Dallas Area

[Jubilee8269]

I know I've been posting a lot. Apologies if it's bothering anyone. You have all given me great links for places to order from online. Including ones with good shipping prices. But I was wondering if anyone knew a good place to get oils and butters in the Dallas area? Or in Texas, in general, to save on some more shipping. Once the pandemic is over, if it ever is, it would be nice to go into a store and compare prices if possible by taking a trip through paratransit to see what I can get. If not then oh well. I'll keep ordering online and having everything delivered.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

The only TX supplier I know of is TEXAS NATURALS SUPPLY in Austin.
I've never used them and I don't anyone who has but there are a few members who hail from TX who might chime in if you give it some time.

 

[Quanta]

The only TX supplier I know of is TEXAS NATURALS SUPPLY in Austin.
I've never used them and I don't anyone who has but there are a few members who hail from TX who might chime in if you give it some time.

I just checked out their website. I had never heard of them before. They don't seem to have a good supply of soapmaking essentials, unfortunately. They have a lot of "butters" but they are all oils mixed with palm oil to make it solid (e.g. almond oil, Jojoba, olive oil, etc.). They don't have a lot of individual oils, either. They have apricot kernel oil, palm oil, and acai berry oil (diluted in fractionated coconut oil). That's it. They blend the acai berry/coconut oil themselves, but don't sell the coconut separately. They do have leaf lard, 48 pounds for nearly $100.

Their blends have the ingredients listed, but obviously out of order. That's a red flag to me that they don't know what they're doing (at least the person running the website).

I also looked through their list of "all natural" plant-extracted fragrance oils, in which they claim is no artificial fragrance, and some of them are not really possible to extract in oil form from a plant (watermelon, strawberry, marshmallow, etc.) They say they aren't essential oils and don't have the same problems as EOs (allergies, sensitivities, phototoxicity, etc.), but then describe extraction methods that are used for obtaining EOs. I'm not sure what to make of that. Also, I think they really can't claim that their fragrances eliminate allergens and sensitivities, but they do make that claim.

I know I've been posting a lot. Apologies if it's bothering anyone. You have all given me great links for places to order from online. Including ones with good shipping prices. But I was wondering if anyone knew a good place to get oils and butters in the Dallas area? Or in Texas, in general, to save on some more shipping. Once the pandemic is over, if it ever is, it would be nice to go into a store and compare prices if possible by taking a trip through paratransit to see what I can get. If not then oh well. I'll keep ordering online and having everything delivered.

If you're just looking for a place that's close to you so you can save on shipping, this is not the place for you unless you're buying in bulk. Just to see what they would charge to ship a single one ounce bottle of fragrance oil, I added it to my cart and went to the checkout page to see shipping estimates. I am a smidge closer to Austin than you are and they want to charge me over $22 shipping via FedEx. That 48lb bucket of lard, would be $30 shipping. I added a bunch of random stuff to my cart and it seems like no matter what I added, shipping was always somewhere between $22 and $30, with the shipping for lard added on to that (usually that kind of thing ships on its own).

So if you only need a few things, and not much of any one thing, shipping will be a lot for what you get. I have noticed that some places charge a lot for shipping, and some places have more reasonable rates and it doesn't always directly correlate to distance (although sometimes it does).

 

[earlene]

There are some companies that were at the soapmaker seminar I went to in Georgetown, TX the summer before the pandemic. I will try and find some links. There was a candle & soap supplies company in Tyler, TX (my niece used to live there), but I think they moved to Missouri. Muddy Soap Company in Houston had a fire last week and lost all their inventory, as well as extensive damage to their warehouse, and don't have an estimate of when they will be open for business again. (They were one of the vendors at the seminar I mentioned.)

Lonestar Candle in Keller, TX only sells MP base, and no oils other than waxes. If you wanted to try GW415 soy wax in your soap, which several of us do, you could purchase from them. Also beeswax. But that's about it, other than some silicone molds for individual soaps.

AAACandles in Dallas, also sells GW415 soy wax, but not much else as far as soaping oils.

Southwest Candle - Soap & Candle Supply in Mesquite, TX has oils at least, see this search result for the list of carrier oils: Carrier oils.

World of Aromas in Carrollton, carries butters & some oils, as well as fragrances. I can't vouch for the fragrances, but I'd use the oils without worry.

Texas Natural Supply in Austin carries a variety of oils, butters, and various other supplies. Oops, others already listed them.

One other source for information about suppliers in Texas might be the Lonestar Soapers group, but I don't know if you'd find out any more there than you will here.

If you can't get the basic oils you want at local grocery stores, you can also look for restaurant supply stores. Some of them have what they call 'Cash & Carry' stores where the public can also walk in and purchase foods they sell to restaurants. The cost to the public is usually slightly higher, but still less than the cost at most Big Box stores. I have purchased oils at the one we used to use for restaurant supply. The oil choices are usually pretty limited, but it is another source.

I think that's all I can recall from my limited experience with suppliers in or around your part of Texas.

 

[Jubilee8269]

If you're just looking for a place that's close to you so you can save on shipping, this is not the place for you unless you're buying in bulk. Just to see what they would charge to ship a single one ounce bottle of fragrance oil, I added it to my cart and went to the checkout page to see shipping estimates. I am a smidge closer to Austin than you are and they want to charge me over $22 shipping via FedEx. That 48lb bucket of lard, would be $30 shipping. I added a bunch of random stuff to my cart and it seems like no matter what I added, shipping was always somewhere between $22 and $30, with the shipping for lard added on to that (usually that kind of thing ships on its own).

So if you only need a few things, and not much of any one thing, shipping will be a lot for what you get. I have noticed that some places charge a lot for shipping, and some places have more reasonable rates and it doesn't always directly correlate to distance (although sometimes it does).

Thanks for looking into that one so quickly! I was in bed and planning on looking at them when I finally woke up. Yesterday was a long day. This is why I ask you guys in case anyone had dealt with them before. I don't know about the blending of oils and things like that yet. So you giving those details was a real eye opener as well. I think I'll check out the ones @earlene posted now that I'm awake. Hopefully the shiping isn't as bad. My ride place actually goes to Carrollton so that one I'd be able to go do a pickup if the place offers it! As well as the one in Dallas.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

@earlene - As always, you are a wealth of helpful information!

 

[Quanta]

Texas Natural Supply in Austin carries a variety of oils, butters, and various other supplies. Oops, others already listed them.

I spent some time checking out their site last night. "Variety" is a bit of a stretch. They look like they have a wide selection of butters, but most are just oils added to palm oil. WSP uses that trick too, except they use hydrogenated vegetable oil instead of palm oil and they call it a "butter blend" when they do it. Texas Natural Supply just calls them all "butter", whether it's a palm oil blend or not.

The others you listed look interesting, I'll check them out later. I also make candles so the ones that specialize in that will still be useful to me.

Thanks, earlene!

 

[AliOop]

Wow, we lived in Carrolton for two years, and I had no idea that World of Aromas was there. Of course, the heat + humidity kept us inside most of the time, so I didn't explore the surroundings as much as I normally would do in a new town. But looking at their prices for oils and EOs, I don't think I missed much by not using them. CO in particular is so much cheaper in so many other regular stores, including Big Lots, Costco, and Walmart.

 

[Jubilee8269]

I don't think I've ever shopped at a Big Lots, but I've heard good things about them. I'll have to see if there's one near me. I know there's a walmart nearish. And I think they're doing something where you can get a ride home. Or that might have been a different store. Some of the ones in Dallas do that.

 

[AliOop]

The CO at Big Lots, especially with their online coupon, is the cheapest I've found anywhere. You can sometimes get free shipping from them, too. Go to their website and see what is offered for signing up to receive their ads.