My Current Top 5 Favorite Wax Vendors!

Hi everyone!! I'm waiting until this Sunday to post my weekly reviews, and I have one more post in store for you this week, but for now I figured I'd pop in with a quick post about my current top favorite vendors. I get asked who my favorite vendors are all the time so I thought you all would enjoy it! In addition, I tag all of my fellow wax bloggers to do the same!

This was definitely a difficult post to write because there are so many wonderful vendors out there and it's tough to narrow it down to five favorites. There's several things I took into account while compiling this list, including customer service, turnaround time, variety of scents available, etc., but in the end the most important thing for me is performance of the tarts. I want tarts that smell like what they're supposed to smell like, last a reasonable amount of time, and most importantly - they have to be strong! There's nothing worse than having a tart smell great on cold throw but when you put it in the warmer, you get nothing. AIN'T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT!

Keep in mind, no vendor is perfect. Every vendor has their own drawbacks, and I will be listing those as well. Obviously, the good things about these vendors far outweigh the bad so that is why they are in my top 5. Also, just because a vendor is not listed here does not mean that I don't like their products. These are just the ones that stick out in my mind and that I continue to order from time and time again.

Without further ado, I present to you my top 5 favorite wax vendors! Please note that these are in alphabetical order and not in order of preference (that would have been even more difficult)! Oh and I apologize for the lack of pictures, this was a very spur of the moment post. Anyway, here we go!

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1. Candles from the Keeping Room

Candles from the Keeping Room (CFTKR) has been a favorite company of mine for many, many years. It is run by a lady named Carol who is so sweet and helpful to her customers. She has a TON of different scents and blends, probably one of the biggest and most diverse scent lists of any vendor out there. Her tarts are generally strong, and although I've had a few more duds than usual with her lately, the majority of CFTKR tarts are great. Also, CFTKR is a ready-to-ship (RTS) company so even when she is slammed (which she has been lately), you will still get your order within a week. When things aren't as busy, I have received my order within 2 days. A lot of vendors these days have TATs upwards of a few months so it's refreshing to see a vendor who sticks to a short TAT.

There are a few things to consider with CFTKR. First of all, you can't normally order single tarts. Her tarts come in 4 oz. or 8 oz. bags only. But, they are VERY reasonably priced so that's not a huge deal. Also, Carol has skyrocketed in popularity lately and it has been very hard for her to keep things in stock. I am thrilled for her, but at the same time, it is very frustrating when you can't get the scents that you were hoping for. She does restock quite frequently but lately things have been selling out instantly. Carol is currently closed but will be reopening at the beginning of May, so if you are planning on ordering, plan on waking up super early that day so you can get what you were hoping for!

2. Front Porch

Front Porch was one of the first vendors I ordered from when I got back into wax and I continue to order from them quite frequently (much to the dismay of my wallet). Front Porch is a RTS company as well, and they actually restock their site every day Monday-Friday which is great because there is always a lot of stock on hand. Besides the fact that they have great scents, their tarts are some of the strongest and long lasting around! Because they have such a huge scent list, they take requests from customers and every single time I have requested a scent, Angie (the owner) has listed it within a few days of my request. So cool! Another thing that I love about Front Porch is the fact that they never (or at least not in my recent memory) close down shop. Front Porch tarts will always be a staple in my collection for sure.

Some people seem to feel that Front Porch tarts are a bit expensive for what they are. A 4-pack of 1-oz. grubby tarts are $5.25 and the single grubbies are $1.75. Dollars for ounce, they do appear to be some of the more expensive tarts on the market. But here's the thing- they have free shipping, ALL THE TIME! No matter if you order a single tart or a huge $200 order, your shipping will always be free. Thus, the price of shipping is built into the price of the tarts. Some people still feel like FP tarts are too expensive, but I'm more than willing to pay a bit more when I get free shipping in the end. Another thing to consider about FP wax - it has a bit of a peculiar base smell, akin to friend dough or hot oil. It does affect the scents on cold throw but usually when melted, they smell just fine. I have found, however, that some fruity scents don't work well with the base smell so it's a trial and error situation. However, bakery scents are always AMAZING in Front Porch's wax.

3. Lasting Scent Candles

LSC was the very first vendor I placed an order with when I got back into wax and they are still in my very absolute favorite vendors list. Quite simply, LSC is amazing. They have some of the best and most authentic scents in the biz, their stuff is always SUPER STRONG, and I love the variety of scents that they have. They variety is definitely not as diverse as CFTKR, FP, or RG but what's awesome about their scents is the majority of them are custom blended by them. A lot of vendors just use stock oils, but LSC makes sure that their blends are the best of the best, and sometimes it requires a bit more than just tossing in some stock oil into some wax. Awesome, awesome blends! Another thing that I love about LSC is their labels. Each scent has it's own colorful picture on the label, they are all absolutely adorable.

A major downside of LSC is the TAT. Generally the TAT for custom orders runs about 21 days, but they got so overwhelmed with orders recently that they had to close up shop for a little while. For me, 21 days isn't a big deal as I've been waiting on orders for a few vendors for upwards of 3-4 months but I know some people prefer not to wait that long. But luckily, for those in need of instant gratification, LSC usually has a great selection of RTS tarts available. Also, they don't have a huge variety of products available. I believe they do carry room sprays and possibly home fragrance oils, but in terms of wax, there's only 1.5 ounce scent shots. That's it. No scoopables, no brittle, no chunks, no scallops. Just the 1.5 ounce scent shots. That doesn't bother me at all, though I know some people would prefer to have a variety of different product options.

4. Rosegirls

Ahh Rosegirls. I absolutely LOVE Rosegirls. Rosegirls is a more unique vendor in that they only offer chunk tarts and pie tarts. No scent shots, no scallops, no clamshells. Just chunks. And WOW are their chunks fantastic. They offer around 200 or so different chunk blends that they keep in stock and then they also offer custom blending options, where you can create any scent that your heart desires! I've had a few weaker tarts from them but overall, their stuff is super strong and both their house blends as well as custom blends, are all blended so well that you can smell all the specific notes in them! Gotta love that. These girls really know what they're doing. It's honestly like Christmas when I open an order from Rosegirls.

Here's the thing with Rosegirls. They are so popular that they can only open up shop once a month for a few hours. That means that you have to make sure that you are awake early, have your list planned out and your credit card at the ready because the site is absolutely SLAMMED when they open. It's a rush ordering from RG for sure. But rest assured, they will announce on Facebook when they have to close the site based on how many orders they have received. Some people find this system infuriating, but I absolutely LOVE it. They know their limit and they would much rather only accept as many orders as they can handle so they don't get overwhelmed and end up with TATs that are several months long. Much like many wax vendors these days, they have skyrocketed in popularity recently so their TAT has extended a bit, even with the current system. I don't mind waiting a bit longer because they are very upfront about their TAT and do everything they can to prevent from going over that.

5. The Bathing Garden

The Bathing Garden definitely has some of the most beautiful looking tarts around. If you've never seen Shannon's tarts before, you're missing out because they're absolutely gorgeous! She only does clamshells, and she has beautiful colored wax covered in glitter and various embeds that correspond with whatever scent   they are. I've had great luck with TBG's tarts, there have been a few duds but the majority of them are super strong and long lasting. Another great thing about The Bathing Garden is how unique her scents are. If you're looking for your typical Sugar Cookie or Blueberry Muffin scent, you need to look elsewhere because these blends are definitely out of the ordinary. With cult favorites such as Lemon Curd and Rose Milk, she has a knack for blending florals in a way that even floral haters will love. Shannon is also a sweetheart and is always willing to help her customers out. Really great stuff and great customer service as well!

A major downside of the Bathing Garden is you never really know what scents she will be listing. She had some major surgery back in December and is now unfortunately dealing with a family issue, so her restocks as of late have been a bit inconsistent. Totally understandable but just something to think about. If you are dead set on going to the site and being able to order your favorite scent at that very moment, it's just not going to work like that. However, Shannon has been working on opening up her own website outside of etsy and hopefully being able to carry more stock at a time. This may be a ways down the road due to current events in her life, but I'm patient and for now, I'm totally okay with stalking her etsy page on the chance that she may restock.

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And so concludes my top 5 favorite vendors!! At the time of publishing this post, all of these vendors are currently closed with the exception of Front Porch, but I anticipate them all opening back up again very soon. Like I said before, just because a vendor isn't listed here doesn't mean that I don't love their product. But these are the top 5 vendors that I consistently have great luck with and will continue to buy from again and again.

I'll be back this week to share with you guys a new vendor and later on with some melted reviews! Thanks for stopping by today and I'll see you all very soon =)