4Candles UK Candle Making Supplies

July Candle Making

2007-07-11T08:43:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

The CandleShack fragrance range is now available and another twenty-five fragrances will be added as soon as the fragrance department can get on top of the orders for the first twenty-five candle making fragrances.

In the mean time eleven new fragrances have been added to the US fragrance oils.

The Wedo RRD wick will be added to the site next week hopefully.

The main news i have is that Steve will now be concentrating on evaluating and testing new and existing candle making supplies full time though Steve will still be the person who answers the helpline (a new switch board and new telephone numbers has just been installed and will be implemented soon). This testing (or playing about as we like to call it) Steve is doing will lead to a much better set of candle making guides and wick recommendations.

The website is currently being upgraded with the content on the web pages now being spread over a larger width. This work will be done a page at a time and apologies if it makes the site seem a little strange while it is done.

Lastly please remember that we have our annual summer holiday this year between the 10th August and the 20th August and no orders will be processed during this period.

Happy candle making

Gentil

June Candle Making Update

2007-06-04T05:44:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Good and bad news for the start of this month, the bad news as you are probably now well aware is that we have had a bad time with packaging and the launch of the UK range of fragrance oils by CandleShack has had to be put back. The next 25 fragrances have now been started on so we could end up with another 25 before we even have the first lot up on the website.

The very good news is that the prices are dropping on nearly all items we stock due to us now having better bulk purchasing power, so the best priced candle making supplies in the UK just got even better.

Two new natural waxes are coming to the website this month and will be available at a special offer price, then keep your eyes out next month for the new mould range we are launching. Other new items will also be added and i will update you as they are added.

Happy Candle Making.

Gentil

Candle Makers Update

2007-05-28T02:02:00.000-07:00

First a small plug for the new online forum for candle makers.

When we were first asked if we could add a forum to our site we were a bit sceptical as we often introduce our new candle makers to a forum that is run in the USA, but on reflection it did not seem a bad idea to give it a go on one of the web domains we hold so hey its up and running and hopefully it will be a great help to any new (or experienced) candle makers. Click on the logo if you want to go and check it out (after you have read my ramblings would be nice).

It is a rainy bank holiday Monday and i thought i would add an extra chapter this month, we have in my opinion tried to do far to much this year which has led to a dilution of effort towards getting the new candle making supplies online. The upside is that now all the new items and ideas are all going to be added at the same time so a relatively quiet beginning to 2007 is now going to be very hectic as new staff and the new ranges all clash together, but hopefully it will all work out very well.

The CandleShack fragrance range are in full production this week (though some idiot forgot to order the new sized bottles! ;-) oh please turn up soon!!) We have the recipes for 500 candle fragrances and we hope to add 25 at a time to the website. There will also be a facility to add your descriptions online of the candle making fragrances and there is going to be rewards for the best descriptions (good or bad reviews).

Larger shipping weights have been added for our EU customers which now means you have to select your country during checkout to get the correct shipping service. After a lot of research we have decided to still use an export agent for shipping to the Middle East which generally means little orders are just not feasible due to cost, i apologise to our customers this affects.

It was noticed that our website was beginning to lag and when we looked at all the reasons for this problem (mostly high traffic and an old shared server) we took the decision to get our own server which has solved the lag problem quite dramatically. This led to the RSS feed and the newsletter features being deleted but a new RSS feed has now been done and at this time we will not be adding a newsletter as news will be posted via the RSS and this blog.

I will end here as i do not really want to write a short book that will bore you to tears especially as i am bursting to tell you about the other new candle making supplies we are adding, but i have been told i am to keep quiet because i blab about something that is in the pipeline which leads to a lot of impatient customers harassing Steve about when things will be available (he loves it really! its Bridget who complains as he is never off the phone)

Until June

Gentil

May Candle Makers Update

2007-05-05T07:03:00.000-07:00

Well firstly i am talking about the courier service again which has been a real thorn in our sides over the last few months and when we have all been coming down with a SUPER bug (i dont think i need to tell anyone the problems associated with one of these stomach bugs) it had got us all on a bit of a low. But hurrah!! it is sorted for once and for all with two services available next day or three day delivery and you can now reply with your order confirmation to recieve the tracking details for your parcel.

The Pro container wax has made a lot of candle makers out there very happy and the person (you know who you are!) who filled there boots while the April promo was on has now got a lot of candles to make. We have also brought back the old container candle wax after a lot of requests and it is now called HMP container wax.

The new candle making fragrance (well one of the ranges) is still due to be on the website during the first week in June a lot of you who tested it are now getting very impatient for more; if you haven't had a tester of the fragrance please drop us a note with your next order and one will be put in for you. The fragrance range (from the US) that we currently have on the website will now be kept and we are going to greatly increase that range during the summer and autumn again this is down to customer power as we were asked to keep this one and that one as they were your fravourites or best sellers and we ended up having requests for all of them.

At last we can offer you your candle wick waxed, cut, and sustainers fitted this is down to a second machine we have got in to cope with the extra work just take a look at the waxed wick page (it should have the couple of candle wicks that are missing added next week)

Well thats it for now i should have more news at the end of the month regarding the fragrance.

Have a good bank holiday and happy candle making.

Gentil

March Update

2007-03-21T05:48:00.000-07:00

We have been very busy lately testing a lot of new candle making materials to add to the website which has led me to neglect the blog for quite a few weeks. The courier service is now sorted and though it may take an extra day to receive your parcels the lower price is well worth it.

We have had so many calls and emails regarding FO fragrances disappearing off the site that we have decided to come clean and announce that we are making our own range of fragrance oils and we expect to have them online in June. I am unable to say any more at this time but just wanted to assure you that we are not cutting down on fragrance oils we are actually working towards bringing a range of a few hundred different fragrances that will be made especially for candle making.

The new glass range has been plagued by different problems and we have now had to put that project to one side as it was beginning to disrupt the other new stock we are currently testing and evaluating. Though the glassware was very nice visually it was just not strong enough so the glass maker has gone back to his drawing board, i know a lot of you were looking forward to its arrival and i apologise for yet another delay.

The new container wax from candle shack is absolutely marvelous and leaves the most beautiful smooth texture i have ever seen on a container candle, and with the new container wick we have developed to compliment it there will now be no excuse for left over wax or wicks drowning even if you are a novice candle maker.

Lastly there are the fluorescent dyes along with 5g Inpex Dye Chips that will be available from the 1st April (no its not a joke) that continue to give really deep candle colouring but now you can purchase smaller amounts and also a bumper bag of mixed chips.

Well there is more info regarding moulds and a few other new ideas that will have to wait until the next time i have a few minutes spare to update the Blog.

Happy Candle Making

Gentil

Courier Service

2007-02-08T04:05:00.000-08:00

The courier services and prices have gone through a bit of a change lately which i appologise for if it has caused any confusion. The service we were offered and started to use proved to be very unreliable and as one of our main aims is to deliver customers orders as soon and as inexpensive as possible we felt the delays were not acceptable. The ability to offer N. Ireland customers the same price for deliveries as the rest of the UK was a great hit but it just is not possible to continue. I will continue to look for the best solution and will hopefully have news soon until then we will still be offering the same fast deliveries as always.

Updates to the site are coming soon with the votive and t-light wick samples being added as well as the new melt and pour wax.

Gentil

General Website News

2007-01-26T19:08:00.000-08:00

The NT wick is now available in larger sizes which should please the bees wax candle makers and now that we have developed a wick that is successful in candle sand we will be looking to stock a few of the most popular fragranced sands.

A lot of people must have suddenly decided to make votive candles just after Christmas which took us quite by surprise and we quickly sold out of the votive mould cups; the votive cups will be back in stock next week.

A few new fragrances will be added to the fragrance oils next week as well.

There is going to be a few little additions to the website this week (new pages) with a testimonial page added which can be added to online.

A new wax will be added shortly; it is a pre-mixed candle wax that has all the additives needed to make great pillar and votive candles and has scent and dye already mixed and comes with the hard thought out name of Melt and Pour; great for all new (and old and lazy) candle makers.

I will be looking at the newsletter situation during February and will decide whether to continue with it or not, I think it maybe needs revamping and updating with a system in place to ensure that a newsletter is sent each month.

Gentil

Votive Wick Page

2007-01-26T18:58:00.000-08:00

The votive wick page has now been updated (at last!) the tea light wicks have been moved off the votive wick page and placed on their own page so there should be no more frustrated people asking me where the "heck" they are.

After a lot of testing we have decided to add the LX wicks to the votive wick assemblies as they perform as well if not better than anything else we have tried though the V45/SPC-60 still proves to be the best seller. The LX14 and LX16 perform remarkably well in poured votive glass candles using the Soya+ wax.

We are still testing an innovative new wick and hope to "roll" it out sometime in the summer.

Gentil

NT Wick

2007-01-17T02:56:00.000-08:00

Larger sizes of NT wick are now in production and they should be available on the website within two weeks. We have had such a lot of feedback about the wick and how well it works for beeswaxed candle making that we should now have sizes of the NT wick that will work in Bees waxed candles up to 75mm in diameter.

I promise the votive wick page will be updated soon with natural waxed votive wick and more of the NT wick beeswaxed.

Gentil

Natural Wick Waxing

2006-12-27T06:13:00.000-08:00

We have replaced the beeswax coating for wick with a 100% natural wick wax. This is a much better option as sometimes soy wax candles were being left with a yellow mark as a result of melting beeswax off the wick. We do now have a wick assembling machine but it is fully booked already for wholesale work so we now have no idea when we will be able to offer a custom assembled wick service (maybe we need another machine) so for now we will have to stick with the cut lengths of waxed wick and you will have to fit the sustainers yourself.

Gentil

Guide to making votive moulds

2006-12-22T11:37:00.000-08:00

At last we have added a candle making guide to the website

Many people have asked about making votive candles in particular and it has been a long time since any of us have had the time to sit and put together a little guide. I am amazed that we even have images though they are maybe not as good a quality as they should be, maybe I can persuade someone to make somemore votive candles and take pictures while they are doing it.

I hope the guide is of some use to anybody thinking of making candles as a hobby and I intend there being more guides in the near future. If anyone has anything to add to the guides or would like to offer one please contact me.

Gentil

A New Start

2006-12-20T01:39:00.000-08:00

For 2007 i have decided to keep up with the blog and post as often as i can with any news or other items i have. You are welcome to leave any questions or observations. For 2007 the 4Candles website will be adding a range of glassware for candle making, a local glassmaker has put together a very nice range for us and all being well we will start to add it to the website at the end of January.

The Inpex dye blocks have been an amazing hit and i thank you for all the positive feedback about the dye blocks. We will be adding new colours to the range over January, February, and March.

The aluminium moulds have also gone really well so we will be adding more to that range.

There any many other things in the pipeline for this summer so keep checking back.

We have added a RSS feed which is at the bottom of the homepage which will be used to notify of any changes that have just happened on the site or are just about to happen.

The newsletter has not been used very often and for those of you who like to recieve news through it i appologise and as part of my New years resolution i have vowed to make the blog, rss feed, and the newsletter a bigger priority.

Thank you to all customers for 2006 and i wish you all well in 2007; have a great Xmas

Gentil