Soap & Candles

I did a bit of research of Proctor and Gamble as I've formulated my Soap Company and utilize candles for heating my green house.  I thought the formation of the company may have been based upon the same practicality I stumbled upon, but that was not the case.  Mr. Proctor and Mr. Gamble were both immigrants who married sisters and their father-in-law persuaded them to become partners and establish a business.  The rest is, as they say, history.

I've found a very practical purpose in combining soap and candle making.  First, I'm not really a candle maker.  It's more of a glass container, holding wax and a wick that will burn 8 hours under my clay pot heater in the greenhouse.  We're not talking decorative, I'm strictly utilitarian in my candle making.  I don't need them pretty, as they don't set out, and their point of existence is to burn up.  They don't look exquisite, but my candles do smell good!

As the soap business has expanded and I'm finally to the place of being able to offer essential oils and blends as well; oil expiration is an issue.  Essential oils have an approximate property expiration.  Although the properties in the oils do last for a reasonable length of time, they do not have an indefinite date of potency.  As long as soap doesn't get wet, it has an indefinite shelf life.  Some of my oil blends contain extracts, and that lengthens the property potency, but as a rule unpreserved oils maintain their properties less than 2 years, and some even less.  So, to be able to offer the freshest oils for longevity for my customers, I replace the oils I work with, regularly.

Those oils are not a total loss, after all!  The proper combination of wax and oil make wonderful, sustaining candles, and since I have to move my oils out of the ingredient inventory before they actually expire, they still smell wonderful!  I may never give Proctor and Gamble a competitive run for their money, but this is one more way to maintain quality and keep costs at a minimum.