Quentin

On 5/31/2019 at 11:25 AM, Candybee said:

They look great! I am assuming you made the risers with removable slats for easy set up and storage plus transport. I have wood risers with removable slats and love them. The only pain is putting in the very first slat, lining it up and fitting it in the stands. Once you get the first one in they are a snap to set up and easy to disassemble. They can hold a lot of product, look good doing it, plus they bring all your product to eye level and that helps to sell them better.

 

When you get them finished and set up at their at your next show I hope you take some pics so we can see your new setup. I know I would love to see it.

 

Here are a couple of pics of my wood table risers set up.

 

4

 

Beautiful. What you and @MilosCandles have done is to make steps or stairs. That's not an easy thing. You've got to be a pretty good carpenter. The good news for the unskilled among us is that Home Depot & maybe Lowe's sell the pre-cut risers. All you have to do is add the treads and go. That's the route I'll have to take. 

What happened here? I'm having continuing problems with 444 and 464 wax. The photos you see here were left to cool slowly overnight on their own. The ambient temperature when I left them for the night was 92F at 8:19 PM, and the humidity was 36% (low humidity for my area). I'm getting these results with this wax more often than not. The tops look dried out and have a rippled, cracked appearance. The tops appear similar to a severe case of chapped lips. I didn't pour too hot. Pouring was done SLOWLY at 135F or less. 

Wax: GW 444

Heated to 190+ and added dye, then stirred for a full two minutes.

Added 12% fragrance at 185F, then stirred for a full two minutes.

I let the wax stand until it cooled to 135F, and then I poured.

If this is the way these two waxes are supposed to look, then I can live with it or is there something I'm missing here?

On 5/7/2019 at 1:48 PM, TallTayl said:

FedEx arrived right on time this morning. I walked out to grab the packages to keep the werewolves from jumping through the glass to get the intruder. He thanked me for taking the packages, but had to walk to the front door so the GPS of the little computer scanner could prove he delivered the packages to the door. What next? Photos? 

 

How about that?

"What next? Photos"?  Amazon is already taking pictures of your package sitting in front of your door. Some of you may not have Amazon's private delivery trucks in your ares yet, but taking pictures is what they're doing.

Thanks for the heads up.

5 hours ago, Trappeur said:

With all the good info you have received from everyone here on the board I hope your still not contemplating over this candle and have moved on!.   Get rid of this person!!   I'm curious.   How many candles does she want?

 

Trappeur

No, I'm not going to pursue it. I just found it interesting. That's all.

On 5/1/2019 at 7:38 AM, TallTayl said:

Another caution.  If she is that allergic to soy, how would you partition your soy production from other waxes? Does she need completely separate equipment (melters, pour pots, stirring sticks, etc.)?  A wise woman taught me early on not to cater to the fringes, 

Excellent point.

On 4/30/2019 at 7:46 PM, TallTayl said:

Paraffin

palm

coconut

 

Though I would not change my business model for one “potential” customer. You’re talking about hundreds if not thousands of dollars in testing for a wax that may or may not please her. You do you and cater to your tribe. 

I don't have any intentions of concentrating valuable time on her. However, If there was a simple solution that y'all knew and that I could do with the stuff I have on hand, I would have considered making her a candle or two. 

On 4/30/2019 at 11:38 PM, moonshine said:

Just a heads up she could be fishing - people will do this to try and find out what your using as close as they can to try and replicate your product 

not saying she is but be careful what info you give her  - if she is that sensitive to soy and “other” additives seems to me she would just play it safe and not burn candles 🤷‍♀️

Its totally up to you if you want to learn a new wax and cater to her, I would run for the hills on this one myself  - but maybe unscented paraffin or beeswax would be her alternative - fragrances have so many different chemicals and components I would tend to not want to risk her having a “reaction” and coming back in you ... and most coconut have soy blended in so it would have to be a straight coco candle if your wanting to go down that road 

 

After my experience with the guy from the Bahamas that wanted to pay retail so he could sell my candles in his store, I'm skeptical about everyone. The information I gave her was very generic. It was no more than what you'd read on the internet or in a book. Thanks for the warning, though.

I received a fascinating phone call yesterday. The lady on the other end of the line got my phone number off my website. She said she had questions about my ingredients. I gave a quick explanation about different types of candles requiring different waxes. At first, I thought this was one of those anti-paraffin hits. It seems she is highly allergic to soy and many of the additives used in candle making. She wants container candles. I told her I would research it and see if I could find a solution. Does anyone have recommendations of wax I could use to make a non-allergic container candle?

On 4/22/2019 at 10:13 AM, MilosCandles said:

 

Yes worked out for amazon, and the convenience to the customer,  BUT I charge up to 20% more on Amazon than I do on my website and I know that is true for many others as well.  The average consumer just doesn't realize. 

 

 

The average consumer doesn't understand or realize a lot of things. Some think FREE shipping is free. They don't understand bad things happen to good people. For example, when I sold carpet for Sears, the truck carrying a customer's roll crashed and burned between Dalton, Georgia, and Memphis. The driver was killed, and all the goods on board were destroyed.  When I called the customer and told them about the tragic event, his response was: "Does this mean I'm not getting my carpet in before Christmas"? Then he began yelling. He didn't care that the driver had died and that his loved ones were broken-hearted and crushed. This guy just wanted his stuff, and he wanted it right then.

4 minutes ago, MilosCandles said:

Amazon Prime (Free 2 day Shipping) has ruined shipping for everyone.   

 

But hey! It's worked out for Amazon🤣

51 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

It’s hard for me to get mad at an employee for following their orders. 🤷🏻‍♀️

 

It all worked out in the end.

It’s not $2 though. Orders cost real $ to process. How many people throughout the offices and warehouse and shipping would have had to stop what they were doing to find a lid, pack it, some how enter it into the order processing and inventory system to generate a shipping label and tracking, and ship it. At least 4 people, maybe more depending on how big the facility is.  If the lid gets damaged, like we know it does, then another follow up order is needed along with a ticked off customer.   “free” orders cost companies loads of $.  Multiply that by how many requests for freebies come in all the time and now we have another company closing or spiking prices to compensate. 

I understand all that about the cost. But I've had. Several times already I've had candle suppliers send me one single lid or something. The person who answered the phone either went to the warehouse to get it or had someone do it.

Something is wrong with that girl. Her boss would have told her to stick the single lid in a small padded envelope and give it to you for free. They could have mailed it 1st Class Mail for no more than 2 bucks.

4 hours ago, Laura C said:

Can you not just set out an unwrapped sample candle of each scent? IDK

That's kinda what I was thinking.

I'm going back and forth with myself on how I want to package my pillar candles. I seem to remember someone on this forum mentioning that they shrink wrap their pillars. I'm all for that. It's cheap. It's effective. It's fast, easy, and uniform looking. But before I get started shrink wrapping all these pillars, I have a concern I'd like to express. If the candle is packaged in that manner, how can the customer smell it? How do you approach this when you set up your display at a show? The customer wants to smell it. I want them to smell it, too. But if its all sealed up in plastic, how can they without ripping the thing open?

I'm pretty sure some of them are marking up the freight and turning it into a profit center. All the while, these companies tout how "green" and "carbon neutral" they are, and all that bull. I order from two companies in North Carolina. Both of the companies and I are in the same UPS zone. I'm not going to mention the names of the firms, but the UPS freight charges are significantly and routinely higher from one of those dealers than the other company on comparable items. 

1 hour ago, TallTayl said:

the reason behind why we question ourselves is boiled down to one word: confidence. Or rather lack of confidence because we are new.

I think that's a big part of the problem. It's what's going on between my ears that needs fixing.

2 hours ago, Sebleo said:

Is that what it’s called: keystone?  I don’t recall if I’ve heard that before but that’s pretty much how I crunch my numbers. 

Keystone is an old term. I don't know the origin of the name. I'm speculating that in the retail world of yesteryear, it was a code word for manufacturers, wholesalers, and the end retailer to communicate prices without their "victims," the consumers, figuring out what the real game was. You could make the analogy that it's like the language that doctors use to fill out prescription forms so that only the pharmacist and the physician understand it. Or so they think.

2 hours ago, Jenni Wix said:

Looking at cost x 3 and labor.  It does seem expensive especially when I head to the candle isle somewhere.  But then I remember I'm offering something hopefully unique and gift worthy,  I compare with both local and prices of similar finds on etsy, and find what I want to ask for is reasonable.  

So you're saying you take your cost, multiply by 3, then add your labor at the end of the process?

On 4/10/2019 at 11:39 PM, TallTayl said:

The one mistake we all make is to underprice.

More often than not, when I price out an item, I have doubts as to whether anyone would pay that price for my product. I can't figure out where that feeling comes from, but it shadows me wherever I go. I don't know how most of you price your goods, but I'm using the old "keystone" system which I think may be an outdated model in the age of e-commerce. Figuring the cost, doubling it for wholesale, then doubling that for retail doesn't seem to make sense anymore. Do any of you have any thoughts on this that you would be willing to share? I'm the manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer. It seems to me that keystone pricing is just not the smart way to go. At first glance, it appears that I'm going to make a huge markup! Woo Hoo, I'm rich! In reality, I think I'm pricing myself out of the market. 

2 hours ago, NightLight said:

Most sellers on Etsy don’t have ave a clue to price correctly.

...and it's easy to see why. I've been browsing through the Etsy forums, and I've seen comments just like the ones I'm seeing posted here. Etsy is incredibly confusing. Everyone has their hand in the till. In the short time I've been on Etsy, I would have to say I've been very disappointed and frustrated. @TallTayl mentioned Etsy Pay. It seems like they automatically set me up on that without offering any other options. On top of that, my account is integrated with Square. Is Square getting a cut also? I don't know. Other than Etsy payments, what are the other choices? If I dropped out of Etsy's payment system, would the customer be able to buy from me using another purchase method? I have no idea what's happening regarding my money when it comes to Etsy. None whatsoever. @TallTayl alluded to the fact that Etsy takes a cut of the shipping as well! How can they justify that? Shipping isn't revenue. I'm beginning to wonder if I need Etsy at all. 

Thanks, Sarah. Somebody else go ahead and chime in here on this subject.

21 hours ago, Sarah S said:

Looks to me like it was under wicked and had a blowout.

 

ETA: It might have nothing to do with the wax, it might be a wicking problem, was what I meant by that. However, I am not familiar with that wax so I couldn't say for sure.

On 4/7/2019 at 9:31 PM, Sebleo said:

 

Thats what I mean by what is their baseline.  Seems they are giving you a formula for weight but you’re not going to be weighing the dye. You measure by drops. (You could measure by weight, but I’m sure the vast majority of people do not.)

 

Youre going to have to test anyway. So, if it were me I wouldn’t bother emailing them. Just compute your own system. 

On 4/8/2019 at 6:01 AM, NightLight said:

They are doing it by weight and assuming you are making large batches so it wouldn’t be that hard to measure out. Smaller batches difficult.

Yes devise your own system. So if one drop to 8 ounces makes the lighter color, then you will use two drops per pound if that makes sense. So you are going to use parts instead of weight for measuring.

Thanks to both of you. I understand what you're saying now. This would probably be one of those times when you just start adding drops a little at a time, then pour a little into a jar of cold water until you get to where you want it. Of course, you have to keep notes of how many drops you put in. 

I'm happy to report this picture is not one of my candles. I was considering trying out Ecosoya Pillar blend, and I saw this, on one of the Facebook candle forums. What are some of the possible reasons this could happen? When I do try Ecosoya PB, I don't want this sort of thing occurring. 

1 hour ago, NightLight said:

It’s the percentage of the batch. So you calculate .002 percentage of whatever batch size you’re making will give that color result.

So if I'm making a 1 pound batch, I would calculate their percentage of 1 pound? To use the example I provided, 0.025 x 16 ounces = 0.4, and that would be

.4 ounces or .4 drops or what? I'm sorry I seem so dense tonight, but it's just not sinking in.