Do any of you NOT color your candle wax?

[TallTayl]

I color for “me”. When doing production runs, uncolored candles look so similar it takes too long to ensure they’re all labeled right. Colors distinguish them so they end up labeled correctly.

 

colors also make it super easy to keep displays merchandised. When rapid filling sale displays every second counts. 

[Forrest]

I went down the candle aisle at Target yesterday, which led to this theory. People buy colored candles because it is what they are used to. All of the high end candles that I can think of don’t have color, but they aren’t seen by the candle buying public nearly as often as the candles in the big stores. To put it the simplest terms, people buy what they are used to. To take this a step further it is possible that when people see candles without color their brains link them to the high end candles and equate high end to high priced, and that is a negative trigger for them. I suspect if you did a study on people who frequently bought candles that the majority would find uncolored candles to be more visually appealing, but they would still buy colored candles even if uncolored were available at the same price.

[Laura C]

34 minutes ago, Forrest said:

I went down the candle aisle at Target yesterday, which led to this theory. People buy colored candles because it is what they are used to. All of the high end candles that I can think of don’t have color, but they aren’t seen by the candle buying public nearly as often as the candles in the big stores. To put it the simplest terms, people buy what they are used to. To take this a step further it is possible that when people see candles without color their brains link them to the high end candles and equate high end to high priced, and that is a negative trigger for them. I suspect if you did a study on people who frequently bought candles that the majority would find uncolored candles to be more visually appealing, but they would still buy colored candles even if uncolored were available at the same price.

 

That's an interesting observation too @Forrest. This whole discussion and everyone's experience is very interesting and thought provoking, I'm glad @Clear Black started this post. Of course, it certainly is important to know what the Customer wants and will buy, or what your particular customer will buy. Your target market relates to color or non color candle preferences like you mentioned with the "high end candles". 

 

On the flip side, as a candle maker, I like both colored and non colored scented candles, I just love them all. LOL. I have not been coloring my candles because while I'm still learning, the less variables to work with the better. I figure once I establish a good working candle recipe then I can play around with adding color to it. I do really like beautiful colors, swirls, layers, etc. so it will be fun to play with colors and different designs. I have a tendency to get overwhelmed and/or distracted easily so I have learned to keep things simple and focused in order to get something accomplished. LOL.