RobinInOR

I didn't test for a year elapsed time, but I tested 1 shape of votive, 3 scents, for 3 months. However, that was working 40 hours a week on them, so that was about 160 hours of testing per scent. That included figuring out and taming a new wax, the wicking and burn tests, all the way down to the end of the candle tests, marathon burn tests, throw tests, coloring, packaging & labeling, shelf life.... It can take a long time to burn a candle all the way down to the bottom. One of the reasons I started with votives After I got those down, the amount of testing dropped considerably for each scent because I had the experience to know how a test should look. I only needed to test a couple of wicks for each scent, and didn't always burn down to the bottom. However, every time I got in a new batch of wax, wicks, or fragrance, I'd do a full test to make sure nothing changed.

It's sneaky, isn't it

If your height is 2.25 then 3.75 * 2.25 * 12 * .4 = approx 2.5 lbs. If you use 2.5 for the height you'd get 3.75 * 2.50 * 12 * .4 = approx 2.8 lbs. So that would be pretty close.

Your scale will start to weigh incorrectly when the batteries get too low. But otherwise it shouldn't make a difference if you're using good batteries.

Sorry, a bit late this morning - crisis at work Nothing special this weekend after packing up some orders, I'm all caught up for my August fair. So I might get to play with new scents this weekend - a floral weekend. Jasmine, Gardenia, another floral that a customer requested, and maybe I'll finally get to do a rosemary blend. What's up at your house this weekend?

MMS is a great company. The cart is different but not too hard to navigate once you get the hang of it.

It looks great! Very inviting. All your fixtures add to the look without detracting from the product. And I love those blinds in the back too.

Cybilla had her own company, with a huge following of her own fragrance line. She sold that portion to Brambleberry, who is carrying Cybilla's most popular ones. Couldn't do without Cybillas Yuzu

Since we're a side market to the true growers market, we aren't allowed to sell food at all. But my neighbor is in the growers market, and the food vendors have to strictly follow the state's food regulation. There are inspectors there every couple of weeks. You should be able to find those regulations on the web for your states food & agriculture web page. If I wanted to sell something else, I'd have to jury it in. Even on the growers market side, you can't add things unless you jury in the new product.

I've got the regular washed blue aussie clay, and it's more of a steel blue/gray. Not sure what they blend in for the 'mineral part'. Kangarooblue.com has the aussie clays.

I've got the same thing with spices - have to wear a mask. FO/EO doesn't matter - it's the eugenol component that gets me. It's what also makes soap seize.

There are different ways to extract from plant material. You solvent extract with hexane, filter and get the concrete, which is then ethanol-extracted to get the absolute (the ethanol evaporates). Both of those are more concentrated than the essential oil (they contain compounds that aren't water soluable), but there can be a minute amount of solvent remaining.

I would expect that he's using concretes and absolutes in his fragrance formulas - most of the high end candle companies do when they're designing their blends. This can give you much richer fragrances than essential oils and aroma chemicals. Yum, give me rose or jasmine absolute any time. I've got a tiny vial of jasmine and it's wonderful.

The original recipe was posted for SoapDish members - I'd prefer it if she followed the rules of SoapDish and didn't repost the recipe here. For all I know, though, it might already be here somewhere - we might have missed deleting it

Yah, the hot week with 105F temps is finally over. It'll only be 90 at market on Saturday lol..... Sunday is the only day I get to work at things, since Sat after market I'm giving a birthday party for DH and our neighbor, who have birthdays a day apart. What was I thinking - an hour between getting home from market and when people show up. So Sunday is lavender and rose day - have to stock up on products for a mid-August fair on the Rogue River. It'll be nice to be hiding in the basement where it's a lot cooler. What scents are up for your weekend?

Actually, they do say they're handmade, on one of their pages. They've probably designed some very specialized molds. Love 'em.

Actually, FOs might be safer than EOs. The fragrance companies follow the self imposed industry guidelines for safety levels of ingredients (which include EOs). Someone just using EOs might not be quite as knowledgeable. So you can get caught either way , either with the extra ingredients in FOs, or the improper use of EOs. Never heard of anise raising blood pressure - I'll go look on pubmed and see what I can find.. Found one article about the conditioned response of mice to lowering blood pressure when smelling anise. And found: Ingesting is totally different than using it in a wash off product. And this is interesting: http://www.foodreference.com/html/fhighbloodpressure.html

Well, if it's free, and you've got the time, I'd go. Even if you only had one table with minimal stock. It's a chance to get more people to know that you exist - if you didn't have a lot of stock, it would be like a 'sneak peek' at your offerings. Even if the other booths are huge and well stocked, you can still do a nice, small display that can compete in looks with the larger, better stocked spaces. When I was starting out one of my best fairs was free with low attendance. I didn't even have much stock, but everyone was interested. Course, I'd only do it if the weather was beautiful - no rain, right temperature (Spoken by someone who's absolutely miserable now with 105F temps)

Yes, if you are selling you are breaking trademark laws. Are you sure the lady that makes the molds has an OK from the candy companies? Even if she does, that doesn't mean you can sell trademarked items.

Never heard of them, but a quick google search shows they try to sell infomercial spots. One blog I saw mentioned a $75K fee

No, some preservatives are classed as formaldehyde donors - their structure can change over time.

The fattest one is 8.5 x 11 x 5.5 inches. Fits our paper size (not A4). There's another one that's 11-7/8" x 3-3/8" x 13-5/8".

Most fairs (hopefully) have some kind of limitations - and usually they're to the benefit of the vendor. Like "no imports" or "only x number of vendors can have the same product" I'd call them to see if any of your items are on their 'no' list. I applied to a fair that didn't allow fairies

I don't know anyone that's made true melt and pour. Most ingredient lists don't seem to be complete - just adding glycerine and sorbitol and "soybean proteins" isn't different enough to give you a smoothly remeltable base. You can make transparent soap, but it's still closer to CP than MP - it's not smoothly remeltable either.

The new boxes say "For domestic and international" on the side, so I'd say they're the same boxes.