pleasureridgecandles

I also stock up on supplies. Wax, glassware I usually stock up on twice a year. We make a trip to Aztek so we don't have to pay shipping for the shipping killer items. Sometimes I need to get extra jars for fundraisers, things like that, but, there's a place here that I can get those if needed in a pinch. And I usually go ahead and get about 600 extra lids when we make our twice yearly trip. As for wicks, when I order those I get 1000 at a time and them just replenish when I start getting low. FO's I also tend to stock up on if they are popular scents that I use alot, especially when there's a sale. Warning labels are also something I order in large quantity. I got 2208 last time for 24.99. I do know any of the waxes I've used (container) have a use by date which is a year from manufactor date listed on the wax box. Not sure if it technically goes bad but there's a reason it's there. Never really questioned why as I have always used my wax before the year is up.

The problem from my understanding of everyone's posts is that they are pi$$ed to be paying for shipping when they are close enough to pick it up. I agree with them why should they have to pay for shipping if they are not having it shipped??? That makes no sense at all. From the suppliers that I have dealt with (that I could pick up from) they did not charge me extra nor did they add in shipping charges to the cost and make me pay for it when I picked it up. The biggest bonus in having a supplier close enough to pick up from is to avoid the added expense of shipping charges (which makes our costs in our products less). For Teri to now have to pay for shipping when she will not be having it shipped (an added expense of 23.00 just on the one box of wax) makes a huge difference to us. Alot of us stock up when we pick up so say she got 12 boxes of wax that's $276 extra she's having to spend that she shouldn't have to since she's picking it up. And where is that $276 going... right is WSP's pocket. Think of all the other supplies $276 could have bought. It's one thing to charge a minimal processing fee for filling the order, but, damn this is CRAZY!!Every bit we can save on supplies helps our bottom line and helps our customers by saving them money. I've never before seen a supplier who charged for shipping when it was picked up. It's freaking ridiculous and they I think are going to lose ALOT of business b/c of it. And then there's the real time pricing. Who can keep up with their costs in supplies if it's constantly going up and down. I know I don't have the time to calculate my costs every single day on the same supplies from the same supplier. Consistency I think is key and apparently that's something this supplier is severly lacking. You know I just thought of something I wonder how they calculated the shipping into their items since we are all over the place. I'm in KY just a state down so I'm paying the same price for shipping as someone clear across the country??? As we all know shipping rates vary. The closer you are to the supplier the lower the shipping usually but more expensive the further you are from them.

Here's a thought.. you could use those FO's that you say have not so great CT as freebies to buying customers. You could make them in the souffle cups (1 oz cups will hold about .80 oz of wax) and give them out as a thank you gift when someone makes a purchase. Bet they will try them since they aren't out any money for those and if they love it once they get the HT they will be back for more, but, this time paying for them. Word of mouth from those customers could bring you more. Customers love freebies and it's a great chance to actually get people to try them. Just a thought.

:laugh2::laugh2: I was wondering when someone would bring that up Thanks for the laugh Eric... I needed that!!!

Since I had seen on here previously that the Jar Store was going up soon (tomorrow actually) and no one seemed to know if it was going to a substanial or not, I went ahead and ordered from them today. So we'll see if they contact me about the shipping charges being off (or if they would since it's their fault if it's incorrect). I know if my cart was not putting in enough shipping I certainly wouldn't go back and ask my customers for it. I'd make sure I fixed it though so I wasn't having to eat shipping.

I'm doing a wax dipped bear as well. The mom is a friend of mine so I'm also doing her a basket since most people only buy for the baby. I know as a mom myself I would have loved to have a pampering basket for myself. I'm doing body butter, candles, bubble bath etc. I mean what woman doesn't like to be pampered and especially a new mom. She's gonna flip when she gets all the stuff I'm getting and doing for her. I'm getting some baby stuff, doing the dipped bear, her pamper basket and a diaper cake. She's a first time momma so I have to go all out for her. I decided to do the dipped bear in the Johnsons Bedtime Bath. I already had that scent and some people recommend Lavender, but, she's not a floral person and the Bedtime Bath has a hint of lavender so I think she'll be happy with it.

Does anyone do much business with them? I looked at them for some jars and they are trying to rip me a new one on shipping. I checked the Jar Store and Candlwic for these jars. Both have them, both are the same on price. So I did a mock order on both to see what the shipping would be. Same amount of jars (180), same shipping carrier (UPS)... Jar Store 30.90 shipping, Candlwic 153.47. I checked and Candlewic is in PA and Jar Store is in CT. I'm in KY so PA is closer to me than CT is so why the hell is there a difference of 122.57 in shipping???? That is a HUGE difference. So guess who's NOT getting my jar order??? :tiptoe:

Just b/c a wax can hold up to 2 pz per lb doesn't mean you have to use that. Most reputable suppliers you can use 1 - 1.5 oz per lb with great results. Not to mention the money you are saving since FO's are not exactly cheap. As for Day at the Spa from CS, I have a couple samples but have done nothing with them other than sniff. Based on OOB I love it. I will have to now put it in wax and see what happens. Another thing to add to my to do list.

This is from Elements website for Secret Garden: SOY: 10 oz round jar wicked with HTP1212 &/or HTP1213, 1 oz per lb, living area of 250 sq feet. Performed great after 1 wk cure, extremely nice. Also from their website : Recommended usage of oils: Soy Wax: 1 oz per lb. unless otherwise noted I did not see anywhere where it said 2 oz per lb for this particular FO. So that may be the problem or one of the problems. Using too much FO can affect the throw of the candle and not in a good way. Try another batch using less FO and let it cure for about a week and see if that helps. ETA: How much wax did you use when you made the candle(s)? You may have gone above the max FO% for your wax.

How much FO per lb of wax did you use? If you only used 1 oz per lb and it's a light scent upping to 1.5 oz per lb may give you better results. It also could be one of those scents that needs to be wicked up. Also how long did you allow the candle to cure before your test burn?

Alabaster and Aztec both have the Hawaiian Tropics FO. I've used both in soy and had good results. I haven't used them in B&B but I checked and both are skin safe. Alabaster's is called Island Mist now since they changed all the names of the dup's to their own names but they have compare to... next to all the renamed dups. Aztek's is listed under novelty FO's. ETA: Both smell exactly like Hawaiian Tropics oil. I haven't used that scent in awhile so unless they've changed their formulas this is what you're looking for. If you order from Alabaster you may get something called Hawaiian Paradise instead. Everytime I ordered Tropics they sent me Paradise. Smells like Hawaiian Fruit Punch, but, I called them and everytime they sent me the correct bottle at no cost and let me keep the other. Maybe since they changed the name it won't be an issue.

I quickly checked out the link you gave me and I think that's what I'm looking for. I have a few months before I need to renew so I'm trying to get a jump on the whole thing. Do you find it to be fairly easy to add, change, update your site? Thanks Sliver!!

Thanks for the replies I will look into those mentioned. I knew I was saying it wrong. I thought I'd go ahead and get a jump on trying to find something before our current one expires. I know when we renewed last time there was an option of taking the site to another host, but, it was so last minute I just did another year. I would like to take the site with me and make changes to what I want and add the new stuff without having to completely redo the entire thing. From my understanding you can do that. Or am I being a complete dumba$$ again?? The only problem I have with keeping it as it is, is that I can't do anything with it. I've gone into it to attempt to make changes, but, everything is html and I don't understand what I'm looking at. The person that did the site was more than happy to do updates, add, etc but the cost for doing so... no thanks. Do I just need to move elsewhere and start all over? Thanks ETA: The site currently has the same company for the building and hosting. The only problem is you can't build, change, update etc without knowing html since it's all in html. I'm totally lost when looking at it. Might as well be in a foreign language.

Does anyone have any suggestions for user friendly website hosts? I guess I'm putting that correctly I currently have one, but, the site was done by someone who knows how to do all that and it's all html which I'm totally lost with. I want to switch if I can find one that will be friendly to someone who has not a clue. What I want is something to where I can go and add, remove, update etc with ease and not feel like a complete dumba$$ scratching their head. Yes I could have them do the updates for me, but, that can get pretty expensive and with all the costs going up everywhere I figure if I can find something to where I can do it myself that would be money saved. I hope I made sense. Thanks!!

How much of an increase is the jar store going to have? I didn't get that email. Thanks.

I agree with the previous poster. Soy needs cure time. And burning your candle within 24-72 hours just isn't long enough imo. I normally let mine cure for atleast a week before I test burn them. Let them sit for about a week and try testing them again. And as said already do a search you will find tons and tons of info on the 464. Good luck!!

Depending on what wax you use, Aztek has not gone up... yet anyway. You might check them out if your current supplier has gone up. They are in TN.

I got the email as well. Yes the free shipping is still going on. I just went on the site for a minute and looked at the surplus stuff. The linen and room freshener base was 74.31 for a gallon on surplus... . I don't know what it was before but damn that's expensive!! The only thing that I thought was a plus was that the prices are in real time meaning if their costs go down the cost we pay automatically goes down instead of waiting for them to decide to lower the prices, atleast that was my understanding of it anyway. But getting rid of the 25% discount for pick ups is ridiculous. The whole point in picking up orders from a supplier is to eliminate the shipping costs which makes our costs lower. Yes they tell you they have free shipping but actually the cost of shipping is included in the price so really if you pick up your order you're still paying for shipping in the cost of the product. So why on earth would you pick it up unless you want to sniff things or do your homework finding other suppliers to make them match the price. I'm sure their price match will include whatever the shipping costs would be from the other supplier so really you might not be getting it matched for price. Just doesn't make alot of sense to me

Great idea!! Gotta love the adverstising... Good Luck!!

Those are very cute... I gotta stop looking at the pics that are of food..especially sweets. Now I want a cupcake!!!

Thanks for your replies. Starr, she's wanting atleast 100 so that would be rather time consuming, but, if that's what I have to do then I'll do it. Kyme, there's no pic of them on Taylored so what do they actually look like? Are they clear? Since these will be "special" just for her I don't think I'll have an issue with them sitting around and getting that plastic smell....but you never how long someone will let it sit before they burned it.

I have some wedding candles I am making for a friend and they are going to be in the 4 oz interlude jars. For any of you that use these jars what do you cover them with? I haven't seen any lids for that size, but, when I did a search on here there was a suggestion of the adhesive top seals that Taylored Concepts has. The thread was not recent so is this my only option? Anyone used the top seals? Any other suggestions? These will be given to the guests and they will be scented so I need to make sure they are protected from dust, dirt, etc and keep the scent in. Thanks for any help.

Hello and welcome to your new addiction!! Wicking up/down means that you need to go up or down a wick size. Say you're using ECO 10's and you need to wick up you'd go with an ECO 12, down would be an ECO 8. And various factors go into whether or not you need to change the wick size. The way the candle is burning, little or no scent throw and some FO's require a larger wicker than others, for example. It's all gonna be part of testing. Make sense now? I know I've seen this discussed before so just do a search and I'm sure you'll come up with more on it. HTH. ETA: Posting at the same time as well.

Thanks for your replies. I was a little skeptical on the black linen and amber but read the reviews and thought what the hell, I'll give it a try. As for the New Car Scent I was getting that one primarily for air fresheners...not sure if I'd like that in wax. I've not tried the lick me all over yet, but, maybe on my next order. I could go nuts and have a HUGE order, but, I used alot of restraint and kept it fairly reasonable. My order will be here tomorrow, but, not sure I can wait till it's delivered to the house...might just bring it home with me in the morning.

Hey Tami!!! I've not personally tried it, but, read others on here that have. So if you try it let us know how it turns out. Glad to see you fnally make it over to the board!!