NightLight

Listen if a printer is too expensive to get right now you can use a label service like Avery to start. You could buy a used thermal printer for labels. My first thermal was a used one off eBay. You can get thermals for labels pretty cheap right now on Amazon. Do everything in stages as your business builds. You do have to test your product and design, and you should also do test ships to see how you manage those with packaging product etc. Making products, you do have to create a workflow. So when I make a product, what is important to me is how long it takes to produce it from creation to shipping. If its too complicated and time consuming, it gets redesigned or ditched. Why? From Fall to now it can get crazy busy with DTC and wholesale and I have to be able to manage both quickly. Just something to think about. You could get some labels made, and then give out freebies to people to test market what design scents appeal before investing in equipment etc.

Vanilla fragrances can do this as well.

It’s the wax if you tried all of the above. You can adjust the wax to make it softer and less pronto to cracking. You will have to test various additives. You may have to skip the parasoy and get a very soft paraffin to get the cracks to go away, but adding paraffin you get other problems like loss of adhesion after you burn, and in cold weather. When I use C3 I always get circular cracks, so I blend it to make it behave. Because we don’t know what’s is in the waxes, it’s all out testing to control the wax.

Yes two printers. Thermal for shipping labels if you plan on being direct to consumer/Etsy or elsewhere. Then label printer if you plan on printing your own labels. I started with just a laser printer, but its too costly with toner to print shipping labels. Thermal printers are great no toner or cartridges to replace and you can get the labels cheap Amazon, EBay, UPS.

Laser is excellent and water proof that’s why I use it. Also looks more professional. Here’s a mistake I learned early on. I designed labels and then realized they were all custom sizes. FIND LABELS SIZES THAT ARE AVAILABLE FIRST! This is a biggie and will make you life much easier if you go with standard sizes, but go maximalist design. It will save you money and time. and yes, black and white design is cheaper to produce. I have both those and color. I will say I use Avery print online for circle labels because they are a pain to do on my laser printer and get accurately centered. Others I use my laser. And speaking of printers then you need to get a thermal for labels which will save you a fortune, there are tons of good ones now to buy. I got mine on Amazon I forget the brand but has amazing customer support in setting up.

I use a laser printer because not crazy with inkjet smears. I did use generic toner for awhile, but it wasn’t great for my printer. Some of the cartridges powder broke loose and then printer was a mess. You can get printed labels cheap these days. Avery is one place you might find useful. You can design and print and they ship quickly. They do not have all sizes but for melts I believe you would easily find labels. I would look on Amazon, they have all kinds of printers small ones that could be useful for you. To start you could have one design label printed and the use a small printer for scent names.

@Candlefriends. I do a lot of branding, and graphic design. Smelt is a fish. I would immediately discourage the use of that word for a brand especially when this has do to with fragrances in candles smelling nice. Because Smelt definition does include fish I would avoid using it as brand name. Smelled or Smelt? | Grammarly Blog For North Americans, smelt usually means (1) to melt or fuse ores, and (2) any of several small, silvery fishes of the family Osmeridae found in fresh waters of the northern hemisphere. Smeltas a form of smell is not unheard of in North America, but it is rare (see the Ngram below), appearing mainly in the rhyming jocular expression whoever smelt it dealt it (and its variants). Smelled is the past tense of smell in both North American and British English. Smelt is also used as the past tense of smell in British English. Brits use smelledand smelt interchangeably, but speakers in North America rarely use smelt. Smelt also has meanings unrelated to smelling. Its other meanings have to do with metalworking and fish.

Cpop is okay but you can run into appearance issues with it. if you want to try it, heat over 170 or lower. With my oven I just heat up for five minutes and it get plenty hot. I let it cool down some before putting in soap. The soap heats up and keeps oven warm so I don’t keep the oven on. Sticky soap is normal. Good additive to use is sodium lactate. It makes the soap harder and the bars feel nice in use. It’s fine to try bars right away, I did when I started to test formula.

The help was given. Off center wicks, possible issues with brand names

Those wicks like they are dying out. I would try one size up. Try CDN wicks as well.

Do testers half full candle so you can see where the candle issue is. Sometimes you have to wick down because the flame is burning salt of wax then drowns the wick. Sometimes wick up. You have to test. You have to do several type wick tests to find out what works in a wax. If CD and HTP work well try CDN’s. Not as fan of that wax. I don’t think its what its advertised as and it has an odor. You should get sample of 464 wax.

Carrier oil An oil with little or no scent that is used to dilute or “carry” essential oils (scented liquid taken from plants). Essential oil a natural oil typically obtained by distillation and having the characteristic fragrance of the plant or other source from which it is extracted. For skin care you want to use a carrier oil to dilute an essential oil. Essential oils are generally fragrant and potent and must be diluted for use.

No but I hope they would do a segment of candle do and don’t. All that stuff on candles, yikes.

Us a hot glue gun. It’s super easy and sticks better than those stickers. If you use wax, it will melt and wick will drift in bottom of candle where it get super hot. Never had issues with hot glue.

First ditch that wax. You bought on Amazon? Get it from supplier people can suggest here. You will be able to tell if its the bag of wax right away by testing with new wax. That was looks like it has water in it or something. Get new wax do the following. New wax one candle tester Blend soy and beeswax candle new wax tester Now if you add fragrance that could be the issue. If so you do candle tester no fragrance to rule out fragrance as issue.

Palm kernel seems to be better than coconut at SC, still pricey though

I was using a palm stearic that was amazing but not available because of palm embargo. Prices are insane.

I used to get coconut oil from Webrestaurant for 35.00 a box its not 76.00! I don’t make soap for a living but I feel bad for soapers! That’s a big price hike per bar.

30 per cent is way too much. That candle will be a mess in warm weather. If you have only tried one wick series, a change in wick can be dramatic. Get some CDs and test. Regarding coconut oil, not al waxes like it. Some you can do more than others.It can affect the burn but I found it can affect the tops from solidifying nicely. I had a formula with soy coconut but used a special stearin and the candles were great but due to palm embargo that stearic has disappeared for two years. The answer may be don’t use eo’s if you aren’t getting throw. They are not designed for candles.

From what I can see, there is wax stuck on your mold so you are getting clean release. I suggest trying another mold and see if removal is the same. Next candle get mold release spray. Why don’t you try blending beeswax with paraffin pillar blend for a test.

Candle science Original Gardenia. Every other gardenia out there doesn’t come close. Hoarding my remaining bottle

You can try mold release, different pouring temp. You can try soy pillar wax, or paraffin pillar wax. It sounds like you were just using regular soy container wax. That is too soft for molded candles. Sometimes its the type of mold that can cause problems, not all molds are good and will leave surface issues. Make sure you leave the candle alone before unmolding.

Off center wicks. Marketing name. Smelt is also common fish. So brand name can be interpretation as Get Smelt fishies.