JI

Afewthingz, how bad was the rusting on the vanilla?

Thats good to know. I got my samples in and poured one cinn spice and now i will try vanilla and let it sit for a bit. I dont really do a lot of bakery.

I checked sks but candlewic had better pricing when factoring in shipping. I will double check though.

I use 444 wax with 6% fo load. I am courting a wholesale account which wants 16 oz tins (holding 12 oz wax). I am planning on purchasing from candlewic since cs no longer carries 16 oz size. The initial order for their test market is 900. For the fall/winter. I am concerned about using tins because of the rust issues, esp. with vanilla etc. I used tins for the holidays once (from cs) and I turned them over quickly (they sold well), so I never saw rust. I typically only use glass. Please let me know your thoughts/experience. What about spray lacquer on the inside of the tin? Mod podge looks annoying, messy etc. and time consuming. I haven't used candlewic tins. I have ordered some samples. Customer is purchasing some testers. I am scared that if they order in the summer for 900, that one day a couple of months down the road, they'll ring me up and tell me that it is a rusty mess. Please advise. Should I just push them to the 8 oz glass candle? The 16 oz tin has better throw because of the nearly 4 inch meltpool. Vs. The 8 oz glass jar is more like 2.5. I intend to make some cinnamon or vanilla early next week and let it sit around for a few weeks too. I'm really stressing about this because I couldn't afford to mess this up so to speak. Thanks, J

It still seems scammy. Ladies' name is Tara Richard and email is a gmail with tarastoresltd in it. Also she ne er provided a store name or website since they were just setting up and "getting ready to establish a worldwide presence". Is this the same name that you got ubure?

People suck.

Yes..I ended up getti g a freight quote with fedex and with pallet it would be 5k. With 400 candles and vat tax you are looking at close to 10k. I emailed her back and told her the numbers. Suggested that she locate someone in EU so she can get better shipping and tax break. I did an address google maps search like candy suggested and it looks mixed residential and business. What is weird is five min later she begs me to use her shipper and gave me their email to get a quote. I emailed them for the hell of it but it didn't look like a proper email for a business like an international shipping company. What could these scam motives possibly be? That I ship out thousands of dollars of product and have them cancel payme t and report everything damaged? Also it was weird that she didn't ask me about the waxes etc. Plus she kept saying god bless and amen at the end of her emails. I grew up overseas in Europe and the only time they say amen is after a prayer.

Got an inquiry out of a store out of Belgium. They wanted a quote for 400 candles. I asked them which collection, referring to my website. They said "both" instead of specifying the collection. It was like they didn't take the time to really look. Inquiry seemed a little vague so I am skeptical and don't want to spend too much time quoting this shipment. I asked for a mailing/shipping address and website so I can give them a shipping quote. They gave me a Brussel's address and said that they are just getting their store up and running and have no website. The Brussel's address seemed legit. I was also suspicious because the first inquiry came in at 19:00 EST which is after midnight in Belgium. That is not to say I haven't been on the computer at midnight, But it still seemed weird. They also wanted to know if I would take credit card vs. paypal. I haven't answered that part yet. But if I said cc, how would I "take" it? I take credits with my square app all the time, so I guess I would just get the # from them? I did some rough shipping pricing via Fedex and it came out to a ridiculous amount, the skid would be like $15,000 to ship. I always use Fedex to ship domestically. I looked at USPS and their international boxes seem really small. Plus I heard USPS, while reliable, is slow. For those of you who ship international, please suggest the best way. These are large candles and each box would be double boxed with 24 candles and weigh 40 pounds. These are rough numbers. I would have multiple boxes that would go via pallet/skid. Thank-you.

Well I have to admit that it is unfortunate we never heard about wicked wine's organic soy wax supplier. That being said, I did go on their website link this afternoon and noticed that all references to "organic" have been removed and replaced with "natural". So I guess that answers my question. References to organic timber wicks have also been removed.

I am curious to what the surf guy will say...

I use a 16 oz jar similar to that from candlescience. That is a great price. Where are they out of? Since it is a jar made for candles IMO it should be fine. I double wick bc of the 4" diameter and have my tabs almost touching. The neck of mine therefore do not get overly hot. Plus with the double wick I wick down a little.

The don't ask don't tell disturbed me though. I think the product manager was more blunt with me because I was talking to him oj phone vs. voicemail.

Kandlekrazy, thanks for the info. I just went on website and found it. It is wax #44 described as an organic veggie wax. I phoned them and they said that it is not really organic. But a blend of soy wax, palm, coconut. It is blended overseas and the formula changes. A small component of the wax was originally organic. But the majority of wax isn't. They acknowledged the deceptive organic wording on their website and said that every now and again they get a complaint and change their wording. They said a lot of companies buying their wax do the don't ask don't tell thing. They said they could never certify it as organic obviously. But they said that certain multinational food companies requests certified organic and if they can't get it they do the don't ask don't tell. I think I'll stick with gb 444.

I agree Old Glory. But wicked wine advertises 100% organic. So it seems like well...I hope we hear back from wickedwine soon. I am still smarting from the loss of that account. But I want to be as honest as possible with my customers. Maybe wicked wine is still digging out of the snow with that bad storm.

Update: I contacted two surf shops in my area and they use a liquified wax. They also sold tiny wax tubs ( like 8 oz) which looked like turtle car wax. They seemed a little confused about candle application. These surf shops said that their wax is paraffin and they had no clue about the organic status. New England surfers maybe are different. Either way I am still on the hunt for the organic soy wax.

It never occurred to me to get my wax from a surf shop. I thought they used emulsified spray on wax for their boards. We have lots of surf shops here in Florida - but I don't know if they'd sell me enough quantity wise. I usually order 300 lbs of wax at once and combine it with jars etc for freight rates.

That would be great if I could get wholesale organic soy wax from him. I look forward to hearing from you on contact/wholesale info.

I love the bottles you use. The different shades of green are nice and I think the wood wick with the earth tone brown colours is great. One question: Your fb page (under about) says you use only 100% organic soy. Where do you buy this? I also saw the 100% organic soy listed on your website. I am on the lookout for organic soy since I lost a major wholesale account bc my soy wax yis not organic. I also noticed the wood wicks are organic. Same supplier maybe?

I personally use only soy wax - 444 or 464 and when I used to dye some of mine looked like that. It helped to spritz jars inside with windex and wipe. I quit using dye and have embraced the ivory colour. For a little splash of colour I add a ribbon or something to container. I don't heat jars etc. Way too much work for me personally. I also pour quite hot like 160-170. I don't get wet spots but frosting is there and when it is cold wax sometimes pulls away with a little shrinkage. You hardly see the frosting with the dye free. Love your jars by the way.

I'll be watchi g this thread bc I am upset too! My customers like the 16 oz tins. But I use glass too. Have you emailed Heather? I looked at other tins online...sks etc but couldn't find anything equal.

Everything has a cost. I use soy and know it supports monsanto etc. I recently lost a wholesale account bc they are a health food store who had ethical issues with gm. I should add thst my product did very well there and they doubled their money. I brought up a couple of other wax options to them. Paraffin? Their response: the oil industry is evil! Beeswax? They said "what about colony collapse disorder??!" Finally palm wax ( I would never use palm I just brought it up in discussion with them about alternatives.) To palm, they had grave concerns about Indonesian Malayan rainforests being destroyed. Palm plantations are huge there. So I lost the account. I walked out of the store, past their plastic beach sandals (watch out for petro chemicals!). As I was leaving they offered me raw dairy vegan goodies to take home. Got Listeria? Oh and they also told me that they would rebuy my soy if I grew it organically in a field, pressed and extracted the oils and waxes myself, all without the use of bad things. Like I said, everything has a cost.

Good pt with altitude. I had been burning my 4 inch diameter candle for four hrs or so and mp was a smidge over 1/4 inch. 3/8 to be precise. Ht is very good. Eco wicks with 444. You figure that even at 1/4 inch that is double the depth/scent throw. Let us know how the other wicks gom you tried eco 16?

I don't think 10 deg will make a difference. Afterall if you were burning it all off you wouldn't have cold throw. After four hrs, imo 1/8 mp sounds too little. I think you would want a thicker mp. Mine is btw 1/4-1/2 after hrs of burning. Can't remember exact now but my diameters are bigger.

That is too bad. How much (# of bars) was the original wholesale min? Vs the amount they ended up ordering? 16 bars seems like not that much.

What "unreasonable" accomodations have customers asked you for? I have a new wholesale account. It is a small gift shop in the area. My wholesale minimum for basic order is 250. He said that since his gift shop is very small (it is) he could only buy 125 worth. I relented and agreed. He then asked me to swap out any that haven't sold for different fragrances. I said no. (I had images of swapping pine scents in January). He then asked me if I would consider buying back unsold product since that is what his other vendors do for him, because afterall, he is just a small gift shop. I said no. He went ahead and ordered the lowered amount of $125. Don't you think he has a lot of audacity? When I said no on the last two he was truly surprised and said how disappointed he was that was not willing to be flexible. What??? Thought I was being with lowering my order from 250 to 125. I have a couple other accounts and those businesses have never blinked an eye with a 250 order. Not sure how this account will work out...