wookie130

Boy, I wish I had a good answer for this one...most freshly squeezed orange scents smell fuelish to me. Funky-like.

Midsummer Night-NG

Lovespell-Peaks

Sandalwood can be sensous...or anything Asian-spicey. Gardenia is rinky-kinky, in my opinion...

The Kama Sutra line at Nature's garden are kind of naughty too.

There are lots of nice SPP's out there...but I have yet to find one that is soap/skin safe. Good luck!

They look so creamy and smooth! Great work...especially since they're soy!

Gorgeous tarts! I bet they smell deee-lish!

Just a word of advice...pack each tart (or at least each scent) separately, so the scents don't bleed together!

Nice job!

Jeannie, I totally understand where you're coming from...but I thought you were doing the show as well...sorry for the confusion! Well, the fact that no one seemed to be buying her product reveals a lot about what people are genuinely looking for in their candles. They want SCENTS!!! If they truly want a lotion/cream, and they want one that is fragrant, they'll definitely by-pass this lady. And her dipping her fingers into a lit candle is just absolutely irresponsible as a business-person. My goodness, it doesn't reflect well on her...but I disagree about it having to reflect poorly on the rest of us. The best we can do as chandlers in our own businesses, is make safe quality products with diverse and powerful scents, and label them in hopes that the customer does not use the product in a way that it was not intended...if this means we're going to have to start adding a "not intended for external use on the skin" to our warning labels...well, it might come to that...it's a shame, because one's irresponsibility can effect the entire candle-making community. Personally, it seems so silly to have to even consider putting that on a warning label...how many people even thought about dipping their fingers into hot wax and smearing it onto themselves a few years ago? Probably not many...it was basically a universal understanding that candles were meant to be burned, rather than applied to our bodies. *sigh* There will always be a village idiot.

Yeah, I think the wicking is the trickiest part of chandling period. And with para-soy, you really do get the best of both worlds...improved scent throw, a longer-burning candle, no frost, good color, smooth tops, etc. It does kind of make you wonder why more people don't do their testing and revert to using it...but everyone likes something different, and if they've found something that works quite well, why change it?

Just 2 comments...ditch the rooster cursor and the music. Other than that, it's a very charming, wonderful website! Your goodies are wonderful-looking! I especially loved your grubby snowman pillar...he is so adorable!!!!!! Awww...why didn't I think of him???

Nice work! Very very nice.

Your site is lovely! Great work!

TCS's Pink Sugar won't light a candle (no pun intended) to ICS's Pink Sugar. You won't find a better Pink Sugar, actually.

Yeah, I've not heard the best things about this company. Best to stick with my old stand-bys...that's my motto! Oh, and if I hear about a specific oil from a company I haven't ordered from...well, the rest is history.

Sweet Potato Pie is fabulous, as is Hillbilly Homebrew...if you can substitute one of your iffy choices for Pumpkin Crunch Cake, that one is phenomenal as well.

I agree with those that mentioned to add cinnamon...it will take that Pine-Sol edge right out of there, and give you a nice "Northern Exposure" feel to the fragrance...wouldn't be a bad name for the scent, would it?

Yeah, to me it's the best. It's great!

That absolutely makes sense. Once people can look beyond the visual aspect of having a candle that matches their decor at home, they can focus on what really matters when most are candle-shopping...and that's the fragrance! Take out the color, and then be able to purchase the scents you really want without it clashing!

Hmm...there are lots of butt-kicking cinnamons out there for soy.

I would recommend the following:

Cinnamon Sticks...(Millcreek)...my favorite, and I also use C-3 Naturewax.

Cinnamon Sticks (Nature's Garden)

Cinnamon Sticks (Bubbles-N-Lights version...now at Bittercreek North...which is in WI!!!! Yay!!!!)

Any of these three are STRONG spicey cinnamons!

Honestly, I scoured the web for the break-apart tart mold, and couldn't find one...but I did have a super cheap idea for you, that would work the same. Use an ice cube tray!!! Just pour your wax into the first six cavities of the ice cube tray, and pour to a level that joins each cavity, if that makes sense. Hopefully that will give you nifty break-aparts, that will probably look very similar to Bizzy B's. And as far as the tarts in the cups...they were most likely not poured directly into the cups. You know what they do? They use a regular-sized muffin pan. Pour your tarts about 1/2 to 3/4 the size of the muffin cavity, and let harden and cool, release them from the muffin pan. You know what? Those little plastic cups Bizzy B uses for the chunk tarts looks like the plastic cups that you buy paper muffin liners in!!! You could find out how to get these cups, and label the top somehow (with the warning label on the bottom), and voila!

Hope it works...let me know if you try it!

Yeah, tarts are actually a great place to start. I just bought a whole bunch of little separate tart molds from Bittercreek North(about a dozen), heat my wax to the desired temp, add my dye, add my FO, stir, stir, stir, and pour the wax into a Pyrex measuring cup. I put my molds on a cookie sheet that I don't care about, hold a paper towel under the spout of the measuring glass, and pour my tarts! I wait for them to completely cool and harden, and tip them over...out come the tarts! If they are hard to get out of the molds, pop them in the freezer for about 10 minutes...this makes them come right out.

There are many people on here who sell tarts and wax melts exclusively...they are easy to make, and with the right fragrances, can scent a whole room!

Yes, there are definitely differences in how wicks burn...each have their own characteristics...and will perform slightly differently depending on the wax, length of burn time, type of dye and FO used, etc. Some wicks have a cotton core, a paper core, no core, etc., some wicks are self-trimming, some have no curl, some curl, etc. Some wicks smoke more than others depending on the other variables of the candle. Other wicks will give you a large mushroom while burning, which some find unsightly. You are really and truly going to have to test one type of wick at a time, take notes, and see which type of wick, and size, will work for your 16 oz. jars. Testing can be a pain...I would recommend making one test candle, wick it, burn it, take notes on your observations (such as time it takes to come to a full melt pool, length of burning time, type and size of wick, hot throw [how strong it smells as it's burning], size of the flame, if it mushrooms or not). When you're done testing that wick, pull that wick out of the candle, and plug in another. This way, you don't have to pour separate candles for each wick. Hope this helps!

Currently I color my soy candles...I have been considering going to uncolored...there are a lot of benefits to leaving them au naturale. First of all, frosting is a non-issue. Then not having to purchase dyes or colorants cuts down on costs...and you can focus on developing a prettier/more unique packaging concept to enhance the candle. I may end up moving toward this yet!

Yeah, I can see where you were highly annoyed, Jeannie. If you ever have another show with this gal, I would politely point out to her that not all FO's are skin safe, and neither are the dyes. Or, you could just stay quiet, and let her learn her lesson, when someday someone breaks out with a raging skin allergy, someone's child dumps hot soy wax all over himself, etc. I would probably opt for the latter choice.

To me, it seems like such a dumb marketing strategy to show customers how to rub flippin' candle wax into their skin...like it's an added bonus or something, even if it IS safe. If a customer wants something fragrant and smooth to rub into her skin, send her over to the nearest bath and body booth...or give her coupons to The Body Shop. If they want their home to be fragrant and filled with a warm ambiance, then they can stay put and look at my candles.

I'm wondering why the soy chandler at the show didn't bother to smell any of YOUR candles...you mentioned that hers didn't really have any noticeable cold throw. This could be another reason why she was using the candle-as-a-skin-cream bit...she needed something to market her products, because her fragrances just weren't cutting it.

Go ahead and put a tart in the tart warmer/melter, melt it down, and if it smells great, it's a nice tart!

These are the type of lids that I have for my 8 oz square mason jars. They work just fine. I would imagine that the same people that can't take the time to screw the lids properly back on the display candles in the store are the same people that leave their shopping carts sitting in the parking spaces. :smiley2:

http://www.candlescience.com/containers/gold-jelly-lid/

P.S. They also have the black ones. I suppose that the jars that you were looking at may have wider mouths than the 8 oz but if this is the *same type* of lid that you saw, they should still work for those who work them.

Unfortunately, I don't think these lids will work with the wide mouth mason jars. But as far as the wide-mouth lids from BCN, I don't know how well they fit on wide-mouths either...I would personally call BCN or e-mail Doneen and ask this question specifically...she'll be honest with you.

I'm not sure which wicks are included in your sample pack, but for 4630 and 16 oz. jelly jars, I'd start with HTP 73's, 51-32-18z, or LX 18. Give that a shot as your testing starting points. I tend to need to wick up a bit on some of the really heavy fragrance oils, such as Peak's Amish Harvest, BCN's Spiced Cranberry, JS's Vanilla Buttercream Crunch, etc.

Good luck, and I hope this helps!

As a starting point, which size mason/jelly jar are you going to use? Which wax are you going to test? Fragrance oil? Some of us may be able to recommend which wicks to test, if we know the specific variables. And again, these are just recommendations...what work for us may not be your preference.

Oh: I'm editing because you did mention which wax and jar you're using!!!! Doh!!!