strugglebrother

Try Save on scents "Firewood"... That one really smells to me like an open fire in a log cabin.

Thanks guys, appreciated.

1 hour ago, TallTayl said:

I have had a little success by covering the scale with a sheet of plastic wrap. But they all end up trashed. I buy the $10 pocket size by the half dozen... 

Which one is the pocket size you buy? There are several on Amazon?

Any recommendations on a high precision scale that don't get destroyed of the Fragrance Oils.

The one's I had haven't been able to handle the small spill. The plastic simply melts from the oils with time. Be great to have something that is high precision 0.01g and is completely stainless or in glass. I'm on the hunt

Try these

https://www.onlinelabels.com/OL224.htm

https://www.onlinelabels.com/OL5525.htm

Yes, they do have other oils than Lebermouth. But I would never gamble on buying something I can not be sure of that I can even use upon arrival.

I forgot to mention that I bought 4630 wax from them before, shipping turned out to be cheaper than Candlescience. 25 % of the candles from that wax separated from the fragrance oil. Nothing that's never happened before when ordered the same wax from other sources. It's a quality gamble.

Paying premium for quality is one thing, ridiculous overpricing is another.

Let me come back to you with the Lebermouth favorites I have.. Some of their flower one's are really accurate. We have been using them for candles and room sprays.

2 hours ago, TallTayl said:

About maybe 18 months ago a few Facebook soap groups had an issue with them selling soaping oils like coconut oil, Shea butter and cocoa butter for example by volume versus weight, despite coconut oil being solid at typical room temps. It grew to nearly be a class action suit.

 

i buy waxes from them when the pricing is right. Usually there's a decent coupon active every time. I had to price shop beeswax earlier this week and am waiting for their white to arrive to see if it is a good buy or gross waste of money. At 55lbs it is a hefty gamble. What was odd about the cart is one 55lb case of wax to me was $17 and change through fedex. Two cases quoted me $55. If the wax is good, I'll place two separate orders for more. I'm sure if I called it would be ironed out, but I was being phone lazy. 

 

have only bought a couple of 1oz FO in search of a replacement for a discontinued or out of business source and to compare what I had from lebermuth against BA. Egyptian dragon, for instance, was NOT the same between Lebermuth and BA. I have a few of their flavors, and so far I am batting 500. 

 

Formflavors, their banana  is a super seller for me (or at least was last Faire season). Tastes like yellow banana taffy. Their Kentucky bourbon flavor I want to love, but nobody can taste or smell it in lip balm even over flavored at 5%. I had suck high hopes!

 

the rum and coke is good. Grapefruit is OK, but I like the sage's grapefruit essential oil more. 

 

1 hour ago, Moonstar said:

Ive never ordered for this reason. Id much rather pay Lebermuths $20 fee for not meeting their minimum requirement than take a risk. 

Their prices are way cheaper + my experience with Lebermuth has been nothing but positive . Super impressed with them .

Sorry you experienced this with BA  

 

Agreed. Since each oil is up priced so much from Bulk the $20 fee isn't really an issue. Sometimes Lebermouth even waives that fee for me. Very good customer service.

Owner Danny Pellegrino is the brother of Natural Essentials owner Gary Pellegrino. Here is a quote from him in 2010 "One reason Bulk Apothecary has done so well is its dedication to customer service. If a customer isn't completely happy with her purchase, she can return it within 14 days for a full refund minus shipping. No questions asked. And if she can find a better advertised price on any item Bulk Apothecary sells, the company will beat it."

They definitely don't offer to beat anyone else's price and customers are complaining. They have a lot of work to do to repair their reputation.

In the beginning, I started buying from this company to try different suppliers out. Fragrance oils were decent in some of my candles but pretty soon I started to notice a lot of weird things about them.

1.
If you order something from them and they run out of stock they ship the order without that product and without informing. Extremely unprofessional when you have a candle deadline. You put in your order, wait for a week just to realize that you are still out of stock when it arrives. You might be ordering a few pounds of the oil you want and a few samples. The package comes only with the samples (which you only ordered as an add-on to the shipment).

Their inventory system isn’t synced at all with their online system. All other suppliers email me to ask me if I want to proceed with the order if something is out of stock. Sometimes they even offer free shipping on the oil that they ran out of as soon as it’s back in stock.

Bulk did refund me for the shipping after hitting them up after but it doesn’t help if you have deadlines. And time is also money.

2.
Their oils go off quick. I noticed that a few oils I bought smell bad already after 6 months. Pretty soon I figured out that most of their oils are just rebottled oils from Lebermouth. Lebermouth bottles them for you when you order and you know that you get them fresh from the source. I figure Bulk have them sitting for years as there isn’t any information about when they were bottled at all. Hence why I buy everything from Lebermouth instead as of now.

3.
They tamper with their rating system. Not ONE single product review from customers have less than 5 stars. They simply delete anything that has been reviewed with less than 5 stars. Or just write their own “fake reviews” to make their product look good. I tried myself to write a review of what I bought, it never showed up on their website.

4.
Their testing of oils in different applications are fake or inaccurate. They simply write on each and every of their FO’s that it’s been tested to work well in everything. Exactly the same oil on Lebermouth is for instance tested not to work well in candles but better in other applications.

5.
Extreme pricing. Same oils on Lebermouth is usually 10 dollars cheaper per pound. They are obviously free to charge whatever they want but I see it just as upscale pricing for the sake of it. Some of their FO’s are up to 85 dollars per pound?!!

6.
Have you heard of a supplier who charges you more per pound if you buy it in bigger quantities?

http://www.bulkapothecary.com/south-seas-fragrance-oil/

2oz bottles are 7.95 which would be 63.60 per pound if you buy 8 of them. 16oz is 86

I called several times to ask them to adjust the price for me and after management looked it over their representative gave me this answer:

“The prices are accurate on the website. The prices are that way due to the labor of filling the oil makes the price be more for the larger sizes. “

I wrote back

“Is the labor more to fill one bottle instead of filling and manufacturing 8 2 ounce glass bottles? Doesn't seem environmental friendly at all?”

And the answer was

“I definitely agree with you. That was per upper management and that is the pricing. I wish I could change it but I unfortunately can not.”

I then choose to scrap that scent and work on something else. That was the last time I bought something from them.

7.
I then googled Bulk Apothecary scam and first thing that comes up are people's opinions on yelp about them and it’s not good at all

https://www.yelp.com/biz/bulk-apothecary-streetsboro

They have of course shut off people's ability to post any comments on their Facebook page. Only companies with bad reputation do that.

To me, all this seem like unethical business practice. What're your experiences?

Scrape some off with a knife works, then heat the top layer with a heat gun.

Pour out the residual wax and then reheat again and let it dry. 

Yeah I've seen those, could be worth for keeping the dust away. But they melt even with the lids on them when the sun is shining straight at them.

I feel the tops needs to be scraped and remelted for me to be able to sell them

Yeah they have lids but I have the lids off on the testers as it looks more appealing when people come by.

12 hours ago, TallTayl said:

What kind of candles?

In glass jars, container candles

I took photos of a clean and dirty candle. Here in Los Angeles the sun is not the best for the candles on the market. It's not just the dust, it's the shape of the tops after, the wax kinda bubbles up and it looks ugly.

I'm gonna try with some pantyhose and also scraping with a knife, sounds like that could be much better than what I have tried with before.

Hi,

How do you clean your tops on your tester candles been on for instance a market or such?

I've tried to reheat them with a heatgun after wiping them gently with a paper towel but they never turn out looking that great after.

How do you go with cleaning your candle tops when they get dusty and sit in the sun for a day on a market?

I did speak to Soapguild today and they did say they cover candles as they are working within the field of soap and cosmetics.

They are a tad cheaper than Indiebusiness network but seem to offer a fair few discounts on shipping / carriers and with suppliers as Bulk, Lebermouth etc.

I'm waiting to hear from Indiebusiness network on the phone, no one in the office when I called.

Yes they have great containers as such.

I haven't found anything similar in the US. The best bet is to have uncolored tumblers and get them painted somewhere. Or order from China. Best to order a few samples and then make a bigger order so you have for the future.

Glassnow has assorted colored tumblers but they aren't so good looking and clean. They do custom design requests now

https://www.glassnow.com/custom-design/

I'm looking at joining either Soapguild or Indiebusiness network for the benefits of their insurances.

Are any of them better for candle makers and what are your thoughts about both of them in general?

Thanks for all of your replies. I might pick up a wine cooler for my more important FO's so they don't melt away too quick.

Hi,

I'm living in California and it's getting really hot over here, especially in the summer.

My garage goes up to 90 during the afternoon and early evenings. Do you guys use a fridge to store your most important fragrance oils? Recommended temperature is 60 to 78 degrees for a years shelf life.

Also, how are you categorising your fragrance oil samples. Simply alphabetic or?

Check out: http://www.shortrunlabels.com/

This is cheap but maybe not as good quality but you can ask them to do you a free sample: https://24hrstickers.com/

I saw that there was a few threads from 2010 and 2013 about coconut wax but then not much more.

Have anyone of you tried the Accu-Blend All Natural Coconut Wax with any good results recently? Does it throw better than soy?

The Accu-Blend Coconut Wax 83 It should be a blend of mostly coconut and then a bit of soy and other vegetable waxes. I've ordered a little piece I'm going to test with next week.

Voluspa is a blend with coconut and paraffin + other secret stuff.

I'm thinking more about better fragrance concentration than actually load... 

If you are using a FO with dilution that is taking up space of those 10 % you can load a candle with you would be much better with a raw ingredient that is more concentrated and don't fill up those 10 %..

But my uncertainty is in regards to if it's actually the load or how the fragrance binds with the wax that is most important. But yeah, I'm gonna pick up the phone and call a few wax manufacturers and fragrance houses and ask. Reading on these online stores about what is good or not is usually just a big sales pitch for their own FO's to be used with what ever wax they are selling. 

It's even used as a solvent for essential oils when used in candles... I might call that lab and ask about the risks of using it...

"Another example of the need to use diluents is when making candles with essential oils.  Some essential oils may need to be thinned out with a diluent so that they can properly travel up the wick and burn correctly.  Typical diluents added to essential oils for this purpose are:  iso Propyl Myristate, or di-Octyl Adipate.  Neither of these diluents are natural, but are effective for this purpose."

What I have heard is that IPM is giving a much worse hot throw than DOA...

Here it is stated as ingredient in just this one candle, usually you don't see anyone advertise what EXACTLY is in a candle

http://spectrumboutique.com/product/afterglow-massage-candle/

I have a feeling DOA is in a lot of FO's out there and used in a lot of candles but there is no way to find out as all FO's are sold as 'trade secrets'.. So you might be inhaling it anyway without knowing it or adding it yourself even.

But yeah that MSDS doesn't look too good, I agree.

On 3/6/2016 at 3:52 PM, Vicky_CO said:

It is not meant to be used in wax, DOA Dioctyl Adipate is a plasticizer you do not want to burn that stuff it will make you sick as all get out. 

Vicky, do you know this by fact?

From what I heard it's been used with good results and can be found in ready made fragrance oils for candle making? Does it differ from IPM in any sense?