So, you may be asking yourself, “Well, what is a Diamond Candles Super Fan?”

A Diamond Candles Super Fan is someone who “likes”, “comments”, and “shares” our posts we make on Facebook, or one who replies to our tweets on Twitter.

A Super Fan also likes to make YouTube video reviews of their Diamond Candles, showing the world why they love their scented candles and rings. They “share” their videos on their Facebook profiles and our fan page, or they mention us in a tweet via Twitter with their video.

A Super Fan follows us on Pinterest. That person also pins photos of their candles and rings they receive. They also re-pin our photos we post on Pinterest.

A Super Fan gets creative with their empty candle jars. They create new uses out of them, and they share their photos on our Facebook fan page and via Twitter.

A Super Fan is creative. They find out creative things to do online that aren’t even posted here.

A Super Fan LOVES Diamond Candles.

Are you a Super Fan?

As a token of our sincere appreciation for all of our Super Fans, starting on Monday, April 9 we are going to give away one (1) candle a day until Mother’s Day (May 13, 2012). We will be watching out for our Super Fans via our social media platforms.

When we see Super Fans participate in the described activities above, it will catch our attention. One fan each day will be chosen to receive a candle! Have fun with this, and most of all be creative!

Get your Super Fan creative hats on! Cheers~!

___________________________________

Terms & Conditions: Open to US residents 18 years or older. Giveaway gifts sent via standard shipping (no APO or international shipping), and gift sent out based on product availability. No repeat winners during the Super Fan Appreciation Month. No spamming accounts in order to gain recognition – interact within reason.

It’s nearly Easter, and for many of you it’s a very special holiday. We hope you have an excellent Easter, and we want to give you an additional reason so celebrate!

We’re giving away one of our new “Spring Scents” sample packs, featuring our five new scents:

• Tropical Retreat
• Honeysuckle
• Hawaiian Coconut
• Pomegranate Lemonade
• Honeydew Melon

Be sure to tell all your friends about the new scents. We’re really exited about them becoming all-time favorites for many of you!

Not only are we doing this Easter Giveaway, but this also launches our Diamond Candles Super Fan Appreciation Month.

So, you may be asking yourself, “Well, what is a Diamond Candles Super Fan?”

A Diamond Candles Super Fan is someone who “likes”, “comments”, and “shares” our posts we make on Facebook, or one who replies to our tweets on Twitter.

A Super Fan also likes to make YouTube video reviews of their Diamond Candles, showing the world why they love their scented candles and rings. They “share” their videos on their Facebook profiles and our fan page, or they mention us in a tweet via Twitter with their video.

A Super Fan follows us on Pinterest. That person also pins photos of their candles and rings they receive. They also re-pin our photos we post on Pinterest.

A Super Fan gets creative with their empty candle jars. They create new uses out of them, and they share their photos on our Facebook fan page and via Twitter.

A Super Fan is creative. They find out creative things to do online that aren’t even posted here.

A Super Fan LOVES Diamond Candles.

Are you a Super Fan?

As a token of our sincere appreciation for all of our Super Fans, starting on Monday, April 9 we are going to give away one (1) candle a day until Mother’s Day (May 13, 2012). We will be watching out for our Super Fans via our social media platforms.

When we see Super Fans participate in the described activities above, it will catch our attention. One fan each day will be chosen to receive a candle! Have fun with this, and most of all be creative!

So what are you waiting for? Enter the Easter Giveaway via the widget below. Then, become a Super Fan!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Diamond Candles continues to expand its operation on all fronts as we become a truly national candle company. As we build on the momentum and success of being a young company, we have grown and listened to what our customers have to say about our product. During the past year we have provided a clean burning soy candle product that has dazzled people all over the country. We are truly grateful for all of our amazing customers and our online community where we have learned about what our customers love when it comes to experiencing Diamond Candles.

As such, we’re thrilled to announce the launch of our new spring scents collection, featuring five new candles that will take you on an unbelievable journey each time you light the wick of your new candle. Each new scent carries its own unique personality, and they’re sure to be a hit once you try out one out for the first time. And now, we’re proud to introduce our new spring scents:

Pomegranate Lemonade

Have you ever smelled something so awesome that you just couldn’t get enough of? Pomegranate Lemonade does just that and keeps you coming back for more. With a fresh, light and fruity kick of strawberry stems, pineapple, and pomegranate this candle is sure to have your face in it before you burn it!

Tropical Retreat

With a hint of the Caribbean, a blend of green bananas, coconuts, oranges & grapefruits takes your nose on a vacation of a life time – right from inside your home! On this journey to paradise, Tropical Retreat is sure to relax you.

Hawaiian Coconut

Open up the smell of a fresh coconut from the Hawaiian Islands! This scent will feed your cravings for a pina colada. Pull out a straw, because you’ll have the urge to sip away the pure awesomeness.

Honeysuckle

With Honeysuckle, you’ll take a travel in into the forest when you experience the aromatic bliss of this fresh plant. As a truly spring scent, Honeysuckle proves that an organic experience is always capable of turning your home into your own springtime scented wilderness.

Honeydew Melon

A crisp, delightful smell of melon brings out springtime to any room where its lit. A few slices of this fruity aroma will make you go to the produce aisle next time you’re shopping!

Also, catch this: We’re offering our new sample packs at a discounted rate of $120.00 (a savings of $5.00), so it’s better to get them all at once than purchasing separately.

So, what are you waiting for? Snag your sample packs today!

If you like our new spring scents, click like and share on Facebook and tweet out about what scent you’re really looking forward to trying!

As the highly anticipated St. Patty’s holiday draws near, many are hoping for the luck of the Irish this year.

As such, Diamond Candles is pleased to announce that we are doing a giveaway for one lucky fan to win a pair of “green” candles in light of St. Patty’s Day.  The candles we will give away will be one (1) Rosewood and one (1) Apple Slice.

You may enter the giveaway starting today 3/14/2012 and it ends on 12:01 AM EST on 3/17/2012.

May the luck of the Irish be with you this week, and be sure to enter our contest below!

Cheers,

- Diamond Candles Team

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For those of you that have been around for a little while do you remember when shipping used to be a lot more expensive? Remember when we literally only had 5 candles scents to choose from? We are sure there are some other things you can remember about our early days (if you were here). Post fun facts about your first Diamond Candles experience down in the comments section below.

We want to say thank you for such a great year. We have grown faster than we ever thought possible and are set to grow at a faster rate for our second year. Your excitement about our quality candles that burn cleaner than other brands, the permeating scents that we have, and the rings inside every candle (of course!) have helped make our company a brand you are willing to trust enough to buy from again and again and most importantly, recommend to friends and family. We thrive off of your passion and excitement about our candles and your eagerness to share this exciting experience with others.

We wanted to do something a little special for our one year anniversary and go ahead and put in a special ring that is valued at greater than $5,000.00. Take a look at the appraisal below!

Exciting huh? Well guess what. This ring has been placed randomly in a candle here recently (in addition to the frequency that we already have $100+ rings inside our candles) and we have no idea if it has been shipped off to someone or what scent it might be in. It is completely random, as it always is. So either someone has already purchased a candle with this ring inside of it or it is still sitting on a shelf waiting for you to go over to our website, pick one out, and have it shipped to your doorstep.

Kind of exciting? We definitely think so. So what are you waiting for? This is a great excuse to buy another one for you or for a gift for a friend or family member. You just have to promise that when you find it you take a quick little video of it so that we can all check out this sparkling 1 ct diamond ring! Fair enough?

Make sure and post below in the comments memories of your first Diamond Candles experience or any other little fun facts or trivia that you have that you think everyone would enjoy.

I guess you can say that we are a little biased. Good all year long as your candle of choice, but also great for a party where a group of friends haven’t been introduced to Diamond Candles yet. Real rings worth anywhere from $10 to $5k inside every earth friendly, all natural soy candle that we make. You will love seeing everyone’s reactions when you bring one to a white elephant gift exchange! Check it out here.

2. Giant Gummy Bears - $9.99-$149.99

Our friends over at Vat19 have some are self proclaimed “Purveyors of Curiously Awesome Products”. We think that title is pretty accurate. You can get giant gummy bears, and ,no, we are not kidding. You can buy them on sticks, or 5lb, or even some up to 26lb. Who doesn’t need a 32,000 calorie gummy bear? Check it out here.

3. Magnetic Silly Putty – $14.99

Remember playing with silly putty when you were a kid? So does everyone else. This magnetic putty puts a fun twist on it that is bound to be a unique hit with anyone at your white elephant gift exchange. Check it out here.

4. Origami Sticky Notes – $4.99

Want to impress your friends at work or school? Show them your mastered origami skills and watch them stand in awe as you create a paper masterpiece. This is just the gift to bring for your white elephant gift exchange. Check it out here.

5. Worlds Largest Gummy Worm – $27.99

We know we already have one gummy item on this list but we couldn’t help ourselves. Twenty-six inches is plenty of gummy worm for anyone.  With over 3 lbs of fun you can’t go wrong with an oversized gummy anything. Check it out here.

6. Cupcake Mints – $5.99

Cupcakes=tasty, Candy= good

Cupcakes+Candy=Awesome. Check it out here.

7. Beard Hats – $34.99

You are either in one of 3 groups of people. You either have a beard, want a beard but can’t grow one, or have thought about how cool it would be to have a beard but knew that your family and friends would disown you (yes ladies included, you know you secretly want a burly man beard). While you might not fool that many people you can sure give the winner of this gift in your gift exchange a chance to try! Check it out here.

8. Magical Growing Christmas Tree - $4.99

Always wanted to grow your own Christmas tree? This is your chance. “…transforms itself from a piece of cardboard into a full and bushy miniature tree in just six hours.” Check it out here.

9. Bacon Lip Balm – $3.99

Bacon-ize your lip gloss! While tempting to eat, it is most likely not for human consumption. Sure to be a hit. Check it out here.

10. Electronic Firefly in Jar – $9.99

This looks like a real firefly flying around in a jar. Except without the whole suffocation and torture of a firefly for our viewing pleasure part. The firefly rights activists will be very proud of you. Check it out here.

Suggestions?

What have you found to be great gifts to bring to a white elephant gift exchange in the past? Let us know and contribute in the comments below!

Video Review = 1 Free Candle

If you purchase a candle today, film a video review of a ‘ring reveal’ video with that candle, upload the video to youtube, and then share it with us on our facebook page we will give you another candle completely for free! Take a look at some videos on youtube right now for what a ‘ring reveal’ video looks like. If you purchase more than one candle you are still only eligible for one free candle. After you upload the video to youtube (not facebook) and share the link on our facebook page head on over and send us an email with the link to the video and we will give you your free candle coupon good for $24.95 exactly (excludes shipping and handling). This is only open for the first 25 people so buy your candle, burn it down, and do your video asap!

Start by going shopping and buying one of the new fall scents here!

Product Review = 50% off Coupon

If you think that taking the time to shoot a quick video is a little out of your league and you don’t want to go all the way, we have another option for you. You will receive an email from us a few days after you receive your order that will have a link to where you can write a review about the candle you purchased and tell us what you liked most. All you need to do is when you get the email is to write the review and submit it. Once you have done that send us an email and let us know that you did and we will email you back with your 50% off one candle to be used whenever you would like! This can be used for only one candle so if you purchase more than one candle you are only eligible for one 50% off discount coupon code. There is an unlimited number of these so if you don’t get your video up and submitted in time you can still get 50% off a future order!

Questions or Comments?

Let us know in the comments below if we need to clarify anything. You need to be over 18 and have a shipping address either at an APO or in the US to be eligible to receive the free candle or 50% off discount.

Click Here to Shop Now!

To early to think about Christmas? Think again! Diamond Candles HQ is working hard right now on preparing our 2011 Christmas season scents. Just like in the past, we don’t want to do it without you though. We want to make sure what we are working on is what it is that you are interested in having for yourself and for gifts for the holiday season. So head on over to our scent voting page and take a look at suggestions we have received from fans like you. We already have a lot of great suggestions so we are only interested in your votes for what you would most like to see (no more suggestions for now). Only vote for the suggestions that have listed “Under Review” in the grey box.

You have ten votes to use and can give one scent suggestion up to a max of 3 votes. If you are new to voting than watch the quick video here on how to vote for scents. If you have voted before and used up all your votes on scents from the fall, we have cleared out all the fall scent suggestions so you have your votes back now! You can also always take your votes back if you see a new one that you like better.

We are cutting off your votes to help us in our final decision to choose the Christmas scents for this year tonight at 7pm est so don’t wait, head on over and vote now! If you are reading this after 7pm est on October 11, 2011 don’t worry we want your votes year round to help us decide what to come out with next. Just browse to one of the other categories like Food, Floral, or Tropical to suggest and vote on other’s suggestions.

When we announce the new Christmas scents we will update the scent that you voted on and let you know that it is available!

Voting Tip: If you have a scent you are really excited about us making, share that scent’s listing page (ex. Christmas Tree here) via facebook , twitter, or email and ask your friends to vote on it. The higher a scent is to the top of the list the more likely it is that we are going to make it!

Go vote here!

Questions, comments, praise about how awesome Diamond Candles is for making candles that you tell us you want? Let us know below!

Vote for Us!

We are so excited for this announcement as we have been named a finalist for the 2011 Spike Awards for what we are doing here at Diamond Candles with our fans!

The SPIKE Awards recognizes the best uses of social strategies, processes and supporting technologies to improve innovation, product development and product management. The Awards celebrate forward-thinking innovators that leverage Social Product Innovation across the product lifecycle, including open innovation, crowdsourcing, expert identification, collaboration platforms, social product development and sentiment analysis.

We have been nominated by the judges for this award to the top 2 in the consumer product goods category and at the 18th of October the winner will be announced. The winner will be announced at the Spike Summit which according to their website is:

The Social Product Innovation Summit is an interactive virtual conference for experts, users and peers to discuss leading practices for Social Product Innovation – integrating social innovation strategy and social technologies into innovation and product development processes. This free, four-hour event offers opportunities to learn, discuss and celebrate the best uses of Social Product Innovation across the product lifecycle, including open innovation, crowdsourcing, expert identification, collaboration platforms, social product development, sentiment analysis and more.

Top industry speakers and winners from the 2010 SPIKE Awards will present real examples of success. Attendees will have the opportunity to network with experts, vendors and each other to maximize value.

From now leading up to the event there is also a People’s Choice Voting period where any of the nominees from any of the four different business categories can be voted for. The nominee with the most votes by that time will receive the people’s choice award. We are hoping that you our faithful Diamond Candles fans can hep beat out our competitors like Vitamin Water, General Electric’s Ecomagination, and Cisco.

So why have we been nominated specifically? Here is a snapshot from the Spike Awards page:

BUSINESS CHALLENGE

Getting real time analysis of which future candle scents customers would be most likely to favor.

PROJECT DETAILS

Instead of relying on traditional market research and trend analysis, Diamond Candles has developed a way to crowdsource idea submission and voting from their existing fans and customers for future scents to develop and bring to market. Fans and customers can propose ideas for scents and vote on the suggestions submitted by their peers. Diamond Candles takes the top 10% of voter suggestions and cross-references that with market trend analysis to make final decisions on new scents to develop and launch.

RESULTS / IMPROVEMENTS

Since launching their new crowdsourcing tool only only one month ago, Diamond Candles has received over 5,000 votes on user generated scent suggestions and 250+ new scent suggestions from their existing customer and fan base. This has provided the company with actionable and real-time information to guide their future scent selection processes.

Website: scents.diamondcandles.com

We want to thank you our Diamond Candles fans first for being so supportive and excited about our products and participating with us to help bring you more products and scents that you are interested in, not just what we think you are interested in.

Free Candles to Celebrate!

So if you haven’t already we would really appreciate you taking two seconds to vote for us here. We have also decided to make this fun and celebrate our nomination by giving away some free candles! Just use the tool below to register, vote for us, share via twitter, and facebook. Every task you do earns you more points in the raffle for 5 free Diamond Candles. You can tweet every day up until next Friday when the voting is cut off for more points. Help us win the people’s choice award!

Update: Winners Announced

Congratulations Kelly Gunsch, CasSandra Morris, lisa wygant salcius, Norah Christlieb, and Jennifer Cornell! You all won our raffle for helping us ge more votes for the Spike Award’s people’s choice award! We have sent you an email to follow up with you and get which of our candles you would like!

We released our new fall scents last week along with our new shipping updates that included lower shipping costs and faster delivery times with more expedited shipping options. In order for us to be able to provide $5 flat rate shipping if you are purchasing one candle we would be unable to provide international and shipping to APO address. Because the majority of our customers were not international or at APO addresses we had to make a hard decision to improve the experience and lower the costs for almost everyone at the expense of some not being able to have access to Diamond Candles anymore. We felt it was the right decision and made the new shipping announcement when we released our new fall scents.

Immediately the reaction was negative for those military personnel who are at APO addresses located across the world. We tried to further explain the situation and that we would like to be able to provide shipping to APO addresses. With our new shipping system and fulfillment and shipping warehouse located in the central United States instead of shipping from our headquarters where we make the candles here in Durham NC, we had little options due to technical and operational limitations. After this overwhelming response, some people even citing that you would rather pay higher prices for there shipping in the US so that our nations military families would be able to have access to Diamond Candles where they are across the world. We had to do something and fast.

So we literally started working around the clock and this past weekend to figure out how to make this happen for our military friends and families at APO addresses. And we are excited to announce that we can now ship to APO addresses!

The are three differences for APO shipping (you can see the details here on our shipping faq page but we will summarize here for you though). The first is that we only provide one level of shipping which uses USPS’s Priority Mail service. We have found that normal Parcel Post to APO addresses can sometimes take over a month to arrive and that is just no good for anyone. So the ‘Standard Shipping’ option available ships USPS Priority Mail. The second difference is that a flat $5 will be added to the normal shipping options that people are paying to offset the higher shipping costs and operational expenses internally. For example 1 candle shipped is $5, 1 candle shipped to an APO address will be $10. A sample pack normally is $15 shipping, to an APO it is $20. Secondly we will not be able to ship within 1-2 business days for your order. The last difference is that we will ship out all APO orders once a week on Wednesdays. So if you purchase on a Thursday or a Tuesday that package will both be shipped out on the following Wednesday. Because of the change in how we are shipping for APO addresses and the additional costs we have associated with shipping this way for us at this time this is the best way to do this to keep down the costs of shipping.

If you have any questions or need any clarifications on our APO shipping options than ask us in the comments below and we will make any edits needed to clarify.

If you appreciate the effort we took to listen to you and what you wanted than send a candle to a friend or family member in the military and share the excitement and fun of Diamond Candles!