Thursday, March 25, 2010

New Candles Cooling Now

I've decided to create a series of candles that are 100% natural using soy wax and only essential oils, no fragrance oils and no artificial colors. The first scents available in the Luna Rose Creations Naturals series are: Lavender-Rosemary, Patchouli, Sunshine (a spicy citrus blend), Citrus Mint, Cinnamon, Spice, and Orange Spice. I have glass votive candles cooling now in these scents. Unfortunately it looks like I'm going to have to increase my candle prices. I sat down and figured the per candle cost of materials - not including production time and the overhead costs of my home workspace - just the materials and realized I'm barely making a profit. And that is with the materials I bought recently. I started out buying my wax at hobby stores, which costs way more than my online source. So it looks like I've been selling my previous candles at a loss. It looks like I have to increase my price to at least $4 a votive, if not up to $5... I'll need to calculate how much wax goes into my bigger jelly jars to decide how much they need to be. I really hate having to raise my prices, but I realized I am working with the best prices for my materials I can find.

I plan to re-open my Luna Rose Creations Etsy account to list my candles and my non-ritual perfume oils, as well as any soaps, bath salts and lotions.

Studio Nocturna is all about the art and jewelry creations, and my newest account WebWitch is just for the spiritual ritual tools - ritual candles, runes, pendulums, prayer beads, oils, voodoo dolls, spell kits, etc... I'm doing this to keep my main account from getting too jumbled up to handle.

I will have more candles in the works soon. I have stocked up on 4 oz jelly jars as well. I have a few potential festivals I want to vend at this spring so I'm trying to get ready as much as I can. I want to do more spell bottle pendants and dice jewelry as well. So many ideas and plans... so little time...