Valien

Hi all, Well we've been having a blast with making candles! So we decided to try some soy and see how that works. Picked up some GB 464 and used a ECO 10 wick for a 3" tin (all based on the Candlescience wick guide). We mixed 1/2 oz of FO to 16 oz wax @ 180 degrees and then poured them at 135 degrees. They settled really nice and so I did a test burn today and realized the wick is probably too big (had full MP @ 2 hours and about 1/4" deep). When it cooled off I noticed the surface was really rough/mottled and it looked like a couple of air bubbles somehow surfaced and formed. Looks pretty ugly compared to my paraffin tests. Any ideas/thoughts? ~Allen

hehe..yeah...already ordered some new stuff from CandleScience and received it in 1 day! I like that! Got some new tins to work with..new wicks...sample FO's...ah..fun fun!

Thanks for the replies. My wife did a test burn on the lilac today. Great throw! Wow. Some mushrooming but not a ton. Will see how it goes. I did order some stuff from Candlescience and will try out a few non-zinc wicks (HTP wicks). It is fun!

Hi all, Well a couple of weeks ago I decided to pick up a starter kit from Peaks (container kit with the 8 oz tins and 4630 wax). My wife and I have been having a lot of fun making candles! So far we've made 3 Fruit Slices and 3 Lilac candles (1 pound wax per pouring over 3 tins). Finishing up a burn test with the Fruit Slices one and been really happy overall. Great throw, good melt pool, etc. The only issue is that the wick has been mushrooming pretty bad during a 4 hour test burn (yes, we trimmed it to 1/4" before burning...). Oh, the wick is the 51-32-18Z (zinc core wicks). Any thoughts on the mushrooming wick or is that 'normal'? We'll be doing a burn test on one of the Lilac candles tomorrow (it's cooling at the moment) and seeing how it responds. This is fun! Our house smells good all the time. Oh, just ordered a bunch of supplies from Candlescience tonight as well (more tins, some different wicks, etc.) as we have wax and FO's but no containers! (tin ones). Yay! ~V

I just cut open a slab from Peak that I got last week with the Container kit. It was soft and cut easily with a butter knife.

Thanks for all the responses everyone. Looking back I should have broken down the options a little more. Looks like there are a couple that are above the 25K in annual sales. That's awesome. A majority though are under that 25K range and I would imagine that most are in the $5-10K annual sales range. ~V

Doing some research on SC based companies I came across this site off the IGCA directory - http://www.caromex.com/nonHydro.html They sell Candle waxes. Anyone know anything about them? ~Allen

He is yanking your chain. My background is in web development and he's giving you a long fish story. There are ways to encrypt code but for the most part it's kinda dumb. You as the owner of the site should have full control over the content (it belongs to you). Unless he's done some serious custom work then you retain all ownership. I would start to find a good attorney...

Vicky - you are right. Should have put in some lower choices. Interesting responses so far. One is over 100K which is like wow for me. Guess they're humming along!

I'm really curious. What does everyone roughly pull in on an annual basis doing candles? (I know there are a lot of soap and other makers here, so targeting just the Candle part of your business). I know gross revenue is one thing and net margin is another but I'm pretty curious. I used to sell board games (Euro/German style games mostly) and all in all my net margin was typically less than 10% due to the competitive nature of other online sellers. Gross revenues were decent though. Oh, one more thing - maybe post a reply with these answers: 1. Full-time gig 2. Part-time gig 3. Online or Brick/Mortar or Other 4. Wholesale Have fun and thanks!

Question re: Scales - what kind of scale(s) do you all use? Food scale?

Hi Chuck, Thanks for the info. My kit shipped today so looks like it'll be next week before we jump into this. Can't wait. I've found a few regional and local suppliers so hopefully I can get products from them cheaper down the road (due to shipping)

I actually decided to pickup the Peak starter kit for containers. I like the metal tins (some of the other kits I looked at online had glass containers and were not as inexpensive). So now to wait for the package to arrive in a few days... I think I know what my wife and I will be doing next weekend... Glad to hear from some other guys on the board. We're not alone in our quest to make fun candles! ~V

Hi all, Well, about a year and a half ago I came on board here doing some research into candle making as something my wife and I could do for fun and maybe even sell a few down the road. Well, life got busy - changed jobs, had a baby, etc. Now we're at a point where we can actually do this finally! I'm excited about doing this (and my wife is too) and before dumping a lot of money into it I thought a starter route was a good way to test the waters When I was doing my initial research I was going to go the 'starter kit' route with something from Peak (they have a paraffin starter kit for about $59.95). Is that something still good to try? Any other tips for absolute newbies? I noticed there is a nice FO supplier about 30 minutes from me in Spartanburg, SC so I have options down the road to pick up different scents and stuff. Any other sites that have good starter kits to price and check out? Thanks! ~Allen

Congrats! Landing new customers is always exciting. Remember it's easier to keep a customer than to get new ones. Treat them like gold and hopefully you'll reap the rewards. ~Allen

Aye, toured that town and many others nearby many times. My in-laws live in Coatesville and all that good Amish food and shops are only 30 minutes away. Lovely area once you get used to the cow smells..hehe.

While up in PA last week visiting my wife's family we journeyed to the Lancaster area to get some good Amish food, etc @ Kitchen Kettle, eat pretzels, etc. Anyways, we journeyed to The Candle Barn, a hopping place since they make their candles on site and sell them. Well, I was a little disappointed. Their candle store had mostly home decor stuff (my wife said it was mostly candles a few years ago) and their own homemade candles had great cold throw but weak hot throw. We purchased a nice snicker doodle container candle to try out and left it burning for a few hours the other day. Meh on the scent when i t was burning, although it had a most excellent melt pool. People were buying stuff up like it was going out of style there too! I guess since it was Saturday after Thanksgiving and all. I enjoyed perusing the store and using my new found CandleTech.com knowledge to 'judge' candles and look at them..hehe.. I felt like a snob. A bummer in the fact their factory was closed for tours that day. Would have been nice to see how they pour their candles...

Have any of you considered using a Dymo labeler and printing your own labels? We use a Dymo lablery (LabelWriter 400 Turbo) and it's awesome. I buy my labels from www.labelvalue.com and I've not had any problems at all. I use the Dymo for price labels, SKU's, bar codes, etc for my products (security and personal protection). Only drawback I guess is that they are all black and white labels so if you are looking for color they Dymo system might not work. Just my 2 wicks worth ~Allen

I'm looking picking up a kit from Peak's. They seem to have a nice complete kit and from reading what others here have said it's a good and inexpensive way to start. I've not checked out Michael's so I can't comment on what they have.

As a newbie who hopes to make a candle sometime this fall all this info has been excellent. Some good humour too!

Site looks clean and simple (which is good). One idea - you might want to move the About Us and Contact Us links on the left down a bit. Most people (at least in my experience with my sites) want to get to the product pages initially. Another thought - do you have a shorter URL? Unless someone has a Neuse River link in front of them it might be hard for them to spell out. Maybe a shorter URL like - nrcandle.com or something and have it redirect to the main URL. Best wishes for lots of business! ~Allen

:laugh2: Nooo thank you! I remember when I was a kid and talked back to my mom. She washed my mouth out with soap. Talk about good reinforcement! hehe Talk back = soap in mouth = eeek!! 1st and last time I tasted soap (on purpose). hehe

Just did a quick google search for "wireless credit card terminals" and got back quite a few links. Here's an example - http://www.merchantexpress.com/wireless_credit_card_terminal.htm I've never used any but at least you know there are options.

hehe..guess that answers my question. Thanks!

I don't use any terminals (built into my POS system in our store) but here are few things to think about consider when using terminals - 1. Connections - you'll need a dial tone or ethernet connection (although I think some terminals can use a cellular connection to dial out) to authorize the cards 2. What cards will you take? If you can stick with debit your costs will be dramatically lower than non-debit. Also, if you decide to take Discover and American Express be prepared to pay at least 1-2% more in fees through those merchants. 3. Shop around for merchant processors. There are a lot of them on the 'net and even locally. Many times you can get a free terminal if you sign up with them. HTH some! ~Allen