AnnaSS

Hi all you soapers out there. I have a really dumb question for you. I haven't made the jump to make soap myself & would like to find a really nice line to carry in a store that I am opening. I was at a festival recently & bought some HP soap from a crafter there. I bought 3 different kinds of soap & brought them home to try. They lather up very nicely and feel wonderful while using. However, after being rinsed & mostly dried, my hands feel almost.....I guess tacky is a good word to use. Once they are thouroughly dried, they feel fine. But I really don't like that in between feeling. Is this normal for HP soap? I've never had this feeling from the CP soap that I've purchased. Does the difference in how it's made cause this to happen? Thanks :-)

Ugh! I am so upset with The Jar Store. I've had nothing but problems with them from day one. For a while I had switched to Glass Supply Depot, but thought I would give them one more chance. I just ordered some libbey tumblers with the new Chrome lid & thought all was ok. However, I just got an e-mail saying the lids are not in stock & they dont have an estimated date as to when they will be. Anybody else have problems with them? I was really hoping this time would be different. The 8.5oz tumblers w/lids are only $1.39. They would have been perfect for 3 "special candles" I was excited to make - one for Breast Cancer, one for the Heart Association, and one for the families of Fallen Law Enforcement Officers...I had planned on donating 40% of each candle sold from these...

Thanks ah-soy ..................Glad I could give everybody a laugh, hope it brightened your day at least!

You can buy turkey fryers most anywhere. Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe's etc. If you've never done a turkey before, remember this advice...BEFORE you add your oil to cook, put your turkey in and fill with water to just over top of turkey. Take turkey out and mark side of fryer with the water level. That way you do not over fill your fryer with oil. You definitely don't want it to over flow with hot oil.

After reading all the good things here about Candle Cocoon, I ordered & just recieved samples of Vanilla Voodoo, Pumpkin Coffee, Fallen Leaf, Sultry Angel, Cranberry Compote, Cranberry Clove & Cardamom. OOB they all smell great. Pumpkin Coffe is my favorite & the Vanilla smells nice and strong - just what I'm looking for. Will be testing these in GB444 & will let you know how they turn out!

My first thought is if they were for a wedding, she was probably wanting them earlier than she would need them. That way she was sure to have what she needed by the actual wedding date.

Good Luck to you!

I use Intuit for my storefront and Go Payment for shows/fairs etc. Plus, because I have a merch acct w/Intuit it doesn't cost me anything for the Go Pymt & I pay extremely low fees. I didn't like their swiper though, so I picked up a Mophie swiper for my phone & really love it.

Do you mean the post about the new lids they have? If so, here is her name # number...Tina Perjol, Territory Manager, The Jar Store, 888-256-3770

My candles are moving slowly, but b&b is picking up. Surprisingly though, I have 2 local specialty shops who are placing orders with me tomorrow so maybe there's a ray of sunshine...

No, it's definitely not the price (at least I don't think so, lol) my 12oz is $10.99 and my 21 oz is $15.99...much less than you can buy at the store for soy candles. I've been taking a poll of my repeat customers and they say they would love a swirled candle, that they're 1st instinct when they see a natural candle is that it is unscented. It just doesn't make any sense to me - as far as sales go that someone would prefer an 8oz tin to a nice glass container. My tins sell, gosh, maybe 5-1 over the glass. I really think that swirling them would put it over the top. Make them like eye candy ya know? Maybe I should try swirling them myself and see how it turns out...can't mess it up too much, right? lol

Hi all, This is a mini rant and help request rolled into one. I sell soy candles & B&B. My partner makes the candles and I make everything else. Everything moves fine for us except for our glass container candles. I think it's because we leave them natural & don't use color. I don't particularly mind them natural, but I think people prefer them with color. I'm trying to get my partner to make a swirled candle & it's like pulling teeth. She keeps swearing it's not going to look right melting...So, I bought one from somewhere else to prove to her it looks fine. It's actually a beautiful candle. She gave in and has been trying to make it all weekend, but it's just not turning out. I've given her the directions I found - 1st link http://www.candletech.com/cgi-local/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=veggiewax;action=display;num=1082318659 and 2nd link http://www.craftserver.com/forums/showthread.php?51255-Directions-For-Swirl-Pillar and she swears they are not working for her. I also downloaded an e-book for directions and here's a copy of those...1. Follow the steps above to make a container candle. 2. Pour about an ounce of melted wax into aluminum or stainless steel can. Add a teaspoon of fractionated coconut oil per pound of wax as this will strengthen your fragrance oil. Add dye and stir well. 3. Take your remaining scented, dye-free wax and pour into the 8 oz. travel tin—do not fill completely. 4. Slowly pour a little of your colored wax into your tin. Using a toothpick or wooden skewer, gently create swirls. Oh, I've also showed her the video about using a wick pin down the sides with a heat gun. The wax we use is GB444 and is going in a 12oz Libby Status jar. Have any of you had these problems with making swirls or marble effect? Any suggestions on what else to try? Part of me says she just really doesn't want to do it and is making excuses, but I don't want to believe that.... Thanks for your help

I haven't met a customer yet who hasn't liked Very Sexy for Men. I've recently added Caribbean Teakwood & I've gotten a good response to that too. Everyone who has smelled it really seems to like it. Also I just got in Acorn and Black Oak, but haven't tried it out yet.

Where I am, fruit scents and clean scents sell the best. Also can't do wrong with floral (light floral). Earthy, musky...not much at all. Lately though, mens scents are moving well. Different areas vary greatly. What sold in one place over Christmas, sat in another and vice versa. Hope this makes sense, I feel like my brain isn't working well today, lol

The only one I've used from Bittercreek is Fig Pudding. It's perfect for Christmas time, my customers love it. I haven't used it in B&B though, just candles (soy) & it throws really well.

I use Intuit as well & haven't had any problems with them. I didn't like their free swiper so I bought the mophie case for my phone and it works really well. Also because I use Intuit as my shopping cart I pay the lower fees of 1.7% swipe and 2.7% keyed. This makes it much cheaper than getting an air card for my laptop to bring to shows. Now all I need is my phone :-)

Thanks Beanstock23, here's the 2 recipe's I've been using 1st from Aussies: 10% Sweet Almond Oil (80g) 8.5% Shea Butter (68g) 5% Frac Coconut Oil (40g) 3.5% E-wax (28g) 2.5% Cetyl Alcohol (20g) 58% Turbinado Sugar (464g) 10% Cane Sugar (80g) The 2nd recipe I tried from here - was a modified version of Kat's - & i had to sub a couple items out 40% RBO 10% Sunflower Oil ***didn't have sunflower used grapeseed 5% Coconut Oil 5% Shea 20% shredded cp 10% e wax 8% stearic ***didn't have stearic used cetyl alcohol 3% fragrance I made an 8oz batch so I started with 4oz of sugar, but I like a scrubby scrub so I added more. I could swear I read somewhere that you could use cetyl alcohol in place of stearic...so since I didn't have any stearic I used the cetyl alcohol. I'm going to try these again today when my order of stearic comes in to see if it makes a difference. I like your idea of a whipped butter and adding the scrubbies, but when I make my whipped butter & it sets it is the consistency of cream cheese. Maybe add more oils to the butter than I am to thin it out for a scrub? Thanks so much everyone for all the help!

Thanks for the link I'm going to try it tomorrow. It just bothers me that I can't figure out what is going wrong...

I am having one heck of a time with my scrubs. No matter what I do, I just can't get them to stay creamy. They start out looking great, but then I don't know...little elves must come in and mess around with them! In the salt scrubs, the cream just seems to disappear. In one recipe it almost seems dry. To the touch it's like wet sand. The other recipe turns out almost the same. Does salt not work with emulsified scrubs? I tend to like really scrubby scrubs, maybe I'm using to much salt? Plus when used you don't get the "lotion" effect at all, just salt & oil. --On the plus side, it leaves the skin feeling very nice. In the sugar scrubs, again the cream seems to disappear. It starts out looking perfect, but just like the salt, I don't know what happens. It doesn't get dry like the salt scrubs do, and they do have the "lotion" when water is added. Again, maybe too much sugar? This is really driving me crazy. I would love to make a really nice creamy scrub. Any suggestions? One of the recipe's I've tried is Kat's sugar bubble scrub. This one gives me the best results so far, but still doesn't stay creamy looking. The other recipe is from Aussie soap supplies. Any help you have is greatly appreciated! Thanks

Hi Everyone! Obviously I'm new here & just wanted to say hello. I've been reading & learning quite a lot here. Thank you so much for all of the good information. It will be nice to meet & share with all of you. See you around the forums!