SSC - frequently asked questions

WHY ARE MY OTHER-BRAND CANDLES NOT THROWING MUCH SCENT? ARE SCENTS EXPENSIVE? DO YOU REALLY SCENT TO THE MAXIMUM?

We have a reputation for the fragrance strength of our candles - we scent with more than triple the standard amount of fragrance oils. Because we scent to the maximum that wax will hold (9.5%), there cannot be any candles on the market that are more highly scented than ours.
Fragrance oils are the most expensive component of candle making (because of our fragrance load, more expensive than the wax and the containers combined). You will notice that we still save no expense here.

HOW DO YOU DIFFER FROM THE OTHER BIG CANDLE COMPANIES?

Our prices are similar to those of the other well-known companies, but we are proud that we have never seen a higher quality scent-throwing candle elsewhere, even in the larger companies such as Yankee, Village, Illuminations, Home Interiors, and Partylite. These larger companies tend to focus more on aesthetics and shareholder return than on burn quality and scent throw, two items we are absolutely fanatical about.

HOW DO I PLACE AN ORDER?

Use our secure shopping cart online for the speediest processing. You can enter any coupons you may have, and you can checkout with Visa, MasterCard, Paypal, or check/money order, or:
Email your order to: candles@SweetScentsCandles.com If you are emailing your credit card information, please do the following for additional security: split the number in half, and send half in each of two separate emails, or:
Mail your order to us:
Sweet Scents LLC
attn: Orders
25 Sandy Circle, Suite 101
Manchester, PA 17345


WHAT IS YOUR SHIPPING POLICY?

We generally ship via UPS ground for our flat-rate shipping. We will cheerfully make exceptions and ship via U.S. Postal Service (USPS) with prior approval and a labor charge of $2 (covers employee's round trip to postal office); your order will be delayed by a few days. Please note that UPS only ships to the 48 contiguous U.S. states... thus, all orders outside this area are considered "outside" our normal shipping area, as are those that are not UPS ship-able (such as PO boxes).
All orders ship F.O.B. Manchester, PA. The vast majority of orders ship within 2-5 business days (we are open Monday through Thursday). Occasionally it will take longer to ship, and occasionally we are able to ship sooner - the very same day.

WILL YOU SHIP INTERNATIONALLY?

We are delighted to ship internationally There are a few guidelines:
     - we must receive payment in $US currency
     - actual shipping charges apply, plus $2 handling
     - we keep no responsibility for your package once it has left our facility. The reason for this? We have no control over how the postal service at your end handles packages, and we cannot accept this shipping risk ourselves. Rest assured that most packages are well taken care of.
To estimate your shipping at www.usps.com: click on "calculate postage" and then click on "calculate international postage". Then select your country and the package weight (see below for help with weight).
For weight, use these estimates:
      platinum tin = 1 pound
      tea light sampler = 1/2 pound
      ring & scent bottle = 1/2 pound
      glass jars = 3 pounds each
---> add 1 lb. for the box and padding!
---> add $2 international handling
For example, for our Canadian friends: *four* 16 oz. Platinum Tins shows $19.65 to ship, while *eight* 16 oz. Platinum Tins is approximately $24.30, and *twelve* is $28.95.
For our Singapore friends: *four* 16 oz. Platinum Tins shows $32.30 to ship, while *eight* 16 oz. Platinum Tins is approximately $48.75, and *twelve* is $65.20.


WHAT IS YOUR RETURN POLICY?

We understand that every once in a blue moon, your nose will disagree with a scent. We try to provide the most generous return policy in our industry, by allowing occasional exchanges, under the following conditions:
   - exchange request is made within 3 days of package arrival
   - shipping charges (both ways) are at your expense
   - each item must arrive back in original (resalable) condition
   - you have our approval before exchanging items
   - your new items chosen are at regular website prices (no discounts, please)
   - items returned are "current" items (currently available at the website, not seasonal)
   - none of the items are special orders
WHAT METHODS OF PAYMENT DO YOU TAKE?

Payment is made on a secure SSL server. You are welcome to use your MasterCard or Visa credit cards, PayPal (our Paypal account is candles@SweetScentsCandles.com), or by sending a check/money order (with a copy of your order) to:
Sweet Scents LLC attn: Orders 25 Sandy Circle, Suite 101
Manchester, PA 17345
I CAN'T FIND A CERTAIN SCENT... DO YOU HAVE IT? i FELL IN LOVE WITH ONE OF THE SCENTS THAT IS NOT IN YOUR CURRENT LINEUP... CAN I ORDER IT? We change our scent lineup each season, so our offerings will change approximately every 2-3 weeks. Sometimes you will not be able to find a certain scent on our website. Fear not!
We offer special ordering year-round if there is a scent that you absolutely cannot live without! There is no extra charge for this... we just ask for a $50 minimum order in that scent, and please allow 10 days for the candles to cure before shipping. Emailing us is the best method to special order.

I'VE HEARD THAT METAL WICKS ARE DANGEROUS... WHAT KINDS OF WICKS DO YOU USE?

We do not use metal wicks and import our all-paper state-of-the-art wicks from Germany. With no metal, there is no danger of any lead in the air - a current concern of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (see the www.cpsc.gov website). As an added benefit, these wicks smoke less and burn cleaner than the "normal" wicks. Try this: look at the cross cut of your Sweet Scents LLC wicks, you will not see any metal. Now go check your other candles... you will likely see metal in the wick.

DO YOU REALLY USE ONLY THE *BEST* RAW MATERIALS?

We use food-grade vegetable and mineral waxes, which meet all FDA requirements for use in — and in contact with — human foodstuffs; many chandlers save expense by using less fully-refined waxes that do not meet these requirements, and the candles can get oily, not burn correctly, or (most importantly, we think) not throw scent well.

I'VE BEEN READING A LOT ABOUT SOY CANDLES... WHAT IS THE STORY WITH THESE?

Both paraffin wax (ours) and soy wax (which we dabble with) are natural derivatives. The former is a by-product from petroleum (which is mostly very old plants), while soy wax comes directly from current plants. The National Candle Association (NCA) grades paraffin and soy waxes as completely and equally safe. In fact, you could eat both the paraffin we use and soy wax. However, even though the waxes are natural, with the addition of synthetic dyes and fragrances (virtually all chandlers - both soy and paraffin manufacturers - use synthetics) the candles become unnatural (and inedible!).

The NCA states that both types are perfectly safe to burn (see the soot issue, below, and the metal wick issue, above, both of which we resolve to a large extent). Soy and paraffin candles will soot the same amount. According to the NCA, research has determined that "it is the candle wick that determines how much soot will be emitted, not the type of wax". Hence our focus on imported all-paper non-metal imported wicks. Soy candles also have exactly the same burn time as paraffin - approximately 8 hours per ounce, with the proper wick; unless beeswax is added, there is no way to slow down the burn rate of paraffin or soy waxes.

Our current formulation includes a proprietary blend of both paraffin and vegetal (soy, bees, palm) waxes. It is the wax formulation that enables us to maximize safety, burn quality, scent retention, and scent emission.

I'D LIKE SOME SAMPLES BEFORE I BUY, PLEASE?

We are sorry that we cannot offer samples. Here is the reason: our candles are expensive (due to the extraordinary scent costs, see above), and thus we have to keep our costs down in order to keep our prices affordable. The best way to sample our scents is to look for the tea light sampler sets (they are assorted with our choice of scents, which vary with each sampler).

If you are considering doing a fundraiser or becoming a rep, there is a way to get free candles if you actually do fundraise or rep with us - please see the fundraising and rep program pages for details.

DO YOU HAVE ANY OPEN JOB POSITIONS WITH YOUR COMPANY?

We are a rather small, family-owned business and thus try to hire family, friends, and fellow congregation members. Please email us if you live in the York/Harrisburg/Lancaster, PA area and would like to work with us.

ARE THERE SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS/INSTRUCTIONS FOR BURNING YOUR CANDLES?

Yes, and no. Our candles burn the same as most candles, but most people do not know that there are ways to make your candle burn safer, better, and longer!
We enclose a "How to Properly Burn Your Candles" sheet with each order we ship (you can view it here). Pay particular attention to this enclosure, you will discover some things you have never known... such as how to "burn in" the memory of your candle the first time you light it and how small to trim your wick. Also, because candles can be dangerous, you will want to be educated on how to minimize your risk.

WHAT TYPES OF CANDLES THROW OFF THE MOST SCENT? IS THERE A DIFFERENCE?

Basically, the larger the wax "melt pool" of a candle, the more scent is "thrown". Therefore, larger candles throw more scent than smaller candles (they have a larger melt pool).
Candles that can withstand a lot of melted wax will also be of higher scent; therefore, container candles will throw a lot more scent than pillar (free-standing) candles, since much more wax can be melted with the container candles (because the melted wax is "contained"). Note that this is why we specialize in and highly recommend our container candles (especially the 16 oz. Tins, which have 3 wicks for maximum impact).
Lastly, of course, the manufacturer also greatly impacts scent strength - fragrance oils are exceedingly expensive and some chandlers understandably skimp in this area.

I WOULD LIKE TO CHOOSE MY SCENTS FOR THE TEA LIGHT ASSORTMENTS... CAN I DO THIS, PLEASE, *PLEASE*?

Oh, we *love* to do above-and-beyond for our good customers, however with the tealights we are just not able to offer a customization option. Here is the reason: our tealights are in large vats (they are not organized by scent). The reason we do this: we cannot spend the labor to sort them. You see, we lose money on *every* tea light sampler that we sell (the high scent costs and the labor cost involved in making these small items). In the past we did not offer these, because it does not make much business sense to price them so high that our customers were turned off. But recently we have arrived at a good compromise: we can offer them if our customers help limit our labor costs, by allowing us to pre-box the assortments and not spend time 'sorting' our tealights. It is an imperfect system (we know); but we hope it delights the majority.
Thus, the only way that the tealights can be ordered: a dozen of one single scent, or a pre-boxed assortment of a dozen of our popular scents. In the pre-boxed assortment you will find mostly our currently seasonal scents and our top-sellers and each box will often vary in its scents; however, when the package is opened, each item is labeled so that you will know which scent you have. If you order multiple of the assortments at one time you will likely have some overlap of scents (the assortments will tend to be more similar), whereas if you order assortments several weeks apart you will likely find less duplication of scents.

I'D LIKE TO SAVE ON SHIPPING BY PICKING UP MY ORDER, IS THERE A WAY TO DO THIS?

Our workshop is located in rural SE Pennsylvania, and it is a manufacturing facility only (there is no retail location). If you have a special circumstance, please email us, we'll be happy to try to accommodate you, if possible.