4 Things I Wish I Knew About Selecting Candle Jars

When you develop your business from an idea, you are faced with more decisions than you can keep track of.  One of the most important things I did early in the process was to create a detailed plan of how I would get my candle business off the ground. 

Within that plan, I forecasted what I thought would be the major decisions and roughly when in the process I would have to make them.  If you read my first blog post, you know the process I took to go from a broad idea to my candle brand.  Once I had created the brand, I was eager to develop my first line of candles. 

However, before I did any of that, I had to figure out what type of candle vessel I would use.  I knew I wanted to use glass jars and I had a certain size in my mind.  You know, that typical candle you see on someone’s coffee table.  I wanted something unique.  Something that would stand out.  After an extensive search, I settled on the 12 oz apothecary jar.  Why?  It looked cool and a little different (but not too different).  What could go wrong?

From Starter Kit to Wholesale Order: Taking Off the Training Wheels

I went to my candle wholesaler’s website and ordered a few dozen jars along with an array of wicks to test.  The candles I made with the starter kit worked well.  They were easy though.  They call it a “starter kit” for a reason right?  The tins had been paired with the proper wicks that burned just right with the prepackaged fragrances and dye chips.  Now I was on my own.  I made an assortment of candles in my new apothecary jars.  I tried different colors, scents, and of course wicks.  And guess what?  They looked pretty good!  Was it possible that these jars were perfect?  (Spoiler alert: No.)

I waited 48 hours for the candles to cure and it was time to test!  I grabbed one of the candles and my trusty fire extinguisher and tested my first non-starter kit candle.  It worked!  Kinda.  As in, the candle burned, and best of all, didn’t explode.  But the melt-pool didn’t exactly cover the entire diameter of the candle.  But it didn’t explode!  And it even smelled good!  I went on testing candles until I found a wick that created an even melt pool all the way across the candle without getting dangerously hot.

After I got my candles down, I focused on developing my brand (catch up on the full story of how I developed my brand here).  Once my brand was hammered out, it was time to design my labels.

Testing candles in the apothecary jars

1.       Know the size and shape of the labels that will fit on your jars

Remember when I said the apothecary jars weren’t perfect?  Well here’s why.  When I went to measure the maximum label that would fit on the jar, it didn’t leave a lot of room to work with. 

You see, when I developed the brand around Road Trip Candle Company, I wanted each candle to have a story.  Not the “story” of how I use eco-friendly, renewable soy wax (although I do) and how the candles are hand-poured with care (they are) and all that.  Literally a story printed on the labels.  As in, Vermont Evergreen would tell the story of a family chopping down an Evergreen tree in the mountains of Vermont in December.  Boston Cream Pie would tell the story of someone wandering around historic Boston before finding the perfect bakery.  You get the idea (but if you like our stories, you can check them all out in our Etsy shop candle descriptions). 

In addition to the story, there were some other important things to get on there.  It would be important for it to say “Road Trip Candle Company” on there somewhere right?  And of course it needed to say somewhere what the scent was and what was inside the pretty jar (soy wax obviously) in addition to some other important stuff.  I could write a whole blog post on designing a label and figuring out exactly what to put on the label (And guess what?  I am going to.  So be on the lookout for that). 

So if you have been paying attention and you looked at the picture of the apothecary jar, you might be thinking “how is all of that going to fit on this candle without using size 3 font?”  To make a long story short, this is why the apothecary jar isn’t perfect.  As much as it pained me, it was time to move on to new jars.

2.       Figure out how size, weight, and shape impact shipping costs

After a respectful and somber moment of silence for my apothecary jars, I decided I wanted a vessel that was roughly the same volume but could also accommodate a large square label.  I scoured the internet for the perfect jar.  After searching far and wide, I settled on a straight sided tumbler.  I know what you are thinking.  Not nearly as unique as the apothecary jar. I know I know!  But it had the surface area I needed for my new labels.  See, by this point I had been working with a label designer (more on this process in a future post) and had big square labels with lots of words. 

I was super excited about the new labels and couldn’t wait to get them on my new jars.  I ordered 24 jars and eagerly slapped on my new labels once they arrived.  And they looked good!  I was excited.  But something about the jar with the label looked off.  They were missing something.  Back to the internet to see if I could find something better. 

Straight sided tumbler with a test label

Another vigorous internet search brought me to the 12 oz status jar.  It looked perfect.  It had a large flat area for my square wordy labels and a big heavy base that gave the jar, um, some status (cleaver jar makers. They didn’t name it the “status jar” for no reason).  I was cautiously optimistic.  I ordered 24 status jars from the wholesaler, and soon enough they arrived in two boxes.  As I brought the boxes into my house, I could already feel that they were heavier than the straight sided tumblers.  But I’m a moderately healthy young-ish person, so I didn’t think much of the extra weight. 

I experimented to find the right wick, made a few of the scents from my first candle line (more on this in a future post), and carefully placed my labels.  I stepped back to take a look.  The moment of truth.  I thought they looked good.  Really good!  I locked them in as my signature jars and moved on to the next step in the process. 

Status jar that I still use today

Fast forward a few months and I am still using those jars.  As I started experiencing more success selling online and at farmer’s markets, I was ordering more and more jars.  The important thing to remember about ordering wholesale is that you pay for shipping.  Since Amazon offers free shipping on almost anything, we have all gotten spoiled when it comes to shipping costs.  That bubble bursts quickly when you are calculating your costs and realize that you are paying almost as much for shipping the jars as you are for the jars themselves. 

As a new candle shop on Etsy, I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to get costs down so that you can offer competitive prices (more on how to calculate your costs and lower prices in future posts).  It is essential to remember that a heavy, well made jar will add to that price.  Before you finalize your jar selection, work backwards.  Figure out what range you want your candles to sell for at retail.  If a heavy vessel and its shipping costs take on too large a percentage of that cost, you will need to find an alternative.

Oh, and remember when I said people are spoiled by Amazon and don’t like to think about shipping costs?  Well not only does that impact your candles when the jars come in, it impacts them when the finished candles are shipped out.  People on Etsy want cheap or free shipping and candles cost more to ship than you would think.  You can’t avoid the weight of the wax (obviously), so it is essential to make sure you do not add too much cost with vessel weight. 

Weight also isn’t the only thing to consider when determining shipping costs.  That big heavy base on my status jars also makes the candles a unique shape.  Fitting one candle or even two into a shipping box is no problem, but fitting three, four, or five candles safely into a box that can ship at an affordable price can feel like an incredibly stressful game of Tetris. 

If figuring out affordable shipping for a vessel that looks aesthetically pleasing and can accommodate your labels doesn’t seem stressful enough, then good news!  You also need to worry about how the vessel will factor into hot throw (fancy term for how much fragrance you smell when the candle is lit) and burn time. 

3.       The vessel you select will play a major role in your candle’s hot throw and burn time

As I was crafting what I assumed would become the word’s best candle, I spent hours researching and experimenting with different waxes, fragrances, wicks, and pouring temperatures to create the perfect hot throw.  As I worked through all that, I almost overlooked the role of the vessel. 

The science seems simple enough.  A wider candle is going to have a larger melt pool.  A larger melt pool is going to melt more fragrance.  The more fragrance that melts, the more will be thrown into the air.  Wider vessels are going to burn faster and produce more hot throw.  As you experiment with wider jars, your risk for tunneling (a candle that doesn’t create an even melt pool all the way across and leaves a “tunnel” of wax) increases.  Thinner jars burn slower but have less hot throw.  Thinner jars are less likely to encounter tunneling, but there is a safety risk if the vessel gets too hot. 

Fortunately, I got the desired hot throw and burn time with the vessels I selected.  Unfortunately for this blog post, that means I don’t have any cute stories or witty comments.  It’s pretty straight forward.  So once you have all that figured out and your candles are selling, what could go wrong?

4.       Find vessels that can be purchased from multiple sources or plan well in advance

So at this point you might be thinking, “oh good.  It sounds like he navigated that tough path and probably sold millions of candles without running into any further problems.”  Well.  Not exactly.  Remember earlier when I said I scoured the internet for the perfect jar?  Well, I foolishly assumed that any legitimate wholesaler I found would be able to supply me with the however many jars I needed whenever I decided I needed them.  Seeing as all of this story takes place during Covid, that assumption now seems pretty foolish.  Reflecting back on it now, it seems pretty obvious that unforeseen things happen and my supplies might not always be available. 

As a low budget new company, I basically ordered the jars as I needed them.  I started with 24 jars and slowly increased my orders (Remember earlier when I said I noticed that the boxes were slightly heavier than the old boxes, but I didn’t mind?  Well lets just say when I am moving fifty boxes instead of two, I mind slightly more). 

This method worked well for a while by allowing me to slowly build the company without a massive investment.  As I sold candles, I used the profits to order more jars, labels, fragrances.  You get the idea.  Candle supplies. 

Like I said, this method worked for a while.  One day I went to put in a new jar and lid order and the jars were sold out!  They didn’t even have a date listed for when they would be back in stock. 

In addition to the normal Covid related obstructions, this was around the time that big boat got stuck in the Suez Canal.  Remember that?  I never found out exactly what made my jars go out of stock, but let’s just say there are a lot of possible suspects.  Whatever the cause, I was out of jars and was in a bind.  Luckily, they dislodged the boat or whatever and it didn’t take much time for my jars to become available again.  The key takeaway here is to make sure you can obtain your vessels and other supplies from multiple sources or have enough on hand to last quite some time. 

Key Takeaways

Starting a candle business (or any business really) requires a ton of planning, but things will never go according to plan.  You need to keep the big picture in mind and gradually chip away at your tasks so that the business can grow.  Here is my list of key takeaways that can also be applied to other aspects of your business:

-          Start small and take your time.  As eager as you are to start selling your candles, some extra time and thought early in the process can save a lot of time and money down the road.

-          Always keep the big picture in mind.  Everything in your business is connected.  I could have saved time and money by realizing early that the status jars would not have a large enough diameter for my labels.

-          Make practical decisions.  Don’t be swept up in the excitement of a unique vessel without considering shipping costs, shipping risks, and availability.

-          Expect to make mistakes.  It is part of the process.  Don’t get hung up on it, minimize risk, learn from your mistakes, and keep moving.  Factor some extra costs in and some time delays.  They are unavoidable.

-          Expect unforeseen things to delay and disrupt your process.  I wasn’t prepared for my jars to become unavailable.  Don’t spread yourself so thin that you cannot overcome a supply shortage or other roadblocks.

What has your business development process been like?  Have you had similar experiences?  Make sure to follow us on Instagram @roadtripcandlecompany and keep your eyes open for new blog posts.

How I Went From Idea to Candle Brand in Three Steps

Have you ever been stuck trying to cook up that inspiration inside your head?  You know it’s there.  You can feel it.  You are so close.  You can almost kind of taste it.  You know what you are looking for, but it’s just not formed in a usable form.  I’m not just talking about brand inspiration.  I mean anything creative really.  If you find yourself stuck there right now, don’t stress.  We’ve all been there.  Recently.  I was literally there like twenty minutes ago.  Fine tuning this blog post.  So if you find yourself there, I want to tell you a story.  The story about how I developed my idea into a business, found the inspiration for my company’s brand, and the few things I have picked up along the way to develop my creative process.

Learning How to Start a Company

I’m hardly an expert.  In fact, I’m quite the opposite.  My candle company, Road Trip Candle Company, has only formally existed for about six months.  A year ago today, my business knowledge consisted almost entirely of things I picked up on Shark Tank, I had the social media awareness of your out of touch uncle (not the really weird one, you know which one I mean), and I had never made a candle in my life.  I had always been fascinated by business and dreamed about one day starting my own company. 

The weird twists of 2020 gave me that opportunity.  I had spent enough time judging the Shark Tank pitches like I was Mark Cuban or something.  It was time to put my money where my mouth was.  I spent the next six months learning and practicing.  First in a broad way.  Reading blogs and watching YouTube videos about starting businesses and all that.  I learned the basics and fine tuned what exactly my company would do. 

Step 1) What to Make: Why I Chose Soy Candles

As I was giving myself a crash course on all things small business, I created a checklist of characteristics I decided were necessary for my business.  The checklist included things that maximized my strengths, minimized my weaknesses, had the potential to start without breaking the bank, had a realistic plan to scale, and most importantly, would keep my interest and attention forever (more on this checklist to come in future posts since it is so important to starting your business right). 

Candles checked all the boxes.  Candles had the perfect balance of creativity and math/science.  Plus, I could learn how to make candles at a relatively low cost and do it all from my house (pretty important considering it was 2020 and we were all on lockdown at home).  I also liked that candles had simple and straight forward safety requirements (compared to something like food) and that people would burn through their candles or become interested in a different scent and need to buy more candles (unlike, I don’t know, furniture or something). 

The ecofriendly and health aspects of soy candles made that decision easy (soy is renewable and burns clean compared to other waxes like paraffin).  It was all coming together.  The next step was figuring out if I could actually make candles.

Step 2) Learning How to Make Candles

A quick Amazon search led me to my $40 soy candle starter kit.  It had everything I needed to make a few candles.  A small pouring pitcher, a cheap candy thermometer, a few wicks, wick stickers, some wick clips, six different 10 ml fragrance bottles, a bag of soy wax, some dye chips, and six ugly tins.  Hours of research had led to this moment!  Time to make a candle! 

I set up my wick and it came out centered-ish.  I carefully smelled each scent like a sommelier and settled on cinnamon.  I flipped through my limited supply of dye chips.  What color is cinnamon?  Hmm.  Well not blue.  Red reminded me of that spicy cinnamon gum or that cheap liquor you drink when you are 22 years old.  No good.  Yellow it is, I guess. 

I set up my pouring pitcher in my makeshift double-boiler and melted my first batch of wax.  I needed the liquid wax to get to 185 degrees before I could add my fragrance and color dye.  You know the saying a watched pot never boils?  Well, that didn’t apply verbatim, since well, the water in the double-boiler was boiling…but the wax.  It felt like it took forever for the wax to get to 185! 

After what felt like five years (but was probably around twenty minutes), my wax hit 185.  Game time!  I carefully poured in the cinnamon fragrance oil into the pot like a chemist pouring mercury.  Next the yellow (not ideal, but good enough for now) dye chips.  It was still annoying me.  What color is cinnamon?  I set the timer for two minutes and gently stirred the mixture (thinking about what color would be ideal for cinnamon the entire time). 

Once my wax, fragrance, and dye were mixed, the waiting game started again.  I needed my wax to cool a little bit before I could pour it.  I had decided to pour my wax into the vessel at 155 degrees.  Art meets science.  My wax mixture looked like the wax mixtures on YouTube and even smelled surprisingly good!  Was I actually doing this right? 

I could barely read the temperature on the cheap candy thermometer that came with the kit, but eventually it looked like it more or less said 155.  Time to pour!  I carefully made the journey from the stove to the counter where I had set up my wicked candle tin.  I poured the mixture into the tin and barely made a mess (although what constitutes a mess is still up for debate in my house)!    Is it possible I did this right?  Now I had to wait again to find out. 

Once the candle was set, I had to figure out how long to let it cure for before I could burn it.  Less than an hour for the candle to harden, but 48 hours before I could test it.  You see, I settled on a 48-hour cure time because that seemed like the perfect balance between the time required for the candle to cure properly, and the maximum amount of will-power I had. 

Would it work?  Would it melt?  Is it going to smell good?  Is it going to smell at all?  It’s not going to explode or anything right?  It looks good.  Time to find out.  The moment of truth!  I brought my prized candle to the living room, turned on the Yankee game, lit my candle, and set it carefully on the coffee table next to a fire extinguisher.  It worked!  Success!  I certainly had plenty of room for improvement, but I felt like I was off to a good start. 

Next, I enthusiastically ordered my first candle wholesale order.  I picked a few dozen jars, a few different wicks to test, some dyes, and an assortment of fragrances to sample (more on this process in future posts).  As I started to get comfortable making candles, I decided to move forward and construct a cohesive brand and develop my first line of candles!

Step 3) Finding the Inspiration for my Brand

Reflecting on how my brand developed, the factors and process that got me to this point played a major role in developing my brand.  To put it into context, I hit a roadblock at this stage.  The biggest roadblock I had hit since deciding on candles.  I had enough trouble figuring out which fragrance oil to use when I only had six choices.  And don’t even think about getting me started again on what color a sophisticated cinnamon candle should be. 

The choices ahead of me were daunting.  The fragrance choices were endless.  I was fully sold on soy wax, but what kind?  I had several choices.  Who knew?  Soy wax was supposed to be the part that was settled!  And what vessels would I use?  Certainly not something like those ugly tins.  But what?  Would I make colored candles?  Most soy candles out there right now are white.  Would colored candles make me stand out, or make me look like I was out of touch with current trends?  What would I name the candle scents?  What would I put on the labels?  Most importantly, how would all of this fit together under the umbrella of one cohesive brand? 

To make the decision process even more overwhelming, I needed a brand that would stand out among what felt like a billion or so other small to midsized candle companies.  “Andrew’s Candles” or “So and So Creek Candles” or whatever else you scroll through when you type “candles” into the Etsy search bar just wouldn’t get it done.  With so many competitors out there, a unique brand that stands out is quite possibly the most important part of the entire process.  But let me tell you.  After spending what felt like an eternity spinning my wheels and making no tangible progress, “Andrew’s Candles” was sounding more and more appealing. 

Then my first bit of traction happened.  You know that feeling you get when your car is stuck in the snow and can’t move?  So then you alternate digging the snow out from under your tires and trying to shift your car from drive to reverse over and over again until you eventually move (yea, I’m expanding on the spinning wheels thing).  Then eventually, your tire gets that first bit of traction and moves like a half inch.  The sudden jolt of adrenaline as you realize that half inch is the first step in generating the momentum you need.  To make a long story short, I found a YouTube video that got me thinking through a new lens and gave me that first bit of traction I needed to get my whole concept going. 

The funny thing is that it was a video I had already seen.  It was about a couple that started a candle company called Frostbeard Candles with scents inspired by popular novels (you can find the video here).  Their brand had more than the other stuff I was looking at.  They were deeply connected to their brand.  Not only did it reinforce their passion, but it also guided a direction for every product they would make. 

This is what I needed.  A deep personal connection that also created natural guiderails to all my decisions in a world with unlimited choice.  You see, I realized that when they came out with a new scent, it was naturally guided by their brand.  They couldn’t just make some candle called “Cinnamon” or whatever because it wouldn’t fit with their other novel inspired scent names.  I now had a much better idea about what I was looking for.  I looked inside myself for my inspiration. 

Remember earlier when I said there was a lot of waiting in the candle making process?  Well to pass the time during that waiting, I listed to music.  I’m a rock fan (especially classic rock), so it wasn’t surprising when a Red Hot Chili Peppers song came on.  What was surprising was what happened next. 

As the song was playing, I started thinking about this music festival in Boson I had planned to attend.  It was a three-day music festival and the Red Hot Chili Peppers had been scheduled to headline one of the nights.  If you are paying attention, you might have put together that I’m describing the music festival in hypotheticals and this story takes place in 2020.  The music festival was cancelled.  I got frustrated just thinking about it. 

But then, I thought back to the first time I went to the festival in 2018.  We took a road trip to Boston for three days.  While in Boston, we wandered around the typical tourist areas (more on this in the future) in the morning, and then went to the music festival all afternoon and night.  As I thought about that trip, I was waiting on a future vanilla bakery scented candle.  All at once it hit me.  The candle smelled exactly like the bakeries we wandered in and out of in Boston!  Boston Cream Pie!  Road Trip Candle Company was born! 

I could picture the entire thing in my head.  It was perfect.  Scents inspired by road trip destinations all across the country.  I immediately started thinking about my favorite trips and all the places on my “to do” list.  In future posts, I will cover how created my first line of seven candles, finalized jars, collaborated on label design, started an Instagram and a Facebook, and launched my Etsy shop. 

Conclusion and Key Takeaways

Turning an idea into a brand can certainly feel like a daunting task (and that’s because it is).  Throughout the process, there will be times when you feel like you have no idea what to choose next, or sometimes what to even do next.  As you progress through the process you need to stay motivated, inspired, and positive.  As I reflect on the young history of my company, these are my key takeaways:

·         Create a plan.  This plan should have short-term goals and long-term goals.  Make sure your goals are measurable and obtainable.  We all want to make a million dollars in sales, but start small.  Real small.  Track and celebrate your progress.  Every accomplishment, however small, takes you one step closer to your ultimate goals.

·         Make sure your business, product, and brand are all representative of your strengths and interests.  People ask me questions about candles and travel on a daily basis.  You need to be passionate about your business, products, and brand.  If you aren’t, people will notice.  It needs to be part of who you are.

·         Look to others for inspiration, but not a cookie-cutter path to success.  You need to find and develop your own creative process.  Take bits and pieces from blogs, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and everything else out there.  Don’t stress when it seems like someone got through one of your roadblocks with ease.  We all get through the different stages at different paces.  Spend your time doing things that are productive and be cognizant of how to improve your process and speed things up.

·         Develop branding that guides your business in a focused direction.  Once I developed the Road Trip Candle Company brand, everything from candle scents to Instagram posts was guided by my travel themed branding.  In addition to helping my business stand out, it keeps my business focused.  When you have unlimited options, focus is good.  Very good. 

·         Keep it moving.  You can always increase your knowledge a little more or think about something a little longer.  When you develop a business from a simple idea, there will be endless decisions to make.  More things than you can imagine.  It is important to make strong, decisive decisions.  Don’t lose your momentum.  Keep making progress.

In future posts, I will go into more detail on many of the things I touched on in this post and also further chronicle the development and progress of my business.  What would you like to hear more about?  Where are you in your process?  Have you experienced some of the things I have?  What has been the most difficult part of the process so far?  What is the best color for cinnamon?  Check out the progress I have made on my Etsy shop since I first thought of the idea.  Follow us on Instagram to find out when our new posts drop and leave a comment here.