classiccandle

I use the single wick setter and love it. It's quicker and easier than the old way I used to do it - a straw! Ha! The only downside is it doesn't fit all of my containers so I still have to use a straw for some but for those it does fit it comes in handy. I have a multi wick setter I don't use that I'll sell you for $20 plus $5 shipping if you want it.

Here's my situation and I hope some of you who are more experienced with QB can help. I rent space in a local craft type business (along with about 100 other craft vendors) and they take care of sales tax, credit cards, credit card fees, etc. My responsibility is to restock my inventory, keep my space clean, and pay my rent. Every two weeks they send me a Settlement Report which shows what I sold, how many and what my net profit was.

In the month of July I sold 55 tarts and 28 candles but I have no idea how to enter those types of sales in QB. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thank you!

That's how I do it too but I get bubbles every time. Are your labels as long as mine? I spoke with OLL and they said to wipe the glass down with alcohol and that should work. They didn't say which alcohol to use so I'm wondering which would be best - whiskey, bourbon, vodka, perhaps something more exotic like Drambuie or Sambuca? Should I drink some before using it on the jars? Okay, I couldn't resist trying to be funny but I'll definitely try wiping them down with alcohol to see if that helps and also being more diligent about rubbing them down as I work out from the center.

Thanks number2of7 for your response!

Hi all,

Don't bash me.

I just want to say that I'm so sorry that I let you and all my customers down. I had some bad health issues and I know that is no excuse but I just wanted to say I'm sorry.

We have had so many emails to stay opened so we decided to sell our top fragrances only. So if you want to let everyone know. We will have a letter on the site letting people know and I hope to win you and all my customers back.

Email us the ones you would like to see keep and if they are enough request for it we will.

Just look over the bad grammar. LOL

Thanks

Brent & Kimberlie

Bad health isn't an excuse...it's a reason. Without our good health we have nothing. Please take care of yourself and then your business. I think everyone would understand if you could no longer keep the business going. If you can and you choose to I wish you the best in both areas!

I've never ordered from Moonworks but I guess I'm going to have to order some of her oils on September 1st when her sale starts. I'm guessing, from the reviews in this thread, that the patchouli is worth the $30/lb price? I've also never ordered a straight patchouli so is it better straight, as a mixer, or both?

I use 415 too and I may have to try it. This is what she says about it on the description page.

Tested at 10% with a 3 day cure time. Based on 5 stars and 5 being the best, I would say the throw is a 3.5 - 4 stars. Didn't blow me out of the room but I noticed the longer it cured, the stronger it got. Would recommend 7+ days curing time.

Thanks ladies. I use a pretty unconventional recipe (I'm still playing around with it) that makes my combined ingredients come out looking more like Lush's mixtures than typical melt mixtures. Rather than pour them into molds I pack the mixture into a mold. I used 8 oz of cocoa butter, 4 oz of almond oil, 32 ounces of baking soda, 16 ounces of citric acid, about 3 ounces of Polysorbate 80 (not sure if that's too much) and less than a quarter ounce of FO. I'll probably have to use more FO because the smell was lighter than I would have liked. They look dry but leave an oily residue on your fingers when you pick them up and I wasn't sure if that was normal or not. I have looked into wrapping them in the foil candy wrappers to keep the residue down.

I'm using a polyester waterproof label on two containers, a plastic bottle and a glass bottle. I have no problems with the plastic bottles but with every glass bottle I get air bubbles under the label. Does anyone have any tricks to hand apply a waterproof label without getting air bubbles under it? The labels I'm using are 7" x 2.5" and are from Online Labels.

Thanks!

Nobody?

They look fine to me. They remind me of a scene from the desert southwest.

I ordered some samples of 8C1 from eclamshell and these things are enormous compared to their 1524 clamshell.

Much to my wife's chagrin I converted one of our bedrooms into my office/laboratory/storage facility. It's typically pretty messy and it drives her absolutely crazy.

I've never used a bath melt and just made my first batch but was wondering if they're supposed to be oily to the touch once you remove them from the mold? If so would you wrap them in plastic to keep them from staining the packaging?

Thank you!

I'm sure the larger companies save by buying in bulk and have automated a lot of their processes and can make more product with less people. As for the smaller folks it would seem to me that they don't factor in enough profit to sell their products at wholesale and charge only enough to sell direct and make a profit. Case in point - I use 415 soy wax which is much cheaper per case than any paraffin wax but I've seen many people selling 12 oz paraffin candles for cheaper than I sell my 7 oz soy candles. I don't worry about those sellers as much because the majority of them don't generate enough business selling direct and eventually go out of business. What's the fastest way to go out of business? Compete on price.

I typically try to charge 5-6 times my cost to factor in selling at wholesale plus I'd like to get paid too and when I get to the point of hiring employees I can do that. It also allows me some wiggle room to not raise prices when my supply costs increase. However, there's a breaking point for that too...lol. I've only been selling since February and have my products (almost exclusively candles and melts although I have added soap and lotion in the past few weeks) in one retail location which I make between $300 - $600 a month so far. Sales started going down around May but seem to be picking back up so I'm hoping this fall/winter sales will be much better.

I use the 5030WX labels from onlinelabels and they fit my clamshells perfectly.

http://www.onlinelabels.com/Products/OL5030WX.htm?search=5030wx&st=s

HTH

I never heard of them until you posted today but I went to their website and used their Contact Us for to ask if they were still in business and this is the reply I received:

Thank you for inquiring. Yes, I'm still around and am actually in the

process of making my oils available to customers in a retail location in

Indiana.

I have some great new fragrances that aren't on the website yet--Carmel

Apple, Eucalyptus & Spearmint, Eggnog, Sweet Vanilla Bean, Victorian Honey,

CK Be type, and a few others, and you are the first to know! I hope to have

them added over the weekend. Please feel free to share this information

with other members.

I appreciate your interest and hope to do business with you soon.

~Gloria

I would say that she's still in business but maybe didn't receive your emails? Like I said I emailed this afternoon and got a reply back this evening.

HTH

It's looks like your garden variety 6 cavity clamshell. Does it have 6 cavities or just one?

I would stipulate in an agreement with her that she can continue using the displays (as JJ said, they're already there and being used) and if she stops selling your products then you get the displays back. Call me cynical but with the economy the way it is and wholesale accounts being tough to acquire anyway, I wouldn't want to ruin the relationship over displays, especially since they're already in place.

Dead sea salt. Not sure about the percentage. From all the recipes I've seen they call for approximately that many drops so I was going by that. It's just going to be the sea salt and EO, nothing else added.

I think I'll go ahead and just use the all-encompassing warning then as well as warn against ingesting the salts. I'm planning on using about 20 drops per 16-20 oz of salt. Does that sound about right?

Thanks Ravens! Also, if you know, since there seems to be so many EO's that pregnant women should avoid is it better to put a warning on the label that pregnant women should avoid using my salts that contain EO? There wouldn't be room enough on the label to include all the EO's that should be avoided so I thought an all-encompassing warning would be better?

I'd like to start using essential oils in my bath and body products and have narrowed down the two suppliers I'll be using, New Directions and Camden-Grey. Now I just have to figure out which essential oils are must haves and was hoping those of you who use them could recommend some. I'm intrigued by the essential oil blends that Essential Wholesale offers and will be ordering some of those but would also like to have stand alone EO's also.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Dye free in both melts and candles.

Could you ladies help me settle a small disagreement? My wife and I are having a disagreement on labels for my lotions. I have two different kinds of lotions, they both contain the same ingredients but one has coconut milk and honey and the other doesn't, and I'm of the opinion that the labels should be different, even if only slightly. I've left the basic design the same but I've changed it enough to differentiate it from the other label and my wife thinks the labels should look the same between the two. Would you let me know what you think? Whatever the majority of respondents say is what I'll go with. :smiley2:

Thanks!

Does anyone have more updates on fragrance reviews from FB? I just got some in wax (with asterisks) and am waiting for them to cure. Here's my opinion on what I've ordered.

Black Raspberry Vanilla* - a little light OOB but still smells good. The website says it's a true duplication of the original BBW fragrance but I can't attest to that because I don't know what the original smells like.

Cinnamon Pumpkin Bread* - smells strong OOB. I smell more pumpkin than cinnamon but still a good one. I'm hoping this will be a good selling fall/winter fragrance.

Mulberry* - this stuff is strong. I mixed it 50/50 with Peak's Amish Harvest (Candybee recipe) and will see if folks around here like it.

Zucchini Bread* - I've never eaten zucchini bread but this stuff smells great. I may have found a new favorite fragrance if this smells as good when burning/melting as it does OOB.

Teakwood Forest - to me this has a sweet tobacco smell to it. Haven't gotten it in wax yet but not sure if it will go over well here. I've tried to sell Asian Sandalwood from Peak and I can't seem to give that away.

Pepperberry Wreath - I think this smells similar to Elements Balsam & Citrus. A sweet citrusy balsam fragrance that should make a good holiday/winter fragrance.

Lavender Fields - I'm not a big floral fan but this doesn't smell too bad. It has a more musky, less sweet smell than the other lavenders other companies sell.

Amish Harvest - smells similar to Peaks but heavier on the vanilla and slightly lighter on the cinnamon. I like Peaks better.

Creamsicle - this is pretty strong OOB but it reminds me of the smell of cough syrup we took as kids. I like it though - the fragrance oil not the cough syrup. The orange is definitely the stronger of the two scents but you can still make out the vanilla.

Vanilla Bean Noel - don't know what the original VBN smelled like but this seems extremely light OOB. I may be one of those who has a hard time smelling vanilla scents but I don't think this is going to work well in wax.

Violet Tulip - a nice mild floral fragrance that I think will be a good seller for floral lovers.

Bird of Paradise - fairly strong OOB. Their site says a combination of vanilla, strawberry and coconut and while I smell the coconut and vanilla it seems the strawberry smells more like a mango or papaya smell to me. Will see what it's like in wax.

Citrus & Sage - fairly light out of bottle. I certainly wouldn't have chosen Citrus & Sage as the name if I was blindfolded and smelled it. Smells more like a toilet cleaner to me.

Winter Wonderland - a little light OOB. You can definitely smell the peppermint with just a touch of vanilla. If this throws well in wax I think it could be a good seller.

Butt Naked - I'm not sure what BN is supposed to smell like but this smells exactly like cucumber melon to me.

Floating Island by Lush - this fragrance is so light OOB I'm having trouble even smelling it. It may work well in B&B products but I don't think it's going to work in wax at all.

Cherry Lemonade - pretty strong OOB. The cherry fragrance overpowers the lemon. It may turn out to be a decent seller.

Maple Walnut Fudge - a slightly nutty smell to it. I do think it smells good but the combination of oils make it smell almost like a weak coffee smell.

Warm Welcome - I've smelled this before but can't put my finger on where. The website says it's a combination of spices, cinnamon, apple, and hints of zucchini bread but I'm not smelling any of those. It seems more like cherry and mulberry to me.

Karma by Lush - again, I don't know what Lush fragrances smell like but I'm picking up patchouli, lavender and some sort of citrus, maybe lemon or orange.

By no means am I a fragrance aficionado but I hope those descriptions give you an idea of what those oils smell like.