rebeccajo99

i like hearing success stories. Way to go!!!

I do the "freestanding" melts. My customers like being able to pick a bunch of different scents. I have not tried clamshells, so I don't know what would be a better seller. Clamshells sound a lot easier, but just have not ventured into trying them yet.

Thanks guys. I was just so excited when I looked up what I did and comparedit to last year. Hope you guys all are having success as well. It really is arollercoaster (and if roller coasters were not fun, I would have been done withthis LONG ago) That downward hill was going down for way tooooo long. :-)

I had my first craft show where I did better this year than last year!!!! WAHOOOO!!!

I added new products from last year and even if you take the sales out from the new products, it was still better than last year. Talking with some of the other venders, they were all saying that they were lower than last year, so I felt really good.

Sorry, I had to post about this... I was starting to get discouraged because sales were getting lower and lower at each of my show, but I have a new excitement and now can't wait until my next show. Hoping the trend continues :-)

Thanks guys... it is now on my to do list to try. HOpefully later this month. Need to make sure I'm around and able to cut it so it doesn't get too hard :-)

I've been searching and searching and cannot find anything. I want to make salt bars, but every tutoral and recipe I find says to put it in a warm oven. Is that the only way to make salt bars or can I make them without the oven and I am just not finding a tutorial for it.

Thanks

Love it. Looks great. Can't believe that is your first!!! Gives me the itch to want to try, but I only have 1 cp try under my belt so far.

that looks great!!! I saw a tutoral doing a column swirl and thought it was cool, but yours looks much better. Love it!!!

I currently have 1 that I use that contains goat milk and honey. I have been getting feed back from customers that they want one that is vegan. I have been testing recipies for that and found one that my testers also have really enjoyed. So now I need to work on scents and packaging for it. I'm hopeful that the scents that work for my goat milk/honey will also work for this one.

Thanks everybody for your advice. I do greet my customers with a smile. If I happen to be sitting down for a rest, I get up and walk over to them to say hi and ask them how their day is. I start talking to them about the product that they are looking at too.

I wasn't thinking about going too low, I was thinking $4 each or 4 for $14.... so just a little bigger discount if they buy multiples.

sorry, Crockpot Hot process.

Since my new diet has been working great, I got myself into a craft show for this weekend. I did this show last year and did fairly well, so I decided to do it again. However, this year, I didn't even make my booth fee back.

Last year there were no other soap makers there, and this year I found at least 1. I did not have enough time before the show started to walk the whole thing and I did not get any help this time. She really low balled my price and I am finding that more and more that whenever there are other soap makers there I do not do well since they all charge $3 or less for their 4 oz bars.

I take pride in my product and worked hard to make it what it is, but nobody is buying. I sell them for $4 or 4 for $15. I saw in another thread that is what somebody else does too. My bars are also at least 4 oz, sometimes more since I hand cut them.

I'm wondering if maybe I should lower the 4 for price to try to get them to move more. I give out samples, but people either do not come back or when they do, they end up not buying after they see the price. I get lots of people to stop and smell, lots of great comments on the smells too, but no takers.

I can't afford to pay for booths and not at least break even and I will not be able to hold out much longer at this rate either.

Maybe I should start charging 25 cents to sniff

I don't understand how you can afford to pay a rep. If an 8oz. candle retails for $8, wholesales for $4 then you pay your rep 15% (.60) you end up with $3.40 left. It costs me $2.54 that is last years costs for raw materials only, not insurance, electric, labor, etc. I haven't even figured this years raw costs up yet. You end up with less than .90 per candle. Is it really worth it? Plus, who pays for this sales reps gas milelage?

I can see your point. I do not have sales reps, but have been toying with the idea. How I understand it though (so please correct me if I am wrong) that if your paying commission of a wholesale price, then your rep sold a larger order. I'm still working on my wholesale "contract", but I am setting minimums that they must order in order to get that price. So, your strength comes in numbers.

Using your example, lets just say the minimum is 4 cases of 12 candles. Since your profit is $0.86 per candle, you would earn $41.28 for the whole order. To me, then it doesn't look as bad.

It is how you look at it. If your thinking about adding reps, maybe raise your prices a little to help offset the costs.

grrr.. it didn't attach my pic. Let me get that for you guys. Sorry

So, my new wheat free diet has been working great. Been on it for 2 weeks and I only took 1 nap this week!!! :smiley2: My husband took my kids one evening so I could work in my work room and "have fun" so I did my first batch of cold process soap. It was so much fun!!!! I scented it cucumber melon from candles & supplies. I did way to small of a batch for the mold and unmolded it way to early (still too soft in some spots), but I think it still turned out good. Letting it harden up a little more before cutting, but here is the wet pics.

I think they look very nice and cool. I like the black light effect.

How much FO are you putting in per lb of wax and how long are you letting the cure before testing them?

yummy Makes me want to take a bite out of them. Great job:yay:

Thanks everybody. These oranges do not seem to have a very thick skin like some that I have. Not as thin as the cuties, but still rather thin. We have been having a wide range of weather these last couple of weeks so I may have to wait until summer to try (if my kids are having an orange kick then. I tend to buy the fruit that they will eat at that time) It has been to wet, cold, cloudy, snowy with not much sun. I like the idea of putting them in vinager. I will have to try that at least.

I was trying to find out if I could use the orange peels from my kids lunches for my soap or if they are not the right stuff that I am seeing in soap recipes.

My kids are on an orange kick... so I am getting a lot of peels

I love the look of the layered one. Keep it up!!!

I have never tried mottling, so I can't give you any advice on it, but I had to say something about that layered candle

I like the look that you are trying to achive with the cinnamon one. Can't wait to see what the perfected ones look like

I also agree that Columbus Foods is very quick. Sometimes I'm able to get my stuff the next day, the most I've waited was 2 days. I've been happy with thier service and shipping. Shipping is always reasonable. I'm a 3-4 hour drive from there and shipping has always been less than what I would have to pay to drive there.

I only had 1 oz samples of these F/O's so thats what Ive used. The three red colored ones are all different scents. I cant test the same F/O's with different colors because I dont have any more at this time.

Tina

If all of the other suggestions don't work, I would suggest filing away those test notes and place some more FO in your shopping cart the next time you place an order.