Do fragrance discovery better.
January 24, 2021 | 1 minute read
“wait, I’ve already seen this before.” - A thoughtfulcandles.com regular
Great observation. Yes, this this page isn’t technically new. But, I did implement some pretty big changes, so I think it warrants a new post. 🤡
The “why”
The reason why I built this was to help fellow candlemakers have an easier time doing fragrance discovery. I remember when I first started out, fragrance discovery was a pain.
My process looked a bit like this:
- Have a tab open to list all of a vendor's fragrances.
- Open each fragrance in a new tab
- Look at price (and other info), then record on separate google-sheet if I was interested in buying
- Go through steps 1-4 with a different vendor.
By step 3, I’d have hundreds of fragrance oil tabs open 😂.
Instead of having to click through pages and pages of results, this tool aggregates all results onto one page. The tool has filtering and search capabilities, helping you get to what you are looking for faster. Lastly, the results aren’t just isolated to one vendor. As of writing, we have fragrance details for three vendors (Lone Star Candle Supply, Candlescience, and The Wooden Wick Co.).
Some questions I envision this tool to be used for:
Does Candlescience or Lone Star Candle Supply have a cheaper “vanilla” fragrance oil?
Supply costs are important. Finding out which fragrance oil supplier offers a cheaper fragrance can be tedious. To go about this, you’d have to browse to vendors’ pages, and do individual searches. This doesn’t scale.
What other earthy-like fragrances are out there?
You know you want an earth-y fragrance, something that resembles a wood-like scent. A google search returned information that was either too broad or off-topic.
No worry, type in “wood” in the fragrance discovery’s search bar. The resulting list of fragrances will give you a starting point on which fragrance oils could be a fit.
What fragrance oils are out there for me to choose from?
As a newcomer to candlemaking, there isn’t a central repository of information for you to discover vendors, fragrance oils, and other related information. You have to piece together your supply chain by yourself.
The fragrance discovery tool lets you endlessly scroll, giving you a high-level overview of what fragrances are out there for you to choose from.
Video walkthrough of the fragrance pricing tool
What’s next?
I’m hoping to add more vendors so candlemakers can have more information to work with.
I’m also looking to implement a notification (whether through e-mail or twitter) that’ll send notifications for price changes, fragrance refills, or other details.