LuminousBoutique

yep, although I've been tempted to make a tea tree oil one and hope people can figure it out on their own lol

LOL! I did that with a batch... named it supernova because it seized on me and ended up looking like a supernova swirl

$3.50 per tube, $10.00 for 4. AT LEAST $3.00 a tube is acceptable, imo. After all, they are buggers to pour, label, cap, shrink wrap... alot of work goes into one lip balm PS I have a shop that sells them for $5.00 each.

storage is different than what you will be selling in... for storing pure essential oils, dark glass is the right choice (same with fragile oils and hydrosols)- but once its in your product (say lotion at 1, or even less than 1%) it will no longer effect the packaging as much. It really depends on what you are making. Glass is heavier and then there is the issue of breaking in shipping... it has more downsides, in my opinion.

I have some customers that swear it helps clear up acne.. personally couldnt say one way or another but hey, as long as they like them I'll keep making them!

I agree with both views. You cant sell what you dont bring, but you also dont want to have a ton of overstock laying around. Personally, for most shows I will have at least 12 of each scent. If I have some overstock from a prior show, I call that scent a "SHOW SPECIAL!" and discount slightly. Works like a charm most of the time. I generally choose 8-12 scents to carry per show. I try and do some seasonal stuff but I have found the standards always do well.

FYI we also made sea salts for personal use.. got a kiddie pool, bleached it, then filled it with buckets of sea water. Set on a roof in the yard. Week later, full of lovely natural sea salt. I bagged it and used it to make my mom a sea salt scrub, and we used it for soaking our feet and such... not a flicker of worry... but I wouldnt sell it without getting it tested.

<--- made seawater soap with maui sea water. Nothing is going to survive the lye, if anything was in the water to begin with. My mom asked me to make the batch for her the last time I was in Maui, she gave it to friends. They all loved it.. to me, it was the same idea as adding some salt for a harder bar. Just asked my mom how it looks, she still has 6 bars from the batch, she says it looks great... no DOS or anything weird. I dont really see how it would do anything for the soap aside from make the bars harder. I didnt notice a difference at trace or otherwise. If someone wanted to make sea water soap I too would suggest using sea salt...

Kyme those would be lovely sold just on their own too! beautiful

yeah the argument I hear most AGAINST testing is that it is a "waste" of wax (what?) So I dont see how this saves any. Unless you're making uncolored, unscented candles, I dont see this being of much use long term. Its a cool theory though

just wanted to quickly point out that you dont have to line with paper, you can line with plastic.. I use small plastic garbage bags in my wooden molds, cut in half- works like a charm and only takes seconds. My husband made the molds for me.. they are about 10 years old now and still working like champs. I've never even considered buying a lined mold because the bags are just so easy! anyways its a cheaper way to get started Have fun with whatever molds you end up with!!

liquid soapmaking can be a real pain in the butt... its true! But once you get the hang of it I swear its fun

Maybe something thats emulsified? I was thinking some ewax, stearic, water (preserve of course) and Monoi butter, maybe some vitamin E and jojoba also? This is off the top of my head but maybe 100g water 10 g Monoi butter 10 g jojoba 5 g vitamin e 7 g Ewax 5g stearic (I'd use liquid germall plus) I'm basing that off a clay mask I've made before, it made a nice thick cream, and those are all ingredients known to be in conditioners so I think it might work. worth giving a shot! It wouldnt be too huge of a batch so you wouldnt be wasting a whole lot of ingredients. The water you might need to adjust, I added almost 50 grams of clay to that base recipe, so depending on how thick you would want this hair mask to be, you could adjust the water.

Yeah I'd scoop out about 10oz, heat, and add 10oz of water or so with it. I'm not familiar with that calculator but im sure its fine- I do use 5% superfat with my liquid soap however, unless I am making it specifically for laundry purposes. You can use borax to neutralize after the fact, but I find just doing a 5% superfat is much easier.

Hi Love, I'd shred and mill them. Crock on med, maybe only add enough water to make it moist- best way is to spritz it on. It might take up to 2 hours but keep the shreds on medium and slowly they will go to gel. That will def. help get rid of all that excess water.

Hi Judy, you can slightly warm it after 24 hours to help it dissolve but yes I'd keep waiting sometimes it takes up to 24 hours. After 24 hours if I still have chunks, I strain them out- boil some more water, and dissolve them aside from the rest of the batch. I dont use z's recipe but the same process.

I've found the trick is to make sure I heat my glass too, which makes it a bit of a pain in the butt for holding, but makes for even tops. I also make sure the melt pool is a good 1/4" at least. I get perfect tops that way if I need to do some touch up.. but its not a quick process so I try my best to avoid it lol

yeah the dollar store/walmart thing really is winning out. I've had people say "ooooh these smell so much better than my dollar store candles but I can get 10 of those for this price....) yeah, and mine will burn longer than 3 of those combined and as you said, smell better... but sure... go ahead and keep supporting china! *steps off soap box*

I'm only doing candles for special events now, and holidays.. i just cant afford it anymore. Someday if I get my retail location up and going, I might reconsider.. but right now I cant afford to have as much sitting around

just to answer the internet question... yes I think you can, BUT.. it takes alot of work, and some luck. Great photos, great descriptions, and in etsy's case, knowing someone. Be an etsy featured seller and you're set... but good luck getting picked. I know an etsy employee who gave me the real deal on how they are NOW chosen.. its not a friendly process. I make decent online sales... sometimes.. but its so random that its a real frustration when one week you sell 20 things and the next only 1, if at all. Of course I have hopes to change that and I'm going to keep working at it, and I think potential is there, but unfortunately without shows and wholesale orders I'd never make it. Etsy isnt horrible, but it isnt great either. There is a TON of competition, misstagging of products... resellers... my ultimate goal, and I think a much more cost effective option in the long run.. is my own website. Yes its alot to set up, but etsy fees run away with you- very easily... I've had etsy fees of up to $100 a month before.. and the sales arent always worth it

I agree, Peaks is the best. candlescience is a close second... peaks throws better.

yes, yes, yes! And try really hard to ask to be away from the food. Scented food + scented products.... not a good mix.

I've done 100% oo liquid soap, it was sad sad soap hardly a bit of lather, kinda slimy... I use up to 40%, but anything above that seems to REALLY kill the lather.

that is great news with POPS going away!!

I LOVE the chocolate milk, one of my favorites... I'm ordering 10 pounds if I can spare the money.