yes, you can melt chocolate without a double boiler. And wax. Lots of professional chefs/pastry chefs do use them--they are pretty common in commercial kitchens. Less so in homes in the US, probably because of the cost, though they are very common in European homes. They are not at all complicated to install--I installed our cooktop myself, and involves exactly the same setup as an electric cooktop. Which is to say, you plug it in. It is true that solid aluminum pans/pots won't work on them; you need something magnetic. Cast iron works great, and most good clad-aluminum cookware (like All-Clad) is also designed to work with induction. I highly recommend induction for cooking; I would never willingly go back to either gas or electric. All that being said, a Presto Pot is probably a simpler (and more affordable) solution for candle making.

So here's a random question that has probably been asked before: When figuring fragrance oil percentages (and dealing with maximum recommended percentages), do you aim for a percentage of the total weight of wax + FO, or for a percentage of the weight of the wax alone? For example, in the chart upthread, it suggests that 10% FO for a pound of wax is 1.6 ounces. But if you were to add 1.6 ounces of FO to 16 ounces of wax, the FO would only make up about 9% of the total weight (which is actually 17.6 ounces once the FO is added). If you wanted 1.6 ounces of FO to be 10% of the total weight, you'd need to add it to 14.4 ounces of wax. So which is the "officially right" way to do it? If you have a wax that maxes out at 10%, which of the above methods (add 1.6 oz. of FO to 14.4 oz. of wax, or add 1.6 oz. of FO to 16 oz. of wax) would you use?

I'm certainly not going to argue that $60 is a reasonable price for a candle, and having high-quality candles in scents that I like without going bankrupt is a large part of the reason I started making candles in the first place. That said, spending too much money on something extravagant is the very definition of "splurge." I look at it this way: I can afford to splurge on a high-end candle every now and again because I don't spend that much on candles on a weekly basis any more.

Okay, it was kind of a splurge, and not something that I would buy regularly. (Though I might, if I could afford it!) Call it an early Christmas present to myself. It's a very pretty candle; I've always loved the Diptyque aesthetic and label design. Some wet spots, but to be perfectly honest, I don't really care about wet spots, especially in a candle that was shipped to me in below-zero weather. People obsess over wet spots too much. Otherwise, a nicely made candle: properly trimmed wick, flat top, no frosting, and oh, the throw! The hot throw is great; burning downstairs in the living room of my 1700 sq. ft. house, even the upstairs got a bit of scent, which is pretty unusual for a candle of this size (6.5 oz.). The cold throw is amazing. The box comes wrapped in Cello, probably to keep it clean. After taking it off, I could very clearly smell the candle, even without opening the box. Unpacked and sitting on the mantle in my living room, it throws throughout the entire room without even being lit. Impressive. The scent is really nice--kind of a smoky, earthy, woodburning stove sort of smell, with just a hint of sweetness. Burns nicely, too. Some mushrooming at the end of a three-hour burn (not Yankee-caliber mushrooming, but some). After my recent frustrations trying out some Thymes candles, it was nice that Diptyque didn't disappoint. Ah, if only these were cheaper. Very nice candle, though.

Yeah, that's one of the few scents for which I have no point of reference (I've never smelled real dragon's blood), so I'm not sure whether I dislike it in general or just dislike CS's version. But I definitely disliked CS's version. Nasty.