WickedWineCandles

I completely agree with you. Taking our hobby, turning into a small little business by selling at local fairs, and now expanding online has presented a whole bunch of learning opportunities for us. And we love every second of it. Making a product I love and running a small business has always been my dream from such a young age. Forums, such as this, as well as others I have met along the way, have been extremely helpful and I am very grateful. p.s. - I will still post an update to this thread when we get the complete materials sheet from the maker.

@JL, yes, I did adjust all mentions of organic to natural, the reason being I have not yet heard from the direct wax distributor and so I did not feel comfortable continuing with those product claims. I did speak with a contact who sells the wax to me, he reassured me that the wax was all organic, but before I moved forward with those claims I wanted to ensure the information he gave me was correct. I had not responded back to this thread yet as I was awaiting as much information as I could gather for the group. I do apologize for the delay. We (myself, my brother, and friend) spend a great deal of time making each candle and we want to ensure the highest quality product we can produce.

Hi all - very sorry for the delay. After a handful of attempts, I have not been able to get a response via email from the surf shop owners. I will be in town on Saturday, Feb 1st, so I am going to drop by their store and get all the details I can. I will follow up here.

Thank you JI. The bottles we use are collected/donated from our local area. After testing for a while, we found the bottles that we feel work best for our candles, so we are a bit more selective now-a-days. For the soy wax, we buy it from a friend of ours who runs a surf shop nearby. I will reach out to him and ask for wholesale pricing for you.

We haven't finalized them yet, but below is a peak into the label design. This particular one is for my Chardonnay scent. (also, we designed a new logo, not sure if I like the old or new/refreshed version better). I am still debating whether or not to trim the label down a bit, and use a hashtag so as to not hide the beautiful glass of the bottle.

Wow, thank you so much for the kind words and the amazing feedback. I truly appreciate it. We are actually designing a label right now. Personally, I like the look of the 'naked' bottle more, especially when the wax burns low enough to accentuate the flickering wick in the bottle. With that said, we are planning to have our label be tied onto the bottle with some nice looking twine. This way, the label can be kept on or removed by the owner. We are also in the middle of making coasters from recycled wine corks to accompany each candle we sell. I will be sure to post pictures here of the 'final' product.

Glad to hear your candles are selling well. The issue of keeping up with demand is a good problem to have! Do you sell online? Have a website? If so, I would love to take a look at it.

This is amazing! Very well done. Seeing as your original post was back in June, I assume you have already given the baby shower gift to your friend. How did it go? Have you made more? Are you selling them?

Excellent point. I researched this a bit and found the below answers... "The issue you have is using the trademarks of others in commerce and this would be a violation of the trademark and copyright laws. If you re-use these items in selling your crafts the owners of those rights can sue you for violations of the Landham Act for trademark infringement and for copyright violations and can get very significant and substantial damages from you. The use would be considered derivative use, meaning you are using their mark in another form or fashion. You would need to get written permission from the owners of those rights in order to market your crafts." "as long as you are not using items with trademarks then you can make and sell your works." SOURCE: http://www.justanswer.com/intellectual-property-law/34l78-copyrights-craft-items-using-recycled-reused.html After reading the above, I have decided to not offer candles with the original label. I am not sure how other sellers are handling this as I have seen many people sell candles with trademarked wine labels.

Thanks very much for your kind words. I truly appreciate it. May I ask how much the person charges for 100 pre-cut and finished bottles? I would love to find an opportunity like this in my region (would save TONS of time and hand cramps!) As I type this, I have been designing a product label in Photoshop. My plan is to offer 3 types of candles... 1. Naked - meaning no label 2. Wicked Wine label - the custom one I am creating that captures our brand image 3. Original label - Several customers have asked me to sell candles with original labels. A potential issue that arises in the way I cut the bottles. I would have to figure out a process for removing the original label, then cutting, then reapplying the original label.

Hi EmJean - What type of wax are your candles made of? For soy candles, frosting (also know as, the 'bloom') should not be considered a flaw as it is a natural characteristic of soy. From my knowledge and experience with soy wax, frosting doesn't impact the scent throw or the way the candle burns. While 'the bloom' causes a candle to look dry, it is just a characteristic of this type of wax. It has nothing to do with the candle actually "drying out". Your customers can burn a candle with frosting without worry. If you are concerned what some customers may think when they see frosting on their candles, I would suggest including a card with each order which describes frosting and how it is actually a sign that the wax in the candle is actually pure soy (which is s a major selling point for some consumers). Additionally, to reduce the potential for frosting, try to keep your candles out of direct sunlight (and even fluorescent lights). With the extreme cold much of the country has experienced as of late (I am in Massachusetts - last week we hit 0 degrees), I am fairly sure many candles may see an uptick in frosting. No matter how you store or pack them, I have found it almost impossible to stop the soy wax from blooming. Hope this info help! -Andrew

This is a very interesting thread. I know the discussion hasn't been active for a while, but since I am new to CraftServer, I wanted to add my two cents. My business name is called, Wicked Wine Candles, we sell candles made from recycled wine bottles. We started selling at craft fairs and local farmer's markets back in 2011 and have continued to improve our product and building our customer base. On to the name... We are from Massachusetts, where the term, 'wicked', in New England is slang that adds emphasis. For example, "that movie is wicked awesome" aka "that movie is really awesome". Another reason we selected 'wicked' is that we use wood wicks in all of our candles. The double 'W' sound has a nice ring to it - easy to remember (in my opinion We included the term 'wine' in the brand name because all of our candles are made from recycled wine bottles. We wanted our company name to accurately describe our products so as to not confuse potential customers.

Thank you! Yes, people love Henry everywhere we go. He's such a good pooch we had to incorporate him in as we try to build the Wicked Wine brand. While we do turn most of the wine bottles we drink into candles, we have help from a few other people in our local area. We found the type of bottles that work best for creating a quality candle, so we are a bit more selective when we collect our bottles for repurposing them into candles. For other bottles, we make drinking glasses! Also, we are taking corks and making some pretty cool coasters to accompany each wine bottle candle. I will post a picture of the final product once its complete. Had to delay some of the production today with all the new snow we got!

Thanks so much for the kind feedback. We have put a lot of work into our candles (and the website). Henry is great to have around the studio with us.

Hi! I was hoping to get some feedback from other candle enthusiasts on my product/small online business. I great appreciate any advice/tips you can share with me .... We have been making candles since 2011 selling at local farmers markets and most recently we were featured at the Fryeburg State Fair in Maine. In September'13 we launched our website (http://wickedwinecandles.com) along with some social media profiles (e.g. Etsy, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest). Anyways, I make each candle completely by hand from recycled wine bottles. I use soy wax infused with two different scents (Merlot and Chardonnay), and fit each with a timber wood wick. I have posted a few pictures below. Currently, we do not have a label for the candles. I personally like our 'naked' bottle look, but I have had a handful of repeat customers ask for labels, so I figured I would try and design one myself. The label is still a work in progress. The candles burn very nicely and the scents are not too overpowering. Any thoughts on what I may be doing good/bad? How about the 'brand' I am trying to build, 'Wicked Wine Candles'. Thanks SO much everyone. I am looking forward to any and all feedback. -Andrew

I agree with commenters on both sides of the discussion here. On the one hand, having a product name that is straight forward and smells very close to the name will help with customers understanding what they are getting. On the other side, creative names spur interest and curiosity, and also sets your candle apart from others. I would try and leverage both arguments here, creative yet direct (if that even makes sense). For instance, for my candles, we have the scent name (e.g. Merlot) be very direct which helps the customer know what the candle will smell like. We add some creativity when we name our glass color for the candles (e.g. our blue candle is called 'High Tide Blue', and our green candle is called, 'Sea Grass Green'). Its fun to add creativity to areas that can help develop your particular brand, but does not confuse the customer. My little business is called 'Wicked Wine Candles'. This name can have multiple meanings... Wicked - we are from Massachusetts, next to Salem. The word wicked is local slang for 'really' (e.g. that candle is wicked awesome). Wicked - we use timber wood wicks in our candle If you are interested, you can check out my site here, wickedwinecandles.com I always appreciate feedback on my brand and candles! Thank you!

Excellent. May I ask how you went about securing the same brands? We collect recycled wine bottles from our local area and I would love to work with a restaurant or local wine store. I am not sure how to approach the topic and discussion though. I would greatly appreciate any info you can share with me.

We make candles from recycled bottles. And yes, I agree, there are many different glass bottle variations, some thick, some thin. Some work well for candles, many do not. We like to use large wine bottles and champagne bottles as they have glass thickness of at least 3/16". Additionally, we only bottles with minimum 3 1/8" diameter, and 11 5/8" circumference. To cut our bottles, we have tried many different methods, but have found that scoring the bottle first, then heating with a torch, then cooling with water causes the bottle to separate very easily. We then finish the process by smoothing all the edges of each bottle. I have attached a picture for your reference. I am very interested in learning if others have better methods or tips for improving my process.

I agree, Rewined does make a great candle. There are several other companies that make a very similar product worth noting, such as... Rescued Wine, Unwined, Glassed Over. My friend and I started our own little company, Wicked Wine Candles, and we make and sell wine bottle candles from recycled wine bottles as well. The reason I really like ours is the scent. We have two distinct wine scents, Merlot and Chardonnay that really smell great. The companies I listed (and as another mentioned in an earlier reply) have scents that do not really smell all that much like wine. Additionally, our candles use timber wood wicks, so when burning they have a pleasant cracking sound to them. We have been selling at local craft fairs for the past 2 years and just launched our website (and Amazon/Etsy listing) this past summer. I must say it is truly amazing talking to all the people I have met while working at these fairs. I am always amazed at how nice and helpful people can be when giving tips/advice for my candles. I just wanted to thank those who have helped me along the way as I truly appreciate it - hopefully some of you are members on this site and are reading this

Excellent news. I am very happy for you. I imagine having potential customers being able to smell and touch your candles will go a long way in driving sales. I would love to get a small retail location as well. Unfortunately, at this time I don't think I am ready for that. Some day though

Our candle room consists of an aluminum stand containing 4 shelves, used for storing candles in different stages of the making process (e.g. cut bottles, wick fixed, wax poured, wax cooled, etc). We built 3 custom wax melting/scent infusion stations (one pictured below) that sit a foot or so above the main crafting table. We added a spout to each station that allows us to pour wax into the jars that sit atop a digital scale (for ensuring the same about of wax is added to each candle). I will post more picture as soon as I can. p.s. the room smells AMAZING from all the scents!