doris

Fascinating. Now we seem to have a "soap test".

Lotion candles?

Your oil merely needs to be melted, boiling it is way too hot, as well as a fire hazard.

There are often too many shows, and the same old stuff at each one. There are too many people who love the idea of having their own business, and think that all they have to do is make something and sell it, and the money will flow in. At a recent small show in our area, there were about 10 jewelery makers, out of about 20 vendors. A lot of them just strung cheap beads on string, and thought they would be easy to sell. Quality has gone down, and many shows will accept ANYONE, even if they claim to be juried. The last big show I did was loaded with junk from China, as far as I know that does not qualify as NS crafts. This stuff is usually cheap cheap cheap, and this turns craft fairs into competition for flea markets, which is not what they should be. People expect to be able to buy bags full of stuff for nothing, and this makes it hard for those people who produce quality crafts and have to charge a fair amount. Also, there are now so many craft fairs, everyone and their great aunt seems to have come up with this "novel" idea of having a craft fair to raise money. Many of them are overpriced and badly run.

Can't stand walmart, and never shop there, but can't you ask if they can order it in for you?

I use the "coffee bags". I find that the cello bags don't hold their shape properly, and look messy.

Yes, the nut allergies can be really bad. To make safe soap, I also would think the soap-making area would also have to be nut free. I've heard that a scrap of peanut butter on a badly washed knife is enough to kill some people.

I don't do melt and pour, but soap bases, as with many other things, range from good to the downright scary. If it's 17 kg of skin-peeling crap, you're better off buying from a reputable dealer. Also, making soap from scratch isn't hard, and lots of fun.

There's things like alkanet and cinnamon, how well they work, I haven't a clue. I don't think there are natural dyes for candles, and the ones used for fibres, once you add the mordants, are as toxic as anything. Tell her that "natural" doesn't mean "non-toxic", and try to persuade her to go for uncoloured candles. Good luck.

A lot of people have problems using eo's for candles, a lot of them don't seem to work well in wax. Do a search and some reading before you commit a lot of time and money to testing. Some seem to work better than others.

People are weird, would sooner have a brand-name piece of crap than a good quality item. They deserve what they get.

Why do you plan to rebatch? They look fine, esp. for a first batch. If your brother has allergies, don't bother with fragrance, or find out what he has allergies to. I can't take many fragrance oils, but haven't yet had a problem with EO's. They don't "need" colour - all of my soaps are white/ivory to various shades of brown. I can't be bothered pouring in a ton of colouring. If the sliminess is caused by a high % of olive oil, they might have to cure for six or seven months or more.

When they first came out years ago they were meant for use in the shower - you could hang them on a hook in your shower and not have to bother with a soap dish. I've never heard of bunches.

Looks pretty good. The only thing I didn't like was the bar on the side with the words in mixed capitals and small letters - for some reason that drives me nuts.

It's just as easy to make a soap from scratch as to grate up soap and "hand mill" it. Milling, or rebatching, seldom does anything good to an already good soap, it is used primarily to attempt to fix botched batches. As to her telling you what to use, much of what most people call soap is actually a detergent based on oil (as in Esso). Real soap is made from plant or animal oils and lye. These soaps are what she wants you to use.

I'm not sure how this translates into burn time, but you are selling 30 oz of wax (5 x 6 oz) for the same price as your 28 oz candle. I would think that there is as much work in a 6 oz candle as in a 28 oz one. Of course the actual cost of supplies would be much less. I would probably raise the price of the smaller candle a bit, so that the bigger one is a better deal.

Your retail price has to be at least 3-4 times your cost, otherwise you will not be making any money, especially if you're doing parties where the hostess expects a cut.

I use the info from raindancesoaps (first page after you enter, there's a link on the bottom). If I can do it, ANYONE can!

I'm sure there are some basic recipes there, I haven't got time right now to look. There are 1000's of recipes all over the web, you just have to look and find one which suits you. Many basic recipes call for oils which aren't readily available at every grocery store.

Try looking it up, there are a lot of recipes here and on the net.

Sorry to sound dumb, why are you scenting rose hips? Those are the berry things left over after the rose blooms, right? Do people buy scented rose hips? We have thousands of wild rose bushes in our area, it would be so easy to pick bucket fulls within a very short time. I had been thinking of drying rose buds and petals last year, but here, next to the ocean, they all went funny. This year I'm buying a dehydrator.

It is possible to open with little or no budget, we are five partners sharing the rent and expenses, that way it boils down to very little each per month that each is responsible for. Judging by the numbers of businesses that start and go out of business within a few months, I think that many start with less. While I do buy some things outright, such as certain craft supplies that we also sell, all the finished things are made by the owners or on consignment. We don't take anything that is in direct competition with anything already there, whether it is a partner's or a vendor's, and we are quite happy when we sell a lot of vendors' stuff. I have no problems selling fairly well at any time of year, and right now I would sooner sell $100 of a vendor's things than of mine. The store would make only 5%, or $5 on my stuff (as we give a % of everything we sell to help cover additional expenses), but the store would make $33.34 on $100 worth of a vendor's stuff. At this time of year, we can use the money. It all depends of the store. Some are miserable and only self-promoting, and others try to do well with everyone. I think we are one of the latter, and we have seldom had any problems with any vendor. A lot depends on the vendor also. Some expect that they can bring in any overpriced crap, and walk off with thousands of dollars each month; others almost have to be threatened to bring stuff in, do so at the most ridiculous time (as mid january), and then wonder why stuff doesn't sell. Most of ours are pretty good though.

I have given soapmaking classes, and also sell some soaping supplies. If my candles ever work out, I would consider doing the same with candles. I do not give a huge long class: what they get from me are the basics, and that is what I tell them. I'm sure you could give a basic candle class, selling them the supplies at full retail. Show them how to make a basic candle, show them what to look for in their testing (many many peope haven't got a CLUE as to how a candle should behave), give a little talk about safety and INSURANCE and LIABILITY and all the really fun things, and let it go from there. Many many people, myself included, just love to make things themselves. I would never buy a kit from Wal-Mart, but I would buy a kit or take a class from a smaller business whose candles I like the look of. Many people take lots of classes just for the fun ot it, and if you offered a class in votives, and a class in container candles, etc., I'm sure you would get repeat business. I would never give out formulas or supplier names, these are all things that are available on the internet anyway, as are candle-making instructions. But by offering basic classes to people who just have some time and money of their hands, I'm sure you could make it worth your while. As for the lazy ones who just want to pick your brains, you could make up an "extra-boring, full of legalities and fine-print" class just for them.

Who knows what goes through the minds of any kinds of officials, be it customs or post office or whatever. Half of them never know what they are doing and the other half are no better. And the regulations seem to change every 2.5 seconds. And the prices....OMG!

Our shop does consignment, we have no budget for purchasing, and we also sell only locally made things. Some of our vendors do quite well. I would recommend bringing in a quantity of just a few kinds of things: maybe a dozen of 2 kinds of candles, etc. I find people who bring in 1 of this and 1 of that rarely sell. I think that buyers think it is left over. If she will allow you the space, then maybe get your own shelf and set up a nice display and keep it stocked. Also ask her what she'd be interested in.