Everything you always wanted to know about candles, but were afraid to ask.

Angel is Back!

We just finished testing the fragrance from our supplier and this is a winner.  :)  Angel has been off our site for quite a while now; our original supplier discontinued it because the cost of patchouli essential oil rose so high.  (Patchouli is one of the bottom notes in this fragrance.)  Originally they said it would be back, but that hasn’t happened so we started searching for a suitable replacement.

This is a duplicate of the popular Thierry Mugler women’s fragrance and it is really beautiful in candles.  We’re very happy to be able to offer it again!

Posted in Fragrance Spotlight, Candle Info April 14th, 2010 by Dave & Wendi | No comments

Jar Candle Availability

Well, it was nice while it lasted! We’ve had to phase out all of the frosted jars from our Contemporary line, since the supplier we purchased from has closed down. We found a new supplier for the Metro jar (which we really do love) but it was only one size, in clear glass instead of frosted. We switched and now that supplier is also no longer carrying those jars. We only have 2 left in stock at this point and once they’re gone we’ll be down to only three types of jars in the Contemporary line.

For some reason it’s just very difficult to find the fancier glassware at affordable prices. Even the straight sided jars in our Economy line have been elusive at times; we’ve had to switch suppliers a couple of different times to keep those in stock as well.

I’ve been moving the jars over to the Limited Time Offers page when we get down to the last one, so you can check there to see if we have any special jars available.

I just wanted to explain why the jar selection has been dwindling … if it were up to us, we’d still have all the frosted jars available! :) I’m always on the lookout for new suppliers and pretty jar styles, so hopefully we’ll be able to fill that section out again soon.

In other news, my post-op visit today went well and I’m cleared for normal duties again. Yay! We’ll be closing from August 20-22, just a few days, since I’ll be getting my cochlear implants activated on August 20 (that will take up 5 hours of our day, between travel time to and from the doctor and the 3 hour visit) and then we are moving Eric to college the next day. As always though, we’ll be accepting orders during that time and we’ll start processing them on August 25. After that I don’t anticipate any closings until December, for the holidays.

Here’s a photo of Dave and I, on the way to the hospital on July 22:

Dave & Wendi

I don’t normally wear glasses, but that day I had to go without makeup and contact lenses. :)

I think that’s everything for now — have a great weekend, everyone!

Posted in Personal, Candle Info August 8th, 2008 by Dave & Wendi | No comments

Candle Favor Tips & Tricks

Graduation season is upon us!  We’ve actually got two kids graduating here:  our son is graduating high school on June 1 and our daughter graduates middle school (8th grade) on June 4.  It seems like just yesterday we were walking them up to preschool.  ::sigh::

Anyway, this is the time of year we really see the orders for candle favors come rolling in.  Bridal showers, weddings, baby showers, christenings, bar mitzvahs and graduation parties are all gearing up.  I wanted to mention a couple of fun things you can do if you order favors from us.

If you have a graduate in your family, chunk votive favors really look nice because we can do two different colors and have them match the school colors.  You choose one color for the chunk and one color for the overpour.  The overpour color is the more dominant one, so if you prefer one color over the other, pick your preferred color for the overpour.

Chunk favors are also nice for weddings that have two colors in the theme.  Another really popular wedding favor option is the little mini pears.  These come with a leaf tag  personalized with the couple’s names, wedding date and “A Perfect Pair”.  The play on words is really cute and these little pears look adorable — we used them as the favors for our own wedding, in fact!

Finally, one really fun thing we can do is give you a customized scent name.  You can go ahead and pick whichever fragrance you want, and then let us know the custom name you’d like to use.   This option doesn’t show up on the website, but all you have to do is send us an email after you order, or put the information in the “Messages” box of the shopping cart.  We print the fragrance/safety label after the candles are made, so it’s no problem to type a special name in for you, and there’s no extra charge.

For example, my sister-in-law had a baby shower and one of the fragrances used for her favors was Warm Vanilla Sugar.  This is a great fragrance for favors because it’s light and vanilla is usually not an offensive scent to most people.  I renamed the scent “Baby’s Breath” on the labels to make it more appropriate for a baby shower.

Finally, just remember to order well enough in advance to get your favors in time for your event!  This is definitely our busiest time for favors but the processing times shown on the Favors page are pretty accurate.  Remember that the 3 day processing doesn’t apply to favors — we have special processing times listed on each of the webpages for the various  favors we offer.

After you order, we’ll send a second email to you (disregard the automatic one that the shopping cart sends).  This email will ask you to confirm the revised shipping charges and will also give you the latest date we would ship your order, so you can be sure you’ll receive the favors in time.  We ask that you just respond to this email with a quick “That’s fine!” or whatever, just so we know that you’ve seen the revised total and you’re okay with the processing time.  The last thing we want is to have a miscommunication issue and have your favors arrive too late for your event!

Enjoy your day, everyone!

Posted in Candle Info May 2nd, 2008 by Dave & Wendi | No comments

Fragrance Update

We’ve really been busy testing fragrances lately! A few of our
favorite scents have been discontinued by the manufacturer, so we’ve had to hunt down new versions and test them for performance in our wax. We’ve narrowed down some real winners and thought we’d update everyone on the changes.

Our Honeydew Melon was discontinued, and this just made us want to cry because it was the strongest Honeydew we’d found. A little back story on Honeydew Melon…it is one of Wendi’s favorite scents, and it was always the fragrance she would buy before we started making our own candles. It was one of the first fragrance oils we ever purchased, and then we spent nearly a year testing to find a supplier with a version that really blew us away.

After we got done freaking out about the loss of our favorite Honeydew Melon scent, we decided to test the fragrance our supplier had added to replace the scent we had been using. (They got rid of one and added another version in its place.) Luckily, this one is also very strong and works well in our wax. This is more of a straight Honeydew and not quite as sweet-smelling as our previous Honeydew, but it is very true to the scent and we’re happy to say that we’re quite pleased with it.

Apple Cinnamon has also undergone a change. Our new Apple Cinnamon has a deep, sweet note to it that is more reminiscent of apple cinnamon potpourri. We think this new scent has some great added depth and much prefer it over the previous Apple Cinnamon. We hope you like it as much as we do!

Plumeria will be discontinued, sadly, once we run out of the fragrance we currently have. Our original supplier went out of business, and it took quite a long time to find a new supplier with a similar Plumeria fragrance. Unfortunately, this supplier has discontinued their Plumeria scent and we just can’t seem to find a replacement that meets our quality standards. We do still have a bit left so it’s not leaving our fragrance list just yet.

That should cover the most recent fragrance changes!

Posted in Candle Info June 24th, 2007 by Dave & Wendi | No comments

The Power of Scents

I was skimming through a magazine(OK!) recently when I came across this:

“…certain smells, such as those of bananas, vanilla, green apples and peppermint, may actually help curb appetite…”

Beaming through the Google-door landed me at the website of The Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, ltd. Wow!! With a title like that, who wouldn’t be impressed?! :)

The credentials of Dr. Alan R. Hirsch, M.D., F.A.C.P., are certainly noteworthy and impressive and the site contains some very good information about the sense of smell and other equally interesting things.

I found the research page to be of the most interest, including:

The Effect of Inhaling Green Apple Fragrance to Reduce Migraine

“…. effectiveness of the green apple odor seemed to be dependent on whether the volunteer found the scent to be pleasant. Various other studies, such as those on learning speed, weight loss and product appeal, have made such connections between a person’s like or dislike of a scent and its effect on their perception or behavior.”

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Effects of Chronic Malodor Exposure on Olfactory Ability

“…A wide variety of environmental agents impact upon a person’s ability to smell. Ambient aroma can also affect olfactory ability. Those living around a pulp mill site (where paper is produced) have impaired olfactory ability. The affects of chronic exposure to unpleasant or malodor is currently not known. In an earlier study for the Attorney General’s office in the state of Illinois, Dr. Hirsch found that intermittent exposure to the odor of burning rubber impaired olfactory ability.”

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How to Detect Lying and Cheating in Children

“…When a person lies, specific tissues in the nose usually engorge. This nasal engorgement causes mast cells to release histamine, which in turn causes the nose to itch. Dr. Hirsch has dubbed this nasal itching the “Pinocchio Sign” as an indicator of lying. He has demonstrated this phenomenon in adults, but it has never been investigated in children. To address this, Dr. Hirsch is currently studying children during periods of lying and cheating to determine if they manifest some of the same signs as adults.”

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You might like to know some of the things that can go wrong with your sense of smell; check out the disorders page.

I also intend to read some of the articles listed in Dr. Hirsch’s VC, as well as at least one of his books:

What Flavor is Your Personality?

The Amazon reviews were enticing enough to make the book seem enjoyable and worthwhile.

Hope you enjoy browsing around there and maybe even learn a thing or two. I know I did.

Posted in Fragrance Spotlight October 13th, 2006 by Dave & Wendi | No comments

Happy First Day of Autumn

We can tell it’s Autumn around here…suddenly we’re making spicier scents like Harvest, Spiced Pumpkin and Apple Pie. For whatever reason, we tend to sell more jar candles in the cooler months, too. Our wax melts are a little more popular in the summer, which makes sense — if you have a window open and a breeze blowing through your house, it’s not a good idea to keep a lit candle in the path of the breeze! Since melts don’t require a flame (unless you’re using a tealight melt warmer), they can scent your home even when you have drafts in the room.

Actually, this makes me think about the trend in home scenting products — non-candle products like reed diffusers, scented rock salt crystals, etc. We have actually tested all of these methods … especially the reed diffusers, which are such a hot item and really look cool, to be honest. We really, really wanted to like this product … we just could not ever find a reed/solvent combination that satisfied us. You could smell it slightly, but it was just nothing like the scent you get from one of our wax melts.

The rock salt crystals had even less fragrance, unfortunately. It was another pretty, trendy item that we just couldn’t bring ourselves to sell. We decided to stick with our basic muslin bag air fresheners. They tend to last about as long as a standard air freshener and we can offer them at a really affordable price.

We still feel, however, if you want to scent your home without a candle flame, you can’t beat our wax melts (used in an electric melt warmer). We’ll keep testing the new methods of home fragrance that come along, but we won’t offer anything that doesn’t pass our strict scent throw requirements!

Well, we’re off to do some apple picking this weekend (if the weather isn’t too horrible — we had tornado warnings tonight). I think it’s about time to get out the fall decorations as well! If you’re looking for some new fall scents to try, check out:

Spiced Pumpkin, Cinnamon Balsam, Applesauce Spice, Harvest, Country Spice, Caramel Apple, Moonspice, Apple Pie and Sweet Spruce.

Posted in Candle Info September 22nd, 2006 by Dave & Wendi | No comments

Fragrance Spotlight - Ginger Papaya

I confess…I have a soft spot for fruit scents. When I’m ordering fragrances to test, I tend to pick more fruit fragrances than any other type. But I’m truly not being biased when I say that Ginger Papaya is a knock-your-socks-off scent!

It tends to be overlooked in favor of the more common fruit fragrances, but this scent has it all — strong throw, wonderful fragrance combinations, and a scent that remains true while burning.

Here’s the supplier’s description of this scent: “An exotic, tropical blend of Fruit, Citrus, and Melon top notes harmonize beautifully with the rich and warm Hawaiian Ginger base.” We think the Papaya note is stronger than the Ginger, but they complement each other beautifully.

Give this scent a try — you won’t be disappointed!

Posted in Fragrance Spotlight March 11th, 2006 by Dave & Wendi | No comments

Fragrance Spotlight - Cupid

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I couldn’t resist talking a little bit about one of my favorite scents: Cupid. Because of the name, we tend to sell it more around Valentine’s Day but it’s such a fabulous, year-round fragrance.

This is the scent that Dave will reach for if he wants to make a surprise candle for me. It’s a close cousin to a scent we used to carry, Candy Hearts, which was my all-time favorite. Unfortunately, it was discontinued by the supplier so we switched to Cupid which is nearly the same scent, but with a little touch of coconut.

Here’s the supplier’s description of Cupid: It’s a rich, cherry almond coconutty scent. It’s awesome in a candle, soaps and B&B products! It’s such a soothing, comforting fragrance. 

If you like sweet, fruit-type scents then you’ll probably love this one.  If you like to mix scents with our Crystal Cubes, some complementary scents would be Coconut Cream Pie, Fruit Salad, any Vanilla scent (oooh, Vanilla Sandalwood especially!) and Musk.

We’re stocking up on this scent because the supplier is closing up shop and we’ve never seen it available from another source.  Give it a try while you can!

Posted in Fragrance Spotlight February 10th, 2006 by Dave & Wendi | No comments

Color Me Frustrated

Colors are sometimes the bane of our existence. We thought we’d explain colors and candlemaking a little more thoroughly, because it’s a topic that comes up fairly often for us.

Case in point…Cinnamon. You might notice that this scent has been renamed recently on our site. We used to call it Cinnamon Red Hots, and now it’s just called Cinnamon. The actual scent, however, is exactly the same. It’s fairly common knowledge in the candlemaking community that cinnamon fragrance oil does bizarre things to dye when it’s mixed in wax. For whatever reason, the color always seems to turn a sort of fuschia pink. It’s maddening! We counteract this by adding a bit of green to the red dye, but half the time it still seems like the color looks more hot pink than red.

You’d think we could just keep adding red dye til the color looks truly red, but there comes a point when you have to set the dye bottle down and back away slowly. The wick will become clogged if you use too much dye, and the candle won’t burn properly.

We decided to change the color to ‘brick red’ so that we can add a touch of brown and burgundy and achieve a color that looks a little more true to cinnamon than fuschia pink. After all, a cinnamon stick is more brown than red, and so is the grated spice.

So…why don’t we have a color chart showing the colors that we make? There’s so many reasons, we almost don’t know where to begin!

  • Computer monitors display color differently. What looks like dark blue on our monitor may look like black on yours, depending on your resolution and other settings.
  • Every candle we make uses a completely different wax (i.e., votives, pillars, melts and container candles). Each of these waxes treats colors differently. If we used one drop of blue dye in 6 ounces of container wax, it would look much more pastel than in votive or pillar wax.
  • We use two different types of dye: liquid and solid block, which is shaved off in small increments. Because we make every candle at the time of the order, we don’t keep huge quantities of already-made candles in stock. If someone orders two votives, we’ll make two votives and shave off a bit of block of dye to color them. If that same person comes back and orders 200 votives in the same scent, the color will be different because we’ll use liquid dye (better for large batches) and it will be a different shade.
  • Fragrance oil affects color (see the cinnamon anecdote above). Fragrance oil can be clear or almost a dark brown color, yellow or nearly orange. The tint of the fragrance oil will completely affect the dyed color of the candle. This is why we can’t make certain candle scents in a light purple color, for instance — if the fragrance oil is fairly yellow, it mixes with the purple dye and turns it a gray color. To override that yellow fragrance oil tint, we have to add enough purple dye that the color ends up being more of a deep medium purple shade.

On a happier note, we are a company that specializes in custom hand-poured candles…which means that if you have a color you’d like us to match for your candles, we can almost always do it! We just need a color sample to work with, and we ask that you snail-mail it to us because of the aforementioned problems with computer monitors and how they display color. We’ve matched candles to bridesmaid dresses, flowers, even wallpaper!

Posted in Candle Info January 23rd, 2006 by Dave & Wendi | No comments