NattyCat

I can get some at good prices. but I'd need to order 25kgs. if you can gather enough people to share - i can order it at my prices.

Nat

bloody hell. you can simply FEEL the antagonism bubbling under this post - I can literally see people poised at their computer waiting to pounce and trounce anything that may be slightly different to their opinion, and shoot down anyone who doesn't agree with them. I won't be posting on this thread again as I'm too busy sellotaping on the strips that I had tore off me.

And now those who can sniff out the merest hint of a fight have turned up and added their two scents worth, so I think it's best I leave you all to it!

Have fun.

Thanks for the links. Finally the truth is told. So far only 2 people say it's a bunch of crap. I think the rest of the paraffin bashers are eating crow right now or at least feeling as stupid as they are for believing it.

I didn't say it was a bunch of crap, I'm simply stating that not everything on Wikipedia can be considered the gospel truth seeing as it can be edited by anyone with a computer. I just agreed with Top that this matter really needs to be settled by strigent laboratory-run tests by qualified chemists if the war between paraffin and soy bashers is ever going to be concluded!

I agree with top. The entire article is filled with quite shocking inaccuracies, and cannot be relied on as being written by anyone qualified - the only reason the article is there is because someone submitted it to wikipedia and wikipedia is basically a community driven encyclopedia which ANYONE can go and edit whether they are experts or not.

Top is right in saying that the only real authority on what is and isn't fact or fiction about waxes and candles should be written by a chemist after extensive testing where the results are made public for all to see.

I'm neither pro soy or pro paraffin - i love both these waxes so please don't assume that I'm writing this in defence of any particular wax.

Personally - i find this article to be a tad pro-paraffin and anti-soy? but thats just my opinion.

as far as I know - citronella FO is NOT effective against mosquitos.

If you want a true citronella candle that deters mosquitos and biting bugs, you need to use citronella essential oil - as it is the actual oil that mossies don't like. Citronella FO is just a synthetic oil that is made to smell like citronella and doesn't contain the oil that mossies find offensive.

seems crazy to double wick a tumbler? I've never seen a tumbler double-wicked in my life!!!

Hi Nat,

it's exactly the same with me. I finally ended my retail business because I just couldn't handle the sometimes very difficult customers who want all without wanting to pay for it. I always used to give them all they wanted, only to be in trouble. One customer e.g. ordered candles for her wedding and a lot of YC (I sold them at this time). She got her wedding candles, the rest was to be delivered in autumn. But I had a sale for the YC so most of the things she wanted (and she did get a extremely good price for the wedding - YC-package) were old out at the time she wanted them. I told her more than once, sent her the rest, sent her the invoice after a whole year (my fault, I know, but she should be glad about this), she didn't pay, I remeinded her, got no response, I called her, emailed her, phoned again and now she finally paid the invoice. Do you know what she worte on the bank transfer sheet? "2 times and never again!" Can you believe this??

So this is what you get for working all night, giving them special prices etc. etc. It's not worth it. Stick to your rules (which are mine as well).

Oh, BTW: Don't you think it isn't time to get associated here in Europe to get our supplies at more reasonable prices? Why don't we finally do order co-ops? I know you get quality oils from the UK, I get palm fat and crystallizing palm wax at a very good price (we talked about that before), and we could order from Libbey at a better price as well (your Anchor prices are quite high imo - there has to be another possibility). I don't want to make any profit from the wax, I only want a better price from my supplier, and I only get a better price if I order enough. And I don't mean only you and me, but all the other European candle makers. Maybe we should talk it all over?

it would be good to get a sample of the wax - perhaps a kilo I can test with. I'm reluctant to change my wax as I have tested over 300 fragrances in my current blend, and I'd have to start allllll over again at great time and expense. BUT, i will not say "no" as if the wax is so much cheaper, maybe the effort will be worth it in the long run.

Nat

hehe. this kills me. A box of Ecosoya in this country is $100 plus tax, plus shipping - about $140 a box - and thats if you buy lots!

Lol was looking for the same answer myself Got my pillar wax on monday and having probs getting the wick pins out too

wick pins = total pain in the arse. avoid them like the plague unles you want raggedy bottoms and chipped edges.

Yes, you should really stick to your new rules. Otherwise, it takes the fun out of work (candlemaking).

And I want a pineapple bath bomb.

no. go away. :p

Am I alone in thinking that Ebay has ruined my whole way of working???

I have been an Ebay member for approaching 8 years now, and I used to sell very regularly - in fact I had a shop and made sales everyday. Because of the whole "Feedback" issue, I would constantly panic to get the sold items out of the door within a couple of days of purchase, making sure everything was wrapped to the best of my ability and with the customer super fast.

I did this because I knew that customers can be fickle - and if there was any sort of delay, or a gap in the packaging, then they would not hesitate to give me a negative feedback and for some reason, the thought of not having 100% positive feedback was just too awful to contemplate.

So anyway, I started my candle business almost a year and a half ago now. I stopped selling so much on ebay, closed my shop and now get on with my life as a candle maker. But the whole "negative feedback avoidance" mentality has never left me. Whilst I realise that in order to be successful, I need to do everything in my power to ensure that the customer gets great customer service and fabulous products, I have found myself bending over backwards to fulfill orders that are outside of my normal range.

For example, if someone orders a set of candles in Pine fragrance (not the most popular scent so I don't keep a whole lot in stock), and I don't have enough oil left, instead of saying "i'm sorry, that fragrance is sold out right now, would you like an alternative scent or would you mind waiting for 2 weeks so we can order new oil for you" I go and buy a whole pound of the oil, and have it shipped express from the USA to the UK, just to make the customer a set of 6 tealights - which leaves 99% of the money I spent fulfilling that order sat on a shelf in the form of a 16oz bottle of oil with only a tiny bit taken out.

OK, this seems reasonable - but it happens allllll the time. The money I spend on trying to fulfill an order is often more than twice the amount that the actual order is worth. And all because I have a strange "fear" of what the customer would say or do if I didn't have exactly what they wanted straight away.

Same goes for candle tins. I recently ran out of 8oz tins. Someone ordered ONE candle tin - so I went and bought 100 tins and had them shipped to the UK priority. Yes, I did NEED the tins, but I just didn't have the kind of cash I spent on them available at the time, so because I ordered them when I couldn't really afford them, I caused myself some problems financially. Why oh why do I feel incapable of saying "I'm sorry, we're all out of 8oz tins at the moment, would you like a different size or would you mind waiting until the new tins are in stock in about 3 weeks time?"

Just recently, I poured 36 tealights - each one a different colour and different fragrance because a customer asked me to. It took me hours to do and it's not something I offer on my website but while they were on the phone, this is what they asked for and I didn't have the balls to say "sorry, you need to buy 6 tealights in each fragrance" as I was terrified of upsetting them or being seen as inflexible and unprofessional! I made about $5 dollars on this order and quite simply, that sucks.

My husband often says to me, "You are NOT Amazon" He says "you don't have a massive warehouse sat out back holding vast quantities of every kind of item you sell, and you certainly don't have the buying power of Amazon to allow your money to be sat around on shelves as stock" He says this because he sees me buying stock allllllll the time to fulfill low value orders, and he is quite rightly concerned. My running costs are MINUS every month, I spent £25,000 UK pounds last year ($50,000 US Dollars) on buying, buying, buying, buying and buying stock that is just sitting here taking up every spare inch of space.

Oh..and guess what I didn't spend ANY of that money on? advertising, marketing, professional labelling, glossy hand-outs and brochures - which happen to be the most important part of any business!

I recently poured all my concerns out to my hubby as I'm getting so worried that my business will fail if I continue to maintain this "fulfill the order no matter WHAT it costs" mentality. He said to me, "what do you think they'll do if you don't have the product they want in stock? Will they start a hate campaign against you? Give you negative feedback (how???) Ring the national newspapers and tell them of the trauma you caused them because you didn't have a pineapple bath bomb?"

Yes, this made me laugh too! He pointed out that on my website, it clearly states that we are a small family business and that all our products are created from scratch. People wanting mass-produced crap wouldn't be shopping on my website in the first place, so are very likely to understand if a product wasn't in stock and if they wanted it bad enough - they'd be happy to wait!

And what if they didn't understand and was angry that you didn't have that pineapple bath bomb? So what!! As long as I deal with them professionaly, courteously and to the best of my ability I should be satisfied that I did all I could, and the person can just go elsewhere and buy their pineapple bath bomb - I don't need to stress myself out to the max over it!!!

When I first started selling my candles to the public, the only experience I'd had doing so was from selling stuff on Ebay. And my experience and sheer, unadulterated fear of being given negative feedback on ebay, has shaped the person I have become when selling via my own website. I can now see that this is wrong!

Here's my new rules. My business will be following these closely from now on. I hope they have a positive effect and my time, money, life and business become happier and nicer places to be!

I DON'T need to spend vast oceans of cash out to fulfill orders if I don't have the product in stock at the time.

I DON'T need to break my back fulfilling orders that are out of the ordinary.

I CAN increase my prices and receive a fair price for the time and effort I put into each and every product I sell.

I DON'T need to compete with amateurs selling their home-made shit on Ebay. I sell fabulous products, that are beautifully made and premium quality, and people who want this type of product are happy to pay for it, and if they want a bargain bucket piece of crap - let them go to Ebay!

I DO need to maintain my already high level of customer service, but I need to chill out and realise that you just can't please all the people all the time!!

And above all else, I need to bring back the enjoyment that my works brings me, and not let worry, stress and fear overtake the fun, pride and and sense of achievement that my creativy gives me.

If anyone else sees themselves going down this path or recognises themselves in anything I've said then perhaps this is just food for thought for you. But for me, it has just allowed to me to clear my head of all these thoughts and start from fresh.

Natasha

Very interesting reading henryk - but the wicks you were using were much bigger than the ones I've been using - i've found the LX24 is too big and the CD22 will be too big also. I'm using a 70/30 soy paraffin mix and if I tried an LX 30 it would just be far too big.

Strange!

Nat - did you ever come across my post on testing on the old board of a little over two years ago? I was testing the same thing - perhaps there is some info in it that you can use?

http://www.candletech.com/cgi-local/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=veggiewax;action=display;num=1102308269;start=0#0

thanks - i'll take a look!

so far, the RRD have been my favorite - but even the 55 just didn't get to the edge until about the 4th burn. The scent throw, flame and performance is just brilliant but the melt pool is disappointing at best.

Am going to try the LX 22 and then try a CD 20

Update!

LX24 (NST2) is too big I think. It has a perfect meltpool but the flame is a little large and my god - DOUBLE MUSHROOMS that are HUGE!

I thought this wick was supposed to be self trimming and mushroom free. There is absolutely NO curl to this wick, it doesn't self trim and has the biggest mushrooms of all I've tried.

The scent throw is pretty awesome though - but as I said before, I'm using FO that is just superb so it would throw if I used the metal arial off my car.

Ordered some standard LX 24 and LX22 waxed wicks - so will see if they 24 non nst2 burns differently or if the LX22 works better.

well............ my 2pennies worth

In a couple of weeks' date=' I'm hoping to have a website go live. I will list items that I'm happy are tested well enough. Before all this happens, I will have taken out my insurance.

I've also booked to do a craft fair in October.

However, our finances are so tight, I'm not in a position to buy loads. I'm lucky enough to have a great wax supplier, thanks, she knows who she is and get my fragrances from Jo.

Other things I'm buying off ebay in dribs and drabs as and when I can afford them.

I've rang Business Link and within the next couple of days a Business Advisor will ring me back to make an appointment for me to go see him. He will discuss with me lots of things and help me to try and get the business started.

Within 3 months I will register with HMRC.

I am on Tax Credits also, as hubby doesn't earn a lot and we have 4 kids. This did worry me, but someones told me that as I won't be making a profit for quite some time they won't be interested. It will just be a case of next April, completing the self assessment, they will see from receipts etc, that I've not made any money and everything will all be honky dory.

Fingers crossed

So.... depends how much of a business you want to achieve. To give up a job and try to make money to live on from this, I don't think I would, but then I'm not working.

Good luck with your decision though xx[/quote']

Have you seen a self assessment form? I thought I could fill mine in as I'm an intelligent girl. I got mine in the post and it is SO convoluted and tricky i've had to hire an account at £250 just to help me fill it in and do my returns. I seriously could not believe the book-sized document I had to fill in.

Oh i know all about that trust me! me and my b'friend sold our house and put the money into a retail shop.Now 20 mths in and still havent taken a wage we have a company vehicle and live above our shop but its really hard. I took a part time job on top which is killing me physically and anfinding doing all this and trying to have a couple of night for candles impossible! Im kinda having to give up my p/t job coz financialy im loosing too much tax credit!! That SUCKS, but whilst my kids are happy at nursery and school and i feel that replacing my job with flexable candle time will be less stressful and give me more quality time with my family!!

I know it will be stressful and very hard work but as a team me and my b'friend have a good business head and as i do all the accounts, insurance, payroll,invoicing, and organising events as well as general admin i have all of that as an advantage. i also have contacts with helpful people.

I hope im not trying to convience myself!!! i know if i do this i will do it fully and it will take alot,i already go to trade shows to see what big companies are puting out there in the next season, colours, fragrances ect...

I guess what it all falls down to is MONEY! im begining to hate that word, wish i could win the lottery.... does help to play it though LOL

Thanks for your in put id be greatful for any more you can offer!!

If I could have done one thing differently it would have been to work at my "proper" job for another year or more and save as much money as possible BEFORE i jacked it in for the candlemaking. I didn't have enough money at the start, and I don't have enough money now to give my business the investment it needs. I need advertising, magazines etc, marketing, brochures printed, posters, flyers and professional labels but I just don't have the money. I wish oh wish I'd have been more patient and saved saved saved before I launched.

Having spent £25,000 last year trying to make my business successful - even with more than 10 wholesale accounts, I am seriously struggling. I gave up my job to do this and now we are finding it hard to make ends meet each month. This business sucks money up like a hoover, and so much money is wasted on testing, free samples and perished oils and stock - that our house is over-run with stuff.

Think seriously whether you can make it. I have tons of customers, I am busy every single day fulfilling orders but to compete with the hundreds of amateur hobby-makers who sell their stuff dirt cheap on ebay, I have to keep my prices low - and this is a killer. Then there is craft insurance, national insurance, book-keeping, tax and accountants to pay for.

my debts are approximately £25,000 in one year and my monthly running costs are minus £500. I have also NEVER earned a salary and just live off the small amount of proceeds that don't have to get shoved back into stock.

It's hard. VERY hard indeed. If you want to make a proper living from this - don't expect that living to be easy to come by within the first 3 years.

Hi' date='

I have some 'unknown' soy (can't figure if its pillar or container), think tbh it was melted down.

Did some test, convinced myself it was pillar, but then decided maybe soy, so nattycat suggested I use it for tarts.

So...... my question, whats the maximum amount of fo I can put in tarts, as theres no wick to worry about?[/quote']

1 to 1.5 oz per pound.

will try the 4 tomorrow. is a mushroom ok' date=' if the flame isn't too high then?[/quote']

mushrooms just happen. some wicks do, some wicks don't. I prefer for them not to happen but if the candle burns good, and the scent throw is good then a little mushroom is not the worst thing in the world. It's just a gentle reminder to trim the wick.

look at tnd4 and tnd8. these are 4oz and 8oz tins.

this must be an issue with international orders. A customer of mine is having major issues with this company - she ordered FO over 6 weeks ago and none of it arrived so she had to buy it from me to tide her over while she waits for her oils - if it turns up.

It takes 15 days at most for airmail to the UK. Not 6 weeks. Even by surface it usually gets here before 6 weeks. And her emails are left unanswered.

tbh' date=' my hand must have been in a good few seconds before I thought, erm this is hot!!

But I kept it in there, I was that desperate not to let my orange slice hurricane fail (already tried it once before and lost it lol).

It was very thick, the wax, on my hand and fingers, wax upto my knuckles. The fingers came off whole, so much detail, would be great for halloween hehe

Bit of tingling on them for couple of hours after and a bit red, but all in all, I think I came off unscatched!:highfive:

btw, tried the ECO6 and theres no hangups after 3 hours, brilliant, but there a mushroom on the top of the wick from about 2 1/2hours onwards and the flame is a little too high I feel.

Would going to a 4 or 8 be better?

Am I wicking up or down hehe getting the lingo [/quote']

don't wick up - wick down and see if an eco 4 does the job. some wicks mushroom some don't - an 8 will mushroom even more and your candle will last half the time it should - if the 6 is ok then an 8 will be seriously overwicked.

flame too high? trim the wick.

measure for me?

I've received some 8oz tins today and they are virtually the same size as the couple of 4oz I have left.

Should there be double the difference? or is it one of those daft weights and volume of wax things

the 8oz are very noticebly different to the 4oz.

post a photo of them side by side. where did you get them?

thanks Nat

1st one has an eco6 in. Will leave it till at least tomorrow to test

so.... am I correct with my testing then' date=' 3inch tin, 3hour burn, leave for bout an hour to set up, another 3 hour burn, etc?[/quote']

yup. but you may not need a 3 hour burn because the tin gets hotter faster. it's always better to use the smallest size wick possible to try and avoid a red hot tin - or you'll get customers moaning about burned fingers (some are idiots and WILL try to move a hot candle!)