Faerywren

I use the Wal Mart olive oil in all my recipes and have never had an issue. Coconut oil is $5.95 here too. I just buy it in an emergency if I run out, but it still sucks that it got so expensive.

One of the best deals I get around here is buying my sunflower oil at a Mexican grocery store. It's crazy cheap. It makes such a pretty white bar of soap and I have bars that are years old with no DOS.

~Julia

Well said, Richard. I cringe when people join a forum with, "Hi everyone. I started making soap/lotion/candles whatever 2 months ago and have started selling on Etsy/ Artfire/craft shows/street corners and I love it!"

Grrr. Maybe I'm just a bitch. *shrug*

~Julia

Thank you NBC!!!!

Now I know all I need to know about making soy candles in thrift shop containers.

If you can over the coming weeks through the holidays quickly take me through the joys of palm wax, parrifin wax, perhaps some pillar candles, maybe making my own silicone molds, and then if you can give me a quick overview of CP soap I will have the makings of a great business and can then tell my current boss what to do with his job as I am going to become prosperous in my own little craft store.

I will just make sure that my insurance cover is well up to date prior to starting, as I think that may be a prudent thing to do, don't you?

What are they thinking................................................?

PS - You didnt mention the use of any fragrance. Perhaps you can outline this procedure for me also, as some people I know like scented candles rather than unscented.

Thank you once again for you great advice......

I love Santa's Pipe! I also use Cashmere Woods from WSP, I don't know if it's supposed to, but it has a definate pipe tobacco scent to me.

~Julia

Such a cute idea!

I have a question for you, Keri. Do you use cans even if they have the "stay fresh" white coating in them? I was wondering if that would effect the candle at all.

~Julia

That is the coolest idea ever. I love the picture!

~Julia

It seems people either have excellent results or horrible results with Oregon Trails. The oils and the customer service. I've ordered from them and it was great, but I'm wary to order again, because of all the negative things I've heard. Apparently, the good experiences happen less often than the negative ones.

~Julia

I love coming up with new things and having it work. I love packaging and seeing all the finished soaps lined up and ready to go. I hate packing for craft shows, but love when I get all set up. Okay, there isn't much I don't like. Sorry.

~Julia

I use the industrial plastic wrap from Sam's. It's easy and smell through. I have a whole shrink wrap set up, but customers didn't like not being able to smell the soaps. I got smell through shrink wrap from Therapy Garden, but it was a huge pain in the a$$ for me to fiddle with. The Sam's wrap stretches and gives a lovely clean look.

I always wrap my M&P soap because here in Alabama it's so humid the soaps will sweat and look ugly. I also like to keep them protected from dust etc.

~Julia

What a terrific review! Congratulations!

~Julia

Really like the scramble card idea!

~Julia

Christmas grab bags? They always did well for me. Every bag is guaranteed to be worth a certain amount, but is priced several dollars lower.

Word scramble cards? You take the scents of 10 candles in your shop, scramble the letters and your customer figures out what it's supposed to be. If the customer completes the card correctly, they can turn it in for $5 of a $25 purchase. If people aren't any good at it, it encourages them to look at all of your candles to figure it out. Hopefully, they will be sniffing them as well and will decide to buy them. If you hand them out as they enter the store you can make them redeemable only on that day, or you can make them valid through the holiday season.

Dollar Tree is always a good place to check. When I find cute ones I buy a whole stack. I'm sure people are like, "Why the heck does she need so many baskets?" :rolleyes2

We also have 3 decent thrift stores close to me with an aisle devoted to baskets. Great to pick through and see what other people gave up. You can usually find some really nice quality baskets for cheap.

~Julia

Look like the Rocket Pops from the 70's. Too bad you didn't scent them! They came out great!

~Julia

I always let my m&p soap sit and "cure" for a week of so to let the water evaporate out of it before wrapping. It seems to last a lot longer than fresh bars.

~julia

I make origami boxes for soap in my special gift baskets. They are purely for show. I used to make my own pillow boxes but the time to make them negated any cost savings I may have had.

Buy your boxes, and spend your time on some label design to jazz up them up.

~Julia

Anne Watson's Smart Soapmaking is a must have. I love any of Sandy Maine's books because they have gorgeous photos. The recipes are pretty simplistic but that's a good thing. Alicia Grosso's Everything Soapmaking book is great too.

A word to the wise, no matter where you get your recipes, ALWAYS run them through a soap calculator. Typos can and do happen.

~Julia

You are right. Molds can be as addictive as scents. I have an entire cabinet (that takes some adjusting to get the doors to close) packed with molds.

Because silicone is so expensive, try to buy molds that will give you the most bang for your buck. I try to do that to justify spending $.

~Julia

Pick up these books to read. They are highly recommended to anyone facing job change/loss and what to do now.

No More Mondays by Dan Miller

48 Days to the Work You Love by Dan Miller

Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson

Seriously, read those books. The third one is very short. If you only choose one of the Dan Miller books, No More Mondays is the most recommended for someone in your situation.

Take care,

Jennifer

I had to read Who Moved My Cheese for my Psychiatric Nursing class...then write a paper on how our life correlated to the events in the book. I was pissed at first (I hate papers), but found it a very enlightening exercise. See if you can find it used. It will seriously take you 45 minutes to read it and you don't want to spend 14.99 for that!

~Julia

Oooh, yes. I'd like to see one.

~Julia

Great job on both of them! I think that pillar is gorgeous!

~Julia

I don't know that cardboard would suck the fragrance out, but in my experience, if something isn't wrapped in plastic, it loses it's smell much faster.

~Julia

I was thinking about this just yesterday. A Glade commercial came on about how fragrance "decorates" your home for the holidays. I don't make candles on a large scale, but can see how the cheaper options would be hurting folks.

I'm sorry you've had to quit. Maybe things will pick up again in the future.

~Julia

I think we should all get one of your candles so we can judge their awesomeness and handmadeness for ourselves.

Sounds like someone was just jealous. I had some guy come up to my booth once and try to give me a lesson on how I should do my labels and how I should package my products. He told me he and his wife were some big deal in candles and he'd put 2 other ladys out of business, blah, blah, blah. Just a wind bag. Stood and bugged me for over an hour. I came home and searched his company on the internet, not one hit. Not one! What a jackass.

~Julia

I pour at 110-125. I know GB says to pour at 135 plus or minus 5 degrees, but I usually pour lower. Not on purpose, I just usually get sidetracked waiting for my wax to cool.:rolleyes2

~Julia

Shirlee,

Your rationale of .25 ounces of FO to every 4 ounces of wax was correct. As most people do 1 oz to 1 lb of wax. It's good to let tarts and candles cure before you burn them.

Also, did you use a thermometer when melting your wax? Most FO's need to be added when the wax is around 185 degrees to make sure it "sticks". I continually stir my wax from 185 down to 110 or so before I pour it. Then I cure for a few days before I test.

Hope that helps.

~Julia

The Lye Guy and AAA Chemical are 2 good places to get lye online.

~Julia