Tallbabydoll

cryptic, I'm with Satin, I would not start with tea-lights. Many suggest starting with votives. They are small, with the least amount of testing involved. Generally speaking, once you find the right wick for your formula, it will work with most if not all of your fos (fragrance oils). Some fos are heavier and might require a slightly larger wick, but in most cases the same wick will burn all your votives, once you find that perfect wick. As Satin stated tea lights are pretty boring, and don't last very long. They aren't typically used as a sole scenting source, they're just to small to do the job, and only last a few hours. Plus I don't think they have starter kits for them. Just so you know, they are those little tiny candles that are about an inch in diameter and maybe half an inch high, in a small tin, plastic or glass cup. They are generally used in tart burners or in decorations. YOu could also make tarts, melts, or wickless candles. None of these require wicking. Tarts and melts are wax poured into a mold, then popped out and placed in the top of a tart burner to melt. Burners are available in electric or you burn a tea light under the bowl. Wickless candles are generally wax poured in a seamless tin or heat resistant glass container and they are placed on a candle warmer, which melt the wax. This is just a brief discription. HTH

Welcome to the board newbies! Barrel, I'd suggest posting an ISO (In search of) thread on the classified ads stating that your looking for a wholesale account for tea-lights. Quite a few people here make tea-lights. For those that are looking to make candles, I'd suggest reading the tips threads at the top of the first page, and the archives. There's a lot more to candle making than most people realize when they first get started. It's also gets to be much more expensive than you'd think, so you'll want to know what your getting into before starting. Then when you decide to make the plunge you need to decide what kind of candles you want to make, votives, containers, or pillars. Once you decide that, I'd suggest starting with a starter kit. It's much cheaper than purchasing everything seperatly, and a great way to "get your feet wet." Let me warn you, once you pour and burn your own creation, you'll be hooked. Then you'll need TONS of fragrances, and every color available. Then you'll look in the gallary and want to try to make everything you see. If you start with containers, your gonna end up wanting to make pillars and vice versa. Then you'll want to start making soap and other B&B products. LOL It's a long chain reaction. You all can't say you weren't warned! Have fun and say good bye to all your "disposable income".

I've never even seen these, so this is a completely uneducated suggestion, but would fabric dye work? You can get Rite (a faric dye available in both powder and liquid form) available in many stores, like JoAnnes for example. HTH

I've had the same problem from time to time. I think what happens is the screw threads are cutting the wick when screwing it into the mold. What I've begun to do, and it hasn't happened since, is double wrapthe wick around the screw, and leave the screw loose, then cover it with sealer or a magnet. They also sell little black plugs that work like the screw would to fill in the hole. I've never tried the tape.

I give peaks Cinnamon Buns 5 stars!!! I everyone around here absolutely loves it. Smells just like the real thing right out of the oven. I know you said that you dont have any cinnamon fo right now, and thats the reason behind your post. Keep in mind that if your making these for yourself, does it really matter if your cinnamon buns smell like Apple Danish? IMHO do whatever you like when your making them for personal use, or testing. Who really cares if you have a blue, peach scented candle, KWIM? Persoanlly thats one of my favorite aspects of making candles instead of buying them. People tend to match the candle color with their decor, but what if you dont like the scent that color is. You either have to get a scent you dont like, or buy a color that doesn't go with your home. When making your own you can match your decor, and scent them your favorite scent, even if it doesn't really mentally match the color.

I agree with Breanna, a swap is a great way to try out alot of different votives. Or should I say see how different wax, fos, & wicks burn. You may or may not recieve a vanilla, but I'm sure you'll receive some scents that you've never smelled before. Another bonus is we have some very creative people on this board and you'll recieve some creative candles. However, I think it's a very tall order to expect a single votives cold throw to fill a room. In some cases, it's a tall order to expect a lit one to. It really depends on the scent (some fos are formulated to have a light scent, so this doesn't mean it's a bad fo or poorly made candle) and the size of the room. For example when I was burning one of my votives (peaks french vanilla) you could smell it great through most of my house, after burning for about 2-3 hours, but I have a very small house. My SIL burned one from the same batch in her basement and one in her livingroom. Her house is huge and has an open floorplan. The basement, though big for a basement, its much smaller than the upstairs, plus she had a couple of the doors closed down there. Well when she told me how they burned she raved about the one she burned in the basement, but complained about the one she burned upstairs. Saying that she could smell it in the livingroom and into the kitchen, but it was faint, and that the one downstairs (the basement) hit ya on the stairs and smelled incredible.

Thanks all. I am one of those people who'll try and try to make something, then once they do it, move on to the next. Well I had only made a handful of pillars (which is where I started in candlemaking) when I came acrossed photo embedded hurricanes. I was using Yaley wax at the time. I got it down and made myself about 5 of them. I burned in each one and never had any problems, but I also kept them away from heat sources, and perfectly centered the votive holder, and used cork in the bottom. Well I bought a case of wax on ebay, not knowing that hurricane wax even existed. I knew about 2 waxes pillar and container. Seller said it was pillar wax. Well I got the wax and poured tons of candles. Let them cure for about a week and started burning a few. They burned HORRIBLY so I started asking around and found out the wax was Hurricane wax. I was crushed, everything I had made was useless and a waste of time, supplies, and alot of money. So I threw it all out. I was using Yaley fo at that time to, which we all know is garbage but I was paying $5-$6 an ounce. Anyhow I've been using hurricane wax ever since, and your correct, it's much easier to work with. I've made and sold probably close to 100 of these now, but they were all made with hurricane wax with cork in the bottom and I always give verbal and written care instructions. I personally never had any problems with the ones I made with the Yaley wax which the MP was either 136 or 138 I can't remember. But we all know how well people listen to our directions. I've just read that others have been successful making these by adding an addative to raise the MP and I thought it was Micro 180. So I thought I'd give it a shot cuz $ is extremely tight right now. Oh well.

Did you inform Susan of the attitude and comments of the girl on the phone? That would have been the icing on the cake for me. She obviously realized she was in the wrong, otherwise she never would have told Susan about it, but I doubt she told her what she said. That or she was bitching about the call to Susan and got her own butt in hot water, which hopefully is the case. IMO crap happens, and for the most part I am pretty accepting and forgiving IF the company seems apologetic and genuinly concerned with rectifying the problem. Glad this turned around for you, I hope they can fix everything for you.

Thank you. However, I don't have either one and will have to order it, so which do you think would work better? And how much pp should I use. I've never used either one before, I've always used hurricane wax, so I'm clueless. TIA

Ok I know I should know this, but I'm not positive. Is Micro 180 the addative I need to use to raise the MP of reg pillar wax to use as hurricane wax? I have an order for some pic embed hurricanes, but no hurricane wax and can only get reg pillar wax locally. If I'm wrong, what can I use? TIA for any help. Tall

Beautiful shade of red you have there! Hope it throws great for ya!

Satin, I not only see and understand your point, but I agree with you, at least to a certain degree. Personally speaking, my argument with this article was the way it was written, not the point behind it. Especially the statement, "A candle did this." As I said in my comment I posted with the article, the candle didn't do it, the person who placed it on the table low enough for a child to reach over it did. I personally am guilty of placing a burning candle in unsafe places. I frequantly burn one on my coffee table. I don't have any children, but I do have 2 dogs. One being a black lab, and there's been a time or to that his tail has come to close for comfort. Also there are times I leave the room with it burning there. Prime time for an accident to occur, especially when the dogs chase eachother around. One time I opened a box of fo samples (when I was hosting the fo sample swap) and wasn't paying attention. I opened one of the flaps right over a burning candle and the flap caught on fire. Another time I had a votive burning at my computer, the wind blew and blew papers right onto the votive.....That was scary, those papers went right up and was spreading to the stack where the papers originally were. Sorry so long, but my point here is that I KNOW BETTER, and I make careless mistakes. BUT....I....made the mistakes, the candle didn't. Did anyone else notice that these people are from Chandler? What's the word for this? Ironic comes to mind, but I don't think that's it.

My guess would also be that there made by machines, and I have no advice on how to make them. However, if you were willing to try for a simpler look, that I can help with. What I've done in the past is a tilted layer, and you end up with the candy cane look. I tilted the mold, and used a measuring cup so each layer was even, and alternated colors. Or if you wanted large white stripes, and thin red or vise versa, I'd just go with say 1/4 cup one color and 1/3 cup of the other. You'll need to clean out the measuring cups between layers, or the build up will cause thinner stripes as you go up. HTH

I am in Michigan, so I can't be of help on a good place to buy wax in California. There is a link that lists supply companies by state. I don't have it, but it's probably listed in the tips section somewhere on here or in the archieves, or you could run a search and that'd probably bring it up. What I thought I should mention though is that though palm is IMO the most beautiful wax to work with, it is also one of the most difficult. I do not know your experience level in candle making, but thought you might want to be aware of this before spending much money on it. It's notorious for having airpockets, leading to other problems like blow outs. It's very difficult to wick, and I've heard that it has scent throw issues. I've heard many very experienced candle makers say they've given up on this wax because of these problems. Someday I want to try my hand at making them as well because I love the way they look. I've seen some made with a mix of the feathering and crystalizing palm in the gallary, and they result was some of the most amazing looking candles I've ever seen. But because this wax is so problematic, I've decided to wait until I have alot more experience under my belt. As I said, just thought I'd mention the problems associated with this wax before you invest much into it. HTH

Just thought I'd mention that www.alabastercandlesupplies.com has 30 colors to choose from, great customer service, and I personally love the dyes. I have no complaints with the quality.

Man that ticked me right off. "A candle did this.":mad: grrrrrrrrrr I posted my opinion on how the article is written, that statement, and that people need to stand up and take responsibility for there own negligence. I may have some spelling errors, but I think I got the point acrossed, as well as placed a warning that isn't on a lot of labels. Also said to buy wickless if you can't handle using fire LOL.

Personally I make votives to test to see if I like an fo. I always start with 1 lb of wax, and pour 8 votives. I am more likely to burn them myself that way, I can start my wick testing, they are just as easy to make IMHO, and I give away the extras, especially if I don't like the scent. Not everyone has a tart burner, but most ppl have votive holders. ANywho thats what I do.

Liquid dye goes a LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGg way generally. It really depends on how often u use it and how dark you make your candles. You can even melt an oz of wax, put some dye in it to make your own color blocks so you have a little more control. This method is great for making light colors or pastel colored candles. With liquid, you have to be careful or you'll end up with the candles darker than you intended. HTH

It looks like others here have had better experiences than I have with ebay sellers, but I've only bought a couple of items from ebay candlestore sellers, and have no complaints with them. My bad experiences were with ppl selling candle supplies that knew nothing about candles, and at one point neither did I. I bought a case of wax, (I had asked the seller about the wax but all they new was that it was paraffin) poured a ton of candles, waited for them to cure, then when I went to burn some, they burned horribly. I asked around and found out that it was Hurricane wax. All the candles I had poured were worthless. I bought a lot of fos, some were rancid, and those that weren't were thin and no hot throw. I bought a mold that was supposed to be a 3x6 and it ended up being a 2x3, which I had no intentions of making. I bought 2 molds, auction said they were candle molds, 1 ended up being a soap mold. Another bad experience was I bought a mold, took over a month to arrive, I had emailed the seller who said that they included some free wicking and mold seal to make up for the wait. When it arrived, I realized that he had advertised this mold, took my money, sent it to a supplier, and had them ship me the mold. Sorry so long, just wanted to make others aware of some of the mishaps than can happen on ebay. On all cases I contacted the sellers, and none were even apologetic. One excuse or another, or no response to emails. So be careful as others have advised. Read feedback, and be weary of new sellers. Also insurance is highly advisable! HTH

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :highfive:

First you need to decide what kind of candle you want to make, container, votive, or pillars. Then I suggest going to a supplier such as peaks (link on the right) and purchase a starter kit. It will include everything you need to get started. It's cheaper than buying everything seperately and this way you'll get a feel for it to see if you even like it, before putting a ton of money into it. This is a very expensive hobby, but it's a lot of fun. Good Luck!

I do not sell yet, so I don't have insurance, but have read other peoples posts about it. I believe the insurance you need is called "product liability insurance". I'm sorry but that's the only help I can offer.

One thing that I think is important to consider when choosing your retail location is the amount of parking, and the ease of getting in and out of your location. I know there are stores in my area that I avoid going to because it's a PITA to get back into traffic afterwards, or a PITA to get through traffic to get there in the first place. Also there's the bakery that I just love, but rarely go because there's only a couple of parking spots, which are always taken. I'd have to park 2-3 blocks away. Something you could do to help with the expense is rent out a small portion of space to someone else with their own related product. Something different from what you makes, but is appealing to the same consumers. Like maybe hand made jewelry, pottery, or art. Charge them a certain amount per month to have their stuff in your store, and it'd help cover your operating expenses. If I ever get to the point of having a store, this is what I intend to do, at least til I get up and running smoothly. Even if it's only enough to cover utilities, and trash removal, it'd still help. But I would never let them renter know the amount of rent you pay. Their rent should be reflective of the amount of space you give them, a portion of the utility costs, and operating expenses such as trash removal, register tape, labor, carry out bags, etc. Another upside is that a customer may come in to see the other person's merchandise and end up purchasing yours. But you'd need a system to keep track of their sales so you could pay them at the end of each week/month, how ever you worked that out. Like maybe they write their price on a certain color sticker and whenever one of their items sell, the sales person pulls off that sticker and sticks it on a piece of paper. Then when payday arrives, you just add up the stickers and pay them that amount. Something like that:undecided ? Anyway, just an idea, HTH.

Everything looks great, very professional! I hope you made lots of $$$!

Was wondering if a Mod might want to move this to the tips area? It's something that might be helpful when the time comes, but something someone might not think to look into ahead of time.