SunshineSundries

When I get my oils/butters in bulk like that, I usually do half in one or two pound bags (I keep ziplock in business, I swear!). For the second half of the box, I pre measure for making soaps or lotion bars - so like 10 oz bags for my soaps and such. Then I put all these baggies in a plastic tub and the tub goes under my table or in a cool dry place. I don't do this with oils that go rancid real fast, but for the most part its what I do. It helps me with my inventory and also makes it nice to make a "quick" batch of soap. HTH some... Life & Light! Tish

I pour in soy wax and with the FO color it turns a nice golden ivory-ish without any color added. I don't add color to my Sugar Cookie FO either... Life & Light! Tish Edited because my brain isn't functioning well this am! lol

I have this store bookmarked - I found these on the same quest... I have yet to purchase from them so I don't know how Customer Service and shipping are. Click here to see the page. I was thinking of contacting the manufacturer and seeing if I can buy a pallet - but that's WAY out of my budget right now! I just spent $1000 (on credit of course!) to build my new studio. If I were to spend $800-1000 on glass right now I think my hub would flip OUT! lol Maybe if there is enough intrest in the jars, I could do a CoOp... We'll have to see... HTH some though... Life & Light! Tish

I hate to say this - but just be lucky that you can get coconut oil locally. The only oil that I use on a regular basis that I can get locally is Olive Oil. Everything else I get either through co-ops, certain suppliers, or from Columbus Foods (when I actually have money to buy in bulk, that is). Our WalMart here is kinda lame. So I *totally* understand where you are coming from! Have fun soapin'! Life & Light! Tish

Oh Bunny - how wonderful!! I totally love it! Fun, Funky and Fresh! There is only one thing that I would change - the order of the side bar menu. I know it sounds stupid but it has worked for me - anyway - I suggest putting it more in the order of HOME - WHAT'S NEW - LOTIONS - POTIONS - SOAPS - then the rest. Putting my products first has helped me get more hits on them - well on my old site anyway - I'm still working on getting pictures on mine (Digital camera completely died so I'm having to resort to my cell phone camera ). As for professional pictures, try going to a local tech/community college and putting an ad on one of their boards. If you have a "specialty" school (art, design, etc.), all the better. Alot of students would probably do it for cheap (especially if you give them the ok to use the photos in one of their projects) - maybe a few bucks and some free product... it's just an idea though - I've been thinking of doing it, just haven't tried it yet.... Best of luck to you and your new home on the web! Life & Light! Tish

I just went into Microsoft Excel and made mine up along with invoices and packing slips. It takes a bit of trial and error to get everything lined up right but I found the free templates I found weren't what I needed (comment area too small, not enough room for a discription, etc.) and were a PITA to edit. So I just did mine and I print mine up on my laser printer and cut them in half. But if you don't have that, you can always go to office max or where ever and have them printed for you. HTH Life & Light! Tish PS - PM me and I can send a copy of my invoice sheet to ya (if I can find it... lol I went print happy about two months ago and haven't needed to print any... lol)

I do fairly well with both (and B&B items as well). Some shows I sell out of candles and hardly any soaps, and some shows are just the opposite. This is the time of year when they kind of equal out as I do gift baskets in certain scents that I have candles, soaps, and B&B items in. I guess you won't know what works for you until ya try a few... Life & Light! Tish

Bummer - I wasn't sure on the length that you needed... I wish I had more time on my hands cuz I'd surely offer to make them for you! I made over 500 ivory lace bags for a friend of mine that makes cross stitch sache bags - that was a PIA but it was alot less expensive than buying bags at Michaels! Organza is about $3/yard and you could probably get 30 bags out of each yard.... I do remember seeing a site that had the longer ones but they were a bit wider too - I think 5x7ish... when do you need these by? I could put a couple of calls into the floral wholesalers around town and see what they have - I think one is open on Saturdays but the other isn't open til Monday... I just hate to see you pay Michaels a God aweful amount of money for these! It's just insane what these places charge! Just let me know if I can help! Life & Light! Tish

I so totally hear you! It's so frustrating to have business do that to ya especially when you are on a deadline! I'm always one to wait til the last minute for some things (packaging is one of them because I hate doing it!!) and I've had this happen to me more than once! I may have found a site that has the size that you need - and they have a phone number... Click here and see if they are the right ones. I looked for 4.5 bags before and I knew they were out there! I've never ordered from them but I'm sure you can give them a call because they sound like they are a "real" store as well as being online... they are on Ebay too... HTH some Life & Light! Tish

Is this the item that you were talking about? I also found some tins that are close in size I think at SKS-BOTTLE.COM . They have a CD tin so I took the measurements from that and looked further on their site - the closest I could come to was 101mm and the CD tin was 132mm. But that tin would work for the candle... Cool idea... Life & Light! Tish

I have three presto pots - well actually four but one I use for melting my oils to make soap (I have this oil + microwave fear... ) - anyway... I use all three for votive or container wax. I usually melt enough wax for the job I need to do and I add my color and my scent right in the presto pot. They are so super easy to clean out that it's just easier for me to do that. Once I have the color and scent in, I shut off the presto pot and let it cool a bit, then I pour it into my pouring pot. By then it's usually cool enough to let me pour - but then I pour rather hot (about 120*) compaired to most repenishable wax chandlers. It works better for me to do that - less wet spots and all that... I also leave it in the presto pot for as long as I can because that way if I let it cool too long, I can just warm it up a bit right in the pot. I don't like using double boiler things with candles because I'm kinda klutzy and I get water EVERYWHERE!! lol Life & Light! Tish

If you are working out of your home (which I assume you are), you should check with your city too. Just to make sure they don't have any issues with you running a business from your home. I checked with mine when I opened three years ago and they told me as long as there wasn't an increase in traffic (customers coming and going all day - geeze I wish & with lots of product purchased in their hands!), I'd be ok. But I do know that in some cities you have to file with the city before conducting any business... So I'd check... Good Luck! Life & Light! Tish

CC - those roses are beautiful! I wish I had the patience to do that! Maybe I'll get bored one day and decide to do something like that. I use clear MP and I get my petals from the floral wholesale place (it's nice having a mom that is a designer & shop owner! ). I think last time I was there I paid $2 for 100 petals. I got all kinds of colors too! But anyway, what I do is melt my soap in a crock pot double boiler thingy, I pick up a petal with a long tweesers (I usually grab an handful and pick them out of my hand), dip - count to three - pull out - count to 10 - dip - count to three - pull out - count to ten. Then I lay them on a wire cooling rack (Wal-Mart, 2 for $1.97 ) that has a cookie sheet and wax paper under it. The wire rack works well *if* you do that last count to ten as it give the MP a chance to dry a bit before setting it down. I've had a few with lines on them but they were so faint it didn't bother me much. For packaging, I put 50 in a boutineer bag, heat seal the end, trim the excess and put the whole thing in a boutineer box. Tie the box with ribbon and put my hang tag on that. This year I did fall leaves in my Autumn Air scent (smells like Apples -n- Oak). I'm putting them in my mom's shop this week but I've already sold two bags of 50! These I just put in the boutineer bags and sealed. They were too big to fit in the box! But they were a fun change to the petals and my house smelled wonderful! HTH some... Life & Light! Tish

Well, I have a few container candles to pour and 50 er so votives to wrap up for a wholesale order but that will have to wait til evenings this weekend. My hub has finally given me the okey dokey to finish out the garage! This means I'll soon be moving my scattered supplies out of the house and out of my little 50 sq ft work area in the basement into a bigger and brighter 310 sq ft "studio". It's not going to be anything really super fancy (I still won't have a window!) - but it's definately going to give me more room to spread out and do those marathon pours! Now instead of only being able to do 50 containers or so, I should be able to do about 1000 in a pour session! I'm soooo excited! I'm movin' up in the world... lol My kids are excited too because now they can have their fooseball table back! lol Best of luck to you all doing shows! I missed out on all my fall shows last year because of my hub's illness relapsing but I hope to sneak into a few fall shows this year since I lost all my spots last year. Have fun, ladies & gents! Life & Light! Tish

From one "woodworker" to another - those look great! I've made all my risers and displays myself (some have turned out great - others are sitting in my shop waiting to be "modified" or else recycled into another project! lol). I would seal the wood though. There is a product out there called Dutch sealer or something like that (I'd have to go out to my shop to get the exact name). But it seals and protects the wood without making it look sealed. We used it down in our family room (pine carsiding for the whole room - I will *never* do that again! lol) and it looks great! It also is nice for when my 3 year old decides to color on the walls! I can take a wet rag and wash it off! I'd just hate to see you go through all the trouble of building those beautiful displays and have the wood warp on ya or have them get spilled on and ruin the wood! If you are interested in the sealer's exact name, PM me and I'll run out to my garage and get the name for you. I got it at Menards in the paint department - goes on SUPER easy too! Great job, hun! Keep up the great work - on the candles and the wood working! Life & Light! Tish PS - price them as you would any other product you make - materials + your time x 2 or 3... that's what I would do if someone wanted me to make risers or something for them. HTH!

I get my oils from Essential Oil University ( essentialoils.org ). I get grade 2 (or sometimes better) for the majority of my stuff but if you are just making soap, you can get away with the grade 1. I make massage oils and I am an amature aromatherapist so I get the higher grade oils for those purposes. I just can't see the reason for having two grades of the same oil in my shop taking up room for more oils! The cost usually balances out in the long run (buying bulk and only having to purchase one bottle instead of two helps more than ya think!). They also have good customer service and fast shipping to go along with their reasonable prices (at least I think they are!). HTH! Life & Light! Tish

I keep my soaping, candle, and cooking stuff seperate. The only reason why I was able to do this is GARAGE SALES! I got a set of metal mixing bowls and a set of glass mixing bowls at garage sales over the years and they are kept seperate from my plastic bowls that I use to measure my wax in and my good metal mixing bowls I use for baking and stuff. I've also managed to pick up two crock pots and a presto pot at garage sales! The only thing that crosses the line is my KA mixer but I have a seperate bowl and wisk for BB stuff and for cooking. So in a way they are still seperated. I am fortunate enough to have the storage space for all my bowls. But I just couldn't see using my nice expensive mixing bowls that I got for cooking for making my product in (plus I think my hub would shoot me if I did! he's already having a cow about me using my KA! LOL). My hints for finding bowls and such: Craig's List, FreeCycle, Thrift stores and the ol' stand by - garage sales! You can get alot of things for super cheap (sometimes even free if you go pick them up) and that way keep your stuff seperate. We don't want any OOPS's.... Life & Light! Tish

I do both metal and plastic cups with soy wax - the metal ones I sell for $7.75/dz and the plastic ones I sell for $8.75/dz. When people ask me why so much for my tealights (they are the ones that get those 100 for $5 at Menards and such!), I give them one for free and tell them to burn it and find out why. Almost every person I give one to comes back and buys more! I try and tell people that the ones I make burn longer (up to 4-5 hours) and they don't believe me! Hence the freebies - I figure I make the money back for the free ones when they come back and buy a box. Good luck at your show! Life & Light! Tish

Try a drop of black - I know it sounds weird but black can help darken a lighter color. I add black to a fairly light purple - works great to get my "lavender" a darker purple. You don't need much though... I'd try it out on a small batch and see what ya get. HTH! Life & Light! Tish

I get them from my local WalMart's - but keep in mind that they are considered a "seasonal" item in some areas (like mine), so stock up when you can! After October, I can't get them even as a "special order" kind of thing, which stinks because I was planning on useing mine for fundraisers all year round. Life & Light! Tish

when I mix scents, I use a dropper and a shot glass. I sometimes only put two drops of something into 20 drops of something else. It all depends on what I want to be the stronger scent. My "Coffee House" scent is five different scents but you mainly smell the Coffee - the others are kind of an "after smell"... does that make sense? when you get something you think you like - put a few drops on a coffee filter and put it in another room for awhile. Then go back to it after awhile and make sure you still like it! lol HTH! Life & Light! Tish

I call them swirlygigs just because they are like a curl only a bit straighter and twisted rather than curled (does that make sense? lol). OK - a big DUH! for using a toothpick... sometimes I wonder about myself! I'll have to try that on my next pour that I'm going to do in a bit. Pour a bit hotter too - I'm just afraid of melting the peices... :undecided but I'll try it and see what happens. Do you put your MP in the freezer to ease mold release? I have an issue cuz I did - I put my soaps in the freezer for about an hour. They were clear when I put them in there but when I took them out the soap was all milky. Is this because I put them in the freezer? I waited for them to be firm to the touch before I put them in there... UG! Sometimes I wonder what I'm getting myself into!! lol Thanks for the help though! I really appreciate it! Life & Light! Tish

So would you pour then spray - pour then spray and so on so you are spraying every soap in the multimold tray? Does that make sense? TIA! Life & Light! Tish

I am testing some SFIC MP - ok I'm really playing around with it. I've come up with some really cool ideas but I'm running into one problem... BUBBLES!! And I'm not talking about the Power Puff Girl either! Here's what I've done... made some colored swirlygigs out of the white and some oxides and put them in the bottom of my MWM - heated up a pound of the low sweat clear - added about .5 oz of Mac Apple FO - poured a layer over the swirlygigs after spraying them with RA - sprayed the top of the "film" with some more RA - put alittle football in there and sprayed that too - then poured til I reached to the top edge of the mold. The concept worked really well (I'm actually amazed at myself! LOL) except for the bubbles... I used a spoon to stir and I have no clue what I poured out - I went for corn syrup thinned appearance... Should I use a popstick to stir to help keep the bubbles down? What temp should I be pouring this base at? I am at a loss for what I did wrong... can you put *too* much RA in this?? I don't think I did - just a couple of mists with a fine mister bottle... Any help with this base would be appreciated! I want to order from the Co-op going on but I need to know how much I'm going to need because if I can't get this to work, I'm not going to order as much clear... TIA!!! Life & Light! Tish

Things I use to cut my soap: My loaf molds I use a bread slicer and a big ol' knife. My round & heart shape loaf molds, I use "Spiderwire" and a couple of dowels to slice through smoothly. My "slab" molds I use a 10" drywall knife. That's about it. So far so good - the Spiderwire is kinda spendy when you go out to buy it but it works great and it lasts forever! HTH Life & Light! Tish