njcurley

Well I have been using the Millennium Wax and have poured and tested many candles, with a few different wicks and a few different jars.

Overall this is turning out to be an excellent wax for me.  I melt to 160 (when not using any dye) and 170 (when using dye), add FO at 140 and pour at approximately 115 (give or take a few degrees).  Approximately 90% of the time it does not need a second pour and there is just very minor frosting.  I compared it to candles made with C3 and the Millennium candles are far above in the looks category.  It wasn't too difficult to figure out the proper wick sizes to use.  I ended up with a Premier 790 in my Interlude jars, an Eco 14 in my status jars and a slightly custom size wood wick in my frosted jars.  I have found both the cold and hot throw excellent with every scent I have tested.

Now for the only downside of this wax....it does have adhesion issues.  I try not to focus too much on wet spots even though they irritate the living crap out of me!  Luckily I don't have to worry about it at all with the frosted jars and if it is really irritating me or really bad I hit it with the heat gun to clear them up and I'm finding they aren't coming back yet.

So bottom line is if you are looking for a new wax and are willing to pay a bit more (a 50 lb box with shipping for me is approximately $105, C3 with shipping is $85) it is well worth it if you can contend with the wet spots.

Thanks for all the help!  I'm glad I made the leap and tried this wax.  After three tries I think I have found my go to.

Your candles are beautiful!  Good luck tomorrow and I look forward to seeing your pics!

Thanks Jcandleattic, I think I am just being cranky today because I went to order my Interlude jars and my supplier isn't carrying them anymore.

I really believe in buying and helping support local suppliers and I have tried with this supplier but this is the third time they have burned me, actually the fourth (I ordered a jar one time and they were not only out of stock, they weren't carrying them any more).  I have tried to keep the majority of my 'basic' purchases from them and maybe 1/3 of my FO is from them.  I don't mind having 3 maybe 4 suppliers, but lately it seems I am using more and more and more.  I hate all those shipping charges.

I need to really sit down and give someone else a try for the bulk of my supplies.  There will be certain things I will always get from someone in particular, but I can buy those few things in bulk when I need them.

None of this applies to FO of course, I hoard FO wherever I find something that grabs me is where I get it from!

So I guess my question is can anyone recommend a good company to order from for day to day supplies?

Is anyone else having problems with any of their suppliers?  Since coming back to candles at the beginning of the year after a break of a few years, I am having a hard time with suppliers.  I have tried to keep my suppliers as local as possible to both keep shipping times and expenses down and to try and keep my business local, or at least in my state.

In the last few months my number one supplier almost doubled the price of the lid I was using and I had to find another source and they have now stopped carrying one of the jars I use, both times with absolutely no warning.  Not to mention that they shipped lids to me that I didn't order ($16.20), I quickly let them know and they were very nice about it and sent me a return label, but now I have to go the hassle of boxing this glass lids up securely and make a special trip to the post office to send them back.  Another I use the customer service is somewhat lacking the few times I have contacted them.  And both of these companies, I wasn't crazy about their packing abilities.

Can anyone recommend a good all around, dependable, tried and true supplier?  I hate having to spread my supply purchases over more than 3-5 suppliers, but that is the way it has been going.

1 hour ago, Moonstar said:

You can laugh now but I bet your were freaking out right when that happened 

 

I sure as heck would've been!

10 hours ago, franu61 said:

 Not silly, but I accidentally spilled a whole pour pot of wax down my sink once.  Silly is when I tried to make red, white and blue votives with yellow beeswax.  Ended up with orange, yellow and green

OMG!  I love the red white and blue, that is so something I would do!  Oh boy those pipes, my husband would, oh my, probably kill me.  I'm glad everything worked out.

10 hours ago, Jcandleattic said:

Well, not sure if this counts, but way back about a year after I started making candles, my husbands brother and his family lived with us. One day his wife asked me what time it was and I literally sniffed my watch. Umm, there was no scent obviously. LMAO I felt like an idiot after that. 

I love it!

Thanks for helping me feel better!

I'm so sorry this is happening to you!  I worked for an IP law firm for many years and its amazing what people will try to get away with.

8 minutes ago, birdcharm said:

Hmmm ... did you leave any room at the top by chance?

 

I'm thinking you could drill a tunnel down the center large enough to accommodate the wick tab, sink the wick, then fill in the hole just to the level where the wax is (you may have colors mix in the tunnel).  If you left some room at the top, go back and pour a thin layer to conceal your endeavor.  If you didn't leave any room, scape off a bit of wax from the top prior to performing the operation.  I don't believe all is lost. 

 

I've never forgotten a wick, but I've played with wax long enough to know my way around an assortment of mistakes! 

 

Thanks birdcharm.  I already remelted the wax and repoured the candles.  I felt like such a dufus. 

So I have been working on a new candle oh for about a month.  It is a slanted layer candle in the local HS colors.  Well I finally got it perfect earlier this week, wick is good, colors are perfect, fragrance is great.  OK, so last night I go to pour 4 of them to get us started, customers have been hounding us for them.  Of course being the OCD, perfectionist that I am, I'm still tweaking them just a little bit and in my quest to pour the perfect slant/fragrance/color I forgot to wick it!!

DUHHHHHHHH! 

Oh and I forgot, I have this wrought iron bookshelf that I have them on so that I can slant them just so and I had this brilliant idea to cover the bookshelf with towels to slow down the cooling, so I was super excited to see if it helped the adhesion issues this morning.  First thing I ran to the candle room ripped off the rigged up towels and examined them.  They came out perfect, I was so excited!!  Then I looked at them and realized what I did. 

I thought something was different!  Just figured I had finally figured something new out.

I made a whopper last night which I found this morning.  I didn't know whether to cry or laugh.  If anyone responds I might just share.  I feel really silly.

I have an HP OfficeJet Pro 8715 Ink Jet and its the second one I bought.  The first went back almost immediately (sorry I cannot remember what it was).  I would say it is between mediocre and great, maybe 3.5 out of 5.  I have occasional problems with streaks and just automatically clean the printhead before big print jobs.  That definitely helps.  I sometimes have a problem with it grabbing too many pages or not enough.  I find that if I put in a lot of sheets of labels it tends to work better than if I just put in a sheet or two.

Overall for the $100 I paid for the printer, it is worth it.  I hope to eventually be able to afford a higher end printer.

Thank you everyone!  What great advice you all give.  We've worked all of the particulars of what we want out of a wholesale relationship.  As birdcharm said, if they are not happy with our terms, we probably do not want them as a client.  Of course we are flexible in some things but we do have "must have" terms.

Thanks again everyone!

The first burn tests are completed.  I used Libbey Interlude 12oz jars, two had an Eco 14 wick - 1 without color, dye and fragrance, the other with dye and fragrance at 8% and two others had Premier 777 wicks, same conditions as the last.

I ditched the first set of candles I made.  The second set of candles the wax was melted to 160+ and poured at 110.  The third set, I melted the wax to precisely 160, added dye and UVI as soon as I put the wax in the pour pot and added FO at 140.  I then stirred on and off until 115 (the instructions on the bag say to pour continuously) and poured.  They set up spectacularly!  No heat gun needed.

The candles with the Eco 14 burned way too hot, the wick mushroomed too much for my liking and it did produced a mild to moderate amount of soot.  It also burned significantly faster than the Premier wicked candles.

The candles with the Premier 777 wicks burned just a touch too cool.  It never produced a complete melt pool, there was just a little too much hang up for my liking, but the wick never mushroomed and there was absolutely no soot.

Cold throw and hot throw on all the candles was phenomenal and there was a minimal amount of frosting.

Now here comes the but, I did have a glass adhesion issue.  Just a few too many and/or large wet spots for my liking.

So it is still a work in process but I am rather impressed so far.

Pros:  The pellets are super easy to work with, amazing cold and hot throw and they set up perfectly.

Cons:  Glass adhesion issues and it is slightly more finicky as far as temps than the 464 and C3 that I have used in the past.

I poured another batch Friday with fragrance oil, dye and a Premier 790 wick.  I will test burn that candle tomorrow night. The glass adhesion is bothering me a bit so I will probably start heating the jars and cooling in a box with a cover on the next batch I do.  If the 790 wick works well I am seriously considering changing my wax.  As time allows I will start testing all of my scents with the wax. Right now getting ready for the upcoming season and preparing a wholesale proposal and hopefully a wholesale order will be taking up most of my time. 

Thank you so much Candybee.  This is exactly the information that I needed.  And thanks for calming some fears.  We can handle 6 cases and I cannot fathom they would order more than six cases for their first order.

Thank you again for your insight!  BTW I saw some pics of your Market setup on another thread, WOW!  You do such a wonderful job.

14 minutes ago, Candybee said:

Congrats on the offer! Feels good to know your candles are really appreciated doesn't it?  It feels amazing!  I think I am still on cloud 9 this morning.

 

First thing I noticed when I was reading your post is that you want to use new jars. My question is what jars were your potential customer looking at? I ask because if they are looking at the jars you intend to switch out for the new they may or may not like the new ones. We have been working on these jars for months and luckily, we had two of our testers with us.  We had the rest of our candles set up for the market so they have seen everything we have to offer and were really interested in the new jars.

 

My suggestion is to make a sit down appt. with them. Bring samples of your candles in both jars so they can choose which they like. Before you go to this appointment list all the things want out the wholesale account and what you are and are not willing to do.  I do want to do a sit down with them to show what we can offer.  I think this would be best because of the price of the candles.

 

For example,

 

What is your wholesale price, will it be one price or will you have price points based on volume?  Thanks, I had already worked out a wholesale price and after your hint I sat down and figured out acceptable volume price points.

 

Are you willing to design custom labels if they ask? and if so, what will you charge for your time and artwork?  They have requested their own branding, but honestly for some reason this is easy for me!  I really enjoy designing the labels and in my head have already designed it.  Now getting it to that point will take some time.  I'm not sure I would even charge for this.

 

Same thing for custom scents, are you willing to do this and what will you charge, what time line to fill the request and how many samples, etc.?  I need to really think on this one.  As everyone knows the time involved in this is astronomical.  What would you charge for something like this?

 

Will you have a minimum for orders, for first time wholesale customers?  Yes Mam!  Do you think it would be reasonable to also request a minimum number per scent?  Below a certain number it is more of a pain to run an order.

 

What is your turn around time for orders?  Got it.

 

What forms of payment are acceptable?  I would prefer Credit/Debit cards, again is this unreasonable?

 

Do you want payment on delivery or will you bill the customer and for a how many days must they make payment? If they don't pay on time do you charge a fee?  I'm having a hard time with this.  Being a small business most of our money is going back into the business.  My fear is they are going to place a large order and we need to order supplies.  Is it unacceptable to request a deposit on a large order, like over a minimum amount of candles?

 

Will you accept returns and do you have you a return policy for damaged goods? what are you responsible for and what is your customer responsible for?  Help!  I'm lost on this one.  What are everyone's return policy?

 

Those are a few questions off the top of my head that I work out with my customer before making any decision to do business with them.

 

The best advice I can give you is to know exactly in detail what you want before you meet so you are less likely to be surprised.

 

Personally, I wholesale by the case with few exceptions. I also charge by the case. Customers can mix and match. I don't do private labels and no longer customize. Too much of a headache for me but for you it might be fun.

 

Because I decided to sell by the case I take 12 sample candles with me to a meeting. Often at a meeting other people show up from the store and that way I always have a bunch of candles to show them. It also showcases all my scents since I also make them in a line of 12 scents. By having the 'case' its easy to carry, present, and gives the potential customer an idea of what a case can hold.

 

Good luck and my last piece of advice is if you have second thoughts about this person after you meet with them and talk with them trust your feelings. If you didn't like talking with that person and it felt all wrong think this, would you want to do business with this person? If the answer is no, then don't... trust your feelings!

Thank you so much for taking the time to help this newbie with wholesale!  Just when I think I've got my head wrapped around everything along comes a curve ball, a good one but a curveball nonetheless.

Well we did our normal market today and were approached by the owner of a well known, high end spa about carrying our candles with their branding.  I have the prices already figured, that was the easy part.  Now where do I go?  I'm at a total loss, I can handle the candle part, luckily we have been investigating new jars to carry and they are a more upscale jar.  We have been holding off on them because we were afraid of the cost.  They will work perfectly in this spa setting and we actually just got the wicking/wax perfect after months of testing.  We have also been accumulating samples of scents that we were thinking about for these jars, so we are all good on the candle end.

Now as far as the business end I am  working my way thru every thread I can find and I am open for any advice all the pros have for us

Should we just do a written proposal to begin and offer to meet in person to discuss and bring samples of scents and bring samples of the jars with their branding on it to show them the finished product?  How many scents should we offer?  Does anyone have an example of a contract, no prices of course.  What do you charge extra for?

See I have lots of questions.  TIA for any help you can provide.

I've had the same problem as GailC.  I jump all over the page.

I agree with Tall Tayl, the other waxes are just not working for me (and essentially my customers).  I have been having so many problems getting my product up to my standards that if I have to spend a little bit more to get want I want I am willing to spend it.

For example, the C3 wax for me with shipping for a 50lb box is $79.64.  Lets say I end up loving the Millennium wax and switch to it, it is $108.94 with shipping.  That is only a $29.30 difference.  That is approximately .37 more expensive per candle to make.  And if the CT is any indication I also think I will need to use less FO so will save a bit right there.  Of course these numbers are not exact, but you get the idea.

I happen to be adding a new line to my candles and will be raising my prices on those so if I do switch waxes I might add a little to the price of the new line.

Well I repoured one tonight and it set up at 95% acceptableness and honestly it was me that screwed up.  Because I was melting such a small amount it got too hot, was at 180 instead of 160.  But I did pour at 100.  I just need to tweak a bit on the next batch and I think I will be thrilled with the results.  Then I'll put those up to cure for a week and do a test burn.

I'll probably do another batch and add FO and color to see how those do and as long as all goes well I'll put them up to cure.  But as we all know, rarely do things go as planned LOL.

23 minutes ago, ldunleav said:

Hello,

For what its worth (because I am a newbie) I have been heating to 160 and adding fragrance at 130-135, stirring gently for about 4 minutes then off and on until pouring slowly at slushy stage and have had good luck so far. This so far is my wax of choice. I get a good CT and HT. I have been using eco wicks which are ok but am going to try CD next.

 

Thanks!  That is great to know.  I'm going to pour again tonight and will do exactly as you have done and check out the result. 

For the batch I'm going to do tonight I am going to melt to precisely 160 and wait until slush and pour and see what happens.  This is new to me, I've never poured at the slushy stage before.  Any hints or tips?

I started with the wicks I'm used to, Ecos and Premiers.  If I have problems with these, I will move on to others.

Well, I am not very impressed so far. i so wanted to fall in love with this wax and I'm not. The tops were meh, not terrible but still needed to hit them with the heat gun for just a minute and there is a wet spot in one!  Now it could be operator error, so I will pour a few more tonight. Maybe I just need to get used to working with the wax and perfect my technique.

Got my 10 lb bag today and poured the first few candles.  I heated to 180 (I just was not comfortable with 160) and poured at 110.  Wow what a long wait that was LOL!  I will let you know how they set up, looks wise in the morning.

45 minutes ago, kitchenpups said:

Thanks, I will try those. I use the square 3" jars but the diameter from corner to corner is 4".

In light of TT's comment I would try the 767 and 777 first.  If those aren't big enough you can always move up.