blacktieaffair

Well, for those that ask you every question under the sun, stating they are "interested" in getting into candles , explain : You did 5 years of massive testing before you ever sold your first candle You have more likely than not, tested over 10 waxes, 400 scents, 60 different wicks, 30 different jar combinations ( and you had to buy more than one of these each ) In 3 years time, you spent a minimum of 5,000.00 testing alone ( and this doesn't count office overhead or advertising or show fees or website fees) You have given up your family time, worked sick even on your off day, held a full time job while trying to learn about candles, had fights with the kids and spouse over your new obsession and how MUCH it costs and you never having time for them and making them eat frozen dinners for months at a time... And IF they haven't ran away from you at this point.. you can always seal it by saying : " I'll be holding classes for candle making this Spring. The course length is one year, five days a week, 8 hours a day, and the cost is 1k a week plus the cost of your supplies and insurance." That should shut them up Edited : And if this DOESN'T shut them up and make them run off... YOU need to run because they are certifiable freaking NUTS !

I know this store is in Alabama, but I bought 5 fantastic spinners of different types, for my melts, from them. They are extremely reasonable, fast shipping, and will gladly sell floor display models at insanely cheap prices. And they do ship! Very reliable, safe, friendly service! http://alphastorefixtures.com/

lmc, I carry both of those scents and they are both amazing. If yall have tried one, go try the other, you'll end up carrying both LOL

Was wondering if anyone had some reviews on the FOs for wax that Aztec carries. I've just realized Im only 40 miles away from them now that I've moved. ( Had totally forgotten the company exsisted lol ) I love the scents I carry and I am loyal to them, but if could find comprable scents in my own backyard, shipping would save me a ton every year. TIA !

I know EXACTLY what you mean Jeanie, about the supplier in WI and the one in NC and NC being cheaper to you even though you're in WI. I just lucked up and realized, I have a supplier 40 miles from my house that carries my wax , so I wont have to be ordering out of NC for wax, just FOs. One thing I do take into consideration when dealing with shipping costs, is not only the travel time it takes to get to me, but also the "turn around "time from the company Im ordering from, to get it TO UPS or FedEx. I get really ill, when it takes literally 3 days to PROCESS a one case of wax order ( thats it, just one case ) and then 5 to 6 days to ship it....... when I can order from someone else who's shipping MIGHT be higher but I get it four days sooner!

Shakes my head at "vanilla". I wish people would expand their horizons like one poster said, but what I've ran into is, in trying to narrow it down to carrying just three or four vanillas / vanilla-combos ... you get this person likeing this one, that person hating that one and some wanting it straight, some wanting it like vanilla bean, some wanting it like vanilla flavoring, etc ! LOL. And for some reason, even in a bakery scent area, I cant move ANY creme' brulee for the life of me. I love it.. good thing too, I have quite a few clams of it to go through LOL.

I thought the same thing, ksranch. I guess I could call mine " triple scented" if I put in 1.5 ounces per pound, instead of .5 oz per pound. ( I only "double scent" mine according to that LOL . If I can't get it to throw like mad at 1:1.... it goes into something else if possible!

Wellllll... I dont know if 86 is close to 94 In all honesty, I read and read for literally years before I ever made the first thing and I kept hearing "4794, 4794 " for melts, so, I ordered my first case, it was so very easy to use, looked good, held and threw a nice scent load at 1:1 ( I only carry 3 scents that I have to put more than 1 oz in.. if it doesn't bomb me away at 1oz, I rarely use it. ) HT and CT was wonderful. I lucked up, and just haven't felt the need to try anything else yet. Kinda, if it aint broke dont "fix" it!

Is there a wax that holds 3 oz of FO per pound ????

Congrats tbowers, you have now entered the Twilight Zone ! lol Sorry, couldn't resist! This can become an addiction fast, but by the one phrase "One day make great stuff to sell" puts you on the right track. There are tons and tons of testing involved before most of us ever sold our first thing.. sometimes years after we started "piddling" with it. The great thing is having boards like this one where you can ask all sorts of questions about ANY supplier and get feedback from the pros on what they've found that works for them, and you can go from there to make it your own. Here's just a suggestion. Since you are a SAHM, you might want to try starting out with melts and dipped items then move on to a few easy to do bath and body products, just to get your feet wet and bring in some money. Since there is no flame involved in these items, you aren't having to worry about things exploding as much ( trust me, it can happen! Sometimes a FO wont be mixed as well as it should and when the flame hits it, .. you can figure out the rest. Not talking a huge explosion but enough that it could hurt someone or something by popping out hot wax on them, or causing the candle top to catch on fire. Please dont let me scare you! Im just trying to relate that candles take MASSIVE amounts of testing, each and every scent you use. Word of advice... Please, PLEASE get insurance not only for your products but to make sure your home is covered by what you are doing also. This is good advice whether you are selling , or just making presents for people, or just sending stuff out to testers. No matter how careful you are, sometimes things just go whacky and make sure you, your business, and your home , are covered in case of accidents ( or others not paying attention to your directions). As for your original question, FOs... like they said above, cheap prices does not automatically equal cheap quality. 10 of my top 25 sellers are all "closeout or clearance" priced FOs from one particular supplier and I am hoarding every bottle I can get from them, but , eventually they will run out and I'll have to deal with it. Nature of the beast. Fo's work differently not only in different waxes, but in different parts of the country. Case in point, I have sold a pack of melts to a customer I have in Denver, it came out of the same literal pound of wax I made the other 5 packs from... she was telling me that her pack doesn't smell as strong as she'd like. I was visiting her this past summer, and she put one in the warmer and sure enough, it was weak. Im guessing it was the altitude messing with it. Dont know. Just know the others out of that run worked great. I know you will have fun with this, and I know you're probably going to get some headaches but the one thing you will get... Is when you make a wonderful product, and your customers come back to you and rave how great it is, and reorder... there's not a lot in this business that beats that feeling

I could be wrong, but in most of the pics where I've seen them having 2 or 3 melts in a warmer, they are using the "mini-cubes". The ones I use are 1x1 and I only use 1 cube per warmer. I just checked out that site that you posted ( had no idea it was there ) and Im ordering some samples to make sure they are the same density plastic that I'm using now, and if they are.... darlin, you just saved me a TON of money !! THANK YOU! Again, sorry if I hijacked the thread !

I don't mean nor want to hijack the thread but I've been wondering about these myself. I saw them last year and mulled around the idea of trying them out since Scentsy has that " brick " . My question is : Do these things sale well enough to warrant the much larger cost you would have to put on them? I'd love to offer it to my customers since I do a ton of melts but I am skittish. Thanks SpellKast and ChandlerWicks for reminding me where to go look for them !

Rebecca, BCS stands for Bitter Creek South. They are located in Texas. There is also their sister company, BCN ( I get a ton of stuff from them ) and they are located in Wisconsin and have a much larger selection of products ( just about anything you can imagine that goes along with our business ). Do be aware that BCS and BCN carry a lot of the same fragrances, and FO names, but in certain cases, the formulations for one FO from BCN is NOT the same formulation for the same FO name at BCS. It pays to check their descriptions on the FO to see if it is the same as from the other location.

(sigh) I guess I'm the stubborn one. I refuse to buy one of their over priced products whether its their melts or their warmers. I have some Scentsy customers who've switched over to mine and none of them have ever complained about mine not melting. My IGI Paraflex 4794A has a melt at 128, so maybe mine has the low enough melt point to work in theirs. I just couldn't see spending 40.00 bucks on a warmer when I can (if I have to ) go to Dollar General and get a 5.00 buck melter/warmer, and it work better than Scentsy's.

Ok , I have no clue if this will work or not, if it doesn't, hopefully I can delete the post and figure it out! Here are a couple of the things I did last year ( I dip a LOT of stuff ). Wish I had some updated pics of what I did this fall but the camera went south on me and I didn't get any new new ones taken. Crosses fingers this works.

ksranch... I am new to the board and haven't checked out the little emoticons yet but you just literally made me spew my coffee on my computer ! Too funny!

EXACTLY Jeanie ! It takes a while to settle in to your customer base and find out what they want/demand. ( and a lot of times they want stuff you literally cringe at having to pour up lol for me that's Dragons Blood ). I live in a tourist area and that's why I carry SO many scents. It would be one thing if I were working with a demographic that say , loved bakery and only a few fruity or woodsey scents. When you're dealing with different people from all over the world, you gotta have what they want that they can't find anywhere else. I thought about it once, and it would be nice to carry a max of say 50 scents, then I realized what an FO Ho I am and I was like " yeah right that aint happening ! LOL " IwantItgreen, I wish I knew if it'd last longer or not. I've never done 1ozers so I can't say whether it would last longer or just be doublely as strong , depending on the type warmer you were using. Logic on my end ( which Im not very logical at times lol ) would say that yes, it should last twice as long. Wish I had a definitive answer for you hun

How I got started was searching the Classifieds on another board ( can't WAIT to get access over here ) and buying stuff from candlers I'd read and read up on. But my biggest helps have been from waiting til BCN or Candle Science has their FO's ( 1ozers ) go on sale for .99 cents each and going crazy ordering a ton of stuff! Another big help is to just read read read read read everyone's posts and see what companies they are getting things from, see how they worked for them, what wax they are using, what they are making it for ( pillars, containers, melts, dipped items, bath and body) and start making a list of the scents or companies you see talked about over and over. Starting out is scary sometimes, and theres TONS of ladies and gents on this board and others, that have been doing this for many many years, and their expertise and willingness to share, is priceless!!! Good luck sweetie!

Poor angellie! I love that scent and I'd be in heaven pouring it.... well.. I dont know about 10 or 12 candles, but Id try it for you ! LOL Good luck honey!

Ok just because no one has mentioned it, I have amazing results with 4794 It's a harder wax ( votive ) but it works well here in the south when Im at craft shows in 100+ degree weather There's practically an immediate turn around and no cure time on almost every one of the 362 scents I've tested from various suppliers. I dont like to wait LOL I love the "no cure time". I have literally went home from a two day show, had to make some extras up, poured them at 3 am and burned them for customers back at the craft show 4 hours later ! Gotta love that !

I KINDA feel that same way ...... but on the other hand, if I can get a nice long burn but one that does in fact cause you to turn around and buy more product from me in a reasonable amount of time, I'll take the "turn around". Considering most people dont burn an entire clamshell in a week , or even a month.... I'd rather they buy more and more often from me .. .PROVIDED they are still getting a great burn length and throw from my stuff. Guess I'd rather sell 3 clamshells to one person, every month.. than 3 clamshells to one person every 6 months. (just a weak example lol it's late ! ) AND THANKS yall for welcoming me to the board

HA!HA!HA!! I am such a total dweeb! I can't even begin to wrap my head around a BEGINNING order of 650 anything much less candles!!! So very happy for you!!!! You have undoubtedly worked very very hard to achieve a great amount of success this year, especially considering our screwy economy! CONGRATS AGAIN !!!

I read each post on the first 20 pages, then skipped some to see how things were progressing........ thennnnn I got to the " he's out of business/no he's not/" .. from what Im understanding, the Ebay site isn't up yet, but, for those that can remember, please post back on here when you find it up and running. I don't mind taking a chance on a new business.. Geez weren't we all new businesses at one time or another? Didn't we all get bogged down and things get screwy at one time or another? If these oils are as good as the reviews I read, and he's in GA and Im in Tn, BOY that sure would be nice. I could do most of my shopping in a two state area instead of having to have such huge shipping costs from all around the country! Looking forward to hearing from Luis's customers when he's back up and running ! o and THANKS to EVERYONE that purchased from him, and came back and gave reviews. It might not all work in my wax but at least it gives me a starting point! That always helps !

Making up about 10 mega decorated tps. ( I tend to go massive with them LOL ) And trying to run down some vanilla stabilizer for lotion ( dont need but a little and dont want to order 30 bucks worth of stuff for a 8 oz bottle of VSL) Ordering some Lotion and Hand Sanitizer.

That's great! I guess I should say that when Im referring to HT time, Im referring to that " just lit it and it's gotten hot and about to blow the doors off" level of scent. I can do the burn for a lot longer, and if you walk by it you can still smell it, but I guess I mean the " it continues to fill the entire room if not house with a very very strong scent". LOL One thing I did just find out. I tried a new one ( new to me ) from BCN the other day, and this is no joke.. I lit it, burned it for an hour, HAD to turn it off, and the next day, I walked in the room and got hit in the face with the smell that still lingered. ( Oak Moss from BCN ). It was in my bedroom, it filled the entire house, so I guess I got candle nose, and couldn't smell it after a few hours. But after I left the house the next day and then walked in the bedroom when I got home... BAM ! hehehhe that's the level of scent I like LOL .. it was 1:1 on 4794.