Quentin

I actually meant to say add the stearic to a low shrink votive wax to make a larger pillar but I think your answer applies to that as well. Thank you. 😀

Same here.

I think I'm just going to register as a "Not For Profit" corporation. After all, that's the business I'm in right now.

Thanks to both of you. Everything you say makes sense. I just got curious. Basically I think you're both telling me not to waste my time trying it. What if... you added just a touch of stearic acid or would that just create another set of problems?

Sounds like a good way to do it. You hear people say "time is money". In my opinion time is everything.

I'm not a lawyer so this is not legal advice. I see candles marketed in stores in this manner all the time. Usually you just see something like "Manufactured by Such & Such Candles, 123 Elm Street, Anytown, U.S.A. 55555" in fine print on the front, back or bottom label. I can't imagine it would be a big deal. It seems to be a very common practice. No charge for this advice, either.

How do you take a picture of a burning candle with all that glare? I'm guessing you use some sort of filter over the lens?

There are pillar blends. There are pillar/votive blends. There are votive blends All votives are pillars Not all pillars are votives Therefore, you could use a "low shrink" votive blend to make larger pillars. Wrong or right?

I finally got around to trying it. I promised I would report back. It was hard to discipline myself to wait for the temperature to drop, but I did it. I took good notes too. I was pouring only two jars as a wick comparison test. I poured the Comfort Blend at 148F and did it slowly. I came back every 15 minutes to check it out. The result was a success. Nice smooth tops. No holes around the wick. I heated the jars beforehand. No wet spots until the next day and that was only on the first one I poured. Fortunately, they are small and clustered together. A perfect spot to put my label. The conclusion is that I should pay more attention to what people tell me and I need to write those tips down instead of just reading and moving to the next response. As was mentioned earlier in this thread, @Kerven told me what to do. I should have made a note. Another little lesson I think I picked up here is that the first candle poured showed the wet spots and just a tiny little crack around the wick. So maybe 148 might be just a tad too high.

I have two jars now that I'd just like to find simple dust covers for that will work. Complicating it even more, one of them is a flared, "square" jar. They don't have to fit perfectly snug. I just hate the idea of trying to sell a jar candle without SOME type of cover. I just looks incomplete to me.

That's as good as opening the front door in the morning and finding that someone left you a big bag of money on your doorstep. You'll sell them without any problem.

I saw this picture of a pillar on Etsy. There are lots of ways you can package pillars, but I like this. What I can't tell from the picture is this: If this is some sort of paper "wrap" that glues to itself in the back, does anyone know a source? If this is a stick on label, what kind of label would you use that would adhere to wax, but still be removable without damaging the appearance of the the candle? I could use either method.

I'll be doing this afternoon. I will let you know for sure.

That is correct. I read it in the documents from the Federal Trade Commission that were posted as a link somewhere by @TallTayl She can give you the full story. Yes, you are right.

I agree, but sooner or later you'll just have to jump in, make mistakes and learn from them. You can learn lots from the people on this forum but you will also see many different opinions and option upon option. It became overwhelming to me, so I just started doing it. Then I came back and reviewed what people had said and those posts were a little clearer each time. Imagine if you went to medical school and you graduated at the top of your class. Then you get your first job as a doctor somewhere. You might get to follow the experienced doctor who hired you, for a few days or so. The day finally comes when you have to see your first patient by yourself. To make matters worse, the older doctor has taken off work for the day. That would be scary. If I were in that position, I would go home from work that day as a complete nervous wreck. Stop right there! It just dawned on me. Every new job I ever had was just like that. Look at it that way, Jen. If you wait until "you're good and ready", that day will never come. On the job training is where people learn the most. Just don't throw away your textbooks.

I take several pictures of each item on the cellphone. Before I do anything else, I review them all. If it's blurry or just plain bad, I delete it right there on the spot. I just eliminate it right then and there to keep from complicating things later. With the pictures that are good, I change them to 1:1 on the phone and send them to my Google Drive or Google Pictures. If one of them looks like it will be difficult to crop, I delete it also. I've cut down on using all the silly filters in the phone app, unless I find one that makes a really dramatic improvement. I do all that with the photographed item sitting right in front of me so I can compare. This way, I've narrowed it down to two or three pics that would be acceptable.

That's right. It's the same type discussion I've experienced sitting at conference tables. It's just a little trickier in this type venue.

I flew past this part the first time I read it. Reading it again (12/26/18) I see that you have answered the question my initial post was meant to convey. I was concerned that perhaps I was buying my raw materials in either the wrong places or not buying at the right price. Now I am relieved.

If I seemed mean-spirited, I assure you that was not my intention. I apologize if my posts came off that way. When I started this topic, I was merely trying to find out and learn if I was the one that didn't know what was going on and if I was making stupid mistakes in the way I was buying or pricing. My only intent was market research. I should have been more specific in my initial post. As we all know, a person's "tone" often doesn't come through well in text messages or emails. That's probably why they invented emoticons like this one . If we were all sitting in the same room together, that probably wouldn't be a problem. I don't mean that as an excuse for myself. I often find myself reading between the lines of what others post, text and email. To be perfectly honest, I really don't understand what you mean when you say that, "This person is probably going to notice increased traffic coming from here". I don't THINK I'm stupid. I'm just not knowledgeable about what you are referring to. Please explain what that means and we can consider this another learning opportunity.

If she even knows what a model is. I mentioned in an earlier reply to someone that I think she is using that tried and true Model: "We lose money on every transaction, but we make up for it in volume".

@geodon99 I see that. She's making some "amazing" offers isn't she?

Oh yes, I got what I paid for, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that I wasn't pleasantly surprised. If you catch my drift...

Of those three customers, I was one. So the other two customers were probably a brother or sister and maybe her parents. O yes. They arrived. Dents, scratches, a very uneven & unfinished bottom, no throw (hot or cold) and tunneling.

I don't care what she does either. It's none of my business, just like you said. But I learn just as much from watching the failures as I do observing the successes.

Actually, I ordered that item from her a few weeks back. She charged me retail over-the-counter Priority Mail. It was around $13.00. I ordered two. One to burn, and one to dissect.