Interesting topic Wanda and thanks for the instructions on how to carve out a pillar. I've usually just let them burn enough to make a well to hold a real tealight then messed around with a knife but your way sounds much neater. :-) I burn real tealights, votives, tapers, then pillars in that order of frequency but tealights the most. I have a bazillion tealight holders (ys finds) and feel they are safer than tapers with the cats. I like the beeswax or soya the best altho have a lifetime supply of paraffin ones but mostly use them outdoors in the summer. Ikea has the best quality paraffin tealights for the lowest price IMO and sell in bags of 100 for about $3 on sale ($4-something regular) and I've also bot them at YS's for even less. I do have some battery ones I got a few years ago for the RV (for safety) but wasn't impressed with the appearance of the flame altho I've been told they have improved so should give them a try again. I like the idea of remote control pillars as I have the same accessibility problem on my mantel. I'd like to use them as there are convection currents because of the stove and my beeswax tapers dripped on the silk poinsettias at Christmas.

I've been making candles for the past 25 years and the one thing that I can tell you that you will hear again and again is TEST TEST TEST.. and it's truly the best advice to give.. Bitter Creek Candle Supply (http://www.candlesupply.com/) offers good things for newbies.. they sell sample packs of wicks, and wax in 10-11 lb slabs, and their shipping is pretty good.. and the prices are reasonable I've tried some of their fragrance oils and they are pretty good, if you like B&B Work type fragrances then it's TonyÂs Fragrance Oils hands down, they are a little higher on some things but they ship their oils in Boston Rounds not plastic! And you can use the empty bottles for mixing your own blends I also use them for room sprays http://www.tonysfragranceoils.com/ Hope this helps, tori~

Hello, I read your post and use to buy & sell Party Lite candles. I stopped using them when I found out that Party Light candles are not all made here in the USA which we did not like since we had no knowledge of the quality of the materials used in making their candles. We agree, Party Lite had a nice scent throw but the soot is far too much for our liking. We couldnt help wonder what it was doing to our lungs. So to find a healthier alternitive to burning candles, Many years ago, I became interested in making my own candles. I have sold them in my own retail locations for years. I have made all sort of candles using many types of waxes. Overall (next to beeswax) we prefer soy wax. There is no dispute that soy wax is a much cleaner wax to burn. We have had great results from our soy candles and our customers come back for more. We found that measuring our fragrances by weight, not by volume gave us a better scent throw. We also found that buying a higher quality of fragrance oil also worked well for us. At times, depending on the fragrance, we have used 1.5 ounces (by weight) of fragrance oil per pound of wax. Keep in mind, wax is like a sponge and can only hold so much fragrance oil. Too much oil and you can get the opposit effect and have a poor scent throw. It is important to mix the fragrance oils very well to make sure they bind to the wax. Without aggitating, we mix ours for about two minutes. Hope this is helpful. Debbie

I should've posted to that i have bought from different places to make all 30 of these candles. Everything wasn't bought at just by nature. So it's not that there products arn't good its something that i am doing. I've had a varity of products from different sellers and still no result......Thanks