racolvin

I don't personally do zinc wicks at all anymore. Too many people react poorly to the wire in there and they still think it's lead. Not worth the time trying to explain it, so I go with LX cotton wicks instead. As for whether 3 hours to a full melt pool in a 4" diameter jar is acceptable, that's up to you and your customer

Generally with a double-wick arrangement you'll get to a full melt pool faster than with a single wick. However, it's normal to wick down a size or two (or three or four ..) when you go with a double wick. How many sizes you go down is of course up to you to test and see which works best for you. In my personal experience I do find that a double-wick candle will be consumed faster than a single-wick but that makes basic sense: if you've got two engines pulling from the same fuel tank, you run out of gas faster

Personally I've never liked the whole "50% profit for the reseller" mentality on a boutique product. I'd be fine with giving a wholesaler 50% margin if I were a chinese manufacturing outfit, or even a US manufacturer with an automated process and huge quantity discounts on my materials. If I were large enough to buy my jars by the tractor-trailer load and my FO in 55 gallon drums, we could talk about 50%. Since that's not the case and I buy my FO's and jars in MUCH smaller quantities, I can't afford to give them 50%. Frankly I don't think they deserve 50% for basically no effort on their part but that's another story. I don't offer my wholesalers more than 30%. Sure I don't get some accounts but that's ok, I'm not in it to be the next Yankee

Sent

Of course it would vary depending on your FO supplier. I find that the Candy Corn from Alabaster is pretty heavy

I'm with Tereasa on this one. Having the tab centered and glued down is good, but keeping the wick itself upright and centered during the pouring and cooling process is just as important.

Sorry folks! I just sent it to the two of you that requested it. I has several PM's as well asking for it and as far as I know I've sent all those as well. I lost track of this thread and missed these two requests .. my apologies If anyone else needs it, please PM just to make sure I don't miss it

I resell the trimmers, lighters, and dippers and they sell very well. Love these products.

I can't imagine why it would be worth it. If she's your local competition and she's going out of business, chances are her customers will come to you anyway. If she isn't local competition, say an online business, it would have to have some major brand recognition to make it worth it IMHO

I have a file I can send you if you like. I call it The Candle Target. It's only useful if you can see through the bottom of your jar but it's set up like a huge set of crosshairs. The concentric circles are 1/2" apart, with tick marks on the quarter inch. Since we can't attach that kind of file here, I guess I'd have to email it to you privately. Just let me know. Ronnie

Just wanted to ask this question to see how others feel about this topic. Some chandlers base their price on cold hard numbers based on cost of goods, G&A, etc, etc. Others just sort of stick their thumb in the wind and guesstimate what their market/customers will bear. Of course the cost of raw materials to produce has to come into play for everyone, the question then becomes how much to mark them up. Some have hard rules about 2xCost for Wholesale, 4xCost for Retail, others will just say "oh, I'll mark these 8oz jelly jars up by $3 and that's fine with me". The really interesting ones are the artists that will spend a great deal of time doing something like hand-painting their glassware, etc. How do you charge a fair price for what took you hours to paint, let alone make as a candle? What say you folks? Any insights or comments to share? Does it make a difference to you if you make candles as a hobby for a little spare cash, or is it your full-time profession? Personally I'm an engineer by training, so I find every penny of my costs before I start thinking about my markup - I want to be sure I'm not losing money somewhere just because I'm not factoring in all my costs of doing business. I have no illusions that my profit margins will be less on some products, more on others but until I really KNOW all my costs I would be just taking wild guesses. Somehow, somewhere, all the costs of materials, energy, labor, marketing, advertising, packaging, insurance, accountants, lawyers, gas, tires, etc, etc have to be covered. How much detail do you go into? Discuss

I don't make wickless candles for the melters specifically, though I do have customers that will buy my regular wicked jars and use them that way. I tell them to say away from the larger/taller jars because the electric warmers never seem to get hot enough to melt the wax - they end up with the bottom half melted and the top half still solid, which doesn't do much good for scenting a room

I have a local artist that paints on a few of my candles with those same sorts of paints - baked on, etc. How long did it take you to paint say one of those 3 that are on the right?

I use Alabaster almost exclusively, since they're only a 90 minute drive from me. I've been very happy with the vast majority of their FO's. Depending on where you are in LA, you might consider Cajun Candle Supply. I used their oils in the past and only switched because Alabaster was closer, making it cheaper on shipping for me.

I use the Gingerbread FO from Alabaster in my GW464 soy and it's been wonderful.

I leave the covers on my presto pots all the time, except for when I'm putting more raw wax in to be melted. I used to leave it off but kept getting things in the wax, so now the cover stays on all the time.

But ... the presto pot is a direct heat source, so what's the difference between that and a pour pot on an electric hot plate?

My 8 and 16oz apothecary jars come with a flat glass lid (www.alabastercandlesupply.com) and I prefer it. I put my label on the lids so flat is best. Sadly the 4oz apothecary comes with a dome lid so I can't use it in my lineup and keep my labeling consistent, so I use a 3.7oz Tureen jar for my smaller product.

Well, the wax is heated to about 150 in my Presto Pot and it stays at that temp. I draw off what I need into a pour pot and put the pour pot on my hotplate to bring that up to 180. The temp control on the presto pot is just too iffy to trust it to keep it at 180 - that's too close to the scorch point of the soy wax for my comfort zone

I've never used the 474 myself though I hope to be trying it out soon. As for the 464, I put all my additives in (fo, uv, color, CO) in at about 150F. I then take it up to 180F. At 180F I turn off the heat and let it cool slowly (leaving the pot on the hotplate) down to 155F for pouring. Manufacturer instructions say to pour it much cooler than that but I like my results pouring hotter.

I do a 3oz (3.5 actually) tureen, an 8oz apothecary and a 16oz apothecary. Oddly enough my 3oz tureen is my largest seller by quantity. Which is great actually since they're the easiest to make and have the greatest profit margin

I use apothecary jars for my 8 and 16oz sizes, but I use a Tureen style for a small 3oz. I get all my jars from Alabaster.

Oh definitely, curing is a good thing especially in soy. 10 business days gives me plenty of time to get things done and give them time to cure. If I deliver them shortly after I've made them, I'll always tell the customer to let them sit with the lid closed for a few days before they burn them and I've never had a customer complaint about a few days of curing time. As for the font size/color issue, you're not the first person to mention that - my mother says its hard to read for her. The fonts and sizes are done as CSS style sheets so I can try to play with it a little and see if I can make it better. Ronnie

Carrie: I offer the custom coloring as a service to my customers. Frankly it's there to give them the illusion of choices since the vast majority choose "default". I've only had a couple of customers want candles in odd colors relative to the fragrance. I do mention in the shopping instructions though that orders can take up to 10 business days, which gives me time to get anything I might need if I'm short, allows me time to pour, and gives them time to cure. Ronnie

Lindsay: Very interesting comments and I thank you for taking the time Let me answer a probably obvious question right off - Yes, the vast majority of the site is static content. The only parts that are database driven are the Fragrances listings and the shopping cart itself. The shopping cart is totally custom written, which is why the site doesn't appear like a cookie-cutter Agoracart or Zencart site On the subject of navigation, I'm very interested in your (and others) comments. It's interesting because I've always thought that certain navigation items ought to be static and others should change with the content. The left side items change depending on what section of the main navigation item you've chosen. Inside the "Products" section the left side items are all the same (or should be, I'll check again).Inside the "About Us" is just a Contact Us option, since product info wouldn't make sense in that section. Further, product info wouldn't make sense in the FAQ section. Would it be any better if the Major sections were always on the left as well, with subsections that appeared, indented, magically when you clicked on some bit + symbol or something? Ultimately it's the same ending, sub-sections with specific content under them but is it just an issue of them being seperated - across the top for the static major sections, dynamic on the left? Would it be better if those left side choices were different somehow, in color, font, etc? Thanks again for the input! Ronnie