RMSSHELTON

I kind of agree. Your floor plan would be about 450sf, that is probably less than your kitchen and 2 rooms. If they are already cramped then you will certainly need more space. I like the lay out, but I am thinking you need something in the size range of 1200+sf. I figure a bath with a sink will be atleast 40-50sf depending on how much room you want. Kitchen area will be around 12x12 that is 144sf store front should be atleast 30x30 900sf Walk of 30 feet, it is not all that big. Keep in mind that a small cashier counter is about 5x4 20sf You will also need storage, for finished products that can be in your display area. For bulk supplies, it will have to be in the back. figure atleast 12x4 48 Plus a place to pour, which you might be able to fit into the kitchen just fine. You may be able to get away with a smaller showroom, but you will begin to get overcrowded, plus you will not have much space to expand. 50 + 144 + 900 + 48 = 1142sf This is just my opinion, but I think if you walk of the space you will see what I am talking about. In the show room you may be able to do 25 x 25 = 525 That will reduce your overall square footage to less that 1000. However as you grow I think you will truly need the additional space. I am think 30w X 49deep building = 1470square feet building size. That would change it to 29w x 25d showroom =725 12 x 12 kithchen =144 8 x 4 storage across from kitchen = 32 and small bath of 5x4bathroom= 20 That is 946 usable square feet, plus walking space. the rest will be walls ( interior and exterior ) and walking space. Just my opinion. I know I always run out of space in all my ventures. Ofcourse you could design the building to be expandable later. The only problem with that is that you will have to close you business while you remodel. Or you could build a new building and convert this one to storage and creation only. Then use the new building when you get to big to do it all out of this one building. Just my thoughts sorry for all the rambling.

I like Vanilla Passion from Peaks. Smells great to me.

HERE is one of those SITES http://www.wicksandwax.com/silicone.htm

No kidding, I agree I saw that too. I found on where the molds came from Germany and where like 15-45 a peice and only one mold. that is cool if it is a 8oz or a 16oz or larger Mold, but for small 1-4oz's what is the point.lol You have to by like 20 of them, then they are not cost effective. I am also wondering if you can use candy molds. It would seem to be ok. I am just not sure.

We are still new to this, but I use the HTP's and seem to have great results. Also I noticed that with this wax, ( CB135 ) that red dyes, especially liquid caused my wax to act funny, Weird crystals sometimes, and almost always had some milky oily residue type of stuff in it when it dried. So I am looking to switch to possibly a new type of dye from a new vendor I use PEAKS supplies everything great in this wax so far except the red DYE. All other dyes come out SMOOTH and Creamy. I have also found that some BEESWAX and Cocunut oil make it extra smooth with great adhesion. Just My opinion.

I found this place too. There is tons of stuff here for other projects. Check it out. http://www.spiritcrafts.net/candymolds.html

Thanks, those will do great. Not what I was invisioning, but works just fine. Thank you so much.

I am looking for a candle mold that is abotu 1-1.5 oz in the shape of honeycomb. Like the ones you find in jars of hunny. I am wanting to make tarts. Cant really find anything that quite works. Thanks for your help.

Ok, as I am sure most of you know, we are new to this. Alright, it seems that when I add the FO at a higher temp that it performs better. My concern is that some FO's have Flash Points of 137 or so. I am assuming that I cannot add this above that TEMP. Doing so would ignite the FO. Am I correct in assuming this? It only makes logical sense but, verification seems best.

Thanks.

Awesome. Good luck.

That was some great indepth help. I really really appreciate the time. I really like eveeryones help on this site. It is strange, we are all competitors in a way, but we still help each other out. If any of you need help with Financing or Auto Purchases let me know. This field I am very versed in. Thanks again.

Thanks so much. We still have 4 other candles wicks to try with what we poured. I will let them sit for a week and see what that does. Also, I was just playing around with stuff, this was our first pour of what we purchased and I have just read good things about this combo, so if it worked great if not, try again. We can always give away the reject candles LOL My family always pretends to like things like this. I guess you are right though, it doesnt seem like good scientifc practice to not isolate each ingredient. I should know better from chemistry class. LOL Thanks again.

Ok, we got our order Monday. Well last night at about 8 oclock we finally got to get started. We made 5 4oz tins, of freesia. ( plus about 1/4 tin without a wick, left over wax. ) First thing I noticed was how good it smelled when we where making it. This is basically what we did. Took 16oz of cb135 melted it to 185, then added 1/2 tbs of UA 1/2 tsp of CO then stired till it was all melted. lowered the heat then added 1 drop blue dye and two drops red dye at about 155 we added the 1oz of fressia FO I stirred Fairly regularly till it got down to about 115 It smelled wonderful at that time. Then we poured in to containers 1 had HTP73 1 htp83, one had CC 60, 1 LX14 and 1 LX16. We let cool on the table. This morning I noticed that there was a circluar crack in everyone of them. It was a faint crack, but still a crack, as though the outside cooled to fast and then the middle dropped in. I am not sure. Ok, so aside from that. This morning I tried to light one of them before I went to work. I lit the CC wick one. Well it smelled fine around the candle but it only went out about 1 foot away. Not very strong at all. However it smells great in jar, Without being lit. I brought the left over wax to work. In this tin there was no wick, and it was about 1/4-1/2 full. I put it on a candle warmer and it smells much stronger. Still not like it did when we where making it though. Any Ideas?? Any comments??

lol, I gave her the site. She just hasnt signed on. babies and all, and when I get home, we do other things. I will get her on here.

Sounds like a plan to me. Make sure all your legal stuff is handled. i.e... Liability insurance, Tax ID number, Assumed Name Certificate, Sales Tax and Use Permit..... Man it is hard to make money lol Good luck though Hope it works out, and what a great idea to merchandise.

I dont know if i did. It is TEXAS

My homeowners said that if I ran business out of my house they would Cancel my coverage. Ohh well for that. I had to explain to them that I wasnt haveing customers come to my house, and that I havent started anything yet. That I was just getting information. Anyway. I am still trying to find an actual company. IF ANYONE KNOWS OF ONE LET ME KNOW. Thanks

LOL. Well what can you do. You cant test without having supplies, and everyone tells me that soy is difficult and you need to TEST TEST TEST. So I hope we can figure out a good solution with what we have lol. Thanks again for all you help everyone. Keep you responses coming, I like the long threads LOL,.

I would agree, but we are going to do one wax at a time and one scent at a time. We will probably find one we like better, and just kinda of stick to that one. But until then we will just have fun. We have plenty of time.

Well this is a business purely for fun, for us. My wife just wanted something to do. Money is well...lets just say, that we could retire... We just had another baby in june and my wife has a friend of hers that is over most of the time, and they watch there kids together in our home. So they wanted something to do where they could create there own success. So Me being who I am...I just bought everything. I didnt know what would work and what wouldn't, but I figured this would be enough to get a good foothold of what scents work in what wax, and what she likes and doesnt. So who knows She might be the next Yankee candle, or maybe we just have 750 or so Presents LOL.

Yeah I figured I would just do one pound and one fragrance at a time. We have a spreadsheet I made up. However I heard there is a better program??? Any Ideas?

Wow, we just ordered our first order, for the begining of our candle making career ( Hopefully ).. Everyone told us to try lots of things and have fun, so I ordered Everything from PEAKS, this Go around to see how it all goes from there. I ordered 50lbs of CBA, and 50lbs 135 and 50 of 464 Figured this would be good for testing. Then I ordered all 47 fo's in 8oz bottles. And about 1200 different wicks , ( 2 sizes of each, HTP, COTTON CORE, LX ) along with 750 4oz travel Tins. Plus a soy starter kit, that has a bunch of stuff too. I got a lot more stuff, but that is the basics. Well my wife just called me at work and told me it all came in....She also said I went way overboard... 8 boxes from UPS LOL Ohh well. She said she wanted to make it work. So I figured that would be plenty to do a lot of testing with. This is our first shipment and a new begining. Hope we can make this work. Thank you guys so much for all your advice through all the different threads. Got so many tins cause I figured at first I would be simple and do 1lb wax, 1oz Fo, and do 5 tins, each with different wicks. One set in each wax. ( 5tins x 47 fo's x 3 waxes= 705 tins...WOW) To start testing. Easier math this way. I will have a little wax left over but that is ok. I will make something with it. Maybe make one huge compound scent candle with the little that is left over form each 16oz batch.lol What do you guys think? Wish me luck? We will be busy for a long while filling all those tins. I hope this works out, cause this hobbie is costing a lot.

What kind of insurance, and how much do you all recommend. I just got our assumed named certificate (DBA), Tax Id number and Sales Tax and use permit. Ok. No onto insurance...... Granted we are a ways from actually selling candles. However, since we are sole Proprieter and home based, what do you guys recommend? As much info as possible please. Thanks

In windows of car doors at WALMART. At the BANK infront of the pen at the Counter. On the counter at the Insurance place. I have even been called and asked not to do that anymore. I said Ohh I am sorry...but ohh by the way I have........... and have actually made sales. Any person infront of you ( or on the phone ) is a potential customer. NEVER LET AN OPPORTUNITY SLIP. At the Insurance company that called me back and complained, I ended up giving each of the girls a candle and had a plastic business card holder on each of there desks, within 3 days of leaving the cards on there counter. I have also left them on the urinals in the restroom. CARDS are CHEAP, customers ARE NOT. I can always find more business cards, but I will likely never find THAT customer again. Don't let inhibitions stop you from making money. We just started our candle business, we started by resaling already made candles and are now starting to make our own. But our name is already out there. GET YOUR NAME OUT THERE