soygirl

Do you mean the ceramic ones that have a tea light in the base? If you really want the ones for oil, and not wax melts, then I saw a bunch of them at my local Dollar Tree. They were in nice neutral colors, all about 4" tall. They won't work for wax melts though, because the top bowl is way too shallow, plus they should really be taller than 4". You can also do a Google search using wholesale oil burners. That brings up a few places to buy them.

When I started selling candles, I had them wicked to burn nicely in a Wisconsin winter. The wicks didn't mushroom or smoke much. The wax melted completely off the sides of the jar. Then, when I burned them in summer, I began to have problems like bad wick mushrooming. I don't know if it is the heat or the humidity, but I imagine it is a combination of both. Whatever it is, my candles burn faster in the summer. At first I worried a lot about it, but I decided to stay with the wick I started with. After all, I don't know if my customers will burn my candles in the summer or winter, but I think it is more likely that they will burn them in the winter. If they burn them in the summer, they will have to put up with the wick mushrooms. If I felt the container got dangerously hot though, I would wick down a size, and put up with wax hang-up on the jars in the winter. But, since it doesn't seem to be a safety issue, I'm staying with the winter wick.

Your product line is so classy and contemporary, I think you could get away with dropping color in your candles altogether. I've considered doing that myself. Eliminating color gets rid of a lot of the problems with soy. If people want a color to match a certain scent, you could always add a colored ribbon to the jar. Anyway, It's just a thought.

I totally empathize with you tlc. I also have a friend who makes candles. I make soy and she makes paraffin. She took some of my candles to work as a favor to me. One of her coworkers said they wanted me to make scented soy votives to fit in their votive holder. I said I only make dixie cup votives for flowerpot holders. Well, I gave in and agreed to make them. My friend loaned me her votive molds, and I made a couple with different wicks to test burn, and then made 6 votives for her co-worker. Needless to say a lot of work for 6 votives. Well, when my friend finally gave her the votives, she said that they "smelled too strong" and were giving her a headache. She asked if she could trade them for 6 unscented votives. I just had to laugh. I politely said that I went through a lot of work to make the first 6 and just didn't have time to make anymore. I told her I would be happy to make anything available my website for her. My friend was able to sell the 6 scented votives to someone else at her work, and I never heard from the original buyer again. Live and learn...

Okay, I'll stick up for soy. I'm sure I'm one of those being accused of riding the soy train. The truth is, though, that I started out making candles with paraffin, and when I tried soy I just liked working with it better. No more sticky spots on the floor - if I spill soy wax, I just wipe it up, or scrape it off. Everything cleans up so much easier. I can melt soy wax in a presto pot in a mere fraction of the time it took to melt paraffin in a double boiler. I cut my electric bill significantly when I switched. I use the advantages of soy wax as a selling point, but they are the advantages that I noticed myself when I switched: soy DOES last longer than paraffin, I get much better scent throw - hot and especially cold with soy, I notice less wick smoking, and I really like the fact that it is an agricultural product. But, to address Jeana's original topic - Here are some things that I've been able to do with soy: - Make soy wax embeds (soy votive works well - so does soy container/piller wax 4:1) to decorate the top of container candles. - Whip soy pillar wax to make "icing" and "whip cream" - Make drink candles, like hot chocolate with whip cream, or ice cream drinks in specialty glasses with fruit embeds on top. - Make wickless candles and wax potpourri melts. - Make cinnamon buns and other bakery candles from rubber molds (although pie crusts don't work with soy unless you add beeswax) Hope this gives you some ideas. -Margie

Well, duh, I just explored the link further, and realized that I can order them from there. Sorry, I was being stupid.

Okay, Those are EXACTLY what I've been looking for. Where can I get them? I just spent several hours at a friend's house, cutting apart large bags and trying to seal them with his bag sealer, which kept melting them. I ended up with some rather shabby-looking sample bags of lotion. Not worth the effort. I HAVE to have those sample bags. The kind that you can seal shut with an iron. Can someone please give the name of a supplier who sells them?

What about Lisa's Hibernation Creations? You could give your products names that have to do with relaxation or sleep, like 'Cozy Cave Candles' or 'Sweet Slumber Soaps'. I don't know where you live, but in Wisconsin, I wish I could just sleep the whole miserable winter away...

Some sort of coupon to entice an order maybe?

I started selling as a way to support my candlemaking hobby. Yes, I was still losing money, but not as much as not selling at all. That is a small consolation in itself. You should promote your candles every chance you get. Say it casually if you don't want to sound pushy, but mention that you sell homemade candles every chance you get. Make sure that every friend, relative and coworker (your spouse's coworkers too) knows that you make and sell candles. Talk about your candlemaking hobby and how much you love it. Carry along business cards, brochures and small samples everywhere you go. You never know what giving out a small free sample will lead to. I gave a 2 oz. bottle of lotion to a friend, and she let all her coworkers try it. That one little sample generated over $200 in sales on my website - and many of those people plan to put in Christmas orders too. I gave a business card to my hairdresser, my insurance agent, and my mom hands them out to practically everyone she meets. Give your candles as gifts every time you have to give a gift. It's not annoying - people will love to get your candles. Your candles are a homemade, personal and useful gift. I gave small candle baskets to my bank and insurance agent last Christmas. Sometimes this leads nowhere, but if it generates at least one sale - that is one more person who can tell others about my candles. Don't worry, it will start to snowball, and pretty soon you will have lots of candle orders. Believe in your product and let others know how much you love making it. It's hard in the beginning, but you will get past the part where it seems like all you do is spend money on supplies. In the meantime be stingy with your money. Don't buy anything unless you can totally justify a need for it. Yes, it's fun to test out new products and fragrances, and think of new directions to expand, but for now focus on a few products that sell the best. If someone asks you to get a new fragrance, tell them that you will keep the idea in mind, but that you just can't afford to expand right now. That might even prompt them to buy a candle from you:-) If it helps to know you aren't alone - well you aren't. I've been selling candles for a year and a half now and I'm still not making a profit - but I am starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Don't give up, Margie

I'm pretty sure agave is water-based, like honey. It wouldn't mix well.

Thanks Cynthia, I'm sure it would be perfect then, but I'm trying to avoid using beeswax if at all possible. Not that I am against using beeswax, but I just don't want to exclude potential customers who might not buy it if it has beeswax in it. -Margie

I tried this last night: 30% container soy wax 40% refined shea butter 15% coconut oil 15% jojoba oil added 3 drops of vit E and 5 drops of flavoring. Then I quick cooled it in in a lip pot in the fridge (I've read that quick cooling keeps the shea butter from getting grainy). The result was too soft. It melted on my finger and looked like an oily gloss when applied. I think I'll try leaving out the jojoba oil altogether and increasing the soy wax and shea butter. I'd like to get something that I can actually put in a lip balm tube, but is still softer and more moisturizing than Chapstick.

Here's several that say first class to me: Platinum Aromas Gold Plated Aromas Top Shelf Scents Filigree Fragrances Drenched in Aroma The Scent of Class I have no idea if any are used already. They are just off the top of my head.

I'm pretty sure that most of the commercial lip glosses and balms contain saccharin as a sweetener. I think Wholesale Supplies Plus (WSP) carries it.

Hi Jeana, Here is a link I found that might be helpful: http://home.earthlink.net/~skinesscentuals/Sweetener.htm. I personally use unsweetened flavor oils in my lip balms and do not add sweetener. I think the flavor oil "tricks" the mind into thinking the balm is sweet anyway, and not having a sweetener means you are less likely to lick your lips. So far my testers haven't complained that the balm doesn't taste sweet, but if you are making lip balm for kids, you probably would want to add a sweetener. Here's a related question: Has anyone ever tried confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar) as a lip balm sweetener?

I've been making soy candles for over a year now with the same wax. I have never had a candle 'cauliflower' on me until two days ago. I never really knew what others were talking about until then. It happened with a scrap candle I had made. It was a wickless soy candle that I melted down. I don't add Universal Additive to my wickless candles, because then it takes them longer to melt. Since I was going to reuse the wax in a wicked candle, I heated the wax, which already had french vanilla fragrance oil, to about 180 degrees, added my UA (1 1/2 tsp per lb), let it cool to about 140 degrees and poured it into a 16 oz. glass container with a CDN wick. I test burned the candle for an initial 3 hours. The next day when I looked at the candle it had a big old bloom on the top! I think it looks cool. It reminds me of the science crystal growing kid I got as a kid. There is definitely some kind of funky chemical reaction going on there. I'd like to know if the process can be duplicated with any consistency. I suppose that's as hard to do, as figuring out how NOT to get your candle to bloom.

Robin, Your booth is beautiful! I really like the drape in back. Congratulations on a successful sale. You have given me extra inspiration for my craft sale coming up on Sept. 24. I have a question that will show my inexperience...When you say 7 times your booth fee, do you mean sales or profit? Either way that's great. I'm happy for you.

Hi Heather, I'm not familiar with that soy wax, but I make "tarts" or melts with my ADM container soy wax. First of all, I use a mini muffin tin as a mold, and I pre-coat it with vegetable oil. I've heard the scalloped tart molds don't work as well with soy, because the edges break off too easily. The other thing I do is add some soy pillar wax to my container wax - 5 parts container soy to 1 part pillar soy. This makes the melts less soft and easier to remove from the mold. Straight container soy is a little too soft for melts. HTH -Margie

Thanks Jennifer! If I use hydrogenated soybean oil (soy wax) instead of soybean oil, will that change the proportions? I'm a little confused, because I don't see an oil component in the ingredients of the lip balm from my supplier. I thought lip balm recipes always need a mixture of oils, waxes and butters? Can jojoba oil be used in place of vit E? Because I was thinking something like this: 25% soy wax 40% shea butter, 15% coconut oil 20% jojoba oil Then I could increase/reduce the soy wax or jojoba oil to make it softer or harder as needed.

Bev, Those firestarters are really nice. If you don't mind my asking, where do you get the paper cups from? I tried making some firestarters with cupcake papers, but even double layered, the wax seeped through. Those paper cups look a lot more durable. -Margie

I recently ordered the kraft paper shopping bags with handles from U-Line. Fast shipping! They arrived the next day. They will also send you free samples of items if you call them. The bags seem very durable and well constructed. You do have to order 250 of them though. I wanted to personalize my bags so that other people would notice them at craft fairs when my customers were carrying them around, and want to stop by my booth. What I did was stamp both sides with my company stamp (name, address, website), and then decorated one side with grape-vine theme rubber stamps and paints (only because they were the stamps I already had). They turned out really cute - kinda "country" looking. I think people might re-use them as a gift bag too, which would mean free advertising for my company. You could also use stencils to decorate the bags. It is kind of time-consuming, so this idea is really for people with more time than money. Most of the time it feels like I have neither:tongue2:

Are raw material prices going to go up? Most likely IMO. As the price of oil goes up, then anything with oil as a component will go up too. Plus shipping costs are sure to go up as well. This will effect raw material prices too. Is this a bad time to get into the candle business? I don't think so. Here's my reasoning: When the economy is bad, and the cost everything goes up, people tend to spend more on affordable luxuries - No, I can't afford to add that room on my house, but I can afford to get some scented candles for my living room, and some pampering bath items. JMO. -Margie

I love my Epilady! It really doesn't hurt as much as it did at first. I like to use it when I'm in a bad mood. It's like hitting a pillow - only better:cheesy2: I don't know what I will do when my Epilady finally quits working - I've been using it for over 17 years - I don't think you can get them in the US anymore. I guess I will have to order one from Isreal then.

My supplier is out of lip balm base, so I want to try to make it myself. The recipe seems fairly simple - just hydrogenated soybean oil, shea butter, coconut oil and vitamin E. Can anyone recommend good proportions of each ingredient, or does anyone have a lipbalm recipe to share that uses these ingredients? Also, I've been reading up on vitamin E, and it is supposed to keep oils from going rancid, but will not prevent bacterial growth. Does this mean that I should also add an additional preservative, or are these oils and butters bacteria-resistant on their own? One more questions, and this might be a stupid one, but I have pure coconut oil in my kitchen cupboard - for making popcorn. It seems to melt around 80 degrees F. Is this coconut oil the same as the kind you buy for making bath and body products?