doris

Get a hot plate. Mine was about $20, has 2 burners, and I use it for all my candle and soapmaking.

www.onestopcandle.com has the frame and the vat for a reasonable price: I have one but haven't used it yet.

It depends on the size of the candles: if it's not tealights or votives, 25-30% sounds about right. Half the total cost sounds good too, as long as it is non-refundable. You don't want to be stuck with 100 personalized candles and have to give a refund.

Baking soda, vinegar and hot water also does the trick. Dump about 1/2 cup of baking soda down the drain, add about a cup of vinegar, leave for about 1/2 hour, and pour a kettle of boiling water donw there after it.

I've read a few times that borax should not be used in anything that goes on the skin, so check that out a bit further.

I had these covered steps on the back half of my table, they raised up the stuff in the back, and gave me a space for my cash box, calculator, bags, etc. underneath and out of sight. It wouldn't be good for wrapping, however, it didn't have enough clearance, except for small things.

That's odd, they probably have made some sort of easily fixed mistake, but it's not doing you any good if you need the stuff now. Good luck with contacting them.

I think it looks OK. Some of the product descriptions look highlighted, but not all, and I think it looks a little odd. Also I have issues with the word "mommies", but maybe that's just me. Good luck!

I'm assuming your show is the 28th of April, if you can't contact them tomorrow, I'd order elsewhere. Otherwise you could be stuck.

I sometimes use empty cans of various sizes for small amounts.

You need bleached square braid, most candle suppliers would have it. It comes in sizes from 6/0 (smallest) to #12 (largest).

I've never coloured my CP soap, but I do know that if your lather is coloured, you're using way too much colouring. I personally would find a bloodbath really offputting. I have use some M&P soaps in the distant past that were quite brightly coloured, however the lather was always uncoloured.

Just tried my salt bar again, and there is some lather. Still not a lot, but it is just over a week old.

Don't underestimate the massive amount of money you will need to stock the shop. I sell a lot of beads and yarn, and last year someone told me that this store about 50 kms away was getting in some beads, and "WOW", she said, "they've ordered $2000 WORTH OF BEADS!!!!!" That is a medium sized box of beads, easily carried by one person with a bad back (me). $500 worth of some yarns are also easily carried by one person. I realize that candles are bigger and heavier than yarn and beads, but a $4000+ order is not very big. If you're in a tourist area, consider getting in a good amount of local products. We have a lot of tourists also, and we've had good summers in spite of a downward trend in our area. We sell only local stuff (besides my yarn and beads), and people are happy to find us. There are SO MANY tourist-oriented places that sell only mass-produced garbage, and many people love taking home something that is actually made in the area. Good luck!

That's what I'm hoping. Thanks!

90 %, and 10% RBO.

I've tried at least 5 times, and still no lather, sob. I love bubbles!

FPI and newdirectionsaromatics.com. FPI has neem under the carrier oils, and New Directions has it under essential oils. I believe wellnaturally.com also has both. Are you trying an insect repellant?

Timely question. I made my first salt bars last week, and had to try one out today. Not a speck of lather. I haven't had anyone else try them yet, as they're still a bit fresh, but I was quite disappointed. Usually I get a lot of lather with my regular soaps even after 1 week.

Hi, I've never used Zum soap, but the ingredients are usually listed in order of quantity, so there would be the highest % of coconut, and the lowest of castor. For a simple recipe, maybe try 30 % each of palm, coconut and olive, and 10% castor. Olive oil adds mildness, palm helps make a bar harder and coconut is good for lather. Castor also I think aids in lather. Do a lot more research, there are a lot of good soap sites, look at Kathy Miller's site.

I think you're going about it the wrong way. Retail should be 2x wholesale, wholesale is not necessarily 1/2 of retail. If you've never sold wholesale, your retail might not be high enough for you to make any money on wholesale if you figure it that way. It might not matter much if you're small, but you'd be making very little money or maybe even losing money if you figure it that way. Figure out your costs, including labour. This includes costs of shipping, labelling materials, etc. Then double that for wholesale, and double again for retail. Lindsay (Soaper's workshop) has an amazing post on this, and it would be definitely worth your while to look it up and read it.

I am one of 6 partners running a craft store. We have had major disasters over the years, always because at least one of the other partners didn't do his/her share of the work. At present things are working very well, touch wood. We all do our own thing, which runs from woodworking, knitting, quilting etc, and we are partners merely in that we share expenses of the shop, and we share the running of the shop. We are all in charge of buying our own supplies, and making our own stuff. If you each did different stuff, a partnership might work, if you were each in charge of your own supplies, and having a second person on hand would be great for doing shows and stuff like that. But I agree with most of the others, if your gut is telling you no, don't get involved. Partners that have left us in the past had been friends, but are no longer, and it is not worth a friendship.

I can't help you with the bath bombs, but I have the skin from hell, and straight cocoa butter helps a lot.

There's a TON of info on this board, just search under beeswax. Most of the beeswax posts are in the vegetable wax section. Beeswax is beautiful wax, have fun with it.

www.candbsupplies.ca is in NS and has a lot of soaping oils etc.