sockmonkey

I have not found a good honeysuckle yet, but I think lilac from tony's is good. It got raves from my customers.

M&P soap is all that I sell. Most customers do not have a clue, nor do they care if a soap is HP/CP/M&P. They want a bar that smells good, lathers well, and is attractive. Of course, there is the possibility that you will encounter a former soapmaker--no big whoop. I don't describe my soap as anything but "goat's milk soap." Let them take from that what they will. I'm not trying to discourage you from making one or the other. But if you're afraid of lye, why even bother with anything but m&p? Obviously, the level of care you take while making soap has an impact on whether you get burned from lye or not. You can also suffer burns from m&p. There are dangers to everything--it's how well you follow procedures that will determine your success at soapmaking.

Let me assure you, that you can get a great bar of "lathery goodness" from m&p. I've made HP that didn't lather nearly as much as my m&p. If you're not getting a good lather from your m&p, you need to try switching brands--some are better than others.

I found this link and thought it has a lot of information some of you might find useful: http://www.isquare.com/fhome13.cfm

Go to the Goodwill and look for an entertainment center or kitchen cabinets or a hutch. If you are handy with a paintbrush you can transform something into a masterpiece.

Don't read any further if you don't want an honest opinion... As a graphic designer, I think it's too dis-jointed and confusing to the reader. You have broken the page down into left and right halves, with text, and lines everywhere, bold fonts, red ink, blue ink, black ink, at least three different sizes of fonts, and a photo of candles that overwhelms the page. The eye doesn't know where to focus. If it were mine, I would place things centered on the page, I would add wholesale buttons and craft show buttons to the top bar where you have "home" and "shop online." The way they are now, they are almost un-noticeable. Frankly, I would do away with your background information because every candle and b&b site basically says the same thing. You haven't said anything compelling that would make me think your candles or incense are better than anyone else's. How do you provide the "best shopping experience on the web"? I understand if you have limitations with what you can do if you are using a template. I'm not trashing your site, just giving an honest observation. I'm looking at it, as if it were my site and addressing things that I would want to change.

What program was used to create the labels? Did you switch which end of the sheet you place first in the tray? It may sound stupid, but I found that the 2x4's that I use from Online Labels had a fraction of an inch difference in the top and bottom margin of the sheet. I kept getting results like you are having and could not figure why things were so messed up. Then I measured, and discovered their sheet did not have an even top and bottom margin. I started feeding the other end first and it solved the problem (but not until after I wasted several sheets of labels).

I think many people (myself included) have complained about their body mist being sticky.

I've posted before that I think there's a danger in pricing your items the same way everyone else does. It's good to review and be aware of what others are charging, but you need to take into account what YOUR market will bear. If you are selling at a craft show, you might totally sell out of $8 candles because it's such a low price. But then again, you might do just as well if you sold them for $12. On the internet though, the world is your marketplace. You might be able to get $15 for the same candle. The thing to consider is how do you want your candles to appeal to people? Do you want to sell candles to budget conscious shoppers, or to people who have greater incomes and don't think twice about plunking down $20 a pop for candles? The general theory behind selling cheaper is that you can sell more at a lower price than a higher price. But, there is also the theory that if something is cheap it must not be of very good quality. If you sell cheaper, and in volume, that means more work for you to keep up with demand. If you sell high, you may sell less, but may still make as much money and don't have to produce as much.

I think we should have a "Hall of Shame" for suppliers (and sellers here) who are notorious for bad service, swindles, scams, excessive shipping fees, etc.

I guess you should use the INCI name for oatmeal, since you have it for everything else. http://www.bdstephens.com/images/INCI%20Names%20for%20Ingredients.pdf

I think everything looks nice, but I noticed you don't have the weight of your soap or your lotion bar listed. Also, I think your lotion bar is incredibly cheap. Something that sounds as rich as cocoa and shea butters would probably be able to sell for at least twice what you're asking. Maybe it's a good way to get people hooked--advertise it for $3 for a limited time as "introductory pricing," but make the regular price $6.

Ick! I bought a bottle of bulgarian lavender EO from camden grey and it was foul! I'm not hung up on using EO's--I'll buy a fragrance, because EO's really don't do anything for me.

See if any of these might work: http://www.thecandlemakersstore.com/category/jars.jar_caps/ http://secure.candlesupply.com/catalog_page.cfm?queries_index=index7&title_main=&title_bar=&StartRow=16&Advance=Pre&Product_CatalogID=2734&ProductCodeID=47&ProductSubCodeID=276&NewProduct=0

What I've found is that a lot of the "free" clip art sites have the same pieces which they've all pulled from a "public domain" site somewhere. They usually have a caution printed somewhere on their site, stating that to the best of their knowledge these items are free of copyrights and royalties, but ultimately, the responsibility lies with the user to verify that. Some sites (but not many) say you can use it for commercial or private purposes. Of course, if they're swiping stuff off of the internet themselves and they have a disclaimer releasing themselves of any liablity, they don't care what you do with it. As long as people are clicking on their sites and on the ads on their sites, they're making money.

Those are neat. I'd never heard of them until now, and I imagined a clunky solid rose carved out of one piece of wood, not delicate petals like these are. I'm quite intrigued on whether these would sell well. I don't know if I'm behind the times, or if this is something new, and just starting to catch on. If I understood the pricing structure right, the per unit cost would only be $.12 ea if you purchased one carton of 800 roses. That's a pretty sweet profit if you're selling 1 doz at retail for $6. Do I smell a co-op for valentine's day?

Thanks for sharing.

I guess different things bring success to different people, but I would take a tip from Yankee, who spends major bucks doing studies on exactly that type of issue. With Yankee candles, they have found that it is COLOR that sells candles first. Anyone who has spent time in their stores will recognize the "color bands" -- which are the lightest color candle at one end, and the darkest color at the opposite end of the shelf. They have specifically stated that this method sells better than alphabetized or scent categorized candles, and recommend that retailers follow their method of display. Just thought some of you might want to consider that.

How much are these being sold for at craft shows?

Nashville Wraps has some holiday color bags on closeout. Their price of $34.10 for 250 makes them only $.14 ea--very cheap for 3mil plastic bags with a handle. http://www.nashvillewraps.com/ShowDetail.ww?Sku=SkuDrop

The pic of your strawberry pie is making my mouth water! Yummy. I think it looks good.

I think lasers get a lot hotter than inkjet, so if you put the inkjet labels in a laser printer you might end up with a gooey mess, ruining your printer. A word of caution regarding store personnel advice--sometimes they are right and sometimes they are seriously wrong. Always check your printer manufacturer's instructions. Using incorrect material in your printer can void the warranty. Don't even think about taking it back to the store and say the employee said it would be ok to do. The employee will deny it, and say it is your responsiblity to read the instructions.

I don't know if this would be any better for you, but why pay the hostess anything at all? Can't you award her in points? You establish how much a dollar would be worth--every $5 in sales gets her a point. She can then redeem the points for merchandise, and you determine how many points your merchandise will cost. So say she had a $100 show. She would be rewarded with 20 points for every $100 sold. Let's say your 8oz candle normally sells for $10. Make that redeemable for 20 points. You will only be out $3 it costs you to make the candle. If she didn't even sell $100 worth of merchandise she would still earn points based on every $5 sold, which she could keep adding to until she got enough to purchase something. If she didn't earn enough at one show, you should still give her some tarts or something for free as a thank you. Math is definitely not my strong point, but from my calculations, overall, you will be out $33 in your cost to make $100 worth of candles you sold, $20 for the sales rep commission, and $3 as your reward, which makes a total of $56. You will make $44 on the show.

What's TCS? I'm not aware of a lot of negatives about them--other than some complaints about shipping costs.

I don't know if it is or not, but it smells good and is right behind Pink Sugar as my top seller. Woohoo! I see I've still got money in my paypal account. I think I'm going shopping!