LilFirecracker

I'm not sure if this is even an option for you as it could be time-consuming. I came across a post one day where someone was trying to find a certain color tin, and someone suggested spray painting with a high-temp paint. If all else fails, that could be an option for you if all you can find is silver. 

That came out so gorgeous! And unique! Good luck if you decide to follow thru with trying to wick it to burn good. Great for someone who loves a challenge!

Candles/melts are one thing, but when you start with soaps and cosmetics... The gagging sound comes to mind 🤮

Thank you for all the replies! I've read the stories, and I can picture it all happening - and then some! I guess there's just no happy medium when you still want your products to be accessible to your customers. If you have everything out of reach and they have to wait for YOU to hand it to them, I'm sure over half just walk and won't wait. I guess that's just another cost of doing business. 

Goooood morning friends - it's Friday!!

Ok, I'm trying to type this at the same time I have the giggles thinking about the wording. I wouldn't exactly put a sign in these exact words... At shows, I hear a lot of y'all talk about the touching and the makeup-clad noses stuck right in the wax. Would it be rude to put up a sign asking (begging) the customers to please use the testers to sniff and if they're ready to purchase after that, I'll let them sniff their own before they leave? 🤣

2 hours ago, RichardLOZ said:

We don't really worry about cure time for our Palm melts. Just got an order from an old customer last Monday.  Poured Tuesday (as we did not have that scent on hand), shipped Wednesday, arrived Thursday, and I suspect that she would have started burning Thursday night.

 

Candles I do like them to cure for at least 48 hours.

Ok good... So I'm not looking at 7-10 days or anything like that. I can handle 2 or 3 days. I'm not gonna be doing it anytime soon, but I like to know things ahead of time. Wish I could slow my brain down. I'm getting so many ideas running thru my head that I had to start logging everything. I might be thankful for the brain-clutter later, but right now it's making me crazy. I even go to bed at night thinking of wax and business stuff before I drift off to sleep. Some might call that obsessed, perhaps? 😂

20 hours ago, TallTayl said:

It is a very attractive graphic. My one observation from a business coach perspective is that I can’t tell what it is your business does or makes. 
 

 

That's something that'll definitely be added. I was just working on the logo/business name part. Right under "Moonlight Haven" will be something like "Wax Melts, etc." Or something similar. I'm using etc because later I might add other stuff. Actually thinking about melt & pour soaps first. I'd like to eventually join the guild and have my insurance thru them. I know you have to sell soap in order to get the insurance. Do they accept melt & pour or does it have to be the completely handmade CP soap?

On 12/8/2021 at 4:20 PM, NightLight said:

Black and white is good for readability. To test your logo on color make you image small, it’s this is to be sold online. Will the colors separate enough that you can read the logo and illustration? Most images for example on Etsy are small in search. Your image small size has to pop.

I do eventually plan on opening an Etsy store so that is one thing I'll definitely have to work on and play around with. I've heard that's one of the main things is to make sure the picture that comes up in searches is top-notch because it can make or break a sale or even keep a customer from even clicking on the item for more info. 

Hi everyone! The gears in my head are constantly turning - can't make it stop!! 🤣 Since I recently got a little more info about how most warmers handle higher MP waxes, I'm back to considering testing with feather palm again. Some people say they let theirs cure. Others don't. Does it have a cure time like soy? If so, what would you say the average cure time is? 

Thanks everyone for putting up with the multitude of questions I always have. Y'all are so awesome! Hope everyone has a great weekend!! ❤️

Thanks both of you for chiming in! I know the new Wal-Mart warmers take at least an hour to melt a 1oz 124mp melt. I have another that'll melt the same in less than 30min. I did want to try the feather Palm at one time but I was scared of them not melting right. I know quite a few do use it with great results though! I do love 4625 mixed with actually any of the IGI container waxes. I'm just trying to narrow down which to use by cold/hot throw, ease of release from portion cup and warmer dish. Decisions, decisions....

Bump...

9 hours ago, NightLight said:

I personally like no color! You can see the graphics well, and they can be applied on a label and seen easily.

Black and white is cheaper to print FYI. I would use black and white and then change colors on the melts or use melt colors to differentiate. I like your typeface without the graphic and it would be easier to put on different size labels circles, rectangles etc. put graphic on it will be more difficult.

I'm totally with ya when you say black and white is cheaper to print! I'm glad you like the typeface! Though it might be useful alone in some cases, my logo is something very special and personal to me and will always be a part of my products in some way. It represents a part of my mom. She was suppose to be on this journey with me, but we lost her to breast cancer 7 years ago. I gave up at that point. But something this past year and a half got me going again. I think it was her spirit kicking me in the a$$ telling me to stop dragging and just do this!🤣 That was her mentality. She was so much fun!🥰

12 hours ago, RichardLOZ said:

Logo's and labeling is fun Hahahaha

Luckily we have a daughter who does Graphic Design, and she finally made us a new logo after many years of asking.  She has also been invaluable in helping me with labels, as we do ours in Photoshop and getting them lined up correctly on the printer is a challenge as they all have a checked border.  certainly makes life interesting, not to mention many label pages and ink later to get them correct.

 

We do all of ours on Kraft, however I also usually buy plain white for alignment and testing purposes as they are less than half the price of the Kraft, so does not feel so bad when I go through a bunch when testing.

Another good idea! Thank you!! Note to self: Test on white labels until ready!

11 hours ago, Candybee said:

Love the look. I also prefer the blue one and I also like the black silhouette. When I got my logos made I also had a silhouette made so I could use both as needed. Glad I did as it turned out I use both for different reasons.

Thank you! I do have all the files for it also with the transparent background. To figure out how to use it now without looking like a big dummy - that's a different story! 🤣

1 hour ago, RichardLOZ said:

Ah, labels and logos, such a fun task to get completed.  From my perspective I think it looks great and not at all too gothic. I think however before you can decide on colours, backgrounds etc, you should possibly print out all of the combinations that you may be looking at and pop the label on a jar to see how it looks on the finished product, and sometimes what looks god on the page does not always work on the jar.......

Good point! Still in testing (driving me nuts - feels like I'm going backwards!) so it'll be a while before I decide on packaging. While I'm waiting on more oils, I wanted to play with my logo more. I just keep picturing black logo and letters on Kraft labels for some reason....

2 minutes ago, Laura C said:

The colored backgrounds look nice too. I like your graphics. Have you considered also doing a round logo. Put Moonlight above the wolf image, curve the text around it and put Haven under the wolf image so it creates a round logo. Just a thought. Also some fun logo programs are Canva which has a free version and Adobe Spark. Adobe Spark may offer a free trial version. I have used both to make logos in the past. It's nice to have both a compact round logo and a rectangular or landscape logo, depending on the website, social media, label shape, etc. The logo above would work nice as a banner image on a website where as a round logo could work nice on a small label and still be large enough to read easily.

 

https://www.canva.com/

 

https://www.adobe.com/products/spark.html

I haven't thought of that.. I might try it and see what it looks like! Thank you for the idea, Laura! 

Ok here they are in reverse!

1 hour ago, Laura C said:

I think they all look pretty, I didn't think of goth when I saw them. Between the 2 with colors, it's easier for me to read the purple and pink one. When using black or a dark background you have to be careful with the font color and use just the right color so it's easy to read.

Thank you! Still not sure how I'll be doing labels so they might not have a black background - too much ink! Right now I'm just mostly looking for opinions on the style of it. I might end up reversing it and use the gradient colors for the background with black lettering. Ohhhh I'm gonna go try that now!😃

59 minutes ago, Belinda said:

I love it! It's not my style per say but I still love it! I think my favorite is the first one with blue. I don't think it looks too goth at all.

My favorite is the first one too! I wanted some purple in there, and to me it looks better with the blue and teal than with the pink. Most everything will probably be done with the transparent background so a lot of it will probably just be black letters. 

I'd love some brutally honest critique on this. I love it, but I'm a little afraid the font might be a little too goth and might scare some potential customers off. What's your opinion? I'm just uploading different color edits for contrast. 

2 minutes ago, RichardLOZ said:

Have you thought about using once of those plastic squeezy sauce bottles that you could get from the dollar store? Not sure how well it would work, however it should be faster than the dropper and still give you some amount of control?

Actually I have thought about it, but I haven't been able to find one that could take the heat of the wax. Not to mention the wax would cool some before I finished. Right now I keep my glass measuring cup on a hot plate to keep it at a certain viscosity. Once it starts cooling down a little and becomes thicker, it just starts dropping weird and rounded. 

2 hours ago, TallTayl said:

I wonder if you could use techniques like chocolate or candy  makers. 
 

maybe play with temps to pour in one row, holding the mold at an angle so the runoff spills over the mold into the other holes. Then scrape? If it’s hot enough you will have a minute to scrape then heat gun to smooth.

 

I tried pour and scrape. It was a huge mess and no matter how hot it started, it cooled too fast when it hit the mold (silicone) and even though I continued to scrape, it just made a lumpy mess and left a lot on the mold around the holes. In the time it would take to clean it all up I could've already dropped from the dropper and be done with it. I've found a way over time to be faster and more precise without having to think about it. I actually find it sorta therapeutic if that makes sense!

2 hours ago, RichardLOZ said:

Look great.  I love the tiny melts, but they are a PITA to pour

Impossible to pour! I once tried to see if I could pour and quickly use a scraper to spread it. Uh... Nope! Had a huge mess to clean up lol. I just use a dropper. I'm getting much better and faster with it the more I do it. 

Just thought I'd share a pic of my latest batch of "Dew Drops" to test! These are Black Cherry Bomb using 4786 straight. 

I like Twisted Berry!! Daughter gets 2 thumbs up for that one!