wookie130

All we ever needed was that first successful candle, and off to the races we went!!! Congrats! It's fun, isn't it?

I'm trying to place an order for FO at The Candle Source, and each time I add a selection to my shopping cart, and then add another, the second selection completely replaces the first...so I can only have one item in my shopping cart at one time? Does this make sense? Is this happening to anyone else but me? Thanks!

I'm going to add to this thread, as I just poured it just last weekend...but Snickers Coffee Blend from JS is wonderful. I would rate it right up there with Caramel Cinnamon Latte...it's chocolatey, gooey, with strong espresso notes. I absolutely love this new oil.

I'm a soy chandler, but as far as the original question goes, I hope not!!! Gel candles are so pretty and unique! I personally love to buy them!

Try Lonestar's. I've heard it's very authetic.

Millcreeks Mac Apple is wonderful! I am impartial to Peaks Mac Apple too, though.

I think many of us agree that Vanilla Pear is wonderful in wax for candles...maybe it reacted funky in your lotion base? I've had a few oils do that to me...it smells great in one application, but in another, it's wierd. I would call NG, and see if they have any ideas.

Yeah, I would check into the BNL's version, if BCN sells it. Warm Van. Sugar is a softer scent...I would never describe it as a "blow you out the door" type scent...any B&BW dupes from BNL's have been dead-on and wonderful.

I bet it's wonderful!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to try it.

Here would be my fall rec's: Nana's Old Fashioned Apple Butter Cinnamon Rolls with Vanilla Frosting (this is a great year-round scent...absolutely dead-on true to it's name...strong!!!) Country Kitchen (this just screams THANKSGIVING!!!) Pumpkin Nog Caramel Apple Candy Corn Chestnuts and Brown Sugar (WONDERFUL!) Brown Sugar Pecan Blueberry Cheesecake OR My Mama's Blueberry Cobbler...these are both great. My Secret Recipe (a creamy eggnog...) Christmas Splendor Cranberry Spice or Cranberry Sauce (they're different from one another...cranberry spice is a sweet and spicey smell...CS is tart, and true to it's name...both are good). Caramel Cinnamon Latte (Sweet baby Jesus!!!!!!! This one is wonderful!!! Very much a true coffee scent, if you're into that...) Snickers Coffee Blend (this one is new as of last week, I poured it, and my, do I love it. It's chocolately, it's gooey, and loaded with coffee...this one is one of my new favorites.) Boysenberry Spiced Clove...LOVE this smell. Another good one year-round. Hillbilly Fixin's...this is NOT anything like NG's Hillbilly Homebrew (which I love as well), but is a wierd, mysterious, wonderful smell. I think they were trying to come up with a softer voodoo/Ozarks/Deliverance type of thing...love this oil. Vanilla Buttercream Crunch (good all year-round). Becky just put on the web site their new Sweet Potato Pie fragrance...it's on sale as an introductory offer. I'm excited! And their new Snickerdoodle FO as well!

Here's my bakery favorites from JS: Blueberry Cheesecake Cinnamon Rolls with Vanilla Frosting (strong and very realistic) Nana's Old Fashioned Apple Butter Chestnuts and Brown Sugar Country Kitchen (WOW!!!) Brown Sugar Pecan My Mama's Blueberry Cobbler Orange Chiffon Cake (oh, this is yummy!!!) Pumpkin Nog Just introduced this week are Becky's Sweet Potato Pie (I don't know how it compares to NG's...but NG's is FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and Snickerdoodle oils. Sounds pretty good. From NG, their Pumpkin Crunch Cake is to die for, along with the SPP! Really, you can't go wrong anywhere with NG.

Hmmm...this wax seems to be doing to you exactly what C-3 does to me...ah, the beauty of soy!!!! I find with my wax, if I pour a bit hotter, like around 150, I don't get the sinkhole, but I get the round hairline crack, which to me is a bit easier to fix. Trust me, your wick, dye, and FO have nothing to do with it. Also, I do find that just leaving the candle to completely cool overnight before blasting it with the heat gun helps. I've fallen into the whole thing of wanting the soy ugliness to go away as soon as it shows up on my tops, even if the candle is still slightly warm...so I start to blast it immediately with the heat gun. Well, I have much better results if I just let the chips fall where they may with the candle, let the sinkhole appear, let the round hairline crack make it's presence known. Then, I just embrace the ugliness overnight (with some tossing and turning in my sleep...LOL), allowing the candle to COMPLETELY cool, and attack it with the heat gun the next day. I then have much better results. The other option would be to pour the candle as you've been doing, save a bit of wax in your pouring pot, allow the candle to COMPLETELY cool, reheat the leftover wax in your pot to about 5-10 degrees hotter than your original pour, and then do a second pour over the top...a lot of people swear that this is the best solution. It isn't something you're doing. This is soy...and like Top mentioned, each soy has they're own version of suckage. I think the original statement was that each soy wax "sucks in it's own special way." Really, aside from the sink hole, you have a very pretty soy candle going on there...nice color, and I'm sure they smell wonderful!

Would it be possible to blend your own...like a 50/50 ratio?

Amish Harvest - Peaks Banana Nut Bread -Peaks Blueberry Muffins (Try JS's My Mamma's Blueberry Cobbler or my fav Blueberry Cheesecake...YUMMY!) Vanilla Hazelnut - Peaks Cinnamon Bun (Try JS's Cinnamon Roll w/Vanilla Frosting...absolutely powerful and the most realistic cinnabun). Pumpkin Pie Spice- BCN Jamaica Me Crazy Juicy Pineapple Honeysuckle Vanilla Butternut Crunch -WYW (from Bittercreek) and JS are identical...JS's is cheaper, and exactly the same as WYW's. Clean Cotton - Peaks...a good Yankme dupe. Clothes Line Spruce Christmas Tree Snow Angels Jack Frost - Bubbles N' Lights (from Bittercreek) Pink Sugar - Absolutely try this one from ICS Sweet Pea - Peak'sOther Scents we like Lovespell -Peaks Sage and Citrus MacIntosh Bayberry CaribbeanHoliday Mulberry Balsam Home for the Holidays -Peaks Lilac -PEAKS!!!!!! FABULOUS!!!! Lavender Fresh Cut Roses Mandarin Bamboo Starfruit & Mango Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice Nana’s Apple Butter -JS...phenomenal. Grandma’s Kitchen -JS Black Currant Red Currant Claire Burke Original Herbal Ecstasy (Try Purely Herbal from Bittercreek) Midsummer Night -Peak's... Ocean Mist Moonlight Path -Peak's Tuscan Nights Snowy Pine *I heard Farmhouse had a GREAT version of this scent

I really love JS...I know which scents will work in my soy wax, and Becky's specials can't be beat.

There you go...time to possibly test some different wicks!

Well, I basically just answered my own question. They're as butt-frickin-fugly as they come! The only chunkies you can see are at the top...the light brown layer completely hid the blue chunkies, not to mention I ran out of overpour wax during the overpour, so I quick nuked some wax (had to be unscented...ran out of FO), colored it the same color, and finished them off with some unscented soy! Dear Lord, not my evening. Oh well, they'll be fine to burn myself...it was kind of fun trying something different.

Litty's, I can't see your pic (which is more my computer's problem than anything), but have you test burned all of your candles yet? Before you sell, you want to absolutely make sure that your candles are safe, and that the wicks create a full melt pool and burn safely, and that you have the type of hot throw you want from them. Safety is #1 when selling candles, otherwise it's your butt on the line, big time. Do you have warning labels on the bottoms of your candles? Do you have insurance? These are all things I would look into before selling...

Awww...quit beating yourself up! You seem to be doing everything you're supposed to be doing, and I think your rustics are very beautiful! The turquoise one is wonderful, and the purple is beautiful as well! Nice job, and keep at it...you'll get to where you want to be!

I'm a dunce with pillars (never done them), but I did want to comment that yours are very pretty! Love your color, and you did well with the rustic effect.

Doh! Just saw that Meredith suggested the paraffin thing. Sorry!

Or, you could try adding about 30% paraffin to your wax. This would allow you to pour hotter (at around 160 degrees), and your tops would be nice...it may also improve your scent throw!

I am a closet fan of some of Beanpod's fragrances...and the whole tempacure thing is intriguing. I just stand in the giftshop in inhale...their colors are pretty, and the scents are nice. Beyond that, I've never bought them...never burned them, so really I'm no expert. They do have a nice cold throw, but hey, so do ours!

Okay. I'm a C-3 user, and am feeling a bit wacky and experimental tonight. I have some JS's Grammie Berry's Griddlecakes oil left over, and I'm trying something new as we speak. I am currently making two 8 oz. square mason chunkies...the chunkies are colored navy blue (for blueberry's), and the overpour is a very pale tan (for the pancake part)...dark blue chunkies are hardening right now in the cookie sheet...I've popped them in the freezer to aid in release (no, I don't care if they frost...they're chunks for the love of Pete...LOL). Since this is soy (quite opaque), and my soy wax is a container blend, what are the chances that these two candles are going to turn into the most butt-fugly things ever made? Has anyone else toyed much with soy chunk candles? I guess I don't care if they are flops, as I'm intending to burn them myself, and am just playing around, but still...possible success? A likely failure? Any comments???

I would definitely try a different wick. Zincs have never worked well as far as throwing scent in soy...CD's and LX's are much better for this task in this wax. Also, they do need to cure. I have some soy jars I poured last Saturday, and between my raging candle nose that was overwhelmed by a million FO's, and soy being soy, I can now open the jars up on Wednesday, and get a great cold throw. I usually wait for a week or 2, depending on the fragrance. Really, you shouldn't have too much trouble with any of NG's FO's...they're exceptional, and I've found most to work great in soy. You should always add FO's at 175-180 in soy, even if the directions for the wax advise differently. The wax needs to be hot enough for the FO to bind with the soy wax polymers...then I stir the daylights out of it, and allow it to cool to the recommended pouring temp. Adding scent at too cool of a temp with soy can truly give you a weak throw.