Mottster

For our tealights, we use the Tealight Cups from Peak along with TL-28 1" wicks. We've made and sold a few thousand tealights and never have had any issue with them. In addition we have personally burned about 100 of our own tealights without any wick problems or any other issues. First thing that really comes to mind is how many different leftover pours were these tealight(s) made from? Were they different scents or over several batches of the same scent? I would say just destroy the other tealights from this batch, obviously something isn't right with them.

Well actually sell ours the large size clamshell for $5.00 and they do really well at that price. I just don't see where $3.00 would be considered a pretty good profit. Is that everything included in the cost to make them? Just curious..

Here's a link on how to protect your images from being downloaded. Since I work in IT for my day job I figured I would put it to use.. http://www.naturefocused.com/articles/image-protection.html I would look at item #5 which talks about using Javascript to disable the ability for anyone to right click on your website. Thus eliminating the ability to Save Image As. HTH, Sean

We use 1oz per pound and that works for most scents from Candle Science. But, we have noticed that few would be better with more than 1oz.

Also, do some searching of posts on this forum. I can attest that there's a wealth of information on here about things to check and try if you are having scent throw issues. ...testing is also just a big part of the process.. Boy, does my bank account know that!

Congrats!

Well, as far as sales it was ok.. But, we did learn some important lessons coming out of that show.

Sorry, been meaning to get back and answer the questions people have had.. Though a nasty cold virus has invaded our house.. (1) What's in the baskets? We have sample sniffers (of the scents) in the baskets (they are in little 1oz glass bottles). In the drawers we have tealights in each of our scents. This was the first show that we had tried this type of setup (allowing people to mix and match a set of tealights). Our logic was to allow people to sniff each of the scents and then choose what scents they wanted (in regards to tealights). But, we found out that this didn't work that well. Even with a few signs pointing out that they can mix and match scents. So, since this was a two day show, on the second day we turned around the drawer sets to let people help themselves to the tealights. This did prove to have much better results, so the baskets that are in front of the tealight drawers were removed. (2) Did you make the table cloths? No, we did purchase those online. The cost for all 3 tables cloths was $150 (so $50 for each table). Which for the quality is much better than other places we had looked. Not going to advertise anyone in the post, but if you would like the URL for where we got them from (just send a PM). JacquiO - Thank you, that's what I've been telling my wife is that we do need to add some height to our booth. Any other comments or suggestions (critiques) are greatly appreciated..

Here's some photos of our booth setup for this last weekend...

We've been using silicone spatulas, because with the wooden spoon was causing a reaction with the wax once it cured. Basically it was causing a pattern to form at the top of the candle. Just wash them after each use, and have been using them for over 3 months now without any problems.

For our labels I use Adobe Illustrator, since we have a label template that we use. Then just change the scent name, and save it for Microsoft Office. Yes, it does take some knowledge to figure out how to get it to do what I wanted it to do. Youtube is a good place for information on using the programs though. Not a cheap program by any means, but over time you would make that cost back.

We take 30 scents, then of each scent we take 2 of each of our products (Set of tealights which is 13, 8oz Tureen and Pack of tarts). Unless we know that it is a popular scent, then we will up the amount to 4 of that scent.

We roll with the 3 T's. Tarts Tureen (8oz) Tealights With 30 scents available. Works well for us..

Here's a few helpful suggestion that I use. (1) Watermark all your product images. Thus no one can just copy it from your website, without your watermark showing up on the image. Personally I put our website address in a corner of the image. (2) Copyscape http://www.copyscape.com/, helps you track plagiarism of your website. (3) There is a piece of javascript that you could add to your <head></head> tags of your website to prevent people from right clicking on your website. Here's a link to some of the javascript: http://www.java-scripts.net/javascripts/No-Right-Click.phtml There is no 100% way to prevent people from copying your stuff. But these should at least help deter 90% of those who thought about it. HTH! Sean

I sent you a PM Candlelady..

Here's what we use.. Only $6 for the set.. http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10877957 We dedicate one drawer for each scent that we have.. So we don't have to worry about storing multiple scents in a drawer throughout the year. In which we have purchased roughly a dozen of these, helps keep things organized.

As a few others have said in this thread.. Customer get what they pay for, our customers are glad to be supporting a local business with a quality product. Don't worry what those big box stores are selling their candles for. Because as others have said you can't compete with their prices. But what you can compete with is the quality of the product. I like to go through and check out the candles and look at the quality. :tiptoe:

Same here, already started with testing out some new scents for our spring line also.

Thank you for the information as it is valuable, just wish someone didn't have to have such a bad experience..

One thing to consider in regards to how far the scent will move through the house. Is the airflow in the room, we've ran some tests in the past in which we used a fog machine to see how the air moves through our rooms. When we have the A/C & Furnace on and off, did see some varying results. Since each house in unique, that's just another variable in the grand scheme of things..

I can say that we use TL-28 wicks (CS) for our tealights, along with Jack Frost from CS and had great success.. HTH

Here's where we get ours. Cost ends up being around .10 per bag.. http://www.papermart.com/Product%20Pages/Product.aspx?GroupID=3807&SubGroupID=3808&ParentGroupID=18980#3808

Here's a link to one site that sells them.. http://wholesalesuppliesplus.com/StoreCategory.aspx?CatalogID=3&GroupID=180&CategoryID=663&CategoryName=Wick+-+Low+Smoke+Zinc

We just recently replaced our HP due to issues with printing our labels. We went with this one http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10993532 We changed to the printer, because the printing path is down and out, compared to the HP in which the paper goes up and over then out. The problem with the HP's is that the label page is thicker than normal paper so it kept moving while printing. With the Lexmark, it has done very well, especially with printing labels. Just a suggestion..

Well, we paid a visit to our local walmart. They are in the process of moving to a new building and they had 1 left in the clearance isle. Had it marked for $13.00, and it was basically brand new and never opened. I was totally stoked with the find. In additional also found a GE single burner hot plate (marked down from $16 to $8) It was a good day to visit walmart..