caryfh

I like the idea of sending her some of my tarts. I think I'll try that out. I actually would have thought it was a gag gift, but knowing her mentality (similar to my husbands), I think that would have been a bit too clever for her to put together. Ah well. I'm certainly using it just see what others are putting out there. I honestly think the packaging of the warmer and the tarts is where they spent more money than in their product, which is too bad since tarts are such an easy thing to add extra fragrance to.

Does anyone routinely receive candles as gifts from people? I got one for Christmas from my sister-in-law. At first I thought it was a gag gift, but it wasn't as I watched my other sister-in-law receive the same gift. Do people not realize that we make our own candles? Anyway, the gift was an electric tart warmer with a few sets of tarts. So I plugged it in to see how well it did in the bathroom. I plan to use my own tarts in it, but since it came with some I thought I would try them out. I'm not going to name company that made the products, but I will say it's a well known candle name, especially with home parties. Anyway, so I plug it in, and melt the first set of tarts. Not just one, I put the whole six pack out of the clamshell box, because we have a lot of boys in our house using the potty I went back a little while later, and I swear I couldn't smell anything!! I know my nose gets a little desensitized when I'm making candles, but I wasn't doing that, and usually I can smell other scents except for what I'm pouring even when I am pouring. How are these people managing to have continued sales when their product doesn't seem to be any good. The tart warmer certainly did it's job and melted the wax. But the tarts really had no smell at all!! Are they just surviving on their brand name alone?

Thanks for the tip about the physical location. I think I need to add a whole bunch of stuff like that to our "Contact Us" page so people can snail mail us, or call, or fax. Oops. Thanks for reminding me!!

"And please tell me your yellowish candles are not actually the color of baby poo cause that's how it comes up on my computer." HAHAHA. Wow, I guess I really do need to brighten that one up. What, you don't think baby poop would be a pleasing candle scent??? It's actually more the color of coffee with cream. Do you think it would be better to have just a couple candles in the pictures at the top of each scent page with more props, or just less candles and minimal props? I wish I had more of a creative edge for doing that sort of thing. Unfortunately for my website I'm a bit limited in the font choices. So the banner, I made up on my computer and saved as a jpg so I could highlight the font I use for my labels. Then I liked the look of the toolbar font (kind of like my handwriting), but I don't have that option for anything else, so for everything else I used Tahoma. I think it looks a little different on the products page because some of the are in all caps as I upload them. Not sure how to get around this without just switching to Tahoma for everything but the header.

just to clear things up a bit, the slightly blurry pictures with the lit candles are just an old picture (you can see why I decided to take new pics) I had that I'm using as a filler until I get the new pictures of each scent uploaded to the site - so try to ignore those for now. But I'm glad that the others seem appealing.

Perhaps I should just post the logo (which has no candles in it) as a filler until the new pictures are uploaded, so it doesn't take away from the new pictures. Thanks.

I bought the lightbox off of ebay, but after reading about the "shilling" with those candles, I think that might have been happening with those too, as I was quickly outbid, but then as soon as the auction ended I was immediately offered a second chance thing. Anyway, still got a decent deal on one, even if they were plotting to up the price. Thanks for the tips so far. I have made some of the changes to the site for the top toolbar, home page title, and the "contact us" page. Keep 'em coming!!

OKay, so I have liberally applied my thick skin and am ready for any good or bad comments any of you might have. I have begun the rebuild process for my website. I still have no idea where I have found the time or energy for this, as I am playing "single mom" to two boys (2.5 years and 3 months old) while my husband is serving in Iraq, but I am making progress. Thank you to whomever it was that suggested I invest in a photo light box - it's awesome. Okay, so please take a peek. www.westroadcandles.com . and let me know what you think. I have only uploaded a handful of the pictures of the candles at this point - and am just using a stock photo as a filler for some of the scents, but the style of pictures will be the same for all the scents, with only color variations and different background/foreground props. I was thinking this would be a good time to solicit advice since I am still knee deep in this big job. Thanks in advance!!

planetlabel.com also carries the Kraft brown ones in a bunch of different sizes. Not sure whether they do printing or not as I haven't used them for that purpose before.

I do appreciate the input, I guess I was just feeling a bit like a target on that one day - which had a lot to do with outside circumstances as well. I can take it, though. I went thru and added some information to the weight loss candles/disks, just to make it clear to those ordering that there are no guarantees - actually in case anyone out there is trying to weed out the bad weight loss products, the ones with guarantees are typically not effective (which seems backwards doesn't it). Anyway, I also did go thru an revamp some parts of the website. My current set-up only allows me to change between their stock templates, and since I don't currently have the capital $$ to buy a specially built one, that's my only option at this point. This presents many frustrations - one of which would be the fact that I can't seem to get the logo off the corner of the page, and replace it with a picture. I must have spent a good hour attempting to do this, before I gave up and left a message for tech support. Anyway, since most of my work thus far had been with fundraising and wholesaling, I just didn't devote much time to improvements on the website. My next step, I think, will be to improve the pictures of my products. Does anyone have any other particular problems I might want to look at?

Is there a list of somewhat inexpensive web-designers in this forum somewhere? I've never been particularly happy with the set-up of my website, but since the majority of my sales were for fundraising and wholesale with already established relationships, I guess I never gave it too much thought, and never applied too much capital $$ in that direction. The web design we have right now is just a stock template, because that was all we could afford when we acquired the domain name. Any suggestions you have for ways to make it look better or more user friendly would also be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I have removed the informatoin about the soy candles from my site. I did look into it when I originally posted it on the site, and I thought it was coming from a reputable source, but apparently it must have just been another site that was using the info to try to sell their products, and not passing along accurate facts. My appologies. As for the claims with the weight loss candles, I did conduct research regarding this. I will dig thru my files to find the exact periodical where a study was conducted using nasal sprays and then amounts of food consumed following the use of the different sprays was recorded. It was found that there were certain scents which when sprayed into the nose prior to eating a meal, did curb the individual's appetite and caused them to consume less at the meal. The example of warm foods is not the only example, but warm foods do emit more of an aroma than cold foods, and thus have been shown to be more satisfying with a smaller portion than cold foods. It is also with this in mind that I have recommended colder foods to those with nausea who are trying to prevent weight loss, because the lack of aroma can sometimes allow them to eat a bit more. When I find the article, I will post a link for it so that you can all read it if that is of interest to you. I can understand that you would think that it was incorrect information since the info I had received regarding the soy candles was incorrect and both were posted on the website - however, there is a lot of validity to the hunger satisfying effects of certain smells. In fact there is a company that is getting ready to launch a nasal spray product that is for weight loss purposes. As for the website, I guess I did not realize that it was so poorly put together, and I am now planning to make strides to correct this. Web design certainly is not my forte so I will need to look for outside assistance. Once I have assumed a more professional look, I will then look into acquiring companies who would be willing to drop-ship.

There is a center in the brain that senses satisfaction. Not all satisfaction is done with your tongue or your stomach. This is why you can begin to feel satisfied just by eating warm foods - because the aroma begins to satisfy you before you have even taken one bite. The purpose of the weight loss candle is to satisfy small hunger pangs that occur between meals, because it is this type of snacking/grazing that is a huge contributor to weight gain. It's not as if the scent is something like chocolate brownies. Actually, it is a unique combination of scents, each of which has been shown in studies to help satisfy that center of the brain. And encouraging someone to smell something when they are feeling hungry between meals also makes them more conscious of their actions and can additionally aide with the weight loss. Just because you haven't seen at in the tabloids at the supermarket check-out doesn't mean it isn't valid. On a second note, I thought this forum was put in place to help out each other. I don't feel like some of the comments I have received were meant to be helpful, quite the opposite. I did not realize that by posting something in here, I would just be making myself a target for unconstructive criticism. Thank you to those of you who did make helpful suggestions, but to those who did not, I feel badly for anyone who posts questions here that doesn't have tough skin.

Oh, I don't want to have bad information listed on my site. What in particular did I describe incorrectly about the soy vs. paraffin wax candles? I want to correct it asap. Thanks.

Hi. I am currently looking to expand the line of candles, candlemaking supplies, candle accessories, and gift items that are offered on my website www.westroadcandles.com . My site is relatively new as most of the candles I have made are for fundraising and wholesale purposes (to TheKnot.com). I am seeking anyone in this forum who might be interested in letting me offer your products on my website and are willing to drop-ship the items. What I would like to do is to have you quote me prices for your items and I would then mark them up to cover my costs. Shipping costs would naturally be covered as well. I primarily am looking for natural products... meaning I would prefer soy candles over paraffin ones. And would prefer a more rustic look to any gift items. Anyway, please contact me if you might be interested in this, either thru this post or you can email me directly at candlemakers@westroadcandles.com Thanks so much. Cary

I would be interested in that information as well. I had tried calling the number, which was disconnected, and had also sent an email as I was desperately searching for the supplier of a particular scent and hadn't been able to locate theirs.

Have you tried looking on www.specialtybottle.com? I haven't ordered anything like this from them. But I do recall them having a number of different sizes and shapes of glass jars, and if I was going to go looking for "baby food jars" I think this is the first place I'd check. Even if they don't have that specific size or shape, they may have something that would fit your need.

I would agree with the thought process mentioned above on pricing. The wholesaling I do works out to approximately 2x my cost, not including a charge for my labor. Included in the amount I double is the cost of shipping. Yours might need to be slightly higher if the cost you are quoting to them is meant to include shipping. I would make this a separate charge. The primary place I wholesale to is another business and has their own UPS shipper account (along with other shipping services) and they simply have me charge the shipping directly to them. That might be something to ask this individual to streamline the process.

I use 2 different types of tins for my candles. One type has a clear lid and the other is a solid lid. On both I use just a label on the top. I feel that the tins by themselves are classy looking, and that too many labels would detract from that appeal. Even with the tin that has the clear lid, I use a solid label, because it does not completely cover the lid, and thus you are still able to see the color of the candle wax around the edges.

I have not come across anything of the sort, but if I was going to go looking, I would probably concentrate on wholesale garden suppliers perhaps primarily in the southwestern states as I believe that would be where they manufactured things of that sort. Good luck with that.

I'm 5'5" and my table is counter-height, 36". I don't notice any strain on my back using this height, and also am not having to bend over to see the amount I have poured. I would recommend this height, provided you are of similar height.

Some sites will let you charge the UPS charges to your own UPS Shipper Account. I have done this with a few places and managed to get my rates, which were lower than retail rates. Perhaps you could see whether they would be willing to do that for you, and it might save you a bit, although with UPS rates in general increasing, it may not bring the price back down to your original $18 fee.

I make my candles in tins as well, and came across this product that may work for you. It actually sounds like it would work well for any size container because it can adjust to so many different depths. Worth a shot. www.straightwick.com

Did any of you find that with the PB that with larger pillars, as the candle burned it would sometimes split down the side? I'm not sure whether perhaps I was not making them correctly, but I could not seem to get a decent candle that didn't split and spill the wax pool out the side. Very frustrating.

Thanks for all the help. I checked out the coogar website, and am so envious of anyone who is using that equipment!! Someday. Perhaps for now I will try to fashion my own holders for multiple wicks that will at least keep them centered while I pour around them. Thanks again.