ncraiders

So far i have had not issue with the wick stickums holding the wicks in place.  I am currently waiting on a candle to cure so that i can test the wick to see if i need to swap wick series or swap out jars.

It has been a while but Jcandleattic if i remember correctly told me that for wick testing  3 days was the soonest they would test burn and when doing scented & dyed testing they waited 5-7 days to test.  Mainly due to the fact that the since the wax crystallizes it takes a while for the wax to fully crystallize.  The outside could look fine but part way down in the wax the wax may not have fully crystallized which affects how it might burn part way through the candle.  The 5-7 days is to allow time for the scent to fully incorporate into the wax as well as harden 

From everything i have read online since starting to use this wax it seems that it is the middle ground between paraffin and soy.  It takes longer curing than paraffin but shorter than soy.

Like moonshine said tho @Candybee and @Jcandleattic are both really knowledgeable in this wax.

1 hour ago, bfroberts said:

LOL....no, I've never had that happen, but I'm not surprised. 
We have a wall and a half of hanging t-shirts.  What sells best changes if I rearrange them.  I'm sure there's science behind it, but I'm not smart enough to figure it out.

What was that scent and what name and color did you change it to? (if you don't mind sharing)

I think alot of times what sells best happens to be what they come across first.  If they happen to walk along a wall looking at it they are more likely to buy something they first come across than to buy what they find at the end of it all.  I am one of the oddities I like looking at it all and find that i tend to buy something more times than not towards the end of items for some reason lol.  sorry if that does not make the most sense battling a cold here so my mind is kinda blah atm.

Before i stopped using it I used a small digital meat thermometer.  I have a glass one but with my eyesight i couldn't even try to use it.  So i bought a digital one and stopped using it a month or two ago..  

Since i bought my presto I have not checked temps at all either.  Tho I am using palm as well.  I heat to between 210-215 myself.  depends on how far i turn the knob each time i melt wax.  so far my wick test candles have turned out great tho wicks not so much lol.

13 minutes ago, Trappeur said:

Do you really think it was professional enough?    I wasn't sure Scrubzz....Thankyou.    I am not good at being in situations such as this...I truly am not.  I don't like confrontation and I just didn't know how to write this to be quite honest.....well it's done....

Thankyou for your support.....

 

Trappeur

Soryy it went down that way, but I think you handled that beautifully.  If it was me that email would not of been child friendly.  For the most part i am easy to get along with but when you get me mad, even my old friends just shut up and stare at me like wait he can get like that.  I have only been in one situation were i got that ticked off and let me tell you none of them spoke for about 5 minutes after i stopped yelling at the idiot.  So all in all like i already said you handled is perfectly.

9 minutes ago, GoldieMN said:

Yes!  The "Pepe Le Pew" line! 

I love it!  Were can I buy one?

2 minutes ago, Trappeur said:

Taken a tour of my facility?.....oh my Quentin....that is something to be seen..

.First they have to get past the Skunk eating on the table with the raccoon and the possum drooling from his mouth and them all together.  Wouldn't that be something and then to look down under the table where the skunk was eating and see a box of wax sitting right under the skunk.  Now how impressive would that be? ha ha  Real professional factory here I would say, wouldn't you?

 

Trappeur

PS:   I'm not a slob you guys.....really...just funny things always seem to be happening in my life lately.

if it works for you it is professional enough.  we all have our own idea on what professional really is anyways.

11 hours ago, ShelleyF said:

 

lol I will have to do that. I do tell people it's my secret but something about Grandma might work better.

 

I haven't renamed Lavender yet but how about Soft Lavender if it's a lighter one which I have some lighter ones or Loud Lavender lol or Bold Lavender if it's very overpowering. I'm grasping at straws here lol

I renamed Nag Champa The 1960's

If the fragrance name is not trademarked but you wanna name it something different you might consider adding the actual fragrance name in () below whatever you change the name to that way people can  associate your fragrance name with the name of the fragrance they already know and love.

I can almost guarantee that they will not test candles properly before selling them.  So there candles will more than likely end up being very poor quality and in the end that will defiantly make it harder for them to make any money off repeat buyers.

I wish luck.  I am sad that i was right in my thinking from the start as well ass sorry this happened to you.  I would of much rather been wrong on this one.  If they ordered the exact same things you do then someone spilled the info to them.. We all know that there are people working at companies that do not follow policies.

Once again sorry this happened and good luck with whatever happens from here.  

Thanks for the update on this as well.

Most of the time labor gets increased because they get a final cost including what they want to charge for labor then they will either double or triple that price.  Sometimes they go above triple if they think there target market can handle it. 

I wouldn't sell them at wholesale prices even at a big event.  I would charge the same there that i would charge anyone other than wholesale accounts.  To me wholesale prices are there purely to get your product in stores you think could be a good market for your candles or melts.

I feel that if you are going to sell at an event and plan to sell them somewhere else like online, in stores, or however that the prices need to be comparable so as not to cause issues later on with one price being well above another.  You can always do specials at events like if you candles are 15$  maybe do a 2 for 25$ deal  in the end you might sell more candles as well as giving people another reason to pick up a couple of scents you make instead of just buying one.  

This is my though process on your questions.  hopefully it makes sense and is somewhat helpful.

I did notice on the sites that listed using glycerin that they also mentioned adding DPG i think it was as well as the glycerin. to better coat the salt with the dye and to slow the oil evaporation from the salt.  Glycerin was 1 teaspoon and the DPG was 0.25 oz pp suggested.  I was wrong in my previous posting of a 0.25 oz of glycerin pp.

1 minute ago, ShelleyF said:

That's the thing it is soy wax! That's what made me really go, oh geez! Well they're not going to listen to me because they would think I'm just a competitor. I don't make candles I make melts but she makes melts too. she doesn't even fill it and I fill mine all the way to the top. but she said since she is so successful immediately she's going to go buy a ton of stuff in bulk now and go to the next craft fair! She said this is a very exciting new career for her. she said she thought it would take a little bit longer to get successful but she's going with it since she's doing great.

I feel like this is really gonna go bad for them in the end.  I do kinda feel sorry for them as I don't want anyone to fail at business but in the end sometimes it take them failing a time or two to realize that they are doing something wrong in the first place.  I know they will probably get some repeat buyers even with poorly made/performing candles and melts.I mean look at all the terribly made candles you find in stores that cost you 30$ or more and people eat those up like candy.  It just goes to show that somone uneducated in candles will buy a higher priced candle figuring it will be better than a cheaper one when in reality the cheaper one might be 100x better quality wise than the expensive one.  I do feel bad for the uneducated buyer that think they are getting a good product not realizing it is a poorly made candle and more than like poorly burning candle.

1 minute ago, ShelleyF said:

You are right. I need to spend more time getting my own stuff right and that's what I do. I have been working for months and I think I'm finally confident to sell some things again . I don't make candles though and I do not want to. It is too hard lol I just have a heart for people and I don't want anyone to get a bad product from her. I also don't want her to fail because I know I don't want to fail. There's plenty enough people to buy from all of us so I want her to be able to sell and have fun too. I don't know her at all. I just feel bad because it looks like she's heading in the wrong direction. one thing I'm not understanding though is why people are paying her $16 for a 6-oz candle. And it doesn't look good either the candle or the packaging. And the scents sounds awful too. And she's using cheap Hobby Lobby stuff. 

I have a couple of hobby lobby fragrances that i bought not long after i started messing with candles but never used them and i found out most of that stuff is crap.

1 minute ago, ShelleyF said:

I am very glad I don't know this person. I had thought about telling her what she was doing was wrong. but then she would think I was being nosey and she would be right lol I had to laugh as I read this other lady posted that it took her a week to perfect her candle making. She said it's a simple as that. Just devote  one week and you'll be a pro lol yeah right

Wow,  and another idiot joined the first one.  I have been messing with just my palm wax for a few months now and am still trying to find a good wick for my jar and wax.  Honestly i probably would of said something to them myself just for the safety of anyone buying those candles.  They would probably not listen to me but I would of atleast tried to keep a potential danger from happening.

The only thing that would make this any funnier would be if they said they were using soy wax as we all know that wont be ready in a day or two let alone a week.

Wow,  i dont sell candles or melts for that matter.  Got into  it for a hobby but if I was to sell them and had someone asking me those questions  My first reaction would be to not want to do business with them personally.  I know candle making is a business and you shouldn't take thing to personally but asking those detailed questions along with having the jars and a supposed unlabeled candle that they supposedly bought that cheap just makes me think all they wanna do is cut out the middleman. 

As almost everyone on here know candle making is pretty much an art form.  It takes alot of time, patience, money and frustrations to get even one working candle.   Then to have someone that wants to see your operation on top of knowing were you get your supplies and all just shows that they  first of all are not good business people.  They just wanna be able to make a ton of money selling something they either can get unreasonably cheap or make a pretty knockoff of without having to do all the hard work that goes into it..

This is all my personal opinion but i feel they are just trying to duplicate what you have painstaking done over the years otherwise there would be no reason to ask just detailed questions let alone wanna see your candle making area.  In the end it really boils down to how much can you trust them.  As i would have it in the back of my mind are they selling purely your candles or are they producing cheap ones on top of what you make for them and selling them at the same price mixed in with the ones you made.

Wow, I would laugh but then I think about the poor people that bought those candles and what could happen with a potentially terribly bad made candle.

😱

19 minutes ago, Pam W said:

I so wanna be like you when I grow up  🙂

I make it a rule to never grow up.  I have to much fun being the somewhat immature person i am lol.

Just now, Krickett said:

Thanks! 

 

@TallTayl It’d be nice to not have to use it budget-wise. Any extra penny saved is a penny earned.

 

@ncraiders I definitely plan to try both and see what happens. My plan is to trial:

Salt, mica, fragrance oil

Salt, mica, glycerin, fragrance oil

Salt, liquid candle dye, fragrance oil

Salt, liquid candle dye, glycerin, fragrance oil

 

I’ll definitely come back to this post and report back.

looking forward to the report.  the things i read on several sites about adding glycerin stated 0.25 oz per pound of salt.  Can't wait to hear what the difference is in using mica and liquid dyes.

everything i read online while looking pu how to make these stated  that you could add it to help the dye work better in the crystals as well as to supposedly help slow the oil evaporation rate.  sadly without doing a small scale test using the same scent and dye with and without the glycerin it is all just a big unknown on if it will actually work.

3 minutes ago, Trappeur said:

Well, looks like the red with the goldish tone text seems what I'm getting most votes on......That was my first choice....I'm loving  it.  I hope more people respond.

Now NC I found another font for us blind bats who can't see worth a crap....and I came up with this one.  So what do you think of this?  It really is a lot readable I must admit.    Great point you bringing up!  Thanks....See?....I listen to what others say and that was an important point you brought up.    I kept in the gold toned text but I "bolded" it 3 times...lol  You like better?  I do.  I really wanted to keep the fragrance name elegant as much as I could as I was trying to create a label that was like "where elegance meets rustic"  if you know what I mean.   Here is a picture of the label with the new style font and the original label of the fonts that was really hard to read as much as I liked it.

 

This has been a trying label to design as I really like the darker green label and the tan one.. but I'm extremely happy with the red as that is my personal favorite color.

 

Trappeur

 

Love the new font much easier to read but still has that fancy elegant feel to it.  Great font choice.

To show you how mad it was reading the first font style you used.  I am using a 49" tv for my pc monitor and am sitting no more than 2.5-3 feet from it and still had issues with it.  

20 minutes ago, Trappeur said:

I agree with what you said NC as I too wear glasses and there is nothing worse than labeling with colors that are too dark that you have to squint to look at them.

I did originally do a cream color font on all the letters as you will see in the pictures below but it was just bleh.....It didn't work.  Though there is a nice contrast, the whole look of the label with a jar with a black lid just doesn't come together.  So you see I need black in the label.  Now this red label is red but not a dark red...sort of like a campy red which is what I wanted and I really think there is plenty of contrast with the red and black. Now if it was a darker red, yes, the black fonts are going to fade into the red as i tried it and going any lighter in the red wasn't a red.   Now I did do #7 with black fonts and also the yellow/goldish fonts for the fragrance name and to me I think that label pops...but hey I'm all ears!   That's why I'm asking everyone to critque and I value everyone's opinion and weigh everything very carefully.  So you see where I'm coming from?  I think or thought I had enough contrast with black fonts and red label it looks pretty readable to me....No?

 

Ok, here are 2 labels which you suggested changing to all light colored fonts.  One label is a cream font and the other is the pretty yellow/goldish font but it just doesn't work for me.  I need black in there somewhere.  But I'm all ears!

 

Trappeur

I understand exactly were you are coming from and i do agree that the lighter color scent name really pops.  I mainly posted that comment due to the fact that being partly colorblind as well as legally blind the lighter color text on colors like green, brown, most read except the light/pale red, darker blues, and purples are easier to read.   This also gives you an idea on what people with my kinda of eyesight issues have to deal with.  In the end it really comes down to making a label that looks nice and you feel really fits color scheme/theme you are going for.  

Ok out of curiosity i wanted to see if it was the text color or the font style that was giving me issues so i swapped the font for another to see.  Come to find it for me it was actually the font style that game me most of the issues.  It is a beautiful font but it is so thin that it was causing me to have issues reading some of it properly.  Just to show you what i mean here is the one i doctored as a test.  By changing it to a thicker font like this i had absolutely no issues reading it even with black font..

Just to put this out there something most people that make labels don't take into account is that there are people out there that have issues with colors.  I have seen alot of darker colored labels on products be it forest green, dark red, or chocolate brown then they stick black lettering on it.  So Those of us with eyesight issues have to strain to see what is written on the labels.  Don't get me wrong the labels are generally really beautiful on the products but are just harder to read due to the color scheme they chose.

ohh yeah if you decide to go with the red label you might consider changing all the text color to something lighter than black to help it standout against a slightly darker red.