Beverley

Just sent you a PM!

Thanks, I am in Western PA. I'll take a look at the ad.

This gets into the fine art of pricing...

Perceived and real value are important considerations in pricing. When candlemakers pay a lot for unique containers, guess what - the wax isn't where the money is in the manufacturing cost! It doesn't take any more labor or materials to pour 5 ounces of wax into a tin than it does into a canning jar than it does into a custom, one-of-a-kind, hand-blown container. The price has to be adjusted for the container price and style.

Style matters. A canning jar, even if it costs the manufacturer the same as another non-canning style container, will not be able to command the same price on the market as it is not perceived by the consumer as being as expensive as a more sylish container.

Presentation matters. If two Metro jars are poured with the same amount of wax, but one has a very classy label and comes with some inexpensive decoration attached to the jar and is packaged in a gift box, you could reasonably charge twice as much for it even though its manufacturing costs would have been only slightly more than the plainer, unembellished product.

Where you are selling and to whom matters. Deciding whether you are competing with the Chinese at WalMart or with the local church craft bazaar sellers or upscale salon marketers is important in pricing. If you have salon-grade items and sell them off the tailgate of your pickup truck at a local free craft bazaar, you will not be able to command the salon price for those items.

WELL SAID!

True.... I will try to be more responsible in the future.....

Wash off products aren't much benefit at all anyway...... period! It's typically a marketing "issue" when touting a "specialty" ingredient in a product that will be washed off moments after it's applied unlike moisturizers and serums... add them sparingly!

They sure did turn out looking great...can they be burned with tissue on them? Just wondering what the tissue would do as it burned down. Beth

I have zero clue what would happen to a pillar wit the tissue still on em but what the heck, after a few galsses of Pinot why not try it! haha! just have the fire extinguisher handy!

thought this was pretty cool. I have never even given any thought to this but it looks like a fun project and thought that those of you who make pillars might enjoy this.

http://5purposedriven.wordpress.com/2007/12/24/embossing-candles-how-its-done/

I have been using them in my 7.5 oz tumbler with j50 and they seem to be the best out of all of the options I tried in this jar. However, zinc seems to work better in the larger tumbler.

I have some you can try.....I'd be more than happy to send you a pound to sample -- I have bout 20 pounds of it left. PM your address and I'll ship it to ya.

I like Vicky's idea of the battered womens shelter.

The only problem I had when I took candles to the womens shelter was that they don't permit to women to have any open flames, but said they would give them to the women as they leave.... which I thought was a nice idea too. Something nice for them to take when they get back on their feet and find a permanent home.

I prefer to give to local charities as opposed to nationwide ones...

We do some local stuff as well.... Donating gift baskets for Hello Bully in Feb and gave a pile of candles to our local women's shelter. I am hoping to do some work with PASA http://www.pasafarming.org/ this spring/summer.

I love hearing about all of the wonderful things you all are doing!

How do you go about doing this and how do you get the money to them?? What percentage you give goes straight to the group or do you divey it out. Do you put their logo etc on your site and explain so much goes for that organization.

You have to contact the organization and can choose as many (or as few) organizations to donate to. You can learn more about how it's done here http://onepercentfortheplanet.com/en/members/how_to_join.php

My husband and I are pretty into the saltwater fly-fishing industry so there are several organizations that we have been interested in contributing to through 1% FTP.

Did you look at their website? Here is what I found on that scenthttp://newcart.candlesandsupplies.com/Store/Products/Candles/PID-SC-OMH.aspx

Hi there. I was just wondering, what charity organizations you are all involved with if any? We are gearing up to partner with 1% for the Planet and will be choosing 3 non-profits to give 1% to. I'd love to hear about all of the good stuff you all are doing out there!

I have no clue what to expect! Crackling, no crackling, bits and pieces in the wax, smoking wick, etc.... figured I'd give it a try though - that's the fun part! I am planning to purchase one of the WW candles as well this week to compare my finished product with theirs to see how they measure up side by side.... nifty concept that hasn't become popular at all in my area yet. I will be sure to post some pics.

Sure would be fun to get to sniff and sample the way that you do, though...

Hi Stella, I have found that in most cases, the mfgrs want your business and are more than happy to come up with a custom FO for their customer.... just gotta ask. IMO, some of the smaller candle crafters are under the impression that they cannot afford to buy direct. In my experience, minimum orders can be negotiated and deals can be made. We are all in the business of creativity which needs to carry over into purchasing supplies as well as selling the end product.

I will be trying them this week. They came today and I am planning to use 100% soy with them and see how they do. I'll post results later in the week.

Sometimes the suppliers are cheaper than the manufacturers because of the quantity you may order.

I completely understand the cost issues involved with buying fragrance oils for a lot of people, but my main concern has been with getting a good quality HT with many of the oils I have purchased from suppliers. I have found a few FO's from suppliers that I am fairly pleased with for the most part but would much rather buy direct from a local mfgr in larger quantities on the popular fragrances and skip the shipping. Another plus to this is that I can call up the mfgr and tell her (for example) that I want an intense floral with hints of lavender and vanilla and then I can go there a week later to sniff test and get samples to take home and test in the candles. So then I have a custom fragrance, no shipping, and I get to skip the hassle of having to guess at what I think is going to smell good based on the suppliers description of what smells good or has a good HT to them. I have ordered hundreds of sample FO's through various suppliers over the years and I must say it really sucks when you read about how "great" the scent throw is on a supplier site only to find out it smells awful IMO. I will of course still need to purchase some samples from time to time to get ideas but if I like one, I plan to just take it to the mfgr to have it duped if it is something I will be using alot.

Found em' at Snowdriftfarm.com scroll to the bottom of this link

http://www.snowdriftfarm.com/jars.html - you can buy them individually there.

Try this site http://www.uline.com/BL_8152/Wide-Mouth-Jars

oops, just noticed they are sold by the case at uline, I didn't see a site that sells them individually.

This site only requires you to purchase a dozen rather than a case of 36

http://www.containerandpackaging.com/item.asp?item=B123

"Honest offer - if you have questions about how the industry operates or about other technical fragrance stuff please don't hesitate to ask me. what I can't answer from my own knowledge or experience I'll happily ask our chemists and perfumers. Or heck, even our sales people.

Thanks for the offer - It's always nice to interact with helpful people!!

Thanks for the post! I would have responded but I don't have access to the classified section at this time and I never received the PM.....

It took me a long time to get that info.... just never thought to ask before but that's the explanation I got and it makes complete sense to me. By the way, my name is Erin. I used Beverley for the forum because my candle company is "Beverley Randolph Luxury Candle Co.".... Um, in case anyone thought I was being deceptive! (not at all aimed to you Cissy!) Glad I could help ya with that FO question!!! Hope you have a fab holiday!

This is what I was told in a nutshell from a couple mfgrs.... (which may very well mean that suppliers aren't diluting FO's but the mfgr is doing it for them).... I was told from two mfgrs that when you are purchasing FO, the mfgr will ask the supplier or candle maker what they want to pay for the FO per pound to start. So lets say supplier x wants to keep their cost down and sell FO at $20.00/pp to the home based business for an example. The mfgr will then create (for example) a vanilla scent with ingredients that warrant the suppliers price point. You can get a more complex FO at a higher price that out of the bottle may smell very similar to the $20.00 FO but due to the lack of chemical components involved in the higher priced FO you don't end up getting a good scent throw in the end product. Does that make any sense? This is why I am willing to pay up to $50.00/pp for fragrances that don't seem to throw well in general.... But all in all, some FO's are light by nature and won't give me a strong and accurate throw in any case so I just don't use them... I'm going for wow factor. This is why I specifically asked my mfgr for very strong FO's. Also, in case anyone wondered (and someone did wonder on another thread), I get my FO from Alpha Aromatics in Fox Chapel, PA. Wasn't trying to keep that a secret - nobody asked! They don't have "stock" fragrances and do everything custom.

Thanks a bunch.... Saves nearly half on lids alone!