I recently went through a box of old soap and candle making files. About half of it was filled with old recipes and project notes...many of them stained and marked up.

I have long been a proponent of keeping good notes in a soap/candle making notebook. Whether you're creating a new recipe, trying a new essential oil blend, or just trying out a new wick, it's really really important to keep good notes. Otherwise you won't be able to repeat your successes...and learn from your not-quite-so-successes.

All right...I must admit...I was pretty pro-soy wax this weekend. I had a soy wax container candle - (one of the nice high ball glass candles I made with the Bramble Berry Soy Waxes) - that had burned down to the bottom.

Normally, I would just toss it out...or leave it to recycle at some (often much) later date. But then I remembered that soy wax can be cleaned up with just soap and water. And you know what? It worked. I used a butter knife to scrape out most of the leftover wax and the wick clip. Next, I used a few paper towels to wipe out most of the remaining wax. Then with some soap and hot water, the rest of the wax came out. The glass was as good as new and ready to be made into a new container candle.

I generally try to be pretty fair and balanced when it comes to preferring paraffin over soy wax...but this was pretty impressive.

I recently got to help a friend clean out their garage and they had a bookcase FULL of small pots, jars, glasses and other unique containers that they were going to use "sometime" for "something." It was a pretty neat collection - and many of them could be used for candle containers...so I was interested.

You can use a lot of different sizes, shapes and types of containers for container candles - but you do have to follow a few simple rules.

How to Choose Safe Candle Containers

We've been talking about hot process soap making in a crock pot lately - and some of you I'm sure remembered another batch of soap I made in that crock pot - a rebatched batch. Rebatching is a way to take finished cold process soap and RE-process it - to add fragrance or additives that wouldn't hold up to the lye or to fix a mistake like leaving out an oil or the fragrance. Like hot process soap making, it creates a lumpier, thicker, more rustic soap - but sometimes it's necessary.