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LOL! Ain't that the truth! I have had my brother sell more candles at my booth while I went out for lunch than I could all day. Must be something appealing to women about a man with candles. Next show, I'm telling him to come along and wear a tight shirt to show off those muscles.

It looks really great! You have such a wide variety of products! One thing though, since pretty much all of your photos have that blended out fade effect going on, but its blending out to white and your background is tan, maybe you could match the white areas to your tan background, so it would look more clean and precise. You can do this in paintshop/photoshop or any program like that. Hope that make sense. :smiley2:

What about Lovely, All you need is Love, Head over Heels, Bliss..Thats about all I can come up with Looking through a thesaurus helped me a lot when I was renaming some scents.

Ok, I'm starting to rethink some things here....I don't add a lot of stuff in to the cost of my candle when setting my prices, such as insurance, show fees, and annual web/cart costs. I was under the impression that at the end of the year, when filing your taxes, I submitted those such fees and the square footage of my shop, etc. as costs of running my business, but not in setting my prices/figuring in my cost per candle. I've gone and confused myself now....

Thanks! I do press most of them myself, like roses, lavender, daisies, violets. But the ones I posted, I purchased pressed because I didn't have much luck growing them this year, think the bugs got a hold of them or I forgot to water them too many times, who knows. I'm not very good at plant care. Maybe next year.

I dont charge for it. I dont feel that insurance really has anything to do with the actual physical product the customer is purchasing. Well, technically it does....but not from a customers purchasing point of view. I'm sure people do, but I keep that, website hosting fees, business phone usage, things like that seperate. I do figure in a portion of my elecricity usage into my labor costs for the product.

With DPS/Morris wax, they charge $86 per case and then with shipping it's more than I pay now. Not sure if it's worth the 3 hour drive at that price either to pick up.

I've checked the supplier by state link and googled like crazy but can't seem to find any local suppliers. The cost of a case of IGI 1260 has gone way up lately including shipping ($108!) from my current supplier. I was wondering if anyone has found any local suppliers in Missouri (St. Louis) that carries the IGI 1260. There are a few candle supply stores in the area that seem to only carry "mystery wax" Nobody knows exactly what kind it is. Also, is $108 outrageous? What does everyone else pay for a case with shipping, just curious? I think I'm paying way too much, but don't really have any choice..I'm trying to cut costs though. Those that live near a major supplier must be so lucky!

Thank you everyone so much for your nice comments! Cindys, I am just using my pour pots for the 4" ones. My presto pot will not work because the balloon touches the bottom and then pops. How big are the turkey fryers? Where do you get them and are they expensive? I've not seen one before. I wanted something that was easier to remelt in. Something similar to a presto pot, only taller. I have a large pot, but it's so large that it would take hours to remelt the wax in.

If you cant order another knucklebuster, you can just grab a clipboard, put the card on it with the carbon form on top and rub over it with a votive glass or something. It may not be a very professional way to represent yourself with customers, but this trick saved my butt when I left my imprinter at home one show. Definitely accept credit cards though! Your only loosing potential sales if you dont.

Very nice! Palm wax is so pretty!

I haven't posted anything in a VERY long time..so here goes.... I've finally perfected these and have decided to add them to my line. I only wish I could make larger orbs, but cant seem to find the right sized pot to put enough wax in. Thanks for looking! [Mod note: photos removed at request of poster]

Mine is Scrapbook Factory Deluxe 3.0 and it has it. Have you been to their website, they might have a free download or an update.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing this. I use scrapbook factory for EVERYTHING too. But I never noticed that it has box and bag templates! I'm going to play around with it tonight.

Ditto! Although when I first started selling, I didn't include my labor because I wanted to keep my prices as low as possible so I could make more sales. But then it catches up to you. I work harder at this than I ever did at my "day job" So I figure in every little cost because I feel my products and my time are well worth it. Making candles, packaging, selling, promoting, paperwork, etc. is really hard work and people should figure in the labor.

Great! Thanks for your replies! I feel more comfortable about doing them that way now. Someone told me that the glue dots would catch on fire, which was probably not true....

Ok, I'm getting ready to try a new thing...Tea Lights. The biggest problem I have with the store bought ones is that halfway through the burn, the wick and tab tends to slide off to one side of the tea light cup. So I was thinking of using a glue dot on the bottom of the wick tab to hold the wick in place while burning. Does anyone else do this? Is it safe to do this with a tea light?

Thats a great way to do it, gives them everything they'd need to know in one little package. Very professional looking too!

Joann Fabrics has them 2 for $.99. Best price I've ever found, not sure if you have one of those around you.

I hope this is the right section to post in...I make hurricane candles and have been getting a lot of requests for battery operated tea lights...however the led and craft store lights are not near a bright as a real tea light. So I am trying to either find or make a stronger light to be operated by battery. Does anyone have any experience with this? I'd like to have a 1 or 2 watt bulb battery powered, no need for a flicker. Kind of like those battery powered candlesticks that you see around the holidays that take 2 C batteries, only something that sits much lower. Anyone know where to find something like this or possibly how to make one?

I second that! Those are so great! You could even tie a little "cowbell" around them for decoration

It will most likely melt a bit, maybe you could use battery operated tea lights though. Ive made a hurricane shell with my 4045H mottling wax and got the same finish as with my 1260. Just added a bit of vybar and gave it a water bath, some 1260 or other hurricane wax would be best though.

What is micro wax?

Check out some of the hurricane candles on this site...beautiful! But how do you make with the ones that look like there's paint splattered or something on them? Is it just paint? Because in some of the photos it looks partially embedded...Maybe splattering colored wax on the inside of the mold before pouring in your hurricane wax? Anyone have any ideas? www.qcandles.com

Wow, thanks for all your great responses! I've redone my resume with my candle business in the same format as my other past employment. It looks good. I'm just having trouble on the applications (I am needing a full time & then a part time job) I cant really answer many questions all that clearly on it. I guess the place will just have to take my word for it until I can show them proof of my business. Thanks cindym! I didnt even think of making copies of my license. I dont really have references for the business. I do all my sales online and at shows...so I hope that isnt an issue... It just really stinks that it has come to this, but a steady income is required for me now and lately candle sales have been just awful for me...Maybe one day I'll give it another go