beesweet

They are different.

SW isn't the best for candles in my experience (parasoy). I guess I don't know how to pick 'em either. I also had to use up a whole batch of soap in their amazing peach something or other that they tested so long and hard because it had absolutely no scent whatsoever at 1 oz ppo. Generally, SW FOs are bath and body only for us. All suppliers have "duds" for one person or another.

Candlescience is still increasing prices on IGI waxes. Mine has gone up another $13 per case in the past month or so.

I believe it is now $7.95.

Agree. For the high cost of samples, it really p*sses me off to get FO's that I already have from other suppliers that sell them by their real names. I'd save the cutesy or unique names for unique FO's. Pink sugar is pink sugar, why freaking rename it? BB, definitely...we don't use them alot due to our budget, but they rock!

I feel like fragrances are being slightly changed based on raw material availability or cost, possibly without the suppliers ok? We have received some scents lately that no longer throw and even smell slightly different out of bottle.

Oh, Johanna was busy posting to her yahoo group yesterday, but couldn't answer an email to tell me why I still don't have my order. That's what peeves me off so badly. After a little trip through her site, I suspect that instead of allowing for orders that were on hold from the fall prebuy, she sold out of at least one FO on my order. Now the prebuy scents are all there, yet my order still can't be sent. I could be way off base, but this would be my guess since I haven't heard anything otherwise. It's no coincidence that some of the people who complain publicly receive shipping notices soon after. Ya know, I'm pretty gullible and easily pacified...all it would have taken is an answer to an email to put me off until something is back in stock. I don't want to initiate a chargeback or file a complaint with the BBB, I just want what I paid for.

It reads like there are more that haven't been resolved yet. If you look below the grid which shows how the complaints were resolved, it has this: Regardless, I'm about ready to make it #11

Oh, yeah...the loss of a hard drive is what caused all of this. I have always burned backup cds which are kept on my desk shelf...no light, heat, etc. I've tried various brands and write speeds. I first noticed a problem with the cds not being compatible between computers and thought it was just my laptop. After the hard drive crashed, I discovered that they either come up as blank OR they crash the computer. The 2 that finally worked will only work on the newest computer (barely) and can't even be read by the computer they were burned on! Crazy, I know. I can't tell you how much time I spent on the phone with tech support at the beginning and no one knew what was causing it. After 2 years, I finally discovered that there are some issues when burning cds with Windows XP and the solutions was supposedly using a separate cd burner software. (it doesn't seem that *ALOT* of people have been affected by this issue, at least not that I've found online, but it was a surprise after having no problems with burned cds for over a year) I thought, Yay, problem solved when the cds worked perfectly. Fast forward 3 months, new keyboard crashes the computer...and NONE of those cds worked...arrrggghhh So I don't trust any one method now! Now that I've transferred copies all of the files to another computer, I'm going to see how it goes with the dvd burner on that one while I still have copies on 2 computers and the external hard drive. I'd say cd's and a thumb drive would constitute 2 locations. No one but me can have bad enough luck to lose all 3 at once! I don't count hard copies of paperwork as that would be a nightmare to reenter and I'm lazy! LOL

I don't trust only burning cd's since I am now finding that they don't always work later. I have stacks of cd's burned over the last couple of years and have a sum total of 2 that were able to be read when my extra hard drive crashed and I lost a huge chunk of important business information stored there. Fortunately, I managed to piece together much of the crucial info from the 2 cd's, but we lost newer versions of logos, artwork, and labels. We just got an external hard drive and I am in love. I backed up all of the files from the main computer and also transferred important items to a second computer as a safety net. Flash drives are nice if you don't have a ton of files. Regardless, I would highly recommend more than one backup location after our recent problems.

With 35% oils and butters and only 5% ewax, I'd say your main problem is not using enough emulsifier. I prefer to use a stickblender. I've had separation almost every time when using a kitchenaid with a very high oil/butter percentage.

I always thought this one to have an awful note to it...gagworthy to me OOB or when poured and could never understand all the hype. I just ran across remnants on the "gag-me" FO shelf a few days ago and after a few years, yep...nearly lost it. Apparently something in it just doesn't agree with me or my nose.

I imagine you'll be hard pressed to even come close to this with basic ingredients of oils, water, and emulsifiers. The combination of emollients, film formers (incl. proteins), thickeners, etc. all work together to give the luscious feel yet fantastic absorbtion and silkiness. Alot of grief can be given to BBW for the chemicals and other ingredients they use, but this line was one of the better ones and kudos to their formulators. Judging by the price tags, they knew it, too. Unfortunately, that's probably the reason they pulled it in the end. Sweet almond protein can be seen in many high end moisturizers. I've been hoping one of the suppliers would eventually be able to source this from Cognis. The FO percentage could go either way. I have a feeling that BBW uses more than the 1-2% common among homecrafters/smaller companies, but the remaining ingredients at only 1-2% each isn't a stretch either.

I'm with Michi...both dry me out and sometimes cause an itchy rash. I'm a soap and scrub kinda gal too.

It is more a "cream" than a butter. It is thick and shiny, but absorbs very quickly. The ingredients are: Water, caprylic/capric triglyceride, glycerin, C12-15 alkyl benzoate, glyceryl stearate, isocetyl stearate, myristyl myristate, fragrance, hazel seed oil, cetearyl alcohol, polysorbate 60, dimethicone, stearic acid, sweet almond oil, polyacrylamide, shea butter, illipe butter, honey extract, aloe barbadensis leaf juice, panthenol (pro vitamin B5), sweet almond protein, hydrolyzed oat protein, hydrolyzed silk, tocopheryl acetate (vitamin E acetate), C13-14 isoparaffin, ceteareth-20, cetyl alcohol, carbomer, triethanolamine, laureth-7, BHT, trisodium EDTA, phenoxyethanol, methylparaben, propylparaben, yellow 5, red 4, blue 1

Yes, you would have to add the entire lotion ingredient listing as well. Without knowing the percentage of the FBB ingredients, it would be difficult to put them in the proper order. I wouldn't even know where to add just the oils into the list.

Perhaps I should have posed the question differently. I'm just curious what others are willing to pay and opinions, thoughts, ideas. We don't see much on the boards regarding advertising. What are you willing to pay for weekly/monthly advertising and what do you expect in return as far as hits, sales, etc.? If a site doesn't generate much traffic, but gives you exposure, how much would that be worth? One site we advertised with in the past for less than $20/month has now increased to $40/month without an increase in hits and no sales that can be directly linked to that site so that made me question exactly how I should be looking at advertising and the benefits.

What is a reasonable cost per week/month and what do you expect from the site you're advertising with?

Doh! In my defense, it wasn't worded very well with the "I'm using..." statement. I would expect the experienced soaper who is making the products to be able to answer this. I would never go over 1 oz. per lb. Hmmm...now, 1 oz. per lb in FBB and lotions (I hope not!) is high. Usual recommendations are 1-3% for leave on products and I personally do not exceed that for wash off except soap. 1 oz pp is double or triple the norm.

2 oz. per pound is ALOT. I'm confused, you say you aren't a soaper, but you're making soap. Perhaps a bit more research is in order before throwing together items to be used on the skin and sensitive bits.

Wow, thanks for posting. I'd love to try them but shipping to the east cost is awful. Over $20 for 20 lbs or over $40 for a 55 lb case.

It is a 16 oz. dodecagon jar. It looks to be a hair over 3" in diameter. I think the only wicks I have in larger sizes are the htp's. The cd 20-22's work great for normal scents, but these spicy ones are a little too much. It is soooo close... edited to add: I'm really not comfortable double-wicking these jars with the smaller mouth and shoulder.

Can someone suggest the next size wick to try from a cd22 in alternate brands of wicks, maybe HTP or other? I'm testing spicy scents with ezsoy in a large jar and the cd22 is getting a full meltpool but takes several hours and the meltpool is very shallow. Thanks in advance!

Islandgirl is correct. You cannot require a minimum for credit card purchases. If you have a minimum order requirement, it must be for all forms of payment (cash, check, charge) or no minimum at all. We've had 3 different merchant services providers and all 3 have had this clause in the contract. It only takes one person who knows this to complain...

I just wanted to say that I by no means feel that every time it happens, it is on purpose. Out of the multitude of suppliers, only a couple give me this feeling. Last fall, we did 3 fundraisers in particular with scents spread between 2 suppliers. Every scent from supplier A calculated exactly to cover our orders. Every scent from suppier B was short 1-2 oz. per pound by weight. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but 20 lbs or more of FO. Supplier B says in their policies that fragrances are sold by weight so our ordering was based on weight required. It still pisses me off to not only think of the "loss" in fragrance, but much more, the excess shipping to order in more. Regarding my thoughts on volume vs. weight...the key to a quality product is consistency and volume just isn't consistent. Then, toss in accurate calculation of costs and there ya go...