Breakfast-in-Bed Candles
Luck of the Irish Shamrock Candles
Another Favorite Whole Pie -- Banana Split Style
Cakes, Cuddles & "THE LOVE ORB"

By Patti Smith
Gel Candle Design Artist
BioMax Candle Supply
www.biomax1.com

ALL PICTURES AND REFERENCES ARE TO "NON-EDIBLE" NOT-FOOD ITEMS

February 2004

February is a time for renewed love and laughter… so this month we bring you the cutest life-size cupcake candles with wax 'Candy' hearts…. but we didn't stop there.. see our 5" cake candles featuring whipping cream with RED glow pigment, so the candle lights up at night…. and next -- our darling glowing ROMANCE candles with various unique glass embeds… AND LAST….but certainly not LEAST.. our newest version of the

GLOWING " L O V E ORB!! "

Whether you pour your own paraffin or buy the cupcakes & whipping top pieces pre-poured, http://www.biomax1.com/html/dessert_embeds.htm these cupcake candles of the most fun to make. Simply thread the wick thru the cupcake base and thru the whipping top. Next melt some clear gel and scent with your favorite CAKE TYPE scent or FRUIT TYPE (we used our Wild Cherry) -- allow the gel to semi-cool until it is thick like icing, drizzle over the whip topping to create the authentic shine. Next place your wax 'candy hearts' in position on the whipping top and once again drizzle the clear thickened gel over the hearts. We love how the gel acts as our 'glue' to hold the pieces together.

This is a super easy candle to make and real eye stoppers for glancing customers. Just add the clear box and tie with a Valentine Ribbon ! YUM!!!

The Ideas are simply endless. Above are votive size 'tarts' with pecans and praline toppings. That Pecan Pie Fragrance is your marketing winner!

Next comes our 'Cuddle' Candles.. made with glass embeds and a paraffin base for added contrast.

First pour the white paraffin base and allow to set. Next add some chunks of unmelted gel and sprinkle with solid and open hearts, various colors and sizes. They will stick to the chunks of gel and 'suspend' throughout the candle.
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We then added some chunks of GLOW GEL and poured clear gel scented with our LOVE SECRETS fragrance, and embedded one of our metallic gold hearts with the red glass rose in the center. The chunks of gel will hold the heart upright and make this a colorful and simple candle to make.

You can also create "2 candles in 1" by place another glass embed on the other side of the candle. Here we used our LOVING COUPLE embed and you can see the floating hearts here:
http://www.biomax1.com/html/colors_glitters.htm Remember that customers love a 'dual purpose item', and it adds only pennies to your raw product costs.

Now our 5" Glowing Whip Cream Cakes -again featuring a paraffin cake base -



We threaded our wick thru the center of the paraffin cake base, then melted some whipping cream wax blend, colored with the RED GLOW pigment. When subjected to daylight, the whipping cream will now GLOW at night… Simply Melt the blend and allow to semi-set and spoon onto the top of the cake base. While still wet, place wax red lips around the edge. We placed a glass RED heart in the center and then poured semi-cooled clear gel over the top to set the pieces together. Then we sprinkled some little hearts and added the foil I LOVE YOU.

Package in a clear box, with red floral foil in the bottom, and tie with ribbon.

Now our favorite.. THE LOVE ORB.. simply irresistible !!
We chose the 'swirled' ivy bowl glassware from Walmart. As the candle burns down, the swirl pattern in the glass will show, adding interest and contrast.

We poured about 1" of gel and allowed to semi-set. Next we poured gold micro dots on one side and valentine hearts on the other side. Then added more chunks of unmelted gel, being careful that the pieces do not touch the wick since we want it to remain straight. And we poured some fine red glitter and some neon PINK color crystals and grain wax. This adds lots of opaque color to give our ORB lots of 'depth'. Next we sprinkled, very finely, some GLOW PINK pigment.. just a few sprinkles on the gel chunks. This will make the inside of the candle brightly glow in the dark…. adding that special MAGIC…

Repeat layers and sprinkle some extra hearts on the top gel. Our finishing touch on the top is a glass gold heart with the red rose …on the edge of the scallop rim. We drizzled some thickened gel and attach the wire script 'LOVE'. Tie a red and white bow and your candle is finished.

Have FUN with your Valentine Candles and let your creativity blossom. Remember if you have some extra supplies left from Christmas… Use the Red for Valentines.. and save the Green for March… St Patrick's Day!!!

February 2003

One of my most fondly-remembered breakfast experiences was a recent stay at a New York Bed & Breakfast where we were treated to a 'Candlelight Breakfast'. How charming and cozy - offering a perfect start for the day. With Valentine's Day just around the corner, it is a great way to take advantage of our delicious Belgian waffle design AND incorporate it right into the romance of Valentine's Day.

And then just a few weeks will roll by, and St Patrick's Day will be upon us. As a first announcement of Spring, our hearts become light as we ready ourselves to shed the frocks of winter. Our sparkling Shamrock Candle casts its emerald colors ready to welcome the first spring grasses and flowers.

Lastly, our third featured candle this month is a full-size Banana Split Ice Cream Pie…. And yes, mouths are allowed to water. All three of these designs are easy and will give you added experience in several pouring techniques, incorporating gel and paraffin, and embedding practice.

BREAKFAST-IN-BED, Valentine Belgian Waffles:

NOTE: Our candle uses just one Belgian Waffle for the base, however you would easily 'stack' a couple for added height and size.

The wax Belgian waffle has a hole in the center so you can thread the wick from the bottom. We next melted some of our whipping cream blend of paraffin base to create that authentic look and contribute to our red and white theme. After the paraffin has started to melt, we add our scent and pour off a few tablespoons into a small pie tin so that it will begin to quickly thicken, and we can spoon 'chunks' onto our waffle base - just like we do with our beer heads. ( Keep in mind that using your fingers is GREAT, because you get a FREE paraffin dip without a trip to the Spa-just be careful with the temperature of the wax !)

We lay chunks of paraffin all around the wick and mold the shape. Next we drizzle some more melted paraffin over the chunks to get a semi-smooth surface and adhere the pieces together to resemble whipping cream. While the paraffin is still semi-warm press three red wax hearts around the wick. Our next step is to pour some scented clear gel, semi-cooled and thickened, over the hearts. This gives a nice shine and allows our foil heart shapes to adhere nicely. Lastly, give the whole candle a light dusting with stearic flakes…adds dimension and a nice finish - similar to a powdered sugar look.

Our second design this month is our "Luck of the Irish, Shamrock Candle". You can pick just about any type of glassware for this candle. We chose a 4 oz jar. We dipped our wick tab into the melted gel and used our BET (BioMax Embedding Tool) to push the wick tab into position and seat it on the bottom of the jar. The gel is very good to hold the wick in place while we create the rest of the candle. A trick here is to snip off the length of the wick just above the glass rim….extra length will only get in your way, and the zinc core is very good to stand straight and erect on its own.

We next want glitter and that wonderful gold metallic glitter look that is so popular for St. Patty's Day (which is MY birthday BTW :o) So we poured the bottom of the jar, to cover the wick tab, with our gold microdots... which also look like little gold pieces. We Added just a few sprinkles of Emerald green glitter for contrast.

Next we pulled some 1" chunks of un-melted gel and placed them in our jar, carefully AROUND the wick so that it will remain straight without the weight of gel resting on it. Now we sprinkle just a little emerald green and celestial gold glitter on the chunks so we will have our diamond-cut metallic look inside the candle. This is a favorite of customers.

Now we added some Key Lime fragrance and just a few neon green color crystals to our melting gel and stir to mix well. Pour into the jar leaving a little extra head space for the displacement from the wax shamrocks we will embed. Now you need to WAIT until the gel begins to thicken and cool in the jar. We dusted our wax shamrocks with celestial gold glitter to fancy them up a bit. When the gel has slightly cooled and thickened, we slide our shamrocks into the candle, up close to the glass wall. Use the embedding tool to position exactly where you want them. Then just a couple foil shamrocks will finish the candle... remember to leave 3-4 on the top surface too! Notice how the colors of the spectrum twinkle in the celestial glitters.

A fun candle for St. Patrick's Day !!! and we also did the same technique to embed St. Patrick Blarney Buttons with the fun Irish quotes; these have been a favorite with our customers & makes a great candle pair!

Our 3rd Feature this month is our full-size Banana Split Ice Cream Pie Candle…. What Fun! and gives you more experience with the whipping cream blend. We want this candle to really 'mound up' over the top of the crust for the 'full' cream pie look. So we dip our 3 wicks into gel and seat them in a triangle in the bottom of a 9" pie tin. Next we pull chunks of gel that we had already scented with Banana, and added just a few shavings of white color block for our pie base.

Fill the pie tin full with chunks of gel, going around the wicks. This will give you extra height and is a great time-saver. Then we placed our full-size crust sections on the ridge of tin and over-pour with liquid scented gel to fill the tin to the crust ridge and lock the pieces into position. Allow the gel to go just underneath the crust so that it will be held into position nicely.

Now allow the gel to set while you get your whipping cream paraffin blend melted to begin building your whipping cream top. We scented the whipping cream with Cherry Chocolate, since our base pie is already Banana.

Again we melted some of the whipping cream blend and poured into a container to start cooling and 'skinning over' so we could spoon it onto the top of the pie. Then we melted more wax to pour and fill in the nooks and crannies and give a nice surface. While still warm, start inserting banana slices, pineapple chunks and cherries. Then sprinkle some wax nut pieces.

Next we melt just a little gel and color it deep brown, scented with Chocolate Fudge. Allow to slightly cool and thicken so you can pour a thin drizzle over the entire pie surface. Package it in the large size FRESH BAKED box, and it is ready to go!

This is a super fun pie to make, and to help out, we have assembled a kit containing the crust, wax pieces and some whipping cream blend & the window box… so you have all the pieces ready for you. Of course you can make the same pie on a smaller scale for the 5" crusts also.

Enjoy your candlemaking!!… next month we will have some fun spring ideas for you.

Patti
and the Crew at
www.biomax1.com

Wick Reminders

We recommend that you use only ZINC core wicks--you need the added heat from the metal core for sufficient temperature to burn the gel well... a 50s series for up to 3" opening and 60s series for 3.5 and higher, when you don't go to three 50s.

The biggest mistake we encounter: you should trim the wick to 1/4" for the initial burn, say first half hour. This is the time that the wick actually 'seats' itself into the candle. After that, to avoid smoking, trim the wick back to just a bare 'nub' meaning 1/16th of an inch. When a seated gel candle wick smokes.. 95% of the time, it is because it has too much length. People are used to the height of a wick in paraffin candles which is too much for gel candles. When you extinguish.. teach customers to do a little wick maintenance.. use toothpick to remove any wick droppings. Keep the wick at
the nub height to avoid excessive mushrooming.

This should help you immensely.

Beginning & Advanced Videos by Patti HERE

More Info about the Book & Video Set HERE