Which fragrances I burned corresponded to the season. Summertime was fruity & sometimes tropical scents. Fall was baked scents and things that made me think of leaves falling and cool, crisp air. Winter is my favorite season. I have a major love affair with snow and cold temperatures! So candles are especially a big part of winter for me. Pine scents, baked scents, things like Mulberry & peppermint. Spring is a beautiful season that brings candles with scents of flowers and "clean" scents.
So, now you can see the huge correlation between every season, year after year, the candles that I have burning. It's just "my thing". My love :-)
So while I was in college I experimented with making candles. It is so much harder than you can imagine! There is a huge variety of waxes that have different "personalities". They create different appearances and their hardness/softness has different burning qualities.
Plus, you have to watch temperatures carefully when making candles. Depending on the wax & container you're pouring into, you must melt the wax to a certain temperature. If you are using additives or dyes, you have to get the wax to a certain temperature for those things to mix in correctly.
Dyes come in powder, solid, & liquid form. The liquids are generally very heavy in pigments & sometimes only a few drops are needed to create a bold color. And it's very important that dyes used for candle making are used. Things like food coloring absolutely will not work.
As far as wicks go, so many variables go in to choosing the right one. What kind of wick material do you want to use? What size? What is the width of the container being used? You don't want to end up with an "intense" wick in a small glass container and create a hazardous situation. The glass could get very hot and burn your hand if you try to move it. Or it could even shatter. You also do not want a wick/wax combination where the wax melts away too quickly, leaving a wick that creates a huge flame and a huge fire hazard.
Another consideration is removing the wax from its heat source to bring its temperature down so that you can add fragrance oil. If you add the fragrance when the wax is still too hot, the scent will "burn off" before you even pour it. Then you, or your customers, are left with a candle that doesn't create much scent "throw".
The perfect combination, and one I worked so hard to create, was a candle combination where, when lit, warmed to the edge of the glass without the glass getting too hot. A candle that was slow burning & lasted a long time & had a good scent throw. You can place the candle burning in a large room and the whole room smells fabulous.
I also started creating "melts" at that time. Especially the tart form. They didn't have wicks that you lit. They were simply wax with a heavier scent to pass through your house. They were placed in a beautiful and a wide variety of creative of warming devices. The wax would melt into beautiful colors. Almost like a lake of beautiful colors.
Unfortunately, once the nursing phase of college started, I had to give up candle making. It was such an intense program that there was very little time for any kind of life.
After graduation, I was a nurse for a number of years with little time to even get back into candle making. Eventually a spinal injury basically kept me from working for awhile. Of course, I still had to bring in money to live. So I decided to create a company especially focused on making melts. Especially the kind packaged in 6-square clamshells.
I decided to set up shop on Etsy, a site devoted to selling handmade products of all sorts. My site address is LovingMelts.etsy.com
Now I am trying to think of ways to expand my company. With the Christmas holidays a few months away, I was thinking about creating gift packages. I want to include 3 different scents, combined with a warmer, to be given as a gift.
There are two different kinds of warmers out there, as well. They can be warmed electrically. Generally, when you plug them in, either a hot plate warms & melts the wax, or a light bulb is lit & the heat from that melts the wax & releases the fragrance from the wax. The other type is warmed by a tea light, which is a really small candle, and melts the wax that way.
I have ordered molds in different shapes that I can sell by the bag. So you will have a choice between clamshells, bags of shaped wax, & gift packages! I'm even thinking about creating beginner kits that include everything you need to make your own melts! Included will be:
- Specialty wax for molded melts
- A melting pot for melting & mixing wax
- A candle thermometer
- 3 different wax colors
- 3 different wax fragrances
- 20 clamshells
- Warning labels to attach to the clamshells
- Detailed instructions
It will take quite a financial investment for even that because I will need to buy all those items in bulk and sell them for some degree of profit. Keep in mind, I'm doing this to survive literally! Having this company has bought food, school supplies & paid bills. So it's not only been enjoyable for me, but it's also helped my family live. I can't wait to be back on my feet again to where I can work like I want to again! Fortunately, I consider myself quite humble.
Anyways, ive had SO much fun making these and selling to customers!!!!! Its like a dream turning my hobby in to a way to help support my family.
So PLEASE check out my website at LovingMelts.etsy.com
If theres a particular scent youre looking for please let me know. I have access to 400 some scents. Ill find what you want. With purchase, i will order it and make it immediately, let it cure a day, and then ship it out. So you will have a little extra time to wait. But you will get exactly what you want!
Im staying with the Amish loves of my life (best friends) and its been a hit! So give 3 or 4 or more a try. Its a fun thing to do!! A new scent every day. Really changes your mood!
Please, please tell your friends too! Sorry to sound like a pleading fool. A little goes a long way!!
LovingMelts.etsy.com
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