beesweet

I'm so sad that I never got around to ordering Tahitian Village. It's one of my favorite scents for personal use. It smells familiar but I have no idea what it could be similar to.  

Every time I go to order something that I need, it's out of stock. Luckily, I've found replacements for many since they can't be depended on. It's sad because the scents were the best and a few have been irreplaceable.

Green pumpkin doesn't smell at all like pumpkin. All I smell is limey green vines and it isn't pleasant, in my opinion. Definite "no" for me, too. I was really hoping for something more fresh and pumpkiny (but not spicy). 

Actually Goddess is rated at 5% so that's .8oz PPO. With Goddess you can soap it at .5 or .7 and its strong enough at that rate plus it gets stronger with cure. I think you were looking at category 7 which is .25%. Bar soap is category 9.

No, I was referring to Category 4 which is for leave on products like Lotions and Perfumes. At .25% usage in a bottle of lotion, I would think this would be almost non-existent.

^^^One in particular that caught my eye was Goddess at .25%. I believe the original was safe in skin care applications, but that was before IFRA recommendations were listed by suppliers. Many of the Lush dupes also have very low usage.

I've noticed that many of the "soap" scents have very low usage rates. I can't see how they would be strong enough in a leave-on application like lotion or body wash. Has anyone tried them?

I was all set to order sample packs to try the new ones but $18 shipping is too much for me. I believe I'll wait to see what some of the suppliers who offer USPS or Fed Ex get in.

My favorites are Fragrance Buddy, Aroma Haven/Rustic Escentuals, and Lonestar. I also like Just Scent and Nature's Garden for speed and customer service, but recommend sampling. I have far more misses than hits with them. Peak and Backwoods have some good scents, as well.

Daystar was always tops but I can't recommend them anymore. Every time I go to reorder, my favorites are gone and they never respond to emails regarding inquiries or suggestions. I see these as signs to start moving on to more reliable, stable suppliers, though I miss some fragrances dearly.

Oh, great, thanks for the info on Golden Sands. I guess I'll stick with JS but that $14 shipping stings and I don't really need anything else that I can think of. I guess it's time to revisit the sample bin to see if anything new pops out for Fall!

I have Pink Sands and it's definitely fruity, but Golden Sands, at least from JS, is warmer with tonka bean and sandalwood very present. Of course, now I'm wondering if I received the right scent from JS. The FB Golden Sands dupe is one of the worst scents that I have ever encountered. It's extremely light OOB so I mixed some into a carrier oil and applied it. It smells like a faint citrusy powder at first, then the generic fruit notes appear after a while. Even straight out of the bottle, I have to really snort to smell anything at all. I love some things from FB but they really missed the mark on this one.

Has anyone tried their Golden Sands dupe yet? The one from Just Scent smells so good, but their shipping starts over $14 for a pound so I decided to blind buy from Fragrance Buddy since I couldn't imagine that big a difference and it smells nothing like JS's version. JS has rich sandalwood and tonka bean notes while FB smells like some generic fruity perfume. JS has no fruit notes, at least to my nose. Lesson learned, but I'm so disappointed.

So sad to hear this. And really frustrated. Their VBN was the best of all that I've tried and we're almost out. Daystar is similar but not as good in my opinion and they are too expensive. Everything that we used from there is already sold out.

Add me to the list:

1. Freezin - 2/22/11 (BCN, NG, Fillmore, SOS, Peaks, JS, paypal, amazon- Visa

2. NaturallyTru 2/24/11 (CS, Fillmore, HF, BCN, NG, SS) Visa

3. Island Girl - 3/3/11 - Visa (CS, Fillmore, NG, BCN, C&S, JS, Amazon, USPS, UPS)

4. Annie123 - 2/11 (Discover not used in over 2 months - not in Paypal). MC used at JS - CS - SKS

5. jgcurtis - 3/3/11 (Fillmore, bittercreek (S or N?), Peaks, Fillmore, Brambleberry, paypal, amazon)

6. blt212 - 3/3/11 - Visa

7. deb426 - 3/1/11 - Visa (CS, Candles and Supplies, Peaks, Fillmore, Alabaster, Flexible Molds, Coastal Scents, ITunes, AOL)

8. Wessex - 2/11 - CS, Peaks - Discover

9. jaxxcandles - 3/2/11 - (amazon & various candle suppliers)

10. Dana - MC

11. KarenOH - Visa

12. blue - 3/3/11 - (CS, Peak, Candles & Supplies) MC

13. LuminousBoutique - husbands card but used for a few suppliers only - Peaks, CS, SKS

14. Ravens

15. Northwoods - 3/4/11 (soapers choice, Hoba care, past orders Peaks, CS)

16. AlwaysWondering - 3/7/11 - Visa NG, CS, C&S, ICS, KY, Aztec, TCS, DS, WSP, MW, AH, Elements, BCN, CMS, BS, Berts, SS, Tenn, SweetCakes, MMS, Peaks

17. Jewls819 - 2/11 - fraudlent activity w/cc # on amazon

18. candlelady - Discover (Apple Online Store)

19. Billie - Discover

20. Kigers24- 3/5/11 Visa- fraudulent activity w/cc on Apple Online Store

21. Brenda (OH) - 2/11/11 Discover - fraudulent activity w/cc on Apple Online, Net Flix, Airline Tickets, & Hootsuite. (NG, USPS)

22. debscent - Discover (2 business cards) that have not been used for supplies for well over a year. (C&S, Peaks, CS, SKS, WSP)

23. 1820house - visa debit - fraudulent charges 3/4/11 to 3/8/11 last known charges to candle suppliers with this card were to CS & Fillmore. All charges were made in UK

24. lovemylabs - 3/8 $1080.00 ... mine is a Visa Debit . Purchases use w/my card were from Nordstrom/Cedar Rapids, an AutoParts store/CA and Lobstergram (REALLY!?). I've used it recently for Peaks, Paypal, WSP, NG and CS

25. mzpickles - MC debit, attempted purchase Street-Feet.com (in the UK!!) last Tuesday or Wednesday. Bank caught it though. I haven't ordered any candle supplies in at least a month or 6 weeks, but it might be easier for me to list who I haven't ordered from in the last year.

26 - Beans . Last used at CS on 2-28. fraudulent activity on 3-1 ,3-5 , 3-6 all were in UK. I really feel strongly that mine was stolen at that CS transaction.

27. mindy5140-Visa person purchased Blizzard 3/8 $159.60. I've used the card at NG, Moonworks, and itunes.

28. coffeebean- visa credit card & visa debit card, have not used the debit card since 2009 at the following places CS, Bittercreek, Fillmore, C&S, & NG. Both cards were hacked 3-4 11

29. Nursenancy - MC debit - my biz card. - charges to netflix, xbox live and a couple others. I've used multiple candle suppliers, paypal, and amazon.

30. R.S. - BCN, NG and Candle Science

31. Skyblotter - usez peak, cs, fillmore, natures garden. rarely wholesale supplies

32.mparadise -Peaks - Jar Store - Bittercreek- Container & Packaging Supply, CandleScience used via Paypal:July, May, April

33. barbaranj - MC debit - charges to itunes February (edited to list suppliers: C&S, Peaks, Bittercreek

34. beesweet-testing charge to Visa at iTunes, in the last 2 months, used multiple times at WSP and Soaper's Choice, one time at Amazon, SGS

It makes sense that they'd offer the discount given they've rolled the shipping charges into the price but to now charge everyone the same price does seem odd. Why pay for shipping if you're picking it up? Seems you're getting dinged twice, her shipping charges and now your gas cost for picking it up.

Glad I don't order from there.

Maybe because they are trying to convince everyone that it is FREE shipping? They really think we're stupid...just like saying that the higher prices with that FREE shipping would save us money. It wasn't the case with a single order that I compared. And implying that we couldn't manage to calculate our costs correctly if they charged separate shipping.

Then, there's the price increases at the first of the year, followed by a notice a few weeks later that prices were going up, but they were generously going to absorb a portion for us, and they raised prices. Now here we are a few more weeks later, and some items have increased still more.

When I first started checking pricing yesterday, I thought "great, price changes were in my favor!" Then I checked the rest of the items I still buy there and nope...for every item that decreased in price, another had an increase.

I'm starting to think of them as the Walmart of suppliers...and that's NOT a good thing!

From the opposite side, everything that I've needed this year has increased in price since December. Luckily, I've found some things elsewhere (to the tune of $300 loss for them this month), but guess they haven't lost enough other business to make a difference.

Speaking of price increases, has anyone else noticed that they are like gas stations? They don't increase prices when new stock arrives. They increase them when their manufacturers tell them there is a price increase. (With a couple of days grace to allow us to order at the old price and aren't we so grateful? :rolleyes2 )

I do understand that the decision to make "shipping included in the price" has not been popular with some people on the craftserver forum. Frankly, I have never put a lot of weight into forums because in the past I have found people often "jump on a bandwagon" and when researched we found they were never customers of WSP. I much prefer customers approaching our company directly in an honest manner with their real name, contact information and order history.

While we have received a few complaints about the new program we have received overwhelming support for the program. People seem to be genuinely excited to get a handle on their costs to better price their products. Please be assured that I am watching sales very closely and will be prepared to tweak the program if needed.

Again, I appreciate and thank you for your feedback. It is only through honest feedback that we can improve the company for all customers.

Debbie May

Deny, deny, deny. That's their MO.

I find it hard to believe that there is overwhelming support for jacking prices up. Who wants to "get a handle on their costs" with outrageous increases? That's NOT getting a handle on costs. It's exactly the opposite.

If you truly wanted to "help" your customers, you'd teach a class or offer a tutorial on how to break down product and shipping costs, not ream them in price increases.

And exactly how are they "researching" who we are? I hope everyone has started contacting them to prove we're real.

I was thinking about this last night. They have just recently raised pricing on several items like containers, some fragrances, and soap base or wax(?) before instituting the shipping included increases. So for them to say they have been absorbing increases now is bunk. There was a hefty increase on some of the containers, more than what was stated on the blog, and now this nearly doubles the cost.

I ordered not too long ago and it took a few days before I received the order processing and shipping notice. I'd be more than antsy after a couple of weeks and no response from them. I get the impression that they are well on their way down and don't expect them to be around much longer. Customer service is always the first to go.

I have come to the conclusion that WSP is going to lose so much business from this entire fiasco. Existing customers will up and run. Potential customers will not even give them a passing glance.

I hope so. And I hope EVERYONE emails them to complain as well.

I needed a small quantity of bottles for a special project that we are doing. The cost went from an average .37 each to .55 each. That equates to a $1 price increase for our product.

Of course, I wait to finally order and now this BS? An average $17 shipping order is now over $20 and I don't even have everything in the cart yet.

You'd think they are sooo biiiiig that they could set up the cart for shipping included on cases but not smaller sets since her oh-so-helpful email explains how stupid we all are and can't figure costs and we'll save on cases, which IS true. Just ignore that they want to screw customers when they purchase small amounts. But then, they have always been about the "big" customers and screw the little ones. I've seen it and heard it from them time and again.

We purchase both case and small sizes of things at various times...but won't buy anything from them once new suppliers are secured.

Our costs have increased dramatically since we use both regular shipping and "free" shipping items from them. The order I was going to place recently was over $30 in "shipping" when calculating the upcharge that has been added into the pricing of certain items plus the standard shipping charge for the other items. A couple of months ago, a nearly identical order was only $15 for shipping.

What ticks me off more is that it is done under the guise of "helping" us. Since it's sooo hard to calculate costs, we'll just charge a premium so you don't have to strain your brain. --No thanks, WSP.

They are forever trying to make money off shipping. When people get mad enough, they'll fix it for a while (a long while this last time), then they go and do something like this again.

I've had several people that have been unable to use cool citrus basil in anything from candles to lotions. They get itchy, allergy eyes and headaches with candles and a rash from lotion. I'm wondering if there's something in there that can be an allergen for more people than usual.

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http://www.essentialwholesale.com/product_p/475.htm

http://www.thesage.com/catalog/products/Sodium-Lauryl-Sulfoacetate.html

http://southernsoapers.com/cart/slsa-p-1115.html

http://www.chemistrystore.com/Chemicals_S_Z-Sodium_LSA_Coarse.html

Lotioncrafter sells Polawax which is like the Cadillac of emulsifying waxes. It creates a thicker, more stable product than other "ewaxes" that I've tried. I just did side by side tests of a cream and the Polawax version was much thicker than the WSP type. The INCI for emulsifying wax that ISN'T Polawax is usually something like "cetearyl alcohol and polysorbate 60" instead of "emulsifying wax nf" which should only be used for Polawax from my understanding. There are some suppliers, though, who do not provide an accurate INCI and list emulsifying wax even though they don't carry Polawax. WSP soft & silky ewax is just a different type of blend of emulsifier and fatty alcohol. I had some stability problems with it.

If you use and like the WSP traditional emulsifying wax, Soaper's Choice sells a nearly, if not identical, emulsifying wax at 8 lbs for around $24 plus shipping. I couldn't tell a difference between WSP and SC. It's even cheaper if you go up to 25 lbs. Polawax seems to average $7-8 per pound and up. I'm always on the lookout for the best price and that has been IT.

WSP has had major price increases in the past month. Some have been in the name of the so-called "free" shipping expansion, but containers have gone up much more than the .25-.75 per 48 that was warned of on the blog. Some went up $2-4 or more per 48.