As a chandler, we are regularly asked if we can make our candles cheaper and/or the comment is made that all handmade candles are too expensive.
Are they really, considering the work that goes into them, or do people need to understand what goes into that beautiful, hand poured candle that is so much better than the average mass-produced candle?
What goes into bringing a new candle into our store?
Yesterday, we made yet another batch of test candles. These are the ones we make before we decide if we will proceed with a candle we will sell, so here we go!
We made:-
- 5 large apothecary jars (we broke one);
- 6 Small Apothecary Jars;
- 6 small Mosaic Jars.
- 35 tealights.
We used:-
- $600 worth of equipment;
- $250 worth of materials;
- $5 Electricity, water, kitchen;
- $20 in specialist vinyl paper, printer, and label equipment;
- $500 in 20 hours of labour at minimum wage of $25.00 per hour – 3 hours of label and packaging design and paperwork, 5 hours to make and 12 hours to test.
JUST to evaluate these three vessels, we have already spent just over $1300, and all we have got out of it to sell are the tealights, which we include with our stunning watercolour velino jars or Mosaic lanterns.
By the end of the first day, we had decided to not proceed with the 2 Apothecary vessels, so they are discards and will be used in the house. $1300 to test now 6 candles, not 18, that might go into production. Might.
In the phase to come, these 6 Mosaic jar candles will cure, then they will get three 4-hour test burns. If they burn well with the three fragrances in them then they will go into production.
If they do not, then, we refill with a different wick and do another round of testing.
If we want to add a new fragrance, we need to do another round of testing.
If we want to change the wax for a different wax, even as little as changing the brand of wax, then more testing.
If we want to bring on a medium and large mosaic jar, then more testing.
If we want to change the additive we used this time, guess what, more testing.
Same process for the lovely ceramic jars we will be introducing as we phase out all our apothecary style jars and simply have our Wellness candles, the ceramics, and the mosaics.
Do we keep records through this process? Absolutely, chandlers are required to test and keep test records under their insurance.
Are they viewable? Yes they are. While we do not e-mail them to customers, customers who pick up from the farm are welcome to look at our test records.
All we have out of this is the small tealights to sell, which we have tested endlessly as we love my scented small and maxi tealights and spa cups and use them all the time in our own vessels. Being on farm, we have regular power outages, so any excess new wax does go into a tealight, and at the end of testing when we clean out the test vessels, if we do not keep the candle, excess wax goes into fire-starters.
About now $30 for a small mosaic candle with a lovely natural wax and a phthalate-free fragrance is looking very reasonable, so why are mass produced candles so cheap?
Well, mass produced candles cut costs in a lot of areas.
- Cheap (and frequently nasty) fragrances;
- Lower quality materials – wax, wicks;
- Volume of production;
- The use of cheap labour i.e. sweat shops (yes, there are sweat shops for soap and candle products); and;
- Lower levels of quality control. Small chandlers put a lot of time, love and quality control into their products, which mass produced candles do not see.
Is there a way of getting a quality candle cheaper? Yes there is. While tealights seem to be out of fashion right now, if you cannot afford the larger candles, save up, invest in one beautiful candle vessel, something like our watercolour velino jars, and buy the tealights we make behind the scenes (one day we will put them in the shop). That way, you can still have a lovely candle vessel that you use repeatedly with top quality candles. (Pic: Watercolour Velino Jar with tealight)
Are Nashama Wellness tealights like the one in the thrift stores? No, our tealights are made from the same top quality Natural waxes our candles in jars are made from. They are long lasting with great scent throw and have our fabulous phthalate-free fragrances in them. In the picture below you can see 1. we have a messy chandler, and 2, how much better the wax is.
I do not like naked flames, is there another way to enjoy your candles? Yes. You can invest in a Zen Pot (watch this Accessories Space, we will shortly have some in our shop). A Zen Pot is an electric wax warmer with a heating plate for wax melts. Many other wax warmers have bulbs, but we would rather pay a little more for one with a heating plate. There are no naked flames. Right here we are evaluating warming a spa cup with one of our favourite scents, Black Raspberry and Vanilla, in our Zen Pot, and we are getting a good scent throw.
The Zen Pot is designed for wax melts like these, but, being a gentle warm, the tealights are OK in it and not as messy. (We do not recommend you take the wax out of a tealight vessel as it is a much softer wax that a specialist Melt wax.)
An alternative is a candle lamp warmer, which warms a larger candle and releases the fragrance. At this stage, there are no plans for us to stock candle lamps, but you can find them easily online.