Jillsthings

How much are they with wholesale?

I had one of my mom's friends ask to see my work area at one point, saying she'd love to see how it all works. It's tough because I don't have a room or a basement that I can use, so I've got a corner in our living room (two rooms with a big archway between; first room has couch and tv, second had our computers and my candle station) so when she did come over to pick up her order, she glanced over in the corner, but didn't get anything from me, lol. We're planning to move in about two years (fingers crossed it could be sooner) and I have already been looking at houses that will have a room just for me! I've got 4 tables set up in a J shape right now and it takes up half the room and with boxes all underneath the tables, some on tops...yeah, good thing we don't have people over, haha! I've thought about taking my candle station up to our bedroom, which is just above these two rooms, same amount of space. I just hate the idea of dragging it all up there...

I'm not sure what all suppliers use; which ones are Impact and which are eclamshell. I used to get mine from Candlescience, but now I get them from MillCreek as they are cheaper. They are thinner and taller. They are sometimes hard to pull apart and occasionally, if I pour them too hot, one or two will leak a little bit. Hope this helps! :-)

I've only done one home party...for my mom. :-) It was more of an open house than a party. I sold almost $300 worth, and my mom refused any free product, haha!

You can fill it up, just open the valve slowly until you get the hang of it. You don't realize just how fast it comes out if you just whip that baby open! :-)

Um, okay. Back to topic! I have two presto pots without the spigot. I just use a ladle, and it's worked fine. However, I've been working with a local animal rescue and someone local that used to make candles donated all their leftover supplies, which just so happened to include two older style presto pots with spigots! Once I'm done using up the wax and FO that was donated, I get to keep the pots for myself as payment for my time. :-) My husband thinks I'm nuts, but it is so much nicer than spooning out the wax. It took a few tries to get used to it so I wasn't adding too much wax (letting it come out too quickly), but I got it now, lol.

When I make a bunch of different scents at once, I also line them up and then place the fragrance bottle behind the line. :-) As long as my kids don't touch it, I'm good! Haha! Usually I can tell by sniffing what it is, anyway, and I don't usually do more than 5 scents at a time.

Every time I need to buy more wax, I shop around. I'm not sure why because Candle Science has always been the cheapest for me, and since I get most of my FO there, it's a no brainer. :-)

I test 1/2 to 1 ounce tart in my plate warmer. I do it in my front two rooms that are separated by a large archway and combined are about 30 x 15 feet with 10 foot drop ceilings. If it doesn't go strong for 10 hours, I don't use it. I use straight PB wax with an 8% FO load. I prefer the scents to go much longer than that, and even when I don't think they go much longer, my customers all say they do, so I guess my nose just gets too clogged. :-) So yeah, 10 hours for me, but most of my customers have them going for 2 to three days before they have to switch, with some fragrances going much longer. I'm happy with that.

Okay, so after looking, I'm hoping it's the 47, though even that seems too small. I'm doing a 47 and double wicking with the 29's, so I'll have three to test. Starting with Pumpkin Cheesecake, so once I find the right wick(s) for this one, I'll have my starting point to start testing others. Still accepting any words of wisdom. :-)

Okay. Sorry for the book in advance. :-) So I've been working with a local, small animal rescue, just doing fundraiser and helping promote them. They just had someone donate A TON of candle making supplies for me to use to make stuff for them to sell to make more money. The wax is GB 444, there's a bunch of RRD wicks, which I know nothing about, and 8 oz apothecary jars, among other things. She has a bunch of the jars already wicked, but I have no clue what wick they are, though looking at all the wicks, they look like RRD 34. Does this sound about right? I'm going to have to rewick one and test them side by side to be sure. I told the rescue it'll be awhile till I get them ready, since I have to test. They're hoping to have some stuff ready by November, which gives me two months. I'm going to work on the holiday scents, first. I use GB 464, CD wicks and tins, so everything is pretty much new to me, but I'm not about to turn it away. To pay me for my time, I get to keep whatever I can use for my own candle line, which there is plenty of things I can use. Whatever I can't use, for them or myself, I'll probably try to sell for the rescue, so be on the lookout for that. :-) One of the biggest things I'm excited about is the two melters with spigots! They are the older style presto pots, the bigger ones! I have two of the newer versions that I just scoop the wax out of, but they'll be going into storage for when I need them after all this is done. :-) Anyhow, yeah...RRD wicks in the 444 wax with 8 ounce apothecary...34 sound right? There's RRD-47 and RRD-29, too. I'm going to look up a wick chart right now, but would love any info or tips to hopefully get this stuff tested quicker. There's literally dozens of scents, too! I'm excited to be able to test these new scents without having to buy them all! (Of course I know that I need to test them in my own system, which I test in tarts first, then containers if it's popular. Cheaper that way!)

Thanks. I'm not at all crafty, but I really want to try to be, lol. My husband thinks my blueberries aren't dark enough, but I tried to explain that it's soy wax...it's not going to get much darker. :-)

So I'm trying to branch out and make pies and cobblers. These are in 3 inch pie tins and made completely of Ecosoya PB wax. :-) Banana Nut Bread and Blueberry Cobbler scented.

Thanks for your input! I think that's what I'll do; just let her continue using them and put it in the contract that they are to be returned. I'm lucky in that she's only taking 15% for the consignment, but I'm still hoping to switch to wholesale so that I get paid upfront for my candles, rather than have them sitting in the shop collecting dust. :-)

I currently have my candles in a local floral shop on consignment. Sales have been slow since it's summer, and the store owner even said that she knew it would be slow. Once her walk-ins pick up in the fall, if candle sales get better, we might switch to wholesale. My question is; I've got a few things, like little shelves for the cup tarts and a rotating stand for my clamshells. I've also let her use one of my warmers. If we switch to wholesale, I'm not sure what to do with the display things I've been letting her use. Continue to let her use them? Have her buy them from me? Take them back for my own use at craft shows or other stores? We haven't really talked about it yet, so I'm just looking for some ideas of what others may have done or would do in this situation. Thanks!

I include the tax to make it easier, but I also have a paper printed up with the prices before tax and then the amount of tax per item so they can see. No one has ever questioned, but I like to have the paper on display, just in case. :-)

CS Honeysuckle Jasmine is my favorite, plus it's my best seller. :-) My favorite was CS Banana Nut Bread, but once the warmer weather hit, it changed. I'm sure it will change come fall. :-)

I say, upfront, that if they want a particular scent, go ahead and ask for it! I tell them that it could take a long time, if at all. If I get enough interest in that particular scent, or it's one I want to try anyway, then I'll work on getting it added. Otherwise, it probably won't happen. :-)

I put the melts in a box and just carry the stand in and out of shows. I have a smaller one for at the shop where my candles are on consignment, and I tried leaving the melts on that one. It wasn't too heavy, but it toppled over in the van, lol. Everything was okay, but it was a pain in the butt dealing with that when I got to the shop! :-)

For my clamshells, I use a rotating pegboard display I bought on Amazon.com. I keep my clamshells on it here at the house, and also take it to shows with me. It works great for me! I can fit up to 32 scents on it total.

I use tins and that looks good to me. I've had some that I thought were underwicked, but once I got to the halfway point, they caught right up, cleaned up the sides perfectly!

Oh great...now I'm hungry!! :-p Beautiful soap!

I use Square, only because that's what I heard of first. I've only used it a few times, but I'm happy with it. I haven't looked much into any others. The only thing that I wish Square would do is break down the order....it would be nice to input what they bought, have it total and/or add the tax, and send all that to them in their emailed receipt, rather than just the total.

Yeah, for now I'm staying local. I have only offered to ship to friends and family that aren't local (they still pay the shipping, of course). Once I get a good customer base here and feel comfortable enough with the whole process of shipping, then I'll expand. For now, I'm happy with the slow but steady growth I've been doing. :-)

Yeah, I'm a little worried about damage. The good thing is, her shop is super small. One room, shelves are all against the walls, so it's just an open space, maybe 15X15. I plan to put up a sign asking people NOT to open the clamshells to sniff. I'll have cup tarts there for that, much easier and cheaper if they break. Or even the little scalloped tarts. It'll be mostly tarts, and then some candles, too. Tarts are so big right now in this area. My husband went to his friends house last night and took a box of tarts with all my different scents for the guy's wife to sniff. They ended up buying a few to try out. They were shocked how much cheaper I am than Sc*ntsy! I've had a few repeat customers after they purchased a few to try at local craft shows. :-)