caryfh

This may be a dumb question, but I've searched all over for the answer and keep coming up empty-handed. On the label, when listing the ingredients, do they need to be in a particular order? With food, the ingredients are listed in order using greatest to smallest weight. Is it the same case for body care products? Or does it matter?

I like the picture of the Army candles better than the Navy. I believe it's because the picture is taken straight on, which has reduced a lot of the shadows that are shown in the Navy ones. I would move the pictures on the home page. I would split center with the Navy on one side and Army on the other. Then you could have your text below that. I always try to put my most eye catching stuff on the first part of the page the customer sees, so that they don't have to page down to see my highlighted products. By moving the pictures, the customer sees them first, and then if they wish to read more about your product, they can see that the text pages down some. I would reduce what is shown in the picture. Choose your favorite, and perhaps take a picture with some props (nothing too distracting), and really zoom in on the detail you have in the carving. On the next pages when you go to look at the different types, perhaps you could show your picture of all the candles there, and then each individual. I would also add a background. The page looks very plain right now, and at first glance, it almost looked like one of those pages you come across when you enter a website that isn't set up yet. Maybe you could add some desert camo or other military type background just to dress it up a little bit. Finally, I would make the font of the title of the website bigger and a little more elaborate than the text font. Perhaps test out the military font (I can't remember the name of it, but it's the one that looks like the military stencil they use to put a troops name on their clothes). Just a couple thoughts while I had a moment. Hope that helps some. I know how hard it is to get things just right, especially when you are doing it by yourself. It took me a long time, and a lot of criticism to get my site where I can feel okay about referring people to it. Cary

Can I snag some of that action? Thanks in advance!! thefateraser@aol.com

Wow, that is a huge number of candles!! I actually wholesale some candles to The Knot, and even with a company of their size, the largest order I ever had to fill for them was 9600. I'm trying to imagine what she was possibly going to use them for. That many candles, in one room... wouldn't it be super hot??? And a serious fire hazard??

I had my account at WSP set up so that I could bill my shipping costs collect to my UPS account. This allowed me to take advantage of my lower shipping costs, and I could completely separate my supplies expenses from my postage/shipping expenses. I thought it worked out pretty sweet, but this new set-up doesn't work at all for that. So frustrating. No one else does this with their sites. The only way I could see if being of benefit is if you only wanted to pick up like 4 oz FO. But buying anything more than one item, and you're paying too much. ARGH!!

Am I looking at the wrong site? It looked like their annual membership is $250, not $100, which it seems would then make their liability insurance comparable to what some of you are already paying to other companies.

I think the yields vary so much from one plant/herb/seed to another. I had read some about the lavender being kind of tough as well. I just liked the idea of being able to use the oil and the hydrosol, and also being able to support local farmers and provide a local essential oil. It's looking really involved at this point. I almost think I would need a little shack in the back yard to do it in so I wouldn't have to deal with the scent soaking into the walls of the house. Perhaps I'll start doing some involved reading now... and then when I need a new project to pursue... and have a huge disposable income... then I'll do it. And that will happen approximately.... ya, never. My mind just never stops so I'll probably jump in soon, and stink us all out of the house.

?? Not sure where the hostility is coming from. The subject of the emails seems legitimate, and not in broken English so why wouldn't I open an email from a prospective client? I actually sell quite a few candles as wedding favors, and most of the details of those sales were discussed via email as opposed to being a blind sale over the internet. Granted, replying to the emails is a different situation all together, but just opening them seems like an appropriate thing to do since you can't tell the difference between a scammer and a real client just from the subject line.

Quick question for those of you who offer reed diffusers with EO's. How much information to you put out (either on your website, or with your retail product) about the benefits and risk of each of the EO diffuser oils you provide? There is so much information available, and easily accessible, to consumers that I am wondering how much I should provide and how much I should hope they are collecting for themselves. Since I'm not providing the pure EO's, I'm not too worried about telling people information about internal and external use... except to say not to. My primary concern is with people who have medical conditions or are pregnant - since there seem to be all kinds of EO's they need to avoid. I certainly want my products to only do good, but I fear if I start listing all the issues with utilizing EO's, no one will want to use them.

the apparatus on that u-tube video looks just like the ones I had found on the web, and also on ebay. I found some simpler set-ups, but they just deposit the hydrosol and oil into a small beaker, and even though they are separated... they wouldn't stay that way when you try to pour it out. Scented, your train of thought completely reminds me of my own. I have some thought deep in my brain... but I just can't get ahold of it. From what I've read it seems like quite a process, including a big wait once you have actually distilled the oils so they can finish developing. I was also hoping I might find someone who had the steam distiller and was looking to get rid of it as they had moved on to other projects. No such luck, though.

Is there anyone on here who has ever distilled your own EO's? I was a little curious about it since we have a nearby Lavender Farm and thought it might be interesting to have locally produced EO's. But since I've never done it, I wanted to get a feel for how difficult (costly) it is to do this from someone on here who has.

The one I got before this one was like that. I told him that the cost for what he wanted was $..., and that he could process his transaction thru the website. They also did not want frieght/shipping costs included. The email I got back after that was about wanting an address for them to come collect them. Never heard back from them when I explained that we did not allow pick-ups and that we would be happy to bill the shipping charges to their shipper account. I spent a little while trying to figure out what they needed the address for so badly. Were they going to try to pass off my company information as their own or something? I've also had someone try to scam me about a bed set (double mattress and bed fram) that we listed on Craigslist. It was only listed for $150, and they were claiming they would pay to have it shipped. Ugh!!!

Just tried the ISP address thing, but it only took me to the info for gmail (google). Bummer. Would like to know what scamming 3rd world country it came from. Perhaps they are just another group on a mission trip in Africa. These people really have no soul. Seems kind of funny that they would try to pass off their current occupation of being Christian missionaries, when they are doing a very un-christian thing. And what kind of idiot would think that these offers are valid? From a poor missionary, who wants to buy 1200 candles?? What?? I would have to be sniffing a few too many FO's to fall for their trap. The last email I received of this sort, it seemed more like they were trying to get their hands on my physical address, which I don't disclose on the website. Almost makes me want to remove my general email address from the website so they have to contact me thru my contact form. I only added it at the suggestion of some people on this message board.

Has anyone else been getting emails like these? Hello Sales Person, John W Smith is my name and I am sending this email in regards to some candles I want to special order from your shop. Can I please have the list of candles and their fragrance you have available in your shop or your Website so that I can chose the right candle and fragrance I will need to purchase from your shop. I will be more than happy to hear back from you with the prices. Do you have credit card facility for credit card payment? Regards Mr John W Smith They are frustrating... I would never believe that it was a valid lead for a sale, but it frustrates me because I can't figure out at what point of the deal they would try to run their scam or even what their scam is. This is the second one I've gotten this week, so now I fear that I'm going to just be bombarded by them.

Any tips for packaging reed diffuser gift sets? I'm going to use a tall PVC box for the set, but I haven't figured out a good way to put everything in the box without having it wiggle around during shipping? Any tips? I certainly don't want it to cost an arm and a leg to have something molded to hold things in place, but I also don't want it to arrive on someone's doorstep in a million pieces.

I'm trying now to work my way thru some stuff on Adobe Photoshop, which doesn't really have brochure templates, but does have some collage photo templates which I'm adding text, etc., to. Was so hoping that there would an easy template as doing detail work like that is tough with toddlers running around (helping me type...). But then again, I guess it wouldn't be unique to my candles.

For those of you out there who do fundraisers.... Do you have a brochure/flyer that shows your products? I'm trying to find a template that would make it easier to create one as I'm not happy with what I currently offer. I started searching for templates to make the process of creating the brochure a little easier... and then I thought I might check here to see if anyone knows of a good one. Any input would be great!! Thanks in advance!! Cary

I just started experimenting with designs for some votives and pillars, once I finally figured out an appropriate wick size. Let me know what you think. I love the Watermelon ones the most, and the Rocky Coast are actually "ocean" from Cierra Candles scented, and I tried out the streaking technique I read about on here. Both were made with Ecosoya PB. [ATTACH]19695[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]19696[/ATTACH]

Thanks for the tips. Will have to try the tricks with the tape. Has resorted to using some plummer's putty, which was working okay, but kind of pain to clean up... not so sure it even come off of the wick. Thanks, will keep going with my testing with the spooled wick.

Not sure if it's the same, but love the Wedding Cake, from Cierra Candles. Have been using it in soy for years... actually made my own wedding favors with it. I think they might have a Wedding Day scent as well, and their prices and quality always seem to be great.

I recently started making some pillars with Ecosoya PB when my dad cleaned out his shop and passed about 20 molds my direction. I'm doing some testing to try to figure out what size wick works best with each shape of mold, but then decided to come here because I had a question about the type of wick others are using. I have pretabbed, waxed wicks... and then I also have a spool of wick. The spool works great, although haven't perfected a way to keep the wax from oozing slowly out the bottom. And I think the pretabbed wicks would work well too, if only I had a wick pin that was tall enough, and wide enough for me to be able to insert the wick after the candle cooled. So what do those of you who make pillars use? And when you're trying to shape the candle at the end (making the bottoms square), what supplies do you use? A frying pan? Can you tell I'm new to this sort of candle??

That is a big company. I would check out their website or call them to see what the smallest order is that they process. Then decide whether it is worth it to order that large a size, or maybe just stick them in the back of your mind of something you work your way up to once you have processed a few of the larger wholesale orders.

UPS.com is much cheaper than a UPS store, because they will charge you their extra high fee. You could also try setting up a UPS account, which is free to do. I set one up, and then when I order supplies, some of my suppliers will allow me to bill to my UPS account. After a little while UPS started giving me their better rates and I really wasn't even using their service all that much. Still get the sneaky fuel surcharges, but any place I can get little breaks in shipping costs I'll take it.

They really do make it tough, don't they... I was running into this same problem with some of my supplies. I put my candles in tins, so I had been ordering the tins from one supplier, and sometimes they just shipped them to me in the box they were delivered to them in. I then took the company name off the box. This hasn't worked with everything I order. So I also went thru the list of companies on sites like the ICGA and just read thru company descriptions to see what supplies they offered, and then contacted them to see if this was a product they produced. The only problem with this is that if you ask them whether they supply to the company you purchase from, they typically won't disclose that info. Oh, and then there is the China issue... for my tins I discovered from the big supplier that I now use, that the tins are purchased originally from China. I'm sure the best deal I could get would be by going directly thru their supplier... but do I really want to go to that level... not yet. Best of luck. It's so frustrating in the beginning, but once you get the info you're looking for, it's so worth it. Hopefully the wholesale orders keep up to make all the extra effort worth it. ~Cary

That's so strange. I see the note on the WSP website, but when I go to the EcoSoya website they still have it listed for sale with no notes indicating it's being discontinued. If they weren't going to make it anymore, wouldn't they have indicated that on their site? Perhaps I'm just in denial because the thought of having to start testing all over again makes me want to tear my hair out!!