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Actually the thread took a turn when beaconterraone posted: Hyperbole?

Thanks for the tip! I do have a small restock planned that I need to get done real soon. I try my best not to buy If I don't have a coupon or a sale to take advantage of. With so much testing to do right now I don't want to over buy yet either

I'm holding out for Cyber Monday. I'm still fairly new to the industry and am watching/archiving email ads, learning the industry marketing trends and figuring out when the best times to buy are.

I can almost smell them through my screen They look great

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This is fair. I have shared ingredients. This candle contains a blend of 100%x,100%y, and either EO or FO.

I was a fun project. I got to share the experiment with my awesome son. Pics below

Sounds like you handled it well, Becky. I've thrown my better half under the bus a few times, lol. There is an understanding there. Nowadays, similar to what justajesuschick suggested, I will offer the fact that there are many suppliers to be found online with some research. If pursued further I will explain I've signed a non-disclosure agreement and cannot discuss trade secrets. Take it to the next level for a clear conscious and simply write on a scrap piece of paper "don't share our trade secrets" and sign it

13dF here this morning. I love homebrew projects. I want to try this just for fun! No illusions of heating my house with one, lol. Maybe a small cabin room, camper or hand warmer

That's a nice display. I wish you well and many sales! Great idea to display a melt in a warmer (unplugged).

Another brief update... I was informed today, by my better half, that we have a carpet cleaning service coming out to clean our main living rooms upstairs and downstairs. We have to get everything moved out of the way by Friday night (tomorrow). I've had to use the craft room space for some temporary storage... Our guest list for Thanksgiving dinner has grown to nearly 20 family members now and I need to get my butt in gear planning that. I probably wont have time to work on the craft room for a couple weeks. Cheers!

Nice job, Saffron. It looks like you are off to a good start. Thanks for sharing. Keep it up!

I'm not familiar with the vistaprint shopping cart but it sounds to me like the shipping rates are setup in your PayPal account. Poke around in PayPal for shipping setup info

I'm not as familiar with pillars but my first thought is similar to Pam's statement. I appears to me you pretty much have a full melt pool already. Too much more melt pool and it will either spill right over the top or eventually melt a hole through the side.

Congrats! Nice job seeking out the opportunity and following through.

Those. Look. Great! Congrats on your first pour

Quick update. Weekend warrior in action. I got a little rough framing done today and started to lay out where I want power. Pics of progress: The ceiling will be a challenge. Next I'd like to run power to the room. There is one dedicated circuit in there now. I would like to add one more so each newly framed wall would have it's own circuit. After that, insulation, drywall and figure out what to do for lighting and ceiling finish. There are a lot of low hanging pipes and ducting in this room I think I found a good solution for space to cure soaps. One of these bakers bun racks might work really well and I could tuck it behind the door out of the way. Holds 18 to 20 sheets. Cheers and happy crafting!

Way to turn the negative into a positive, Candybee!

My initial thought is that it is OK to leave the conflict open until the customer has all of the purchased product delivered. I see your point that there are really 2 separate issues to resolve. From the customers point of view it is easier for her to try to get everything straight under the one complaint. Is it the right way to handle it? Well, that's debatable I suppose. Within PayPal, document everything you have done that is relative to the order and delivery. The extra freebies and goodwill matter not to the conflict on paper. Document the process from your side in the PayPal dispute: order > shipped > shipping barcodes problem > returned > re-shipped > delay > delivery > product shortage > shipped missing product > final delivery > transaction complete Provide tracking information, if possible, so the PayPal investigator can see the final product delivered. Case closed. Customer gets all the product, you get all the payment. Unfortunately your payment was delayed for a few days during resolution but so were her products. In the end both parties are made whole. On a side note, I find it much easier to resolve PayPal disputes than credit card chargebacks. Much less red tape. It is my feeling that PayPal provides more protection for the seller than the big CC companies like Visa, Mastercard, AMEX etc. Best wishes, ubure. I hope you can resolve the issue quickly and amicably.

Hotter wicks. CD or perhaps RRD. Fix one issue at a time. Stop adding FO until you get the proper MP. It will save you money. Once you have a baseline for your wax & wick combo you can wick up or down as needed depending on your FO.

Interesting posts everyone. Thank you.

It's a good question. Being new to the craft I do it because I read it's proper. I cure my jar candles anywhere from 2 to 7 days depending on my schedule. The molecules need time to settle I'm told. It helps the scent throw. I sometimes wonder if I am curing the candle or curing candle nose. I'm a scientific type. I like to read the data and really try to understand what is going on. I can't find any technical papers regarding what happens to or in a candle after is has fully cooled to room temperature. This doesn't mean something isn't going on. I just can't prove or disprove it yet. Look at CP soap for an example. There is definitely a lengthy cure time in which a chemical process takes place. Beer, whisky and wine benefit from a curing or fermenting process in a measurable way. Has anyone studied the candle curing process in a controlled environment and produced repeatable conclusions and measurable data? I will continue to cure my candles as I am because I think it is the right thing to do, because I cannot disprove the theory that it is beneficial and because I don't believe it can cause any negative effect other than testing my patience

Looking at my numbers I'd have to sell them at cost (a high price for a tea) or at a loss to move any quantity worth producing. I'm going to go out on a limb and venture a guess that the luxury tea light market is a slim 1% market share. With that in mind, catering to the 1% is a recipe for either an extremely difficult business venture or slow death by exclusion of the other 99. There seems to be a fair amount of members here who make a little side cash selling crafts so demand as well as the dollar play a pretty important role in what one will produce on an ongoing basis. One can run a bank account dry pretty quick losing $0.50 to $1.00 on every widget they make. For hobby and for personal enjoyment is another basket altogether. Much like cooking, enjoying the fruits of your labor of love is really rewarding. Sharing and seeing the joy it brings others doubly so. Here ROI is measured not in dollars but in smiles

Thank you guys for the wisdom and encouragement

In my limited experience with 444 wax I struggled with wicking my 3" jars as well. CD wicks seemed to burn a little hotter than the ECO's I was testing and provided a little better control over the melt pool. Maybe try a sample of CD wicks? Try not to change too many variables at once and work on one issue at a time.