B@BlissStreet

I am in love with NG's Sugar Cookie Brulee. We're introducing it next week for the holiday line. It is amazing for CT and HT in my soy, and it is skin safe to 5%. I haven't tried it in M&P or shower gel yet, because I think it will turn brown from the vanilla content, but no matter what it is crazy good in wax. For men, I also use their Acqua Di Gio dupe; it is dead on, and is also skin safe, as well as Glacier Falls, an Old Spice Red Zone dupe, which is amazing and doesn't cloud a bit in the shower gel base we use. Our top seller from NG is the Forbidden Fruit, which is super strong in soy, and is safe to 5%, and I think it would be an amazing soap scent. HTH...make sure to post what you choose! I love to live vicariously through others FO addictions....

☮,

Brandy

I agree with Deb. Take that if you can. Why not? You are a cutie pie with a sleek product line, and you are very good at communicating clearly. Go for it, Jack!

Thanks, everyone! This was just the beginning of the order; there are a total of 29 scents for this account. I had to take today off to wait for wicks to arrive and give my neck/arm a rest, but Boy Wonder will be here to help with the rest of the pouring.

Stella, thanks for fielding the labeling question. I know this is "small beans" to many, but I wanted to share for the new people who are intimidated about pouring large orders. It just takes some planning and organization. We have some wet spots, and some frosting, but I just accept it as a characteristic of the soy. The client wants big 2"x4" white labels, so I guess we can just cover the wet spots. LOL

I'll try to remember to snap more photos as we work this weekend.

Congratulations! They look great! I love them all lined up like that.

Thanks, Suzy! I wish I had the table room in my house to line them all up....Craft shows are coming, though, so I'll take more photos. It's pretty cool.

Beth,

I have a single pour wax. If I get the temp right, I don't have to mess with messy tops. Soy is a special lady(aka beotch), but I ran 5 pour pots tonight and it was fine. I just had to space them out for pour times. My big issue is I ran out of wick bars; I could have gone faster if I hadn't had to wait for those saviors! My arm/neck is injured, so I don't pour over a 3 lb. batch at a time, but I do have an assistant who is amazing (aka Boy Wonder) but he went bowling tonight, so I just did little 3lb's per batch. We'll kick a$$ and take names this weekend with the rest. Just don't freak; I only had two 4lb pots and one 2lb pot plus some pyrex as of Monday. I'm still learning, too. That's why I'm sharing...I'm not scared of anyone jacking me, as there is nothing there to gain! Winning! I'll be hosting a swap soon for tarts/wickless...hope you join in. It's a great way to learn what other's wax does.

I snagged a wholesale account with private labeling, and just thought I'd share a picture of the first evening's work. The client chose the jars and scents, but I had creative license with color, so I went for it, as usual! Scents pictured are Acqua Di Gio dupe-Black, Coffee Caramel Cream-Brown, Hot Apple Pie-Light Red, Forbidden Fruit-Deep Red, LoveSpell dupe-Dark Fuschia, Berry Blast-Magenta, Eggnog-Yellow, Homemade Cheesecake- Light Yellow, Hazlenut Coffee-Dark Brown, Cinnamon Buns-Brown. We're only about 25% through this order, but I wanted to share. Vanilla Bean and Coconut Cake are already boxed. Best to you all.

Just keep your eye out when shopping. I have found molds in candy/cake supply departments in Kmart; as well as some in a center aisle display for Easter themed molds. I've used both Wilton silicone and teflon molds with great success in the detail quality.

If you were asking if you could recycle your 6 cavity clamshells; heck yes, and don't you feel like you left a thinner carbon footprint? I reuse my clamshells and tealight cups; just wash thoroughly, but be sure to only use the same scent; they do pick up a degree of it, no matter how much you bleach them (which is unnecessary, but I had the flu last week and Clorox and Lysol became by current besties; I had been washing some recycle clams and tossed in the clorox just to be safe...). I wash and reuse my tealight cups for personal use only; I won't even let my sis take these home; never had a problem, but they cloud and are spotty after the dishwasher, so I just keep them for my use, which is heavy. I'm Brandy, and I'm a candle junkie.

☮

Thanks, Sparky! I'm off to shop their site...

If I may offer some advice, here it is. Be patient. Don't order a ton of sample oils. You will have access the classifieds here within 30 days. Wait and buy your FO's there; you will save a ton of $. The world of co-ops and classies will amaze you, and since you are just testing you will appreciate the discount. I may get slammed for posting this, but I think it is the best advice a newbie here can get. Go with one wax, one size jar, and then add your FO's and such. But from experience, a 1 oz. sample of oil isn't enough to properly test. I buy a pound or a half pound on those I don't have confidence in.

I don't have a lot of time for testing; goal is a first shot that throws in soy, Any surefire suggestions?

Hope this saves some cash for some of you...I just received a sales flyer from Radio Shack, and was surprised to see they are selling the card readers for $9.99. DO NOT BUY THIS ITEM FROM A RETAILER; SQUARE UP PROVIDES THEM FOR FREE ONLINE!

Here's one I found:

To make, simply mix;

4 ounces of Distilled Water

2 ounces of Witch Hazel

and 1 tablespoon of Scented Oil

Can I ask where you found this? This recipe just seems like an incredibly high FO load. I'm new to the sprays, and just curious.

Thanks,

B

Welcome to the board. I use EL Millennium (I only do containers, tarts, and tea lights) and love it. I have tried different types of wicks, but have found I like the paper wicks best. I get my EL supplies from Lorrie here on the board; www.jandlcreations.com . She also sells wicks and fragrance oils that are amazing. I haven't used the regular container wax from EL, but know the Millennium really lets you push the fragrance load; I generally use about 9%. I also use the liquid dyes from EL, and absolutely love the bright colors I can achieve without wick clogging. Lorrie is a plethora of information. When I started with EL wax, I made sure to use their FO's since they have been tested in soy. My top selling FO's that I get from Lorrie are:

Blueberry Muffin

LoveSpell (VS type)

White Cake

Lilac

Lemon Cheesecake

Cherry Almond

Vanilla (Straight Vanilla, not the French)

Peaches & Cream

Good luck, and be sure to post your progress!

Best,

Brandy

Kristin,

can you provide the hyperlink? I went to look, and came up with several, but I think you are this one:

http://www.lilcandlestore.com/fragrancelist.html#

I'm having trouble with Internet Explorer for some reason tonight; I'm going to reboot and attempt it again. Do you own the company, or just do design?

Checking back in a bit...

Best,

Brandy

My dad tried refilling his cartridges at one point; but discovered he didn't get as many uses out of them.

I get pretty good usuage out of my canon pixma. I am estimating .07 per label (the ink alone) right now. I run that sucker a long time after it tells me to change the cartridge!

Agree that the Pixma is a great ink stretcher. I have one that I now use as my back up; Jeff has a fancier HP that has an amazing fast draft capacity for my college stuff. I do a ton of printing for school, because it is so much easier/old school for me to edit on paper. So I use the HP now and just upgrade the quality of print; good results at a comparable cost with the Canon. I really want a top of the line laser printer, but Jeff said he's paying off the G6 and buying me a used late model SUV, so I'm going to stay off the naughty list and not have Santa deliver a fancy laser printer as planned.

Agree with dc.

One of my girls that hosts parties and does sales is a former Partylite consultant; she had to purchase a pricey kit, and was expected to purchase the samples of every scent they introduced; she got a discount, but she used her product for shows, so it was not where she made her $. When she sampled my products, she quit PL and is now a great asset to my team.

On another note; I was in our local grocery the other day, and the local Scentsy rep was working there in the deli; she claims she is crazy busy with sales and couldn't wait to tell me about the new warmers and scents. Then she asked me how my Tupperware business was going(I've never sold Tupperware; hosted a couple parties back in the '90's). I laughed, gave her my card, and told her about two upcoming shows where she could view my product or attempt to market hers. It was a hoot. Before she got my card, she asked me to book a Scentsy party if she would book a Tupperware party. I have never sold Tupperware, so I just paid for my stuff and let her know who I was. Talk about the cat who swallowed the canary!

It happens. I get invited to Scentsy parties, and occasionally a Partylite, but that has mostly fizzled out with my friends and relatives. It seems it's more the social network "friends" that I merely consider acquaintances that send these invites. I don't take offense, just chalk it up to FB lacking a good mail merge app that is user friendly. HTH and good luck!

I thought UPS had lost my package over the weekend; I forgot about Columbus Day. Oddly, UPS now delivers many of my packages to our local post office, and then USPS delivers to the receiver. This just happened this weekend with a shipment from QVC. When I did a track on the package, UPS stated that the receiver was on vacation or some such answer, so I expected the big brown truck on Tuesday. Nope. My regular mail carrier delivered it Wednesday. I'm not sure why, but this has happened with several of the UPS deliveries I've had in the past couple weeks. It adds an extra day to the shipping ETA. Good luck, and keep us posted!

Best,

Brandy

This is where wick type & size come in... If a wick is burning hot enough to achieve FMP during the first burn, then it's a good bet it will be too hot as the candle buns down into the container where the temperatures become much hotter.

Geez, thanks. I was all confused on this mental hell day ( I should have taken a personal day!). I thought I was reading that wrong. I actually have an example to add; I was testing tealights today...I know the average for soy is 6 or 7 hours. I lit one at 10 am and by 4:30 pm had to extinguish, as the wick needed trimming. I always stress a max burn of four hours; so I'm retesting (about the 40'th time!} to ensure the exact time. If only people would read the warning labels...

Thanks again for your info.

Best,

Brandy

Keeping kids off your testers is a real problem... Because you are doing precise burns, taking notes, etc. (you ARE, aren't you?), tell him to keep his mitts off until the all-clear is sounded. I "baited" my son with other candles so he'd leave my testers alone. I also hid the testers - both from him and from me 'cause it's just HARD to keep my hands off a candle I'm dying to test... if we didn't see them, there was less temptation!!

I had an issue once with my candles "splattering"; wasn't my issue...little sis was burning a tealight warmer and a jar candle in bathroom when the toddlers used the restroom; both attempted to blow out the flames, and the spit they threw was enough to cause bubbling and popping. Sister extinguished when she realized what the kiddos had done; no issues to date, and the twins, Addison and Connor, now love on the candles and dry them with their blankies before Mom lights anything. It wasn't a safety issue at that point; we were on cue. It took a ton of interviewing lying children to figure out. The kids didn't tell us the results for fear of discipline; I bought them ice cream for saving me from a future ordeal in the legal area.

What about Edamame? Edible soy. I like it, as I love sugar snap peas, yet detest green peas in any form.

From what I understand, Candlefind is a reviewer of candles that no one actually purchases. From what I have read on their Facebook page, it appears that candlemakers ship thier product to Candlefind free of cost, and let them distribute the candles for review. Does anyone have any further information? I just haven't taken them seriously, even though they have written stellar reviews of candles I have seen on this forum. Anyone have any personal experience here?

Regarding the melt pool issue...you both have me confused. Don't waxes generally melt at different rates? And additives, etc, have an effect on the rate? How could this ever be generalized?

I'm curious where this tread will go. Heading to FB to check out Candlefind again; I think they are a thread I subscribe to.

Best to all,

Brandy

You are going to love it here; amazing talent. I adore your profile pic!

Please let me know where the candle rehab unit is. I just know I'll meet board members in person that way! hahahaha

Agree with Jonsie. I've never had anyone complain if there is some mottling after a full burn. I don't have it happen with every scent, but since no one minds, neither do I!