Jeana

Ok obviously this is a large company, but I am so jealous of their lip balm tubes. Does any one know where to buy these tubes. Through a lot of research I have seen that some Canadians use them too, but I can't find the supplier. I love their other packaging too but I the lip balm tubes are the most intriguing to me at this time. Ok, it would help if I post the link LOL. http://www.organic-essence.com/ecopackaging.html.

I think I like yours better. At first it looks like you did some imbeds. I like your colors better too. Great job!

A little tip on HTP wicks, don't trim them. They may look a little long to start with each light but if your candle has the correct size it will be fine. They are a self trimming wick, and they don't work on the old rule of the 1/4" start. They really are a very good wick. I haven't had much experience in straight paraffin but in a soy blend the self trimming holds true. Don't expect a full melt pool on the first few lights, don't worry as long as it has a decent flame it will catch up. I use a rule for myself that a flame is fine as long as it doesn't go over 1" or go under 3/4". (If the candle has been burning for longer than 4.5+ hours and it is down at the bottom of the jar a 1.25" flame is still acceptable for me.) Also leaving your HTP wick longer for the first light is really important. I usually start mine at 3/8". And there isn't a need to twist your wicks if you have the right size. It will catch up and clean the sides, it just takes a few lights.Try the size your are using in the pics but with a longer start and no trimming and see what happens.

If she is paying $40 per oz she needs to do way more research to find a better supplier. You could buy retail from Aura Cacia for less than that. There are better prices out there. Are you sure they aren't $40. per lb? That is still too high for real wholesale prices for many oils. Most EOs need to be mixed. Blends works better than singles. They work on "notes" base notes, top notes .... Try reading some articles on blending EOs. They take more work than FOs. Here's a good article http://www.aromaweb.com/articles/aromaticblending.asp

It depends on the scent, just like with FOs, how long they will last. Make sure your blends are anchored well and they should last a very long time. I kind of have to take back that melts are better than candles. After I wrote my last comment I remembered some pillars I used to make when I was doing farmers markets. I did a Lavender and Fir Needle, and a different Euc Lavender blend. They were paraffin pillars. They made a room smell so spa like. I didn't get the fuel smell with these like other people do. They sold very well. I really love some of the orange blends in candles too but they are harder for me to wick for some reason. I didn't get the fuel smell with the orange either, as long as I had a good blend of other non-fuelish oils. You have to try things for yourself, your EO may burn fine in your wax mix. Get some experience with both melts and candles then you can choose which is better for you. I dug out a basil peppermint soy candle I made about 3 or 4 years ago recently. I burned it and it is soooo strong it scented the whole house very quickly. It was in a jar with a lid so it preserved the smell. I am very scent sensitive which is why I prefer mostly EO candles, melts, and soaps for myself. I like the warmers that use the tealights, that way you can sell your tealights too and you don't have to worry about if the electric components will wear out. The cost of the electric ones are too much upfront investment for me to sit on if they don't sell, so I stay away from them. At markets the tealight warmers outsell electric ones about 30 to 1. Of course this is in San Diego, I don't know about your area.

The best results I've had with EOs in wax has been with melts or wickless candles.You don't have to do anything special when making them, just add the EO at the same time you would your FO. It isn't true that the scent burns off when you put the EO in the hot wax. I've had wickless candles I've heated over and over, and the scent still remains just as strong as when working with FOs. I did a fabulous orange/cedar, both are not expensive oils and you don't have to use very much to get a nice smell. There are so many great mixes you can do. Just do some research. The nice thing about doing wickless is that there is much less testing involved. The bad thing with doing wickless is you have to deal with the warmers. And have to educate customers how to use them for every sale.

Concerning the mottling - the TD may not have been mixed in thoroughly. I like to premix a little in water before adding to the batch. This ensures a more even tone. Also the mottle look can happen if you don't make sure you are getting all the oils mixed together thoroughly from the bottom of the pot. It is the white mixing with the yellowish base. When you get the trace consistency you are looking for, take a spatula and go all around the sides and bottom, making sure it is completely mixed, do this a few times. The stick blender won't get all of this. Then you can start to add your second color. I agree with Kitn about wood molds. I don't insulate or cover my wooden molds. I actually get less ash and less cracking now. I don't know why soap instructors always say to insulate the crap out of the soap. Most of the oils I work with will over heat even without any scent. And covering the soap causes more ash, whether you peek or not. The heat causes condensation.

Thanks for the sympathy Funkymonkey and Bella Rose. I think the biggest issue is that they haven't actually infringed on the trademarked logo but more on the side of my name and the idea that goes with it. The font of their logo was one I actually explored myself when I was doing my logo, but decided against. If they were copying my logo it would be easy to tell them to stop. Of course the trademark office said I should get a lawyer to sort everything out. But in reality who has the time or the money to dump into all of that. Makes you wonder if it is even worth it to trademark things, when variations are easy to get away with. It is still stealing someone else's ideas.

Have you tried Avery.com? They have a label building program on their website. You can create an account and save your work. I think one of the best things I ever did was buy some label software. It's only about $25 and the options are endless for making custom labels. I got label factory deluxe. I also use avery.com for avery products that were not included in my software. Both of these programs are very easy to make labels in. In my opinion Word is the hardest program to make labels in.

Did you neutralize at all? Reheating can help some too. If you neutralized it can cause globbing, if you didn't you need to take a ph reading. Even if it feels fine on your skin it can still have a high ph level.

Twice this week I have run into new businesses online that have stolen part of my business name and all of the concept. One even even stole some of my product names. I'm pretty sure if I did a more extensive search I could even find more. I'm not going to torture myself any more though. I am trademarked but when I called the trademark dept they say trademarking only protects you from someone using your exact logo, or exact name. I'm just livid. When I came up with my name I did all kinds of research, I didn't want to duplicate others. I've worked hard on my business, and I've had my business name for 8 years. God, if you can't come up with your business name you don't deserve to have your own business. I've seen so many people on here posting about people stealing ideas, photos, website info...... I don't get it. All I know is this business takes a lot of balls to be able to make it long term. For all those who steal business names, ideas, photos........ You won't make it if you can't even come up with this basic stuff on your own.

Taken Care of now, thanks!

I would like make some minor adjustments to my new website template. Anyone on here still doing this? If so please PM me.

Cute, but it looks like the bottles they are using are flat at the bottom. All the wine I drink comes in bottles with the bottom raised. KWIM? How would you put the wick in there? Also is that a button on their label? Again, really cute but how does that stay on in transport? They must make a lot for 11 people to work there.

I've done 4630 and 4627 both at 10%, 15%, 20%, and 30%. In my opinion my own veg blend or 464 on its own is a much better looking candle. People think you pour this wax slushy, but the opposite. You pour it hot and you get much less frost. I can do very dark colors with very little frosting when I pour hot. And your tops will be much smoother too. The trade off is you have to do a second pour. I'm ok with the second pour, I would rather have a better looking candle and not have to play with wax temps. Oh, and none of the percentages altered the HT of my testers.

I've never been a fan of ECO wicks in any wax. I used to use Performa wicks and had some good HT results in 464. Now I use HTPs. I add another veg wax to make my own blend, but my blend usually has the same burn results as plain 464. I add the other veg wax to improve the appearance of 464. I used to use CO in my blend but I felt like it lowered the melt point too much, which made me nervous to ship in warmer weather. I stopped using the CO and find I still have the same throw. I was happy to get rid of it because it lowered production costs. I've tried several paraffins in 464 but I didn't think it made enough positive difference to continue with blending it. I still got frosting, a lot more wet spots, and the throw was the same. It was kind of cool to have the really clean sides with paraffin though. So bottom line is if you have decided this is the wax for you, focus only on scents you get a good throw with and try some different wicks. If you ever make candles to sell you'll learn fast that using more than 5 or 6% FO will eat up your profits fast. Something to think about even though this wax will hold tons of FO, do you really want to make a candle that requires 12%?

Some of you recommended this scent when I was searching for a good chocolate. So now I wanted to know if it darkens in CP and if so how much. The website says it can discolor MP but doesn't say how dark and doesn't mention CP. Anyone know?

LOL I know how to use other people's "like" promotions. I'm asking how to create a promotion for my own page.

Does anyone know how to set up "Like" promotions on facebook? You know when you like a page and you get a free item or coupon?

In the e commerce video it says you have to upgrade to an ecommerce account. I don't see how much that is do you see how much that is?

Wow Old Glory, That's amazing. I feel lazy next to you. Know you're not alone on having no life though, LOL A little tip try pouring 464 hot, you'll get less frost, better glass adhesion, and much smoother tops. You can pour around 175 or hotter, I do it all the time. The sacrifice you make on this is you may need a second pour, but a much better looking candle. It depends on your container.

I agree Horsescents. You HAVE to test candles without trimming the wicks or you aren't putting out a safe product. The majority of customers don't trim and don't even think to. This is how I figured out the HTPs burn better without trimming. I stopped trimming in anticipation that customers won't trim. I wanted to see how they would burn. I noticed the wicks never got longer than a certain length. That's when I checked the spec sheet for them and realized they are classified as a self trimming wick. I also wanted to point out that I'm doing power burns of 10 hours at a time and they still don't get too large. Or the melt pool too deep. Even when the room is in the 90's

Well if it helps you guys, I've been labeling mine so far "If needed trim wicks to 3/8" inch before lighting." As I said before 1/4" is way too short to start with these wicks. But what an odd measurement to say to trim to, and it rarely needs it. So you both don't give any burning instructions? That seems like a liability issue. I am using HTP wicks also. At first I was thinking what is wrong with these wicks. LOL I started testing with HTP wicks many years ago and gave up on them because I was trimming them and everything seemed under wicked. Now I love them. It is really hard to get used to not trimming the candle or lighting a longer looking wick.

If you are decent at coming up with a design try going to Avery.com. You can now design everything on their website and print it at home. I used it to do my new business cards and loved it. It is super easy. Plus they have an entire new line of really cute labels specifically for small businesses. Printing your own is far more economical for just starting out.

Ok we are all told from the beginning of candle making to trim our wicks to 1/4" before lighting and told to inform all our customers the same. We even put this on our burning instructions. Recently I started testing and using self trimming wicks that actually work. Even when the wick looks longer than 1/4" they still perform far better if you don't trim them. So my question is, how should this be labeled. I'm a little nervous to actually make a claim that they never need to be trimmed, but if people follow the 1/4" rule the candle won't do very well. They will appear to be under wicked. I know I'm not the only one to use self trimming wicks so I'm curious how others are handling this. It actually makes me feel more safe this way because the majority of candle users don't trim their wicks anyway, I'm just thinking of the ones that do.