Scented Creations

A long time ago my husband ran a business, this probably has changed, but he was automatically put in the white and yellow pages when he installed a phone in his shop under his business name. But, since so many of us use our cell phones for business now, I'm not sure how that would work

Hello, I am wondering if anyone has sales consultants that sell their products? I have been thinking of hiring a few consultants next year. Years ago I had a few friends sell candles for me and that went well. But this time, I want to have all my forms (Independent sales contracts, etc) in place first. If anyone does this, where did you get your consultant contract at? And, what has been your experience been like?

I started storing my melts in a ziplock bag, but I package them first and label them. It works well for me, but I imagine it wouldn't work well, if they weren't packaged.

hhmm, can it possibly be your incense sticks? (it's the only thing I can think of). I dip Patcholi and never had a problem. I get mine from BC

I have tried the card stock from BC. It worked well, I scented it with the odor eliminator scent. It not only took out any odor's I didn't want, but left it with a nice clean scent. I usually don't use car air freshener's in my car, but, you just gave me an idea. I have a friend who loved the corn cob air freshener, I think I will use him as a tester to see if he likes the card stock better, or the corn cob. I can't wait to hear which he liked better!

Honestly, I didn't even mean to start selling candles. I was looking for a new hobby and wanted to try soap making, but it seemed dangerous, so I tried my hand at candle making. My goal, at the time, was to make a candle as good and Yankee Candle (this was in 1998. Well, it quickly became an addiction! After much, much trial and error, I had boxes and boxes of candles made. I wasn't even sure what I was going to do with them all. I didn't even burn candles! A friend came by and asked what that wonderful smell was, I told him I made candles. He mentioned he loved candles, so I unloaded 1/2 of my boxes that day. He called me a few days later and said he needed more candles because he had sold them all. He ended up hosting my first candle party and it just went from there. Thinking back on it, I guess my brand became popular just by word of mouth.

I saw this on You Tube the other night! I can't imagine someone would invest that kind of money into something they know nothing about, but, when I think of all the money I invested just as a hobby with candle making, I imagine it was far more than the price in the video.

I was wondering how many of you make votives? For those of you that do, how many re-pours do you make? I pour the first pour, then re-pour a second time. About 10-15 minutes after the 2nd pour, I do a 3rd one to top it off. I don't like any pits in the top of the votive candles. The 3rd pour can be tricky because if you wait to long the top looks splotchy, if you do it to soon it's pretty useless because you will get a dip around the wick anyway. My husband and I are going back and forth on this, he doesn't seem to think a dip at the wick of a votive candle is a big deal, he says no one will notice it. I, on the other hand, like the tops as level as I can get them, I think they look nicer. He says I have a "sickness" (i'm sure he is joking,,, I think )

I agree, start shopping locally for your supplies. That's how I started, then I discovered companies online, I started to order from them. They had cheaper prices, but my problem back then was if I forgot to order something, or didn't know I needed the ingredient, I had to wait for it to be shipped and that was really,, really hard for me to do. I didn't like having to sit and look at my candle making things knowing I had to wait a few days to a week to get my order. Yep, I got addicted that quickly. It also helps to build a relationship with local candle supply stores, if you need some type of special mold or another specialty product, they will be more likely to work for you and with you.

I had to read this over a few times to really understand this post. At first, I thought it was strange, but then, I have been out of the candle loop for a long time. The more I think about it, the more I like it. I don't know about you guys, but I am always thinking of different ways to make my products stand out from the bigger candle companies and be unique, this would be an excellent way to do it. Pour your melts, or clams, and sprinkle sea salt on the top of it could be very eye catching.

Welcome to the forum, I"m glad you found it! I was part of previous message boards also, people here are so much more helpful!

Your table looks great! The first thing i noticed was the "not scentsy" sign. I wondered how that went over. There are alot of Scentsy fans around me.

At this time of year I stock up my family on left over Christmas candles (there IS a benefit to having a candle maker in the family!). I am going to start adding my spring scents and new scents. I figure if any of my new scents can sell this time of year when it is slow, there is a good chance they will become good sellers come spring/summer. I also test scents this time of year, since it is slow.

It has been about seven years since I made candles. I have to tell you, I started out a bit rusty, it took me a few weeks to get my game on.

I am so glad I found this forum, I was starting to think there weren't any active candle making message boards out there anymore! A little about me: I started making candles in 1997 in my kitchen. Initially, I started making them because I was looking for a new hobby and candle making sounded interesting. Before long, it became an addiction! I am sure more than a few of you can relate to that :). I started out with votives, pillars and containers. Then I ventured into gel candles, hurricane shells with pictures embedded in them, and then other things embedded with wax. A few years after I had been making candles people started to offer to buy them (by this time I had a kitchen full of candles in boxes that were made, i had small children at the time and didn't burn candles). Since I didn't sell them and needed room in my kitchen, I just gave them away. One of the people who I had given candles to told me I should sell them. I had never thought about selling them and never knew so many people loved candles. I ended up telling him that I wasn't interested in selling them, that I had plenty to give away. He came over and got more, he called me the next day and said I needed to get a price list together because he had sold what I had given him and was bringing me the money. So, I made a price list and Candle Land was born, along with my first sales rep. So, for 10 years, that was my "job". It is true when they say "If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life". When the housing market crashed happened I ended up moving and life just sort of took over and I never got back into making candles on a full time basis. I do need to add: when I moved and bought my next house, the first thing that was set up was a candle making area in the basement. I set that up before my bedroom was set up! Life has calmed down and I am ready to start up again and am excited to see so many new candle makers! I know I am going to enjoy this message board. Years ago, I was on the Candle Cauldron site (the message board and the chat), my screen name was myangels. Happy Candlemaking!