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

Ditto

Lol, perhaps it would've been better to PM this info to AmySue and let the thread die. I'm guessing that if people want to know, they might try PM'ing MidnightPrimitives? Unless someone decides to post it. Which seems to be the polite thing to do in this case.

I just wanted to give an unsolicited 'thumbs up' to Yes Supply Co. I ordered 3 cases of glass jars from them and the service was awesome. I was nervous because I'm on the other side of the country from their warehouse, but they gladly sent me an email with shipping costs before processing my order (within 10 minutes of me submitting it!). Shipping from Ohio to Idaho? $16.xx for a big box with all my jars. I am so pleased with them Anyone that's nervous because of the shipping.. I say go for it!

Are you buying your candle fragrances in hobby/craft stores? If so, that might be why you're not getting a strong, lasting scent. Most people find that the candle supplies sold in craft stores are expensive and inferior to what's available online. The FO's (fragrance oils) people chat about on the boards are available through a number of different suppliers. If you check out the fragrance portion of the forum, there's a list of abbreviations of suppliers at the top of the page, that might be a good place for you to start looking. There's a ton of info about different FO's and their uses on this board

Well, I'm kind of nervous now. I emailed them at the 'sales@' address and first got an automated reply that the address was not in service. Shortly after I got an email from Jennifer (the general manager) with the fragrance list attached but she said that they don't publish a price list. So... are they changing the pricing structure now? Before many of the fo's were $14/lb. I'm a little confused and hesitant to place my order.

Thanks for the information! I guess I'll email them for a catalog/price list and call when I'm ready to order. If I find out anything 'new' I'll be sure to post it here. Another question I guess... do any of you use RA almost *exclusively* for your product line? Are you pretty satisfied with their fragrances overall? I received some samples and I'm really really liking them OOB (waiting to get them in wax). I'm more impressed with these samples OOB than I have been with any of my other samples.

Does anyone know... are they still open and everything? I've been planning on placing an order but for the last couple weeks the site was down and now it's up but I can't get to fragrance lists or order online. Do I just have to call to place my order?

Sometimes the easiest way to find the information you need is to use the search feature on the top of the page, you'll see 'Search' with a little upside down triangle next to it. If you click on the word, a box will appear and you can search for the term you'd like to know more about. Here are search results for 'Throw' and 'Mottling'. I did refine them a little to get more specific results. Scent Throw: http://www.candletech.com/forums/search.php?searchid=713995 Mottling: http://www.candletech.com/forums/search.php?searchid=713998

Here's a thread where other people were having problems with their clamshells... different problem, but might be helpful to know if it's the same supplier: http://www.candletech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38548&highlight=clamshells

Here is a by state listing of some candle and b&b suppliers: http://www.suppliersbystate.com/state-listings.php