TraciS

I'm a no color. My husband was very anti-dropping color but for we did a test at our biggest show and put up our front table display with our top 12 scents in color and no color. At the point that I sold out of no-color, I still had 80% of the colored ones left. I dropped the color the next week and have never looked back. I have only had one complaint that white blueberry was weird and the person's friend told her why she liked it and the white blueberry candle was sold. There are arguments each way, it is just what works for each of us. The only problem I have with no color is that I have to put a code on the bottom of the jar when I pour or I can't tell what is what after pouring too many rounds in a day. Birthday cake smells like vanilla, apple pie smells like apple butter smells like hillbilly homebrew.

TY for the responses. I will probably test them all before I decide :-)

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try them all

Regular Lilac or Hungarian Lilac?

I use KY's and it smells good but I have not found one that really smells like the real deal. I had a casualty in the yard cleanup today and "had" to bring in a stem of lilac to put in a vase. I might just have another casualty so I can have another stem-lol. Any recommendations other than KY?

The coffin may not be closed but BBV is dead. I bailed 10 yrs ago and the handwriting was on the wall at that time. It is a shame they didn't change with the times.

I haven't always had luck with MC fo. About the same ratio as with other suppliers in that price range though. The Berry Creme Brulee is wicked strong and the White Tea & Ginger is beautiful and strong.

Okay, I couldn't stand it and I put a strawberry buttercream tart in this morning. I did 75/25 Buttercream/Strawberry and love it. It overtook the whole downstairs of the house within about 15 min. I think the Buttercream is great as a mixer but there is the slightest note of cardboard in it that comes out when you use the BC on its own. Now I want to mix everything with it-lol.

Hmm, I'll check that out and keep looking around. Thx

It smelled kinda icky oob. Much better in wax. Will see in a couple days. I also mixed it with strawberry to see how it would be as a mixer.

Sounds like a mess. Why not just get a free yahoo or aol address for your orders? I use yahoo for all my personal stuff, one for orders, one for msg boards. Never noticed spam...or farmgirls-lol.

I ordered some oval tart samples from a candlemaker that is not on here that I am aware of. I got a few things I wanted to try out and a couple are awesome. There is a Cherry Lemonade but it is more than just a cherry and lemon mix that I could do, it has an bubbly smell if that makes sense. The other is a Powdered Jelly Doughnut, strawberry preserves and something. Anyone familiar with either of these scent? TIA

I just got a couple new since I waited until they sold out of a lot and I was going to hold out for tonight until I see you enablers are already pouring! I guess I'll go turn up a melter and pour Banana Nut Bread, Jamaica Me Crazy, Fresh Bread and Buttercream.

I bought a few lbs of Cinnamon Stick from CS when Tenn was out. While I liked it, I agree that it is a dull scent, very one dimensional to me. The one from Tenn seems to have a bit of the red hot type cinnamon in it. It burns your nose if you are right over your pot through! I've been using the CS one as a mixer - it is great for that.

I ordered a few cases from Impact in Jan and they came in at $0.171 ea including shipping. It's a bugger trying to store them

I wouldn't be without it. I gladly pay the $50 for the weekend at the shows I have that charge it. But when I started doing the melts and having melted wax my sales really zoomed compared to without the scent in the air. I use Creme Brulee since it is my biggest seller and always bring an extra 100 melts and about 10 cases of my 16oz jar and rarely go home with a single piece of that scent. I don't use the tart melter though. Because of high ceilings and air conditioning, etc I use a crock pot with 1.5# of scented wax. It's fun to see people come around the corner with noses in the air tracking down the scent.

Sea Petals! I used to sell that scent like crazy. It's the only one on that list that I have used. For some reason I got away from it and had totally forgotten about it. It is s-t-r-o-n-g

I've never had a customer ask but I have had WS accounts ask. I have also done retail shows where I had to provide it with my application and any wholesale market has required proof.

This happens to me a lot-lol. I usually do 6 pour pots back to back and they are all cooling at the same time. If I don't leave time enough between each pot then some start to harden on the sides before I get to them. I just take my heat gun and go around the outside of the pot and stir them up and pour. I'll be anxious to hear how the ecosoya does. I would love to find a wax that ships in the summer without melting down. There are some options with higher meltpoints I would love to play with.

The fun thing about knowing how to make candles is you can try any wax you want-lol. I wish I could count all the waxes and scents I've tried and failed with. You never know unless you try. Have fun!

Very nice E. Your candles are always beautiful

My favorite plugins are the ones from Levine. A lot of people want the really cute plug ins (Candlewarmers, Scentsy) until they see how hard it is to empty and not make a mess. Then they see the 2 pc and love it! I sell both Candlewarmer & Levine in the plugins but I sell Levine's about 6 to 1 over Candlewarmer. Large I buy Jackel, Candlewarmers (the big squares sell like hotcakes for some reason) and Levine's combo warmers.

Who is Brenda? I use KY's BBW type and mix with JS which is a super strong realistic type HS. Together they don't seem to offend either type of customer. I hate both scents individually and together but I'll make it if they'll buy it! I wish I had ordered a sample of CS's but I didn't. Got one from Fillmore but my sniffer is on the fritz from a cold so I don't smell much from it.

I'm a little leery of the cell phone CC processing and would not do it without getting a printed receipt as a customer (unless I knew the vendor). This is only because they are relatively new and I have had my CC compromised 4 times in the same year a couple years ago. Fear of the unknown I guess. I use a wireless CC machine at shows - the kind that has been around for years. I never see the card # once I hand the card back and if my machine malfunctions the processing co handles forcing the CC through and I just close the machine out like normal. Mine runs through NPC and I pay $198 compliance fee yearly (starting this year) after going through their compliance sudit survey. I don't know how I could get much safer for my customer. I probably pay more overall but if anything happens NPC provides $10K work of help. I'm kinda okay with that.

I love 464. I do not know what temp I pour at - I just pour when the pot is cool enough to pick up with both hands holding the pot not the handle. I used to use thermometer all the way through but the longer you work with your wax, the more you know what works and how that looks/feels. I heat the wax in my melter to 180, add the scent (7% tops, if it doesn't throw at that then I move on to another supplier if I have to have that scent) & stir (no color) and put the pot on a stool in front of a fan to help cool it quicker. I don't heat glass, don't cool under a box or leave big spaces between, just pour up as many as I need and turn off the light & call it a day. Sometimes I have 6 pour pots going and a couple get more cool than I like and I either just pour anyway or heat gun the outside of the pot until it is more liquid. I get a few little air pockets now & but I poke 3-4 holes in each jar and heat gun the top layer be sure they are filled and the top is smooth as glass. I get very little frosting, mainly on vanilla or intense floral scents. I used to obsess about it but now I don't bother. No one notices by me anyway. Any wax you choose will have frustrating problems. I just picked the one I had the least problems with and worked out the kinks for my own use. The grass is always greener if you are just reading supplier's write-ups.