AudraT

Another strategy I forgot to mention. Whenever possible, I price my items rounding down... whenever possible. For example, rather than pricing a candle at $30 I'll price it at $29.00. There is evidence that consumers tend to perceive such prices as being significantly lower than they are actually. We are all familiar with this because everything on the planet is priced at 9.99, 19.99, 29.99, etc. It works apparently.
People also make decisions, on a subconscious level, when they see a smaller number in the first digit of a price. For example, people like $29.99 better than $30.00 because the "2" is a lower number than a "3". It's only a savings of 1 cent, but it's viewed as a much lower price.
This is also true for sales but in the opposite direction. It's better to say someone is saving 20% rather than $19. Conversely, it is better to say someone is saving $30 than 25%.

I would love to find out what everyone does to market their candles (or other scented items), generate sales, and bring traffic to their websites? I was searching the forums for a similar thread but it seems like the latest thread is a few years old. I'll start with what I do and I'm hoping to get what you guys do for online sales or local sales, what has worked and what hasn't.

My Current Marketing... I mostly have YouTuber's advertise my candles. The candle is the "payment" for the YouTuber so no cost comes out of my pocket except the cost of materials and shipping. This strategy does have limitations though so I can't solely rest on this.

What I'm Developing... I'm currently designing an email newsletter. I hear this is one of the best ways to generate revenue for an online business. I'm not the most natural creative writer so I've been putting this off for a while. Necessity has forced me to finally get out of my comfort zone and do what I should have been doing with email marketing.
I'm also looking into selling local at craft fairs. Looks like craft fairs won't start until April though.

What I've sort of tried in the past... Instagram: it is hard and tricky to generate followers plus I think a little bit of luck is involved in getting your social media going. I can't use Instagram paid ads because the app sends me an error code and glitches out every time I try to create one.
Facebook: similar to Instagram except I was finally able to create a Facebook ad. I paid $14 for 160 likes, 3 comments, maybe 3 people visiting my site, and no sales.

20 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

A powerburn is a very long, full day+ burn as if a customer lit and forgot it was lit. It can be performed when perfectly trimming, and should also consider imperfectly trimmed wicks. Customers will never trim perfectly even if they promise they will.  
 

max temp for containers according to the UL testing range in the US I have researched state 125*F for metal and 140-145*F for glass. You can Google candle tests for various recognized resellers, like Disney, Home Goods, etc and see the test results in PDF format. It is a very good set of tests to learn to perform. The Tests also reference ASTM, which has been discussed many times here and on many presentation type slide decks easily googleable.
 

somewhere, some time ago, someone started a discussion that ASTM limits container temps to 175*F.  I purchased the ASTM standards doc for candles, and have directly contacted ASTM to ascertain the temp and learned there is not one stated by them as claimed. This does not mean there is none in your country, it is just not ASTM standard. UL in the US is the referred to source.
 

Related topic: I encourage anyone burning and selling candles to learn the ASTM standards. If anything happens to a  candle while someone burns it, the best defense is to follow the published standards. 

Very useful. I will check this all out.

On 3/9/2021 at 5:50 PM, MikeH said:

We have been doing some test pours with American Freedom Soy Wax. I can never seem to get a great top from the beginning. After fixing with the heat gun, the tops look fine.

 

After test burning, the tops end up looking like cottage cheese or the surface of the moon. Very unsightly. I have read, this is just the way it is with soy wax.

 

I want to be able to use the 45lbs of American Freedom Soy Wax I have, so thought maybe I can blend it with Paraffin?

 

Any suggestion on what Paraffin to get and at what ratios to blend?

 

I cant really sell any of these I made, they just dont look high quality enough.

I know this is an old post but I found that if I pour American Freedom soy wax at a lower temperature, like around 120 F, you get pretty nice tops without having to fix them. I also blend 30% ProBlend 400 Paraffin Container Wax with some of my soy candles to help the HT and that wax blend gives perfectly smooth tops every time.

Are you guys talking about the American Soy Organics Midwest and millennium waxes? Back when I was trying to find a good wax and I didn't know much about candle wax suppliers, I gave American Soy Organics Freedom wax a try. It's what I'm using right now and I do like the wax very much. I am very new to candle making so I don't know if there are better soy waxes out there or if Freedom wax is actually considered not bad / pretty good.

21 hours ago, TallTayl said:

Do Be aware, most people don’t perfectly trim wicks before lighting.  The average person doesn’t trim at all, and expects the candle to just ”work”. Nobody in my own family trims a wick before lighting despite instructing thousands of people to do so over the past decade and a half of selling candles.
 

  If you wick for a burn based on a  perfect trim you may be getting yourself into a pickle.  Cd24 is a pretty big wick.  Make sure to powerburn and take temps as you burn the candles.  The container temps will often rise sharply during the last half.  Tunneling will be the least of your problems on that case. Each fragrance may need a different sized wick also, depending on the aromachemicals and diluents in the fragrance.  It’s rarely a one size fits all with soy.  

By "power burn" do you mean just let the candle burn for as long as possible (i.e. don't blow out after 4 hours)? What is the ideal temperature for soy candles? I've never actually measured the temperature of my candles. I just size the wick so that the melt pool is a consistent 1/2 inch deep and the wax melts approximately 1 inch in diameter for every hour. So, if I have a 3 inch diameter candle I want the melt pool to reach the inside diameter of the jar in approximately 3 hours.

11 hours ago, NightLight said:

CD 24 can work 3 inch container BUT burn all the way down if container is more than a couple inches in height that CD24 might change to CD 20! For example I have a tin CD24 soy wax that works great with that size all the way down, but the height of tin is not more than 3 inches. If the tin was taller I would know that the CD24 would burn hotter deeper in tin.

This is all very good info I am getting from everybody in this forum. I am so glad I finally found this place as YouTube videos and blog posts usually just give kind of generic information.

10 hours ago, TallTayl said:

In my experience, HT comes from two things:

Quality fragrance that is compatible with the wax and the right wick for the job. 
 

quality fragrance is the best start. Not all are compatible with soy waxes on a chemical level. No amount of heat temp, cool temp tricks can fix a fragrance that just isn’t ideal for soy waxes.  Fragrance labs that supply retailers use different aroma chemicals, different diluents and different concentrations of the aroma chemicals. Some fragrances will do ok, but won’t ever be like your favorite commercially made candle made by companies that have their fragrances custom made. A quality candle fragrance will withstand wax temps hot enough to fully melt the wax with no noticeable loss of potency.  Many on this board use palm waxes, and waxes where palm and similar components require temps of 200*F+ to fully melt. We use the same fragrances in lower temp waxes with no issues. You will find lots of wives tales as you search for clues to make wonderful candles. 
 

wick series all burn differently in different candle systems.  Some reach ideal combustion rates and temperatures for specific wax and fragrance combos better than others. I often need to cycle through many wick series and sizes in different fragrances/containers to find the right one for the job. There’s a sweet spot in wax/fragrance/container combos to coax out the best throw,

I have noticed some fragrances from certain suppliers seem to work better with my wax brand than others and I think you are right, it's the right type of chemicals for the right wax. As an example, The Flaming Candle fragrances seem to work out better for my soy than Candle Science's fragrances.
 

I've never tried measuring the temperature of melted wax in a candle (something I know you suggested in another post) but I've read that you want a wick hot enough to burn a melt pool 1/2 inch thick and to burn the melt pool 1 inch in diameter for every hour. So, if I have a 3 inch diameter candle I want the melt pool to reach the inside diameter of the jar in approximately 3 hours and I want the melt pool to remain a consistent 1/2 inch thick.

I was at a Coach handbag store yesterday and they were selling this candle for $70. The candle was in a glass jar with a lid, it was a nice jar and lid, and it came in a very nice black cardboard box. I would say it was about 8 oz of wax and the label on the bottom said it was 100% soy. The scent was very interesting and had a very strong cold throw, but I couldn't really identify the fragrance and I wasn't certain if I liked it or not. The sales rep said someone she knows had bought two of them (so two 8 oz candles for $140) but she returned one. She returned it because she thought the candle smelled liked pickles, and she was right, it smelled exactly like very strong pickles. I tried to find the name of the candle or see if there was a description that said what fragrances were in the wax, but it didn't list anything.
I think when someone doesn't list the fragrances or give the candle a name to help identify what it is people are supposed to be smelling, people are left with no other recourse but to try to identify what the candle most closely resembles, and in this case, it was pickles. I have no idea what the hot throw was like on this very expensive candle. It was 100% soy, so...

On 1/13/2023 at 11:29 AM, kandlekrazy said:

Did you check the lot#'s on those bags? one may have been a different lot and wax is varying so much these days.  It does sound like sink holes in the wax.  You can poke around the wick and repour or heat gun to help with sink holes.  Cold weather can also factor if the candle cools unevenly sink holes are likely to develop.  A box over the candles while cooling may help.

I don't think it's sink holes. It's extra wax hanging up along the sides of the jar because the melt pool no longer melts to the edge of the jar. I responded to everyone's post though explaining that it was inconsistent wick trim lengths / improper wick size that was causing the random tunneling. I did want to comment on your experiences with colder weather though and acknowledge that you notice a difference with your burning when the seasons change. I do think colder weather does play some part with my candle issue, albeit it is a very small part.

I've already read all the blog posts and YouTube videos on how to get a stronger hot throw. Now I'm wondering if anybody else has any other special tips or tricks they use to get that nice and strong throw that is so hard to get with soy. I'll list the common recommendations below that all the posts and videos say and if you guys have anything else you use maybe you can leave a comment below! 😄

Common Recommendations
Heat wax to 185 F before adding fragrance oil (not to exceed 195 F)
Stir fragrance 2 mins
Add more fragrance oil (not to exceed wax manufacturer recommendations)
Allow 2 week cure time
Add paraffin for a soy-paraffin blend
Burn candle in appropriately sized room
Change FO manufacturer / try out the same fragrance from multiple suppliers
 

I leave a wick burning guide with every purchase that says to trim to 1/4 inch plus all the warning labels say 1/4 wick. I also pre-trimmed the wicks too so the first time they burn the candle the wick will at least be accurate. So, do we wick according to the instructions and warning labels or do we wick according to what we think the average person will do?

This is one of the reasons why I always just eyeballed it when I wick trimmed as I figured that's what most people would do, and why the wicks were actually at 1/2 inch when I pulled out a ruler and measured it.

A friend of mine said she's always trimmed her wick pretty darn close to the wax as she always knew the 1/4 inch rule. The there's me who never even knew to trim wicks until a few years ago when a friend of mine, who sold Gold Canyon, said I was supposed to.

Definitely on fragrances sometimes needing different wicks. I always start out testing with ECO-16 as that seems to be a pretty good starting point. My 70/30 soy-paraffin candles use ECO-16 wicks and just that little bit of paraffin does enough to make the ECO-16 wick burn just right.

Thanks all for the really good info. I did some more test burning and I think what is going on is the ECO-16 wick for the 100% soy candles burn well when they are trimmed 1/2 inch but when you "properly" trim them to 1/4 inch then it isn't quite hot enough. The melt pool reaches maybe 2 1/2 inches within the 3 inch diameter jar and you get tunneling. When I was trimming the wicks before I was just eyeballing it and what I thought was 1/4 inch was actually 1/2 inch.
The solution to this issue is simple: use CD-24 wicks on the 100% soy wax. I had already been using these wicks on some of my other soy candles fragrances and they burn beautifully at 1/4 inch. Originally I thought the fragrances were what was demanding I needed the slightly hotter CD-24 wicks but what was actually going on was I was trimming the wicks to a more accurate 1/4 inch.
Thankfully it is only two candle fragrances that I need to change the wicks on and one of them is a seasonal fall candle that I'm not selling right now anyways. I only have 10 candles in stock of the second fragrance that has the undersized wick. So, turns out this issue is no big deal.

Hello all. I'm a new candle maker and I've been making and selling candles for about 3 months. I was able to find the perfect wick for my candles and I've done a lot of test burns, sold some candles, and given away some candles all to people close to me. So I've been able to ask people how well their candles are burning and even observe the candles myself. My candles have always burned wonderfully with no tunneling but now I'm noticing some of my candles are tunneling. The only way to fix is to trim the wick longer.
I can't seem to find an obvious correlation between these couple of troublesome candles other than it's possible one of the 5 pound bags of candle wax I was using was bad or it's the sudden cold weather. Since I wasn't keeping lot numbers (which I am going to start doing today!) I can't say for sure what the source of the problem is. I don't really see any strong correlation between wicks, fragrance bottles, fragrance types, a specific batch, cure times (14 days - 6 weeks) and I'm not even 100% certain that it was a bad bag of wax that was the source of the problem.

Whatever the issue is, I think I might try using a slightly hotter wick from now on (CD-24) to make up for any random variables.

Anyone else ever experience a case like this where seemingly random candles suddenly go rouge?

My candles: Freedom Soy Wax / 8 oz candle w/3 inch diameter glass jar / ECO-16 wick / 14 days or longer cure time / 10% fragrance load