Hello Beauties,
I am so excited about this post. Yesterday, I got to go visit a wholesale type candle company. They offer everything from waxes, to bath bombs, lotions, fragrances, soaps, and products like that.
Before I get ahead of myself, I want to give you a little backstory to how I ended up here:
As I have continued to make bath and body products, the more I have gone from more of a hobbyist to actually wanting to perhaps go on and sell my products. When you are a hobbyist, going to Amazon (#ad) is a wonderful place to be able to find products in smaller quantities at great prices. When you want to buy in bulk, you can still find some great products and deals, but not everyone offers larger sizes, unless you just purchase the same item multiple times. Now don't get me wrong, I still love buying items on Amazon and will continue to purchase bath and body products from them! Especially because everything you want to use or need doesn't always have to be in large quantities-and to be quite honest, I still find items on Amazon that have much better deals even in bulk.
Anyways, after I have tried just about every fragrance and essential oil available, I started to look to see if I could find somewhere that offered them in larger sizes. I can go through a 4 oz bottle of oil in no time at all. I also wanted to make sure that before I started to splurge on larger sizes (I'm talking 16-32 oz bottles of oil), I actually would be using it enough to make it worth it. So, if you are just beginning to try new things out, I highly suggest buying small bottles (10-30 ml) to not only make sure you like the scent, but also to see if you will want to continue using it. The same goes with wax. There are so many types of wax out there and each one of them is unique in it's own way. As I have said before (I think), there is a lot of trial and error when making bath and beauty products, and you don't want to spend a bunch of money on something, to find out that's not something that you love.
Enter Cierra Candle Company. So, I started to look for bulk suppliers, mainly for wax and fragrance oil. I found quite a few just by googling, and I got excited seeing that I could buy 45 lbs of wax for $90. Now when you are buying that large of a quantity, you will see the prices per oz or pound get fairly reasonably priced. So, I to these sites, and I would add a bag of 45 lbs wax and head to check-out....only to find out that shipping was anywhere from $90-$345, depending on how fast you wanted the item. I was flabbergasted that they could actually think someone would pay 1-4 times the amount of shipping than what the actual product price was. So, back to Google I went and kept finding the same problem. Finally, I thought, wait, what if I put in bulk wax with free shipping. Again, a bunch of companies popped up, and I would add the product to my cart, and again free shipping was offered....until I put in my zip code...again $90 to a few hundred bucks for shipping, and it was free, IF you picked up the product directly from the merchant. DING DING DING, the lightbulb finally went off.
So, after all of the frustration of trying to find these items in bulk, I typed in bulk wax sellers near me. Low and behold, up pops Cierra Candle Co. They were about 13 miles from where I live, and I cannot even explain my elation for this. I read up on their website Cierra Candle Co. and looked at all of the reviews, and was ready to jump into my car to head over. Unfortunately, they weren't opened at the time, so I counted down the hours until I could head over and see if this place was as amazing in person as it was on their site. They have oils, wax, supplies to make lotions, bath bombs, soaps, and so much more. Not to mention their prices are even better than any other company that sells in bulk-shipped or not.
Finally, it was time to go see their store. I hopped in my Jeep and off I went. When I arrived, I was greeted right away. The store was so cute-it's designed in a rustic type aesthetic. I had brought 2 candles that I had made, and asked them for some advice on a couple of issues I saw with my candles. When Dana (the owner) looked at them, she was so polite and said she was impressed with what I had made. I had made a layered candle, and noticed some drippage in a couple of spots, where the layer above had leaked into the layer below. She said I just need to let the wax cool a little longer and that should take care of the issue. I then asked about a little cracking I had between a couple of layers, and she said that happens to even the most experienced candle makers, and that's why a lot of them use foggy jars or colored jars to hide those imperfections. She also said that the person making the candle is going to be the only one who notices these issues, because we expect something to turn out perfect, and nothing will.
Now it was time to explore their store. Everything was perfectly placed and the store flowed just as one would hope. The main thing I loved was that they had all of the products you would need, but they didn't have a bunch of random items placed, just to get you to buy more. The shelves were stocked nicely, and there wasn't clutter or too much of each item. They have a big back room/warehouse behind the store, so they had all of their duplicate items in the back. I started at the fragrance oils, and let me tell you, they had every fragrance you can ever think of. They actually go through a ton of testing on each of their oils, and don't sell quite a bit of what they have the chance to carry. They make sure everything is up to their standards. I was like a kid in a candy store. They asked if I wanted a basket? and I told them I don't think a basket would be big enough. So, they had a pad of paper and pen they gave me and I just went through and wrote down each of the oils that I wanted. I cannot even tell you how many scents I smelled, but I do know I needed to smell the jar of coffee beans a few dozen times.
After finishing my list of fragrances, I headed over to the wax. Dana was super helpful and answered my never-ending questions about which wax would be best for me and for the type of candles I am making. I then asked about wicks, and which wicks I would need as I have been using the generic wicks that come with the bags of wax you order online. She gave me all of the details of what and why wick size is so important (depending on the diameter of your candle, you want to get a wick that can burn the amount of wax you have evenly). After 2 hours in the store, I felt I had better get out before I end up with each item in the store in my car...not only would it not fit, but how would I explain this to my husband?
This post is filled with a lot of details and should probably have been posted in the far future, but I was too excited and didn't want to forget anything while it was still fresh in my mind. If you have a chance, check-out Cierra Candle Co's website. It will be a bit overwhelming for you, but it does also show you what and where you can go from where you are in your bath and beauty journey.
xoxo,
Bubbly Scents