chevcher

Excellent ! This makes testing / replacing so much easier, Thanks again !

@QuentinThis was one of them...  Candle Making Terence McLaughin
Pretty much anything from the 1970's on back was what I used fro reference

4 minutes ago, Quentin said:

If they're out of print, I can still buy used copies on Amazon and Ebay. I'm interested in anything you can come up with. 

I will have to do some sleuthing around for a title, my memory ain't what it used to be 😁

NG's Crisp & Candied  - spiced orange cranberry scent and NG's Cranberry Cobbler

On 2/23/2019 at 12:32 PM, Quentin said:

I don't want to take us off the subject but you touched on something here. I can't find any good scholarly books on the subject of candle making. The books I've seen so far are nothing but a lot of fluff. Typically, they start out with a brief history candle making, then some safety rules. Next thing they have is some very scanty general directions on "how to make a candle", some recipes, and then the rest of the book will give you some creative ideas about special technique candles. Where are the good technical books on candle making? Are they all out of print?

Oh yes, I've recieved some of those fluff books as gifts. The books I found were at the library years ago, very basic but informative. If I can track down the title, I will let you know. It covered the history and the old school techniques. They may be out of print now, which is a bummer 😞

11 hours ago, The Candle Nook said:

Love this input. I’ve been looking for a true “smoky” scent and been frustrated by cologne scents. I use 464. What wax do you use/melts or candles? 

I use for both candles and melts in 6006 and straight paraffin. You may have to wick up for candles

1. I started out in my mom's booth at an indoor flea market. I had been making candles for years as a hobby, so it made sense to get serious when I went on maternity leave and needed to supplement my income.
Within the first 2 years I was approached for wholesale and consignment, 2 of the 3 customers I'm still with currently. The 3rd lady was a bit shifty, so I got out before things got worse. 

2.  My initial startup was $200 back in '96 ... An acquaintance had a soapmaking business,  sometimes dabbling in candles .
She decided not to pursue and offered everything to me for a song.

3.  Yes

4. Word of mouth 

5.  Full time

6.  I do fall / Christmas festivals

7.  I had an Etsy shop for a minute, just didn't have the time to focus on it. I'm currently looking into getting a website and only doing 3 shows per year...I'm getting older & tired  

8.  I'm a one woman show most of the time, occasionally my daughters & hubby helps out with wicking , heavy lifting and show setups..again,getting older.

9. I did for a year w/ my mother-in-law. It was in our local Arts District...unfortunately, there wasn't enough foot traffic to keep us going so I came back home.

10. I do all of my own printing. Who knew that my graphic arts background would come in handy ? 

11. I started in the kitchen & dining area, now I rule the basement of our home...still not enough room during busy season , but I make it work.

12.  My advice- Ask yourself..."Am I disciplined enough to be my own boss ?", " Can I handle the demands of this business ?", " How will this affect my family's current lifestyle ?"
Do as much research as possible and then do some more. Realize that this is a HUGE investment of time, hard work and money, NOT a get rich overnight job like the internet portrays at times.
13. I do a 3-step testing method, meaning that I have a list of things that I look for during the process. I then pass that particular candle on to each of my daughters with the list to have them do their own seperate tests,we compare notes at the end.
I wouldn't suggest anyone start selling in under a year or two without any experience, it's too risky. There's way too much to learn and too much bad information on the internet to sort through.  I personally did all of my research before the computer age...by hands on training and hitting the books.

BC's Campfire Smoke, TFC's Hickory BBQ Smoke  and CMS Woodsmoke were all good ones for an actual Campfire smokey scent.
 Others that I've tried seem to lean more towards a masculine cologne scent, not what I was going for at all.
I've used mine as blenders and on their own.
BC's is super strong, so a little goes a long way.
HTH

I use a proprietary para-soy container blend with zinc wicks that I love .
I do notice that some fragrances tend to mushroom more than others at times, especially if I power burn during testing.
As long as the wicks are being trimmed properly I can live with it and still have a clean ,even burning candle.
I've tried many different types of wicks over the years to get around the mushrooming, including the low-smoke zincs, but prefer the standard zincs for best performance in my wax blend.
The self-triming wicks always seem to tunnel or drown out, so I don't even bother with those anymore.
It's just one of those little annoyances, like frosting & jump lines that we tend to stress over. 

HTH

 I was just wondering what steps everyone takes to get their safety/ burning information out to their customers ?
Aside from talking to customers at my shows,I've printed handouts for my events that cover the basics.
I was thinking about creating some sort of demo board with pictures and information for my shows this year. For those of you that do festivals / shows, it's pretty exhausting going over steps with every customer, especially multiple days in a row 😫
I should add that aside from the safety and candle maintenance, there's also the extra questions of waxes, oils, wicks ect...
Most of my customers are generally not freaked out about the soy blend or paraffin waxes that I use, since they've been buying from me for years.
 I've had a few ask if they were 100 % soy, when I replied "No", they bolted as if I were selling canned Anthrax 😧
I feel as though there's way too much misinformation out in Web Land , especially scare tactics, and it's so frustrating 😞
Last season, I was bombarded with customers asking if my candles were made with 100 % "Natural" wax and essential oils, so add that to the heap of frustration !
 

Awesome work !!
Were / are you an engineer ? This looks like the sort of stuff my father-in-law creates.
Whenever I tell him I need some sort of contraption for my business, he brings me goodies like this .
  It's always a major project and I'm very thankful with the results  

Aside from the obvious ones like Pink Sugar & Cotton Candy, the following scents make me think pink when pouring ...
Children's Room- NG  smells like Love's Baby Soft
Kissing & Telling NG  VS Bombshell type
Summer Scoop TFC strawberry ice cream
Brown Sugar & Fig NG 
anything  Peony, Sweet Pea & Plumeria ,I've also done pink/ mauve  Lilac before as well.  It's a nice break from purple 
 I have a "Tinkerbell" lilac bush in my garden that gets beautiful mauve blooms every spring .

On 10/29/2018 at 12:02 PM, TallTayl said:

I tried coffee beans in a candles once.  The sizzle and smoke were pretty eye opening. 

Oh yes !
In my early days of candle making, I was testing a pillar I made with whole coffee beans at the bottom.
It burned great... until it reached the coffee beans.
I refer to it as the "Table Top Inferno of 1996" 😦

This is probably a little too late, but I finally found one of their Christmas Thyme candles that I could make a comparison.
Most of the shops in the area we visited were very picked over of anything Christmas scented ,what was left looked pretty rough from customer handling.
To my nose it smells like the one from NG of the same name
HTH

On 12/7/2018 at 6:56 PM, Marleigha said:

Just my 2 cents, of course but  Pure Fragrance Oils  is the home of all Moonworks ORIGINAL fragrance oils.

 I love FB oils, but there are a few from MW that I have really missed. I'm going to check out PFO to see if they have them.
Thanks so much Marleigha,this completely made my day !!!   😊

I haven't ordered from them in a long time, but their Rosemary Mint was outstanding in both candles & soaps.

Crisp & Candied from NG is really good

Congrats to you @Crafty1_AJ It's such a rewarding feeling to break your sales records.
I've been doing festivals since August, dealing with heat & sun at least one day at each show 😖
This past weekend was absolutely perfect !

Those crisp days really put folks in a candle buying mood ... One more weekend to go and I'm hoping for a weather repeat😀

I use para-soy for containers, beeswax/ paraffin for pillars

On 9/29/2018 at 4:07 PM, Daisymay66 said:

@chevcher Do you prefer CW or FB better? Or are they pretty equal?

CW seems to be the stronger of the two

Those are adorable !   What a great find  😊

On 9/26/2018 at 11:20 AM, Daisymay66 said:

@chevcher that would be so nice of you to do that! I sure would appreciate it. I was kinda thinking that to with the Pumpkin Apple Butter. I’ll anxiously wait for your post  I tried one candle from Crossroads and it was really good too. I think it was something Maple. Seems like Trapp would know. Think I remember her saying that scent was really good from Crossroads.

That would be the Buttery Maple Syrup... every shop in Amish country carries Crossroads as well and they have that scent going strong in the wax melters or the candles burning.
Candlewic & FB has the best Buttery Maple fo's I've ever poured, very strong and my customers go crazy over that scent !
Crossroads is pretty close to me in Ohio.

They are literally EVERYWHERE in my area !
I live near Amish country and I swear, every shop has Black Crow ,Crossroads  or some other commercially made candle ☹️ I will check for that one next time I'm out , because I have the Christmas Thyme FO from NG and I'll know if it's the same.
I do know for sure that their Prairie Butter scent is indeed NG's Pumpkin Apple Butter .

I order from them often, and so far I haven't had any stinkers 

@Trappeur
You might want to try www.afi-usa.com 
They offer no cost duplications with a 10 # minimum .I'm sure there would be enough interest for a possible co op.
HTH