I Have 100 Kg of Wax for a Commercial Production Run — How Do I Calculate the Maximum Number of Finished Candles Before Promising Quantities to a Client?

Step 1: the ceiling the wax sets

The ceiling is always the same formula: wax available ÷ (finished candle weight × (1 − load)). The load is a share of the finished weight, so the wax in each candle is less than the candle. A 250 g pillar at 6% holds 15 g of fragrance oil and 235 g of wax. The 250 g pillar is illustrative: CSI does not publish cavity or mould weights, so weigh a water fill of your own mould, convert with a labelled wax factor, and confirm with a weighed wax pour. The 240 g water-fill mould guide shows the method.

Why 6% for pillars? Freestanding candles are commonly run at lower loads than container candles in general practice, because too much oil can weaken the structure or sweat to the surface. That is a general observation, not a CSI measurement, and Soy Pillar Wax has no published ceiling in this data. Test your load; do not take 6% as a specification. The ceiling at 8% is shown so you can see how little it moves: nine more pillars from the same wax.

Step 2: realistic yield

Pillars lose wax in two places that container candles mostly do not: the second pour that fills the cavity as the wax shrinks, and the trimming and levelling that makes the base flat after unmoulding. The table uses 3% pour loss and 2% finishing loss, both labelled working assumptions, applied as divisors so they match how the forward calculation adds them.

Trimmings and failed unmouldings are often remeltable; the 2% here is what does not come back (dust, contaminated scraps, the last heel). A pillar that cracks or pulls away badly from the mould is usually remelted, which costs time but not much wax; that is why it sits in the QC buffer in step 4 rather than in the yield. If your unmoulding failure rate is high, fix the process first: a mould sealer (₹472.00) stops leaks at the wick hole, and a consistent pour temperature (follow the wax maker's instructions) reduces cracks. The bubble-candle unmoulding guide covers failed unmoulding in detail.

Step 3: every other constraint

The mould line is the one to be honest about. "One pour a day" is a working assumption that covers setting, cooling and unmoulding time for a 250 g pillar; CSI publishes no cure or setting times, so time your own. With 24 moulds and 15 working days the capacity is 360 pours, 45 short of what the wax allows. That leaves about 11.1 kg of wax unused at the end of the run, which is fine: it is stock for the next order, not waste. To make the wax the binding constraint instead, you need 27 moulds, 3 more, at ₹942.82 each for a Pillar Candle Mould (₹2,828.46).

Beyond 27 moulds, extra moulds buy nothing on this run: the wax is exhausted. That is the point of the exercise. Adding capacity where it is not the constraint wastes money; adding it where it is the constraint is often the cheapest way to raise the promise. The same logic applies to container runs, where the constraint is usually jars in stock, cooling-rack space or labelling time rather than moulds.

Step 4: the number in the quote

Take the smallest pour count from step 3, subtract test pieces, keep a QC buffer for rejects, and round down to a clean number. Then write the assumptions into the quote, so that the client knows what the number rests on.

If your 100 kg is container wax

The same four steps apply to container candles, with pour loss instead of trimming and jars instead of moulds. Here are the first two steps for three common sizes at 8% with 3% loss, 10 test candles and a 3% QC buffer, before any other constraint is checked.

For containers, step 3 is usually jars in stock and cooling space. A thousand 100 g candles need a thousand jars on the bench before you start pouring; a jar delivery that arrives half-complete is a binding constraint no wax can fix. For a container version with 5% wastage on half this quantity, see the 50 kg guide; for forward calculations at this scale, the 1,000 × 200 g guide and the 1,000 × 100 g guide.

The order behind the promise

If you are buying the wax for this run rather than using stock, it is ten 10 kg bags of Soy Pillar Wax. The oil and wick follow the binding constraint: buy for what you will actually pour. With 24 moulds that is 360 pillars; with 27, 405.

Per pillar, the wax is ₹141.00 and the oil ₹68.32 at Cinnamon Vanilla's 1 kg rate of ₹4.55 a gram; wick, labour, packaging, freight and GST are extra. Wick length per pillar (15 cm here) is an illustrative assumption; CSI does not publish wick sizes for any mould, so test the braided wick in your pillar before you cut 400 lengths. With 27 moulds, 2 rolls are listed because 405 pillars plus 2% spare need slightly more than one 61 m roll at 15 cm each.

This page closes the candle-quantity cluster. The forward direction, from an order to a wax quantity, runs from 1,000 × 100 g to 10,000 × 80 g; the backward direction from 10 kg to here. For turning a finished promise into a client quotation with every material, I Need to Quote a 5,000-Candle Order Before Buying Anything — How Do I Convert the Client Quantity into Wax, Fragrance, Wick and Jar Procurement Quantities? takes over.

Frequently asked questions