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caryfh

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  • Website URL
    http://www.westroadcandles.com

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  • Makes
    candles b&b
  • Location
    Washington
  • Occupation
    Dietitian & Self-Employed
  • About You
    Owner, and operator of West Road Candles, located on Whidbey Island, WA. Making soy candles in jars and tins since 2005. Also branched out in 2010 to offer Uforya Body Products - which began with a pedicure line.

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  1. I have been searching all over trying to find a duplicate for the fragrance oil/essential oil used in the American Crew lotion. A friend of mine was wanting some lotion in this particular scent and I cannot seem to find it anywhere. The closest I came was when I found someone with a listing showing... "Citrus Mint for Men - Dupe of the American Crew fragrance. Lime and Orange Essential Oils blended with peppermint and spearmint." but I contacted the person to see where they had acquired this oil and they said they concocted it themselves. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
  2. Nevitt Fragrance in Dallas, TX just did one for me. I had to send them 1 oz of the FO and the fee was $250 for the reverse formulation. Minimum order after they completed it (can take a few weeks to months) was 8 pounds.
  3. I use Quickbooks Premier. Had been using QuickBooks Pro, but wanted the ability to track inventory and use that inventory to build items with my inventory which was only available by moving from Pro to Premier. I really like it. Especially the Snapshots it gives me of how I'm doing in comparison to last year.
  4. She should have something like a reseller's certificate that she could provide a copy of to you in case you wanted to have something to put with your other tax paperwork to be on the safe side. It's the same thing that local suppliers would need from you if you were trying to avoid paying sales tax on supplies you purchase.
  5. Honey naturally preserves itself, probably because there is so much natural sugar in it any free water is tied up. Sort of like how companies can use sugar and salt to tie up free water in their products to preserve the shelf-life. But honey, cannot be used to preserve other items. Perhaps the woman at the show was confused by information she had received. Honey is naturally preserved, not a "natural preservative". And even in that statement there are issues, I mean there is a reason why they don't recommend feeding it to children under the age of 1 - but of course at this moment I cannot recall what it was that could be present in the honey.
  6. I use Quickbooks for my business, and I would say I'm as satisfied with it as you can be with a merchant account. I use Quickbooks for my accounting software, so initially I used the Quickbooks merchant account that you process through Quickbooks. Then I moved on and was using their service that processes cards directly through my website. And I added onto that with the GoPayment service - which is the swiping device you can connect to your smartphone. They have a monthly service fee - which they typically wave when your account is new. And then they have % rates that are charged when a credit card is swiped, or entered on the website. The thing to be aware of is that there are different rates based upon whether the cards are swiped or manually entered. A swiped card has less chance of input error, so the rates are lower for those, but not by much.
  7. Your soaps are so beautiful. I especially love the blending in the one with the 2 shades of green, I think it was mint? Just curious, what Owosso? I don't make soap, so maybe it's just a soaping thing, but I'm always looking for new molds for creating wax embeds.
  8. Has anyone ever heard of/smelled this scent and/or come across a good duplicate? I have a customer who is wanting something in this scent. She found this description for it "A fresh and clean fragrance that starts with Crisp Bergamot that transforms into Melon Rind and Green Floral notes ending with Bamboo Woods" I couldn't say that I've come across anything of this sort, so I thought this board was a good place to start. Thanks in advance for any leads anyone might have.
  9. I would have to dig deeper to see the exact regulation for organic. While I'm sure that there are organic soybean farmers out there, it seems as though they would more be using their crops for food purposes as opposed to creation of soy wax. Also, I would wonder whether the processing (hydrogenation) that occurs to convert the oil into a wax flake would remove the ability to consider it organic. Might be a question that could be answered by USDA.gov as I think that's where I've looked up info regarding organic claims in the past. Sorry I don't have a clear cut answer for this one. Hoping someone will weigh in that does know the regulations.
  10. Oh thank you so much!! Have the aroma beads, but hadn't used them for anything so I guess I sort of forgot all about them. The beads would work great since I'm not actually going to be at the parties, it was more for putting together a little kit for those who wanted to offer parties. And it's for the body butter, lotion, sugar scrub, etc., that for the most part does not have the same scent as the candles. Thanks again.
  11. Sorry, I guess I should clarify. I'm good on the containers for this purpose, I was just hoping someone could suggest something they mixed their FO's in that seemed to hold the scent for quite sometime that I could then put in my sample containers. It's doesn't necessarily have to be something they would use on their body, just needs to be able to keep the scent strong for a long time so that I'm not constantly having to make new batches every couple of months. But thanks for the suggestion of containers mzphee as I do like the one with the little compacts pictured, but would need to find something to put in those that wouldn't fall out if the tester opened it to smell it and got clumsy.
  12. I have been putting together some sets of supplies for a handful of people who want to offer parties with my products. I was curious what other use when they are providing sample scents. With my candles it's easy as I just put together a set of smaller candles, so they can smell the candles while also seeing the containers that some of them come in. With the body products I'm unsure how I really want to do this. Thus far I've been combining the FO with dendritic salt and then I put this into little lip balm-sized containers that have an insert that rotates open or closed. While this works okay for now, I would really like to find some sort of base or medium that I can combine with the FO that will hold the scent longer than the salts seem to. Any ideas? I don't want to do air freshner paper as this seems to die out quickly too.
  13. I believe the UPC code has to be different for each version of the product you wish to sell. So each color of the same style melter would have its own UPC code. You might also want to see if you can get an exemption regarding the UPC codes - there is a place on there to request this - although it does seem to take some time for a decision to be made (I filed a request for this about 5-6 weeks ago and still haven't gotten a response). I think the only drawback to using the UPC codes from the places on the internet is that instead of someone looking up the code in a directory and seeing your particular company listed, it will instead show the company you purchased the UPC codes from as the "owner" of that code. Hope that helps a little.
  14. Try looking for IPM not "IPG", but I get mine from Lotioncrafter.com - I'm not sure where you are located so you may have a closer supplier that offers it. Lotioncrafter is up here in Washington, which means it only take 1 day for it to get to me, and cheap shipping for such a short distance.
  15. Thanks Everybody!!! I feel so much better today! Time to start formulating. I think what helped was when I started to envision my final product - and how the components and look of it is something I could picture anyone desiring, not to mention the fantastic benefits of using it!! I figured I just needed to sleep on it, and let all that information I compiled sink in so I can make use of it today - instead of feeling like I was walking around in a fog. Glad to know we all go thru it at some point. And I totally agree that it is truly the sign of perfectionism and attention to detail as the self-doubt makes us work just a little bit harder to make sure no one who tries our items will have once second of buyer's remorse.
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