Bella Luna

The purpose of a pdf is to have your document in a format that is print ready. In general they're not editable. There are some tools for Adobe Acrobat that will allow you to make simple edits to a pdf, but unless you have the full version of Acrobat (not just the reader) they're useless to you. If you can get the native files from your sister you can take them to a print shop or graphic designer and they can modify them for you. Otherwise you'll have to start from scratch.

Yes http://www.candletech.com/forums/search.php?searchid=785089

I'm pro-border

One thing you may want to consider is to watch the use of buzzwords like 'carbon neutral' and 'carbon footprint'. People who swing severely right or left politically may be turned off by this claim. Of course, it's impossible to cater to everyone I was going to mention the use of petroleum products in the transportation and manufacturing process would throw off the balance of a 'carbon neutral' product but I see you've taken care of that. One thing I rarely see soy candle makers address is that over 90% of the soy grown in the US* is genetically modified (http://pewagbiotech.org/resources/factsheets/display.php3?FactsheetID=2). It's always seemed to me that people who purchase soy candles for the 'lower environmental impact', etc., would also be interested to know if the soy in their product is organic or not. Just a thought. I applaud your efforts at clearing up misconceptions about soy vs. paraffin. On the whole I think you have a very informative excerpt *oops, didn't realize that you're in the UK... this statistic may or may not impact you then!

I believe you're referring to IGI 4630 - Harmony Blend. I don't have any experience with it personally but it is a different formulation than 4627, not just a slab version of it

Thanks FarmerJill With so many samples to go through I thought it might be a good way to weed out the ones that were a 'definite no' before worrying about how I was going to wick them. ChrisR - It's not really the scent throw I'm concerned about at this point... it's how the scent would smell in wax vs. out of the bottle. I'm thinking that if I can find some fragrances I like (I tend to be extremely picky, it seems) I could worry about the hot throw and wicking later. Thanks for your insight, though

Someone explained it to me as 'very thick vaseline' and I'd say that's accurate.

If you put quotes around your search terms you'll have some luck, I think. Just google "coffee apple crunch"... I found at least one site that looked promising.

If I was a breastfeeding/new mother and someone offered to create a natural, gentle soap from my breastmilk I think I would be absolutely touched. I don't see anything wrong with it. I mean, people actually make prints of their placentas (I'm not so hot on that idea)... so what's a little breastmilk, you know? However, to market and sell to others (which I don't think anyone's said they have or suggested/recommended it)... uh, no. But, as a private thing to use for myself and possibly my baby? You bet!

Thanks JacquiO, you gave awesome detailed explanations of the process you use I probably should've been a little more specific with my question. I reread it and it was kind of confusing, so... Does anyone pour small wickless candles or tarts just to get an idea of how the fragrance smells in wax? I thought maybe that would be easier and less time consuming than pouring a whole candle simply to test the fragrance... then, I could rule out the 'definitely no' fragrances and test the ones I liked for the proper wick size. I do understand the math behind pouring sample sized candles, I guess I was just looking for a different approach?

draped layers might look nice I'm no professional, though

Alright, I've been 'dabbling' in candles for 3 years now, and after doing tons of research, I ordered a bunch of supplies and I want to get started seriously testing. I've got 50 lbs of IGI 4627, 3 different sized jars (a case of each), An assortment of wicks (ECO's, RRD's and LX's), dyes and all that, and about 50 different fragrance oil samples. I know that it's not wise to judge FO's strictly OOB and I want to get them into some wax. But I'm stuck as to what approach I should take to do this. Would anyone be willing to share their testing method with me, or does anyone have suggestions? Ideally I'd like to have a few oz of each fragrance so I could pour 3 or 4 candles and test a few wicks at the same time, but I can't afford to order a bunch more fragrance oils right now so I'm stuck with the samples I have. Help?

I work with paraffin and the one I've tried is from RA, so maybe that doesn't help you much :undecided I see NG has an apples and oak, and candlescience has an apples and clover, which has a 2 leaf rating for soy. 'Green' fragrances are usually kind of fresh, so I would think that might work well for the spring part of the name. I have never sampled the apples and clover, though, so I am going out on a limb there.

It sounds like you may have found your match, but you should also look into Apples and Oak. I absolutely love that scent, and I don't really smell the 'oak' as much as a freshwater scent.

I like the jar label, but one of my first thoughts is that the label on the melts is a little too big for your container. Are you planning on displaying your tarts for sale? If you're going to be hanging them on pegs of course it would make more sense to have the labels going the other direction. If they are to be displayed on their side, as pictured, a smaller label would still give a cleaner, more 'finished' look. The margins on the top and bottom of the label are far smaller than on the sides. It also might look nice to have a little more space between your logo and the product type/scent. A more appropriate sized label for the clamshell would allow for that. The other thing I noticed about your labels is the typestyle. Personally, I find the font with the vowels italicized kind of annoying (sorry ). I may be in the minority here but I thought it was worth mentioning. Perhaps keep your business name/logo in that typestyle and use something complimentary for the product/scent names? I do think that your labels have a very clean design though