Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Testing, testing, testing

At last count, I think I've learned of almost 200 Fragrance Oil suppliers in the US.  There are a number of forums for candlemakers, bath and body etailers, crafters, etc. and the Fragrance forums are always the busiest.  Before I got into this business, I had no idea there were 200 suppliers.  I knew of what I thought were the "big" ones of Daystar, Wholesale Supplies Plus and Brambleberry.  Oh no no no. There are many, many "big" ones! 

On the consumer side, I read about many of you labeling yourselves as tart addicts or wax heads.  If you really want an addicting past time, try testing fragrance oils!  I can't stop.  I must stop.  I won't stop.   Some fragrance oil suppliers have truly gifted writers and their descriptions make you want to order everything.  I have no idea what a Flowering Dogwood smells like but I want it!  

Testing is fun and when you finally hit the right oil, it is heaven.  But the road to heaven is paved with many duds.  Horrible duds.  My latest quest is for the perfect Lily of the Valley.   Not to be found.....yet.  

For many of our scents, we blend a little bit of magic into the formula.  Sometimes you just can't find perfection and you have to create it yourself.  Lots of failures in this formulation process.  Sometimes you get the perfect scent but no matter what you do, you just can't get it to last or throw.  Adding more oil is not an option because wax will only hold so much fragrance oil.  We learned the hard way and our tarts came out with puddles of oil on the bottom which in turn left holes in the tarts.

The wax blend is also very important.  Soy has great "cold throw" for sniffing it cold but some oils just have low "hot throw" in soy wax.  More and more fragrance oil suppliers are starting to create oils especially for soy which is helpful but it is not yet perfect.  Some waxes have great hot and cold throw but are too hard for a tart and the tart won't melt completely.  Others are too soft and that makes it hard to get out of the tart melter even if you put it in the freezer to help the wax "pop" out.  At Cozy Cottage Scents, we use a blend of waxes to get the best of all worlds.  Not easy and lots of testing, testing, testing!

Another aspect of testing is how hot you "pour" the wax at.  If the melted wax is too cool, the fragrance oil will not bind to it.  If the wax is too hot, the fragrance oil will "burn" away before it becomes a solid tart in the mold.  And then some oils need different pour temps and some waxes need different pour temps.  

It's quite possible to get a wonderful tart without knowing any of this.  However, when you are making tarts which customers pay for, to us, it is critical to not list any scent until it has our personal stamp of perfection.  Thus, no Lily of the Valley on our scent list.....yet.  

I think the very worst part of testing is testing a fragrance which is not a personal favorite.  When you don't like something, you have to find someone who can give an honest opinion.  I don't like chocolate scents but had to carry them during Valentine's season.  We needed to get an outside tester who likes the scent of chocolate to give us an honest opinion of our scents and the cold and hot throw.  I love eating it, just don't like it in wax at all!

Cheers!
Lulu

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Building an Empire

It's a good thing we're not in politics because we plan on building an empire!  Cozy Cottage Scents has fallen in love with Caramelized Pralines.  We tested several versions, found the best and strongest, and then tweaked it a bit to make it absolutely perfect. It's sweeter than regular caramel, more butter, too.  The kick is from a very subtle hint of the pecans.  The throw is super and will fill the house for hours and hours.

There are some scents that become empires.  Pink Sugar has many empires built around it as it  blends easily with many other scents.  Another empire builder is Vanilla Bean Noel.  Both these scents are stand alone favorites and readily lend themselves to blending with other notes.  Our empire is being built around Caramelized Pralines.  So far we have blended it with Pink Sugar, Coconut and Banana.  Each is better than the other.  How do you choose?
We have quite a few more Caramelized Pralines blends in the works and can't wait till they are ready for testing.  Make sure you join our monthly newsletter emailing list so you can get the updates on our new scents.  Sign up for our  mailing list is found at the bottom of our home page.

Our next empire..... Red Licorice blends!

Cheers!

Lulu and Pert

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Happy One Month Blog Anniversary!

Hello Fellow Wax Fans!

It has been exactly one month since our first blog post.  I'm surprised I haven't blogged more. Adding this to my weekly "to do" list is a must or I'll continue to forget.  

The very best part of our roles as the owners of Cozy Cottage Scents is finding new fragrance oil suppliers and testing the oils.  As I read various candle boards or makeupalley.com, it seems that many non-owners of candle, tart or bath and body sites believe that most owners buy from three suppliers.  That is so not true.  The three that get mentioned the most are Snow Drift Farms, Wholesale Supplies Plus and Day Star. We have never ordered from two of those.  At this point in time, we have ordered from 23 different suppliers in a list of about 150 to 200 suppliers, some lists still have suppliers listed who have gone out of business or merged with others.  I have visited 112 of the supplier sites and most look wonderful with scent descriptions that make you want to buy all of them.  It's a dangerous hobby!  The other side of this hobby is tweaking the oils with our own formulas and blends.  If you ever saw the original Star Trek episode of "The Trouble with Tribbles," then you can imagine how our scent blends just keep on multiplying and multiplying and multiplying.  Unfortunately, most are not winners!

We have tested six Banana Nut Breads and not been happy with any.  One arrived yesterday and seems to have promise.  There are several forums for those of us who make items using fragrance and they are very giving and sharing posters on those boards.  This supplier came highly recommended for their Banana Nut Bread, we'll see!  Another really tricky scent is Buttercream.  And it's hard to find a Vanilla with decent throw.  The wax or wax blend really matters, too.  I am continually amazed when I read the posts by candle makers (chandlers) or soap makers.  The wick, the wax, the container, everything matters plus they really need to worry about cold and hot throw, especially if they sell at craft or vendor shows.  Soap, well, you might as well be a chemist if you make it from scratch.  I never heard these terms before....seizing, discounting, beating, gelling, and then discoloration is a BIG deal.  Also amazing is how long they have to let the soap cure and how the scent changes in time strong, to weak, back to strong and then completely different or completely gone.  I have a completely new appreciation of hand made soap from scratch.

We hope you share this blog with others as well as our website and facebook page.  Your feedback is very important to us, especially regarding our scents.  Trust me, if something isn't right, we have plenty of supplier choices and infinite blending possibilities.

Cheers,
Lulu and Pert