foxhill

I had black or blue to dye to get a darker color. I have used blocks, powderes, chips and liquids in soy and prefer liquids for getting darker colors. As for the frosting on the candles I had one wholesale customer tell me she liked it because it made the candles look more "handmade" and not mass produced. I only have a very few that I get frosting on so I don't worry too much about it.

For my pint jars I use RRD 47-50 most of the time (depends on FO and dye). I have used these with Northstar's soy wax and they worked out well.

I used RRD 47 in the 12 oz hex jars and ecosoya and they did well depending on the fo and dye I had to wick up one size.

I can't wait to try this one, Carmen's stuff is always great!

You can use the soap calculator to figure out the firmness, etc. of your recipe

http://soapcalc.com/calc/SoapCalc.asp

Make sure you change the total oil weight to ounces if necessary, add all your ingredients in and then calculate.

I think Uline has polypro zip baggies.

Vanilla Hazelnut (all year round fav), peppermint/vanilla, christmas essence (from candlewic).

I was sort of wondering about the smell. I guess I will find out!

You can sub just about any oil you want, its up to you. I use a lot of olive oil and soybean oil (Crisco). You can also use almond oil, avocado oil, mac nut oil etc and all of those can usually be found a upscale grocery stores or health food stores. I buy the huge jugs of olive oil from Costco.

I purchased some today and I am wondering if anyone here uses it? I have heard it makes a good bar of soap but I was wondering if there is anything I should know about it before I start playing with it.

Just to clarify my post above the web addy for the soap dish is www.thesoapdish.com it is a store, not the soap dish forum!

I don't know how to make them but the buying group (www.the-buying-group.com) has these baggies called H2O bags that you can fill with oils etc and then just throw the whole bag into the bath and they dissolve, they aren't as small as bath beads but same basic idea, instead of a few beads you would use one bag.

The soap dish also has them, they just got the brown kraft ones recently.

Thanks everyone!

Some of you might remember from the old board that one of my customers went to a local gift shop and found a tart warmer on clearance and told the lady who owned the store about my candles and tarts. We ended up arranging a meeting and she has decided to use my stuff! I am so excited. This store is in a year-round indoor farmer's market that is very busy, especially during tourist season. She let me pick the spot in the store where I wanted her to display my stuff and she has already made up a new ad for the newspaper featuring my logo and info about my stuff! She seems so nice and had lots of questions and was very excited about selling my stuff! She is supposed to call with her first order this weekend! I am so excited. Most of my wholesale accounts are out of the area and she is only 15 minutes away!

I think Robin was using regular saran wrap in her last post about this. They looked really nice packed that way and its pretty cheap. I put mine in candy bags that I get from wal-mart/craft store in the cake/candy section. They are 3x4 inches and work well.

I think Meca posted that she used Bravenet for her traffic.

You can try checking with someone who specializes in business insurance. I have a friend that specializes in bussiness insurance and she helped me find the coverage I needed.

I find that a lot around here too, especially at the craft shows I am at. There a lady here who makes/sells soap and has that she's a member of the soapcrafter's guild but she doesn't have ingredients, etc. on her labels. Scary.

Congratulations! It is so exciting when you get your first order!

When I first started selling I only had one size jar that I used, then I slowly started adding more sizes and different things in. I think it is better to have one really good product than several so-so ones.