Buttercup

Congrats!! It is a nice looking shop, making candles on site is a very good idea.

I am waiting to see who the speakers are and what demos are planed before i decide to go. We try to go to a different gathering every year and we are only 4 hours away.

People are so sue happy these days, I make and sell tarts but do not sell wicked candles althought I do make them for myself. I actually had a name brand jar candle crack and shatter while burning but luckly I was in the room to put it out.

I have sold at the reenactments and did very well. All they purchased was simple uncolored cp soap. They did not buy the colors or pretty swirls. Salves sold very well too.

Check into getting libality insurance before you start selling.

I carry the jackel in my shop and the tea light ones sell much better for me than the electric ones do. It takes about an hour in the electric one for the tarts to completely melt. When using the ones with tea light, it melts in just a few minutes.

I want to make unscented tea lights and am wondering if I can use container wax that is a parafin blend and what type of wick would work best. Thanks for any advice you can offer.:shocked2:

lovely swirl, I wish I could swirl mp that pretty!

Way to go!!!

I am adding a few things for the holiday season and am thinking about adding potpourri. For those of you who carry it, is it a good seller?

Does anyone know who carries the white goat milk mp base? I have done a search and can only find the custard color. I know that i can add td to it to make it white, but the custard color seems to be a lot softer.

Be sure to melt your lard on low temperatures, it it gets too hot the lard smells stronger.

lovely soap,love the swirls

lovely soap

We usually take off Jan and Feb from soap making, but this year we have worked full time getting ready for our Spring Shows. We are making 50 batches of soap in Jan and will do 50 more batches in Feb. It is too cold to do anything else and hopefully by getting started early, it will be less stressful. We are going thru our fo and eo cabinets and using up oils we have on hand before ordeing new fragrances. We are cutting back on newspaper advertising for our store. Word of mouth and passing out business cards and brouchers at shows is by far our best advertising and brings in more customers.

My internet sales are way down.

It sounds like they are offering you a good deal. We have a retail shop and we have 1 person who does consignment on hand painted items. We charge her 30% and charge her an additional 5% on credit card sales. She pays no rent until she makes a sale and we make 30% of the sale. I really do not like working with consignment and will not take any more. The girl who does the consignment is a real pain and wants her items displayed in the front window. I have a couple of people who rent a space and pay flat rate rent every month and they keep everything they sell. Because they are paying rent every month, they get one of the window fronts. Good Luck to you in what ever you decide to do.

At a soap conference, I won a case of IGI container wax and we only make tarts. Can I add something to the container wax to make a good tart? I need to order more candle wax, but my budget won't take it now and I would love to use the container wax if it would make a good tart. I emailed the company that donated the wax for door prize and asked if I needed to order something to blend with the wax, but I have gotten no response. Thank you for any suggestions.

I use astor v in my tarts and they will not completely melt in the jackel electric. I just ordered some of the jackel mini electric melters and I hope they will do better.

Does it attract ants?

I named it coconut lime and it has been a good seller.

I never ship packages without delivery conformation. I use to send packages to daughter who lives across the country and many times they never got there. Since I have started always sending with dc they always arrive.

They are very pretty, I like them better than Lush soaps.

Thank you for all of your replies.

I purchased popsicle molds to use for melt and pour soaps and the soap is stuck big time in the mold. I have put it in the freezer, let it set on the counter a bit and it still will not come out. For those of you that use those molds, what is the best way to get soap out of mold?