Ok, I bought a vehicle. Step One complete! Now to fix her up and get her running properly. Its an SUV so I’ll have plenty of room to haul candles and supplies which is great! Its totally my style too. I just got done detailing it so next is to tear apart the engine to replace the knock sensor, lower and upper intake gaskets, valve cover gaskets, two exhaust manifolds and give it a good tuneup! Ive got a lot of work ahead of me but Im thinking I’ll have it running good in the next two weeks so then I can proceed with the candles. This has consumed all my money and time at the moment but it’ll be worth it in the end so keep your fingers crossed this is a semi easy process haha I’m excited to be moving forward in this process! Stay tuned Tender Flame followers!
Author: TenderFlameSoyCandles
Soy candle making business with a mission purpose of sharing our Experience, Strength & Hope and giving consumers an opportunity to contribute in creating a supportive community of recovery.
Verdict is…
My car is beyond my budget and skill to fix. Im super stressed out with this whole car situation. Its putting everything on hold at the moment I’m super overwhelmed with buying a new vehicle. I can only afford a fixer upper. I dont want to put money down on a car that may not run proper after putting more money into. Im likely going to purchase a project that wont take long to get running good, then I’ll need to buy new tires (if I get the vehicle I’m looking at buying anyways). Once all that is done, I will be able to move forward. I did get an order this morning for a candle just for them to get me motivated so thats helpful. I’m struggling finding inspiration with everything going in directions that are making things even more challenging. Im ready for a little relief. I know once I just do it I’ll feel better. I guess just with everything thats going on, I’m just feeling a little lost is all and ready to give up. Im blessed and thankful to have so many people stand behind me and keep me going. So even though things aren’t progressing quickly, they are progressing!
Complete chaos lol
My house is almost officially clean after all the chaos over the last few weeks! Between work, fun activities, the yard sale, and my crazy dog, it was complete chaos! Now that most of the house is in order, I can actually think. I can work on the recipes and start making candles! I told everyone that I’m limiting my hangouts to occasional events and hanging out at my house while I get things done. Everyone seems to understand and respect my decision. I’m very fortunate to have such great, supportive people in my life. 😁 I’ll be glad to get the ball rolling on this stuff! Tonight I’m gonna enjoy myself and relax with my two best friends. Have a good time and refresh. It’s much needed. I feel bad for not working on my candles but I also know its going to consume so much to get things going to the point I can start making money to put back into it. I’ll be glad when my car is fixed! It’s at the mechanics and will likely be there for a few more weeks! Keep your fingers crossed that its an easy fix! Stayed tuned Tender Flame followers because there’s lots to come!
Adulting…
One small step for Tender Flame! I have my first investor!! It might not seem like much but it is just amazing to me the amount of support I have behind me! 😁 I was missing the 4oz candle tins I needed to make the recipes I have ready to make so someone invested by buying the tins for me and I will pay them back in candles! I will be making candles all weekend because that’ll make me some money to replenish supplies and get this going! The universe really does have a funny way of presenting things at the exact right times. Maybe I dont comepletely understand why things happen the way they do, but I do know that everything happens for a reason, that I’m sure of. ❤ Now to test a couple more recipes and decide which candles I should make first! Definitely gonna have to be candles I have all the ingredients for because I cannot put anymore money into this until my car is fixed. Gotta love adulting and priorities lol Stay tuned Tender Flame followers!
Holding…
Murphy’s Law strikes again lol I had ordered a bunch of candle supplies recently and within a week my car crapped out on me haha I can still drive it when I absolutely have to but the transmission is having issues so I rarely use it. Its been down for about a month now except for my weekly run into town to do errands. Its been really nice not driving actually. And you’d think it’d give me more time for candle making but in reality, I’ve been home a lot less instead. And to be honest with you, this candle making business scares me because I know it can and will be successful (they are pretty great candles!) but I’m not in a position to hire help or do it 40 hrs a week yet. So instead I’m taking things slow until Im in a better spot. Gotta get my car fixed first, then back to candles. I will never stop trying to make this work because it means too much to me. How and why I got started. What inspired me. All of it. It all holds a special place in my heart so I want it to be successful! I’m gonna do this right. And right now, I gotta fine tune a few more recipes, get my car fixed so I have a way to go sell them and continue on with the back office boring paperwork and spreadsheet stuff lol Its coming you guys! Just gotta be patient with me 😊
This journey has been one of the longest yet! I keep expecting everything to happen overnight and of course things dont work that way. But, I continue to persevere! 😁 I finally have a workbench for my garage so that I have space for a more sturdy and permanent glass station. The foldable one just wasn’t cutting it. I’ve had some set backs, of course, but things are coming together lol. Got the workbench handled and now just trying to find the time to make candles! Working a full time job and being a mom makes things move much slower since time and budget are main factors for sure but hey, little by little everything is coming together just as it should so watch out world, cause here I come! 😁 I’ve got some great recipes that I’m ready to sell, I just need to get my butt in gear! People absolutely love the ones I’ve made already so I know I’m on the right track! Soon I’ll have time to start working more on them. I’m thankful I have such great support behind me 😁😊
Still at it!
Tender Flamers!! Obviously its been a while since I’ve updated. I have not given up! A lot has happened these last few months. Of course shortly after my last post in March, everything started to go wrong but I remained calm and persevered! Come to find out, its a lot harder to start your own business while working two jobs and being a single mom, while still having somewhat of a life haha. No matter, I will soon be launching! You can check out my Facebook at Tender Flame Soy Candles. I’ve updated the page periodically throughout this process. Here’s just a little update on whats been happening…
Back in late March and early April my mom was working on my logo and labels. I’ve been pretty dead set on exactly what I want but it was a bit difficult getting it exactly right in Illistrator so we toyed with it for a while. By May, it still wasn’t done. I can’t sell my product without a label. So I took that time to continue testing. By mid May, my mom fell down the stairs and dislocated her wrist so she wasn’t able to finish my logo. Now my brother is working on getting it done. Should be done in just a few short weeks. Shortly after my mom fell down the stairs, my laptop decided to stop working! It needed a battery replacement, so I finally replaced the battery just to find out the next day that my harddrive was fried! Ugh. One thing after another. All of my costing spreadsheets, inventory list, price lists were all on my laptop. Well a friend assisted with getting my laptop working just long enough to get my business stuff transferred to an external harddrive! Thank goodness too cause I spent a lot of time creating all of those. I was so relieved. Then I had to get a different laptop which I did. So finally I was back in business for all of that, and continued testing when I had time. I now have solid candle recipes ready to sell (that burn beautifully and smell amazing!!), I have over 25 fragrances to choose from and I cant wait to get on the ball. Im still working my second job until the end of this month so time is limited until then. Which is good causw on my free time, I’ve been continuing the glass cutting and sanding to use the old beer and wine bottles as containers. Slowly I’m getting there. Moving forward I’ll do my best to keep updated throughout the process and get my price list on here. I look forward to this journey. And thank you to all of my supporters who continue to keep me positive! Stay tuned Tender Flamers!
Below are some pictures from the last couple months.
Love Spell curing for 24 hours:
6oz candle recipe complete:
Glass sanding station:
Soaking bottles in preparation of cutting:
Sneak peak of my logo Tender Flame!
Testing phase two!
So testing phase one was not completely successful, however, it helped get my process down better! The cold scent throw of the candle was amazing! The look and everything was great. The hot scent throw however was non existent, which i was expecting since I wasn’t positive what type of soy wax it was and exery type is different. So instead I tested a new recipe that I knew the type of wax. The last batch was basically just to get the process down and I did, so I guess it was a success and not a complete waste lol. The new recipe however was a serious recipe that I worked hard on. I made 5 lavender candles, all the same size with different ingredients. Two of them are pure soy and lavender with different size wicks to see which burns best, then the other three have different wick sizes and an additive that assists with the fragrance scent throw! The first test burn seems to be good. You can actually smell the lavender when you walk in the room! A few air pockets but i believe thats because I poured at a low temp and poured too quickly, but at least the recipe is a success! Guess I’ll see on one of the other candle victims once I test burn those and log the results. There is definitely so much that goes into making a perfect candle and I cant wait to get it exactly where it needs to be. 🙂
Cutting glass
The supplies arrived early for cutting glass bottles! I’ll be using old wine and beer bottles as glass containers and glass cup gift sets! This will allow me to keep the cost down for my customers. I’m pretty excited to get started on cutting and smoothing the glass. Just waiting for the sanding powder to arrive. Still a lot of work to do to get everything up and running! I’d like to prep 50 or more bottles. Which means I’ll need to prep all the bottles for easy label removal (hot water, baking soda and steel scourer pads), then cut and sand! I’ll explain more about the process as I get further into it. So much work ahead of me lol Just part of this exciting journey. I’m glad to share it all with everyone!
Soaking the bottles!
The first cut was made! Just need to sand it down when the powder arrives next week.
Testing phase one!
Testing production of my recipes! Finally starting on the production stage of business. Making sure that the recipes I’ve chosen work well before I start mass producing the candles. Each container and type of wax require a different percentage of fragrance oil for the scent throw or different type of wick to ensure the best burn pool. Many things go into making a candle! Not to mention the melting temps, pouring temps, temperature of the environment, how much you stir the dye and fragrance, how slow you pour, and so much more. After these first set are completely solidified and have sat for at least 24 hours, I will begin the burning stage of testing. Basically I have to burn the candle for two hours at a time to watch the burn pool, the flame and soot. If I chose the correct size wick, then it will burn beautifully! Otherwise I’ll be back to testing the recipe! This next week I’ll start cutting the old wine and beer bottles to start using glass containers rather than just the metal tins. The supplies will be here Monday! That’s gonna be a whole other fun process in this business. Thankfully I have access to as many old glass bottles as I want. That will help keep the costs low so that I can keep the price low for the end product! Oh this is gonna keep me quite busy and will be lots of fun!
Melting the wax…
Prepping the metal tin containers…
Waiting for them to set…
Almost ready to test burn…
