Stop Guessing And Start Selling After Your Candle Tests Pass

#51. We answer listener questions that hit the real pain points of candle making, from knowing when a recipe is truly ready to sell to keeping fragrance strong through the full burn. We also share how we source supplies and how we built a candle brand from zero customers by getting specific about niche and ideal buyer.
• Knowing you are done testing when the same candle recipe burns perfectly more than once 
• Re-testing wick, wax, and oil combinations to confirm safe repeatable results 
• Fixing fragrance fade with cooler pours, proper stirring, and avoiding an overly hot wick 
• Calculating fragrance oil by percentage and starting tests around 8% 
• Setting realistic hot throw expectations for soy wax versus paraffin or coconut blends 
• Choosing reputable suppliers and avoiding unreliable sourcing that breaks consistency 
• Building brand awareness by defining a niche and designing for one ideal customer 
If you could do me a huge favor, that would be just to like and subscribe to this. Then if you want to have a question of yours answered on an upcoming episode, please put it in the comments below.

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Transcript

Rapid-Fire Candle Maker Questions

SPEAKER_00 0:01

When do you know when you're done with your candle testing? How do you get consistent fragrance throughout the entire candle? How do you calculate how much oil that you need? What are the best places to buy supplies from? And how do you start your business with zero clients? We're going to discuss all of this here today. So definitely stick around till the end. Let's get right into

When Testing Is Truly Finished

SPEAKER_00 0:23

this. First question here comes from Karen Arroyo. And Karen's question is when does someone know that testing is done and that you're ready to start selling your products? Great question. And it is a question that makes a lot of us curious of when we can start selling. We're very nervous at the beginning, right? So when we first start our candle business, we're testing all kinds of things. Once you're confident with your testing, when you have tested your product, when you know that you have the right wick, the right wax, the right oil all combined together and you are getting the test results that are safe, you are then ready to start selling your candles. I would, however, recommend that you do that test a couple of times, especially with your first few candles. Now, with us, we do a candle of the month every single month. It's a brand new recipe that we send out to our subscribers, right? That we have a candle of the month program. Someone gets a new box with a new candle from it every month. We've been doing candles for a while now. We know how the wicks are generally going to react during testing. So we are going to select a couple of the wicks that we are testing. And once those tests are completed, we're confident with the winner of those tests. But when we're first starting out, we want to make sure was it a fluke? Was uh is that definitely going to be the right wick? So I would do it a couple of times. But once you have made a candle that burns perfectly from beginning to end, it has the hang up or the lack of hang up based on your wax that you are looking for during that burn. You are confident that this has passed your test. Do it all over again with the exact same size wick in there, same oil ratio, and make sure that it is going to perform the same way. If it performs the same way, then that candle recipe is a pass for us. And I would be ready to start selling that to a customer. Now, of course, you want to make sure that you build out your entire line for us. That's going to be five or six cents, is what we'd recommend when you start your uh business with that. I wouldn't do more than that. I would wait until you're out there selling and you are getting customers buying from you because the feedback that they provide for you is going to help you to expand your products.

Keeping Scent Strong To The End

SPEAKER_00 2:37

The next question here is from Jake Hobson. And Jake's question is how do I keep the fragrance in the candle consistent and pleasant throughout the entire burn? So when you are talking about candles that often will have a great burn at the top, but as it burns down, a lot of times that fragrance might go away. This generally happens with the big box companies. And the reason why that generally is going to happen is when they are mass producing their candles, that wax temperature and that oil, when they pour that into this vessel, they're not doing the stir for two minutes, let it cool down to under to under, say 140 degrees. For us, we like when we are pouring our soy wax candles, we like to pour it at under 140 degrees, even preferably under 135. But when we're talking about big box mass-produced candles, they're not waiting around for all of that. They are blending their oil and their wax and they're pouring it usually by a machine into those vessels onto the next one. And that's fine. That's that works for their business model. But what generally happens then is that wax and oil, it's still too hot. And when the wax and oil are too hot, that oil is generally whatever weighs the most is going to go to the bottom, which is going to be the wax. So the oil is generally going to be in the top half or top third of that candle where the most of it is hanging out. It's still going to have a little bit throughout, but based on how hot it is, that it's it's not actually binding together. So that oil is coming to the top. And that's why when you burn those candles, you are getting a lot of fragrance at first. The smell is great, but as it's burning down, you're starting to get that more, say, artificial or more waxy burn smell coming through because it's less of that oil that is actually there to burn off. The other thing that can be happening is that your wick is too much for that wax and uh oil combination and it is burning too hot. If it's burning too hot, then as your candle is burning down, when you light this, if it's burning too hot, then it's the oil. The oil is the flame, right? Or the fuel. The oil is the fuel for your candle. So if it's burning too hot, it is burning off that fragrance and leaving you with just wax until that wax actually burns and you move down to some more fragrance. So hopefully that helps you out there. Generally, it's going to be uh solved by stirring and letting it cool down to a temperature that you can pour into your vessel, and it's gonna have that oil uh more locked in, which is a fragrance.

Fragrance Oil Percent And Expectations

SPEAKER_00 5:07

And that goes into our next question here from Kelly. And that's how do I calculate how much smell I need? So the smell is the fragrance oil that you need to add to your candles. Now, for us and my brand, we always start testing at 8%. So, based on what the total weight is going to be, if this is a 10-ounce candle, 8% of that we are going to do as oil. Now, when you're testing, you might decide that you need to go stronger than that. You might even decide that you want to go lighter than that. For us, generally, we will not go lighter. We may go stronger, we may go to 9 or 10%. But here's the key. Many times I see makers that they are making a soy candle and they're using a 464 or all-American brand uh soy wax. They're using one of the popular soy waxes out on the market and they're just starting making candles. And they burn test that candle, and they're expecting to get a Bath and Body Works Yankee candle type of hot throw when they burn that candle. It's just not going to happen. So the key is we have to make sure that we are managing our expectations based on the combination of wax and oil and wicks altogether that we're using. A soy wax candle, which we sell thousands of every year. We've built our business on a soy wax candle, is never going to perform like a coconut blend or a paraffin-based wax. It's just not. It just doesn't have the characteristics of when it burns to give that kind of um oil scent uh combination out. And a lot of it has to do with how much oil that wax can hold. Because a soy wax candle can hold generally based on the wax you're using and the oil that you're using, when you put those together, generally between 10 and 12% is going to be the maximum amount that you can put together and create a candle with. Now, there will be standards that are set by either the fragrance or the wax that'll say either 10%, 11%, 12%. Realistically, it comes down to your testing. We have some that say we can put 10% oil into that wax, but if we get above nine, if we get at nine, there it seeps through, it does not bind or does not blend all the way together. So you have to test to get what that exact uh ratio can be for you. But in general, a soy wax candle is gonna hold 10 to 12%, but a paraffin can hold much more than that. So then you can put in a lot more fragrance in there. And again, the fragrance is a fuel. And when it's burning in a paraffin candle, you're gonna get a lot more syntheto from there. Now, most customers that we deal with uh in our shops, they want a soy-based candle. We've started selling coconut soy blended candle, and our customers really love that. And they love the scent throw that you get from that, but the price is a little bit higher. That wax is more expensive. So we do carry it, but it's more of that elevated line that we have. We have even nicer vessels because we sell that candle for $46 for that. It's it's a nice size uh candle. You can obviously check them out on our website, but it's not gonna be a $26 candle like this one is here. That's gonna be more economical because it's soy-based. So just keep that in mind if you're looking for a really strong candle that it's gonna be based on a lot of uh the wax that you're using. Uh, and then of course the uh percentage of the oil that you use as well.

Where To Buy Reliable Supplies

SPEAKER_00 8:36

So the next question is from Lee Sontag. And that question is what's the best place to buy supplies? Great question. In fact, in the notes below, I have a link to a completely free checklist of all the suppliers that we recommend that you shop with based on our uh use of their supplies that we've been able to trust them. The customer service is great. Uh, so who we recommend right now, we definitely recommend Lark Artisan Supply. Lark is fantastic. They've got some fantastic, great oils. I definitely recommend them. Uh, if you're looking for vessels, there's plenty of vessel options. If you're wanting something more luxury, more elevated, um, we recommend Dream Vessels for those. But there again, there are many more suppliers on our list. So check out our list in the show notes below. And it's going to give you all different suppliers that we use. In fact, it's going to give you a list of everything we use from our scales to our boxes that we package things up with to our printers, uh, everything we use to operate our business with. And that's completely free. You can download that in the notes below. So check that out. One thing I would recommend is not buying from places like Amazon, unless it's a brand that you're already buying from elsewhere or directly from, and then you're shopping on Amazon to get, you know, a restock, a refill, or it's urgent that you get more wax and something like that. Fine. But generally, the supplies that I find on Amazon, there's fragrance oils and things out there. If they're not coming directly from the brand or from the company, you're not exactly sure what you're getting. But not only that, a lot of the uh suppliers on Amazon end up turning over and going out of business, right? Or they they rebrand under something else. I've seen vessels, and in fact, we used to buy these really black, uh nice black ceramic vessels from a supplier that we found on Amazon. And then all of a sudden, just one day it just wasn't available no more. And then if that happens to you, you don't have any access to those vessels. So I would buy my wax, my wicks, my oils, uh, my vessels all from reputable suppliers that you can buy directly from. And one thing that I always do suggest is that what you buy, you can't really do this with oils, but you can with wax and you can with a lot of vessels, um, the basic vessels, like this basic jar. Um, I recommend buying supplies that you can get from multiple suppliers. Now, again, if you're going for an elevated candle line, that's why I recommend like something like a dream vessel if you want a bougie, super fine. Looks great. Uh, we have that customer that loves these, uh they're called the um Siona, Sienna on Dream Vessel's website. It's a really big, it's like a 17-ounce candle. It's gorgeous. But it's a premium product, right, that we're putting out for those customers. So keep that in mind. There are some that you can only buy exclusively from certain vendors that I would recommend. But yeah, check out the supply list that we provide for you completely free uh in the notes below. And that'll give you who we are currently using today. Also, on our website, we actually have a list of well over a hundred trusted suppliers that we um that we recommend. Now we don't buy from all of them, but it's a full directory. So you can check out that directory, and then you'll also see on there, it'll be marked who we are using today.

Starting With Zero Customers

SPEAKER_00 11:44

The last question we have here today is from Tasha Mack. And Tasha's question is How do you start your small business when you have zero brand awareness and zero clients? Great question. And you know what? We all have been there because there was a day when we first launched our business, we had zero customers, zero clients. So this is how we did it. When you are starting to build out your candle brand, what is key that many makers don't do is have a target ideal customer in mind. And to figure out who your target ideal customer is, you got to decide on what niche your candle is. What shelves does your candle belong on? Are you making candles that are um focused on uh marketing to say world travelers? Or are you doing a niche that is in the metaphysical space? We have a member inside of our inner circle that their whole candle brand is around golf. We have another one whose entire brand is around horses. Think about what your niche is going to be. Sure, you don't have to have a niche picked out, but it's gonna be a little bit more difficult. Here's why. I can just throw a candle out there, um, like 90% of the candles that are out there, um of small makers that are trying to get to the next level. Because we've all been there, right? You have to have a differentiator of why someone wants your candle over the next candle. It's not always going to be about beating someone on price. It's gonna be about are you talking to that potential customer? So let me break this down how we did it. So when we started our candle business four years ago, we wanted our candles to be in women's boutiques. Why? Because the people shopping in the women's boutiques were spending a little bit more on self-care. They were spending a little bit more on clothes than shopping at some of the big box locations. Uh, and they were also buying the candles and the home goods inside of these womenware stores that were a little bit more elevated and cost a little bit more than what you would get at a discount retailer. So we went and shopped in all these women's shops to compare what candles are they all carrying? What size are they? What are they made out of? So we had that all figured out. Then we decided how do we separate ourselves from what's on the shelves so that we can fit in those stores, so those stores would want to carry us, but that we would stick out from what they're currently carrying. And what a lot of those stores had were white labels, very minimalist, you know, a cursive handwriting font on there. So they all looked pretty similar in there. So we thought, hey, we want to compete with those. Uh, we want to be eye-catching compared to those. What can we do a little bit different? So we went with our brand having bright, colorful labels that still were soft. They're not hard. We don't have hard edges like a yellow versus a blue versus a red. They're still soft labels, um, but they are bright and they're colorful. And so that's what we started our brand around. Now, when you have that ideal customer picked out, everything you do in your business has to have that person in mind. Who is that person? How old are they? Where do they live? Where do they shop at? What are their hobbies? What are their daily habits? You have to figure all of that out by having that one person in mind. And then everything you do in your communication and the design of your website, the design of your branding and your packaging, the way you write an email, the way you record your videos for social media, everything has to have that one person in mind, which that might sound stressful, but actually it makes it real easy. If your customer is a stay-at-home mom, 45 years old, she is running this household, she's running around and around like crazy, she is getting kids from this event to that extracurricular activity to this soccer game to this ballet recital. If you have that one person in mind when you're building this brand out, it makes it easier because you know how to write an email that talks to that person. You know how to write that social media caption to talk to that one person. Sure, anyone can buy my candles. I want anyone to buy my candles, but I want to have one person in mind so that when that one person sees my branding, sees my captions, sees my ads, sees all my marketing efforts, sees my emails, they feel like, oh, they're talking to me. Like who they're talking to is me. Have you ever landed on a website at a restaurant, right? You look at all kinds of restaurant websites. When you look at a five-star dining restaurant or a Applebee's or a McDonald's or whatever, wherever you're going to explore, right? When we travel to new cities, we look at all these different restaurant websites to decide if it's for us. We're deciding if they're speaking to us. When I open up their website, if I see a steak and lobster, that's not me. They're not talking to me. They're talking to someone else. And they know who they're talking to, but it's definitely not me, right? If I see a hamburger and fries, they're talking to me. Now I'm going to start scrolling. They've got me on their customer. So I'm looking through their menu. It's the exact same thing with any products that we buy, right? When you are in the soda aisle at the store, right? Yeah, it's the same thing there. There were so many different options. And you think, how can I possibly come up with a brand new diet soda when there is Diet Pepsi Diet Coke, Diet Fantas, diet, diet, everything, right? They're very similar, but they're different. They're different in price point, they're different in packaging, they're different in on all different aspects, but they all know exactly who their customer is. So that's what I recommend doing when you're very first starting out. Have that one person in mind. And then you go and you hang out where they're hanging out. You follow those blogs, you join those type of Facebook groups. You are making posts about that person. You're not always trying to sell, but you are doing everything you possibly can with that one person in mind. And again, you'll start getting customers in different areas that you're like, oh, I didn't realize that my candle that I'm making for that 45-year-old stay-at-home mom also is a candle that a lot of 62-year-old, freshly retired single women also love, right? You didn't realize that um, you know, uh people that are into sports would also like your branding and your packaging, right? When you were actually just making candles for world travelers. Maybe that it was a more male-dominated niche, and you start to see, oh gosh, there's a lot of guys that like this, this line of candles, right? We have what's called a our duo line of candles, right? They're in sleek matte black vessels with a uh craft colored label on there. And it's very simple to know. It doesn't have a fancy name. The name of it, why we call it duo, is because it has two cents in it, right? So bergamot and eucalyptus. Very easy. Uh, we made that that whole line, that whole collection to lean more towards the guys that weren't into the the names of candles like Seaside Spa. Seaside Spa, that name of our candle, and it sells really well. There's certain people that see that label, it intrigues them. They open up, they smell it, they hopefully buy it, right? We wanted to create this one collection that just focused different, and and that's how we did it. But we put the packaging different, we put it in a box that has bright branding on it, things like that. So start easy, have one person in mind and build your brand around that. Then you'll start to see where it's expanding, you're getting new kinds of customers, and then you can put out different collections that will speak to uh to those uh individually.

Listener Questions And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you could do me a huge favor, that would be just to like and subscribe to this. Then if you want to have a question of yours answered on an upcoming episode, please put it in the comments below. I will pull those out and record those as soon as I possibly can. Thank you so much for being here today. Have a great week.