Craft show season is open

Each year during craft show season I swear that it will be the last season I do, hoping that I will have my own brick/mortar store to run Mel's Smells out of and it seems that the beginning of each craft show season it seems as it has came and gone so fast and still no store.
Every season I'm glad I did the shows since I meet new people, crafters and purchasers alike. I see what every other crafter has made and I'm awed by their new creations.
It never fails you have some shoppers who are just aghast at the prices of the hand crafted products we make and then you have the shoppers who like me are awed over the creations from the crafters and are more than happy to pay the prices.
A few of the pitfalls of the craft show season is the packing, loading, unpacking, setting up, repacking and reloading that is tiresome. Then there is the dilemma "should I pay the hundreds of dollar fee to set my stuff up and maybe make my money back" or "should I pay the less than $50 fee and maybe not sell as much as I could for the high dollar shows". It's always a gamble.
This year I will be cutting one maybe two of my "minimal" shows and invest in two of the higher end shows to try. Along with the higher end shows not only will I have the higher entry fee, but I will also need to invest in a canopy and new displays..hmmm...well...say some prayers for me.

A gift that keep giving

Candle of the month club gifts are one of the best gifts that can be given in my opinion. To the giver is easy to arrange, but it continuously blesses the receiver month after month. There are only a few steps that the giver needs to do such as; does the recipient prefer fresh and floral scents or bakery and spice types of scents. Next you'll need to choose what style of candle, whether they burn candles once in a while or all the time. If they burn candles frequently then the 16 oz jars would be the better option. Also you can choose the tart of the month package as well. If you recipient doesn't burn candles, but has a tart warmer then this is the option for you. The third step is deciding how long you would like your special someone to receive their candle of the month club candles. Your choices are 6 months or 12 months. The final steps are how you would like your certificate sent to show your recipient what they will be receiving. It can be mailed to you or the recipient or if you are in a pinch and need a gift in a hurry the certificate can be emailed to you within 24 hours for you to print and deliver yourself. (Sometimes sooner if you contact us before your transaction)
Although it seems like a lot of decision I assure you it's easier then wondering aimlessly around the local mall shops wondering to purchase cologne or a sweater.
And you know another great reason to purchase the candle of the month club subscription is if you have out of state family or friends. You don't have to worry with wrapping the gift and taking it to the post office.
Are you ready to start? Click here to purchase a candle of the month club subscription from Mel's Smells.

Small Businesses are customers too

Mel's Smells is a customer too!
What do I mean? Well simply that I am a customer to the supplier businesses that I purchase my fragrances and wax etc., etc.

A few months back I was returning to one of my suppliers website to purchase a specific fragrance that has been a very good seller for Mel's Smells only to find that I could not locate the oil on the website. I contacted the owner and was told that it had been discontinued. I was aggrivated since there was no warning to this newest development. I mean I am a subscriber to not only this companies newsletter, but also to the interactive yahoo group affiliated with the company. Nothing was sent through either outlet about this popular oil being discontinued. With that I sucked it up and had hopes that I could someday find a similar replacement with one of my other suppliers.
Recently I went back to the website in question to place another return order for another oil that I frequent due to it's popularity with my products only to find a note stating that this oil has increased in price due to "yatta yatta, yatta" ...
hmm..so I did some research with some other companies who carry a similar but not exact and they say nothing about the increase due to the common ingredient. So I go back to the website in question and considered it...not for long... the oil has doubled in price, which means I would have to add about $2 to each item that I make with just this one oil to compensate for it's use.
NO THANK YOU! I refuse to do that to my customers. I will find something similar. There has to be something out there.
Need I mention yet again that was no news sent through to either of the outlets for this website about the price increase.
I have determined that I will no longer be a customer to this business for fear of having repercussions to my business. My customers deserve better and I will find it for them.
I will be discontinuing all scents (thankfully not many) that I use supplies from this company. I will stick with my 2 true and blue suppliers and try to find comparisons through them.

What's your mood?

Moods are determined by a lot of things that go on in our lives. Faith, circumstances, people, activities, and even surroundings. And sometimes we alter our surroundings according to our mood.

I use different scented candles according to my mood. For instance if I'm in a warm and cozy mood I may either light a Cozy-Home, Buttermilk-Pancakes or a Hillbilly-Home scented candle. If I'm in a mood where I'm craving summer I may light a SeaSide, Coconut-Lime, or a Tomato-Leaf scented candle. Of course there are the other favorites that I love just about any mood Fresh-Baked-Bread, Cinnamon-Buns or Country-Bumpkin. Can't forget about the holiday favorites; Apple-butter, Oatmeal-Raisin-Cookie, EggNog, and Mistletoe

Now I'm sure you noticed that I didn't mention any straight floral/earthy scents....well I'm personally not a fan of floral. However there are those of you who go nuts over them.. you know who you are. So in all fairness I will say that Lilac, and Litsea and Basil are some of the best selling straight floral/earthy scents I carry. I will say that I don't mind Litsea and Basil. That scent has definitely grown on me.

So what mood are you in?
Warm and cozy, summer-craving, anytime type of mood or looking to a holiday?

Proper soy candle burning tips:

To ensure the proper scent throw and burn of your soy candle, you should always burn 1 hour for each diameter of your jar or pillar, especially on the first burn. For example if your jar has an opening of 2 inches then you should burn your candle for the first burn at least 2 hours. Wax has a memory and if you would put your candle out too soon it may cause tunneling on the next burns. A quality jar candle will have a melt pool of 1/4" to 1/2" deep by the time allowance for your jar size or before.

The deeper the melt pool the more scent throw you should have.
The larger the opening or diameter of a pillar the more pronounced the scent throw. For larger rooms you should use a larger opening jar or larger diameter pillar.

To extinguish your flame you should use a wick dipper. This not only helps eliminate any smoke and stinking wicks, but it also re-waxes the wick for easier re-lighting. To use a wick dipper you use the tip to push your lit wick into the melted wax pull, then using the hook of the tip you'd pull the wick back up to re-set it for next time.

Why Soy?

• Soy candles are a benefit to the American farmer.
• Soy burns cooler and longer than most paraffin candles
• Soy wax burns cleaner than paraffin.
• Soy wax has an awesome cold and hot throw
• Soy candles can hold an awesome amount of scent
• Un-dyed soy candles are soap and water clean up without staining

I have heard some of top notch "soy" candle companies slandering the little soy chandlers by excusing the fact that they (big companies) have to add other additives and different waxes to their soy candles to give a better scent. They also state that pure soy candles do not hold a scent from top to bottom. This is very untrue. Soy is great for scent throw as well as holding a scent from the first time you light it to the last time you light it.
The only reason to add additives or other types of waxes is to stop some of the characters of soy such as "wet spots" or smooth tops. Both of the characteristics do not affect scent quality. Actually both of these characteristic can be minimized by the small chandler by different temperatures we pour and so on and so on.
Also the small business chandlers usually spend a lot of time testing and testing and testing and did I mention testing?
We test to check for proper wick burning, proper melt pools and also to achieve the greatest scent throw possible.
I personally use lead and zinc free wicks to help eliminate soot.

Melissa
http://www.mels-smells.com

Looking into the future

I am thinking of adding more of a variety of electric tart warmers to Mel's Smells. Tart warmers sell better at craft shows and such, however I will also offer them online. A company that I've previously ordered from has a ton of new designs and before when I ordered from them I only ordered what "I" thought would sell. This time however I am going to offer almost all the electric tart warmer styles as a "pre-buy" sale so that I can get a better idea of what the customer is looking for.
Pre-buys are great ways for the customer to save major money! I offer pre-buy items up to 40% off retail price. One of the pre-buy stipulations is that since it is purchased before I actually have the product on hand the wait time is much longer than normal. I usually run pre-buy sales for month long durations to give ample time for others to shop. Once the sale ends I place the order with the product company. This company that I will be ordering from this time is very fast at shipping. I think last time I received the warmers in about a week. When I receive the warmers I sort and package for shipping to the customers who ordered them within 24-48 hours.
It's a win/win for our store and the customer ordering them. We get a feel of what you want and you get a great electric tart warmer - practically at cost!