craftimade

I sell my votives for $3 in my shop and wholesale for $1.40 per votive. Which is less then half retail price. You have to take your time, electricity, tools, experience etc. I know some companies sell them for $2 wholesale and shops still buy them. I know another company that sells them for 0.80c each too and they do very well but they sell them Australia wide and quite honestly they are machine poured and they make 50,000+ month.

My local supplier has also expensive paraffin wax. Soy is my best option. My customers ask me which I use and I tell them that I only use Soy, they all say good. Non of my regular clients like paraffin. The only reason I would use it is to make floating tealights - and that is rare for me.

Ok, this was not to be but it turned funny and a little freaky. I was clearing some beeswax and I managed to clean too much then had no were to empty the pouring pot into.. so I got a another pouring pot and filled it with water and tipped the beeswax into it. After a few seconds it started to make these amazing swirl shapes and ended up looking pretty cool. No wicks as this was a total mistake. Has anyone even done this before?

Thank you, I use a real ice cream scoop to make the round scoop on top, then melt down about 5 grams of color wax with a few drops of scent and then drip it on top to get that real effect. I have a few of them now so people are starting to collect them.

If you buy just one of the candles then use silicone mould, you could make your own mould. Might try it

Made these 2 today and there is a third one but didn't get a change to take a photo. Cream/Yellow = Seven Flowers (my own fragrance which is a blend of 7 floral scents) This fragrance is my biggest seller, it's going out the door faster then I can make it. Pink = Love Spell with bright pink heart in the middle. Enjoy.

I don't feel I could do a tutorial at this time, it's really a tight timeline and if you get it wrong it can destroy the mould. I made 4 Lemon Myrtle tapers in soy today and they come out great. Little line down the side but easy to shave off with a razor blade. I watched this video and it's pretty much the same as what I did. I do have to make another mould so I might try and take some photos while im doing it or setup the ipad on a tripod and film it.

A couple of things to take notice of. 1. When you cut the silicone, be very careful. I managed to cut 2 line in the same area and now the tapers have a indent on them. 2. Using rubber bands to bond the silicone together when pouring is a MUST, otherwise wax will leak out. It also helps to have lots of bands over the entire area rather then just 2-3. I use 10. 3. Make sure you get a hole centered in the middle of the candle for the wick otherwise you have a wick hanging out the top wrong (one of mine is not centered and it looks shocking).

I have another mould I want to make but I need 2kg of silicone to make it. It's a big candle too, should be nice when finished.

I would look up a thesaurus using the words you want to have in your business name. Example Butterflies or Butterfly. This is how I found my business name "Sentinel Candles". I was looking up words under "Guardian" AS in a protector. Hope this helps.

I purchased 1kg of Silicone Rubber & blue catalyst off eBay and made my own taper mould from them. I used a plastic knife/fork/spoon container (which is camping type throw away items) and placed 2 ready made taper candles inside, then made up the silicone rubber and poured it in. I made two silicone mould, each with 2 tapers per mould. I tested them today with beeswax and while i'm happy with the results I will try and do them again now I understand the silicone better. Here is some pics.

I sell votives wholesale. 18 per box, not wrapped. My boxes look like this http://candletree.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/IMG_8091-e1335049788590-673x1024.jpg I sell each votive for $1.50 So a box of 18 = $27.00 Australian Dollars

The patchouli I got smells like leaves and musk. Thats my impression anyway. However, I have smelt a lot of different bottles of Patchouli and they all smell the same.

Just an update. This seems so impossible just to get some standard votive boxes made. I contacted a local box making company which by the way users China to make their boxes. Each box was going to cost $15.00 AUD. What!!!!! Crazzzzzzy prices. Min order of 250 boxes x $15 = $3750.00 At tealightboxes.com (they dont ship to Australia), they cost $0.51 per box. Which would be $127.50 for 250 boxes. So im racking my brain as to why im getting stuffed around with a $3622.50 price increase just because I live in Australia. Im SO over this crap, I just want to get on and make my candles. /end rant.

I'm making cupcake candles, mixing some fragrances ; New scent called = Seven Flowers. It's a mix of 7 floral scents and it's my biggest seller so far. So im going to try and mix some other scents. Also going to work on my color range. I make 20 gram melts in 1 color, different dye ranges. So for red I would make 1 drop of dye then make 1 melt, then add 20 grams wax back into the top and add another red drop and make another melt.. etc until I have 10 melts. It should be a great way to let my customers choose the color for their candles Also starting to do personalised wedding candles. Im in the process of making my first one for a wedding anniversary. Apart from that, just doing odd and ends for customers that come into my shop.

It's funny because I always thought people liked colorfull candles. But now I run a retail candle shop - I was wrong. Most people want WHITE candles. I make all my candles white in Large and XL jars. But for regular jars (160grams) I make them all colorfull. This is great for those that want a color candle. Example; Lemon Zest = Yellow, Sweet Lemongrass = lime green. etc. I also make them in custom colors. I had a lady that wanted Sweet Lemongrass in bright Pink because green didn't match her room decor. Her room was bright pink and even her dog's hair color had streaks of pink.

Im thinking i might do a small video tutorial on how I made the cupcakes. Just have to setup a tripod to film it. The hears are pillars. About the same hight as a votive (5cm-6cm).

Just to clarify something.. I'm a man

I contacted a few companies in the USA about shipping to Australia. Most said no, but the ones that did wanted amazing amounts of money for shipping. Example; 100 boxes = $89.00 + $600 for shipping.. OMFG what planet was it shipping from??? MARS? Which turns out at $6.89 per box. I don't think so. I might just have to make these myself.

Here is mine. Made Soy pillar wax using 3 drops of red dye per section to give a light red to dark red feel. Plastic mould was used in 5 different sizes.

Here is some photos. Cupcakes (vanilla top, chocolate rich bottom) Some Valentines Day love heart candles

Does anyone know where I can get some votive boxes printed or just white ones. I'm looking for to stack 18 votives (9 bottom, 9 top) in 1 box. I need them for a small wholesale order i'm hoping to get this month. Im in Australia, but I have been told I can only get this done in China. Looking for more options. Any help would be awesome. Thanks.

Here are some more pics.

The problem with the front windows is they are like mirrors from the outside. So when people walk past they can't see in they pretty much just see themselves walking - which is bad. Nothing I can do to fix this but im going to try a white display area to brighter it up and hopefully remove the reflection. The fireplace is in a room right out the bad, it's completely burnt out room, floor boards are gone and found a dead rat their last week. Thankfully it's all sealed off from the rest of the shop. I also set up some traps just to see if their is anything crawling around when I leave. Traps and bait have not been touched so that is awesome news. I have heard mice and rats love wax, so it's great to know they are not getting in. I will take some more photos tomorrow as the shop looks a little different now. More candles etc.

It is a massive task to run your own shop. Personally im loving it, but it's 7 days a week job. While im making people walk in and watch me and they really get behind the fact that my candles are made in the shop and not just imported from China etc. They can also get a custom candle. Like Pink Sweet Lemongrass - for one of my clients. Also one of my clients wanted 7 floral scents in 1 jar. I have not do that before but it worked so well and she loved it. So much that she asked for 2 more the same for her friends. Im called it "Seven Flowers".