Which candle scents appeal to you?

[MommaChristine]

 

[Savvymon]

WOW what a list to choose from! I love Ylang Ylang, and mostly candles that are spicyish, I think Patchuli and Ylang Ylang is my fave where I buy candles.

I guess everyone has such different tastes in candles it''s really hard to pick ones out.

I absolutly can''t stand Vanilla, every year for my birthday and christmas I get at least one set Ewwwwwww!

 

[AdiS]

I''d love to have the Cappuccino Hazelnut, Christmas Splendor, Citrus Gardens, Cool Citrus Basil, Key Lime Pie, Lemon Blossom, Lemon Sugar. I prefer fresh citrus aromas. My second favourite are sugary/chocolate fragrances.

 

[Loves Vintage]

Wow! How fun!! If I were you, I would put all of these scents into categories on a spreadsheet, probably by season and other meaningful categories, like chocolate/vanilla/food scents, spa scents. Then, you can easily eliminate your fall and winter scents and a lot of your food scents probably too. Actually, I might print these up as a pretty list and print off a bunch of them to keep near the display so that you can share with customers what else is available. Maybe that would lead to conversations/feedback about what they are interested in.

Then you can pick a few from each category. I probably wouldn't have more than 8-10 scents at a time, depending on how they do? Also, you can do a scent of the month. Lavender is a personal favorite of mine and now is the perfect time of year for it or another light floral scent and maybe citrus scents for the summer months. Then you can see if sales are higher for those scents during the month in which they are discounted. I probably wouldn't look to purchase candles at a produce market, but if they were 25% off, I would be more likely to. That's just me though.

What are you going to do for soaps? Is there anyone locally who makes goat's milk soap or other homemade soaps? Again, this is just me, but if I came upon locally made soaps, I would buy a bunch. If they are packaged, machine wrapped in plastic, I would look at them, but probably not buy them. It's just the way I am. I prefer to support local businesses.

I didn't even mention the produce! I love produce shops! How fun!

Good luck with you new venture!!

 

[Kelli]

Wow, ALL OF THEM! Sorry I''m no help at all. But I''m the kind of person who has almost EVERY bath and body works scent because I love the stuff and can''t decide on a favorite. I also don''t even buy the candles at Yankee stores, I buy the tarts so I can get more scents for the same money. I think dividing them by seasons and offering discounts sounds like a good idea. Good luck anyway, sounds like a fun project!

 

[Italiahaircolor]

I love candles! I like anything with lime or coconut or sugar. I am not a foodie person

 

[MonkeyPie]

Date: 3/17/2009 10:42:47 AM
Author: Italiahaircolor
I love candles! I like anything with lime or coconut or sugar. I am not a foodie person

Me too! I do really like the apple ones, though - they always remind me of summer and pie.

 

[shimmer]

Date: 3/17/2009 8:31:49 AM
Author: Loves Vintage
Wow! How fun!! If I were you, I would put all of these scents into categories on a spreadsheet, probably by season and other meaningful categories, like chocolate/vanilla/food scents, spa scents. Then, you can easily eliminate your fall and winter scents and a lot of your food scents probably too. Actually, I might print these up as a pretty list and print off a bunch of them to keep near the display so that you can share with customers what else is available. Maybe that would lead to conversations/feedback about what they are interested in.


Then you can pick a few from each category. I probably wouldn't have more than 8-10 scents at a time, depending on how they do? Also, you can do a scent of the month. Lavender is a personal favorite of mine and now is the perfect time of year for it or another light floral scent and maybe citrus scents for the summer months. Then you can see if sales are higher for those scents during the month in which they are discounted. I probably wouldn't look to purchase candles at a produce market, but if they were 25% off, I would be more likely to. That's just me though.


What are you going to do for soaps? Is there anyone locally who makes goat's milk soap or other homemade soaps? Again, this is just me, but if I came upon locally made soaps, I would buy a bunch. If they are packaged, machine wrapped in plastic, I would look at them, but probably not buy them. It's just the way I am. I prefer to support local businesses.


I didn't even mention the produce! I love produce shops! How fun!


Good luck with you new venture!!

Great idea LV!

I jotted down some of my favorites, I would stock two sets, one for spring/summer and fall/winter and a few year round:

Summer-Bamboo sugar cane, birthday cake, blackberry jam, casaba mist, citrus gardens, coconut lime, cool citrus basil, cucumber melon

Winter-Winter dreams, pumpkin spice, autumn harvest, cappuccino hazelnut, apple jack, buttery gingerbread, christmas past, cinnamon sticks, cranberry marmalade, eden, orange clove

Year-round-Jasmine breeze, plumeria, serenity, sun dried linen, lavender, lilac mist, vanilla incantation, ylang ylang

 

[BlueSki231]

WOW you''ve got a lot of great scents to choose from. i personally would be interested in:

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Lavender Vanilla
Vanilla Extract
Vanilla Incantation

(can you tell I like vanilla?!?)
You''re probably gonna get a TON of diverse answers! Hope it helps you narrow down!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

2nd. Definetly stock two seasons.

I love candles and buy almost exclusively soy ones. For my candles, I always buy them seasonally. . .so, for example, apple and/or cinnamon scents, I ONLY buy around the holidays, so when I burn those ones, they bring back memories of Christmas. The other day in Target, I held up an apple candle to my son and asked him if that reminded him of last Christmas, and he said yes.

As far as scents, I would avoid the really sweet ones, like birthday cake and or chocolate cake for any time other than Oct-Dec. Mostly because often those can smell a bit too strong and/or yucky. Also, sometimes people want to avoid scents that cause them to crave sugary foods. At Sephora, I overheard a girl saying she wouldn't buy any chocolate scented products as they'd interfere with her diet. Keep those exclusive to holidays.

Cucumber melon would be perfect for summer!

ETA - also stock all the "year round best sellers."

Best of luck.

 

[Clairitek]

I personally can''t stand candles or body products that smell like food (vanilla, pumpkin, spiced, cinnamon, etc.). I tend to gravitate towards fresh smelling stuff that is normally called "Clean Linen", "Clean Cotton", or "Ocean Breeze."

 

[tlh]

cinnamon!!!!

 

[MommaChristine]

Thank you ladies for all of your help! Even though a lot of the opinions are different, you''ve helped me a LOT! The spreadsheet and catagorizing them is a wonderful idea!

LV - I wanted to answer your soap question. The soaps I''m actually considering are made in California and I''m in Virginia. I looked a lot of places and did a ton of research on reviews and what not and could not seem to find any other that fit the bill for hand crafted soaps! Here''s the link .. I''d love to hear what ya''ll think!

www.frontierangel.com

 

[Loves Vintage]

Date: 3/17/2009 12:51:35 PM
Author: MommaChristine
Thank you ladies for all of your help! Even though a lot of the opinions are different, you've helped me a LOT! The spreadsheet and catagorizing them is a wonderful idea!

LV - I wanted to answer your soap question. The soaps I'm actually considering are made in California and I'm in Virginia. I looked a lot of places and did a ton of research on reviews and what not and could not seem to find any other that fit the bill for hand crafted soaps! Here's the link .. I'd love to hear what ya'll think!

www.frontierangel.com

Those soaps look great! I really like the chilled lavender soap. They do seem expensive, but I also see they offer wholesale. Regarding the local producers issue that I brought up, I was thinking specifically about this soap that I've received as a gift that is made by a family in my state and sold at farmer's markets. They make it in small quantities, so it's not readily available, and I think that lends a special quality to it that makes me want to have it. It is also very high quality. So, I suppose the fact that it is locally made is only one part of it. The other attractive qualities are its extremely high quality, that they are handcrafted and only sold in a few places. They are called Goatboy Soap. I looked at their website today and see that they also charge $5 per bar.

On the other hand, there is a farm near me, that has its own market that's open only in spring/summer/fall. Initially, they were selling only veggies and fruit from the farm, but over the years, their business has really grown. They now sell soap and candles that are definitely not hand-crafted. They are machine wrapped in plastic with unattractive victorian-looking sticker labels. No matter how much I love this farm, the concept of buying from a local business (the farm), etc., I would never buy these soaps. They are out of place and exceedingly unappealing to me. (How strange that I have such strong feeling about this, eh?)

The other thing that I wanted to mention is that there are lots of soap sellers on eBay, where you can find less expensive soap, but you'd really have to buy samples first to check on the quality. There are some sellers who sell the soap in loaves, so you can cut it into bars, and then package it for retail yourself, if that's something that appeals to you. I've also purchased lavender soap from this Etsy seller, which I really like: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=20548

Perhaps you can contact one of the eBay or Etsy sellers to find out if you can retail their products? I'm concerned that if you retail for the company you posted, your profit margin may be too small or you may have to charge so much that customers are turned off.

Also, I wanted to mention some other things that my farm sells (because you said this will be a country market too). They sell jams, salsas, barbeque sauce, salad dressing (no preservatives, love this stuff), all with their labels, but which is obviously packaged elsewhere. They also sell frozen fruit pies, as does another little produce market near me. The ones at the little produce market are from a local orchard that makes and sells their own pies. I think they are like $20/pie, so I imagine they have a good mark up.

If I think of anything else, I will mention it!!!