I Need to Make 100 Candles in Five Fragrances — Is It More Efficient to Complete One Fragrance at a Time or Prepare All Wax First and Scent Smaller Batches?
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What does 100 candles in five scents need? At 200 g and 8%: 20 kg scented in total, which is 18.4 kg wax + 1.6 kg oil, or 3.68 kg wax + 0.32 kg oil per fragrance.
When is one fragrance at a time better? When you have one small melter, no spare mixing vessels, and time is less important than simplicity. Expect a full melter clean after every scent.
Why not scent tiny pitcher batches? Splitting each 4 kg into many small doses multiplies weighings and rounding errors. One weighed oil addition per fragrance keeps all 20 candles at one percentage.
Start with the maths for 100 candles
A hundred candles in five fragrances sounds like a small run, and in wax terms it is. In handling terms it is five separate products, and the way you organise the day decides whether you spend it pouring or cleaning.
First the quantities. Assume 20 candles per fragrance at a 200 g fill and 8% fragrance load, calculated on total weight. Each fragrance needs 4 kg of scented wax: 3.68 kg wax + 0.32 kg oil. Five fragrances make 20 kg of scented wax in total, which is 18.4 kg wax + 1.6 kg oil. With 5% planning wastage, 4 kg fills 19 sellable candles rather than 20, so if you need exactly 20 per scent, make each sub-batch a little larger, around 4.2 kg, and keep the same 92:8 ratio.
| Item | Per fragrance | Total for five |
|---|---|---|
| Scented wax | 4 kg | 20 kg |
| Wax (92%) | 3.68 kg | 18.4 kg |
| Fragrance oil (8%) | 0.32 kg | 1.6 kg |
| Candles at 200 g | 20 (19 after 5%) | 100 (95 after 5%) |
| Oil weighings | 1 | 5 |
The three ways teams actually do it
Option A: one fragrance at a time, start to finish
Melt 3.68 kg of wax, scent it in the melter, pour 20 candles, empty and clean the melter, and start the next fragrance. It is easy to follow and needs the least equipment. It also means five melts, five melter cleans and five periods of waiting for wax to come up to temperature. The melter clean is the slow part: wiping out a scented melter thoroughly enough that fragrance two does not carry fragrance one takes real time, and it has to be done hot, beside heating elements.
Option B: melt everything, scent in many small pitcher batches
Melt all 18.4 kg of wax, then fill pouring pitchers and add oil to each pitcher. It sounds flexible. In practice each 600 ml pitcher holds only about 450 g of wax at a safe fill, so each fragrance would need nine or ten separate oil additions. Every one is a weighing with its own rounding error, and every error is a candle or two at a slightly different percentage. You have turned five weighings into fifty.
Option C: melt everything, scent one sub-batch per fragrance
Melt all the plain wax in the melter. Weigh 3.68 kg into a clean vessel labelled for fragrance A, weigh 0.32 kg of oil separately, add it at the wax maker's stated temperature, mix thoroughly and pour 20 candles from pitchers labelled for A. Then do B, C, D and E the same way. One melt, five weighings, and the melter never sees fragrance.
| Factor | A: one at a time | B: scent per pitcher | C: melt once, scent sub-batches |
|---|---|---|---|
| Melts | 5 | 1–2 | 1–2 |
| Melter fragrance cleans | 4 between scents | None | None |
| Oil weighings | 5 | About 50 | 5 |
| Consistency within a scent | Good | Weakest | Good |
| Extra equipment | None | Many pitchers | One mixing vessel per scent |
| Best when | One small melter, low volume | Rarely | Most five-scent runs |
Running the melt-once day
When the 100 candles are not split evenly
Real orders are rarely five equal twenties. A more typical request is 40 of the bestseller, 20 each of two steady scents, and 10 each of two newer ones. The melt-once method handles this well, because each sub-batch is weighed on its own. It just changes the vessel sizes and, importantly, the weighing precision.
| Fragrance | Candles | Scented wax | Wax | Oil |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A (bestseller) | 40 | 8 kg | 7.36 kg | 0.64 kg |
| B | 20 | 4 kg | 3.68 kg | 0.32 kg |
| C | 20 | 4 kg | 3.68 kg | 0.32 kg |
| D | 10 | 2 kg | 1.84 kg | 0.16 kg |
| E | 10 | 2 kg | 1.84 kg | 0.16 kg |
| Total | 100 | 20 kg | 18.4 kg | 1.6 kg |
The totals are unchanged, but the two small sub-batches deserve attention. A 5 g slip on 160 g of oil moves the load noticeably more than the same slip on 640 g. Weigh the small ones slowly and record the actual figures. The 8 kg bestseller sub-batch also needs a vessel you can stir thoroughly without splashing; if you do not have one, scent it as two 4 kg halves, each with its own weighed oil.
What to watch with the melt-once approach
Option C moves the risk rather than removing it. The main new variable is time: the last fragrance is poured from wax that has been held hot for longer than the first. Prolonged heating can affect some waxes, and a batch held too hot for too long is not the same as one melted fresh. Keep the plain wax at the lowest temperature at which it stays fully liquid and workable, rather than at the melter's maximum, and verify with a separate thermometer. If your five scents take most of the day, consider melting in two stages so no wax is held longer than necessary.
Safety runs through this day more than a single-scent day, because five fragrances means five flashpoints. Some published flashpoints on CSI oils, such as Roasted Coconut at 93°C and Gardenia at 98°C, are below the melter's 100°C maximum setting. Never add any oil at the melter's maximum; add it to the sub-batch at the wax maker's stated temperature, and check each oil's flashpoint before the day starts.
When one-at-a-time is still the right answer
Option C needs five mixing vessels and five sets of pitchers. If you are running a 1 litre Mini Electric Wax/Soap Melter and a couple of jugs, that may be more kit than you own, and Option A is perfectly sound at small volume. Accept the cleaning time, order the scents light to heavy, and clean the melter warm between each. The candles will be just as consistent; the day will simply be longer.
The honest test is to time it. Run one day each way and note melt time, clean time and pour time. If the melter cleans in Option A add up to less than an hour on a five-scent day, the extra vessels may not be worth buying yet. If they swallow half the afternoon, Option C pays for itself quickly.
Where this page fits
CSI already has guides that cover parts of this question. This page takes the production-floor angle; these go deeper on the rest:
Three things to buy for this job
| Option | Price | Status on the September 2026 pull |
|---|---|---|
| 10 kg capacity | ₹21,240.00 | In stock |
| 20 kg capacity | ₹25,960.00 | In stock |
| Option | Price | Status on the September 2026 pull |
|---|---|---|
| Large 600 ml | ₹708.00 | In stock |
| Small 150 ml | ₹354.00 | Out of stock |
| Option | Price | Status on the September 2026 pull |
|---|---|---|
| Digital scale | ₹354.00 | In stock |
CANDLEMAKINGSUPPLIESINDIA supplies raw materials and production equipment, not finished candles. This guide separates what is general production practice from what CSI's own product pages state, and labels every suggested tolerance or timing as a starting point for your own validation.
Prices are live CSI prices from September 2026; product pages are authoritative. Where a spec is not published — such as the scale's capacity or the thermometer's range — this guide says so rather than filling the gap.
For bulk quotes, batch details on a specific delivery, GST invoicing, IFRA and MSDS, message us on WhatsApp at +91 7397976926.
Frequently asked questions
- My Production Team Sometimes Uses Slightly Different Fragrance Weights Between Batches — How Do I Create a Weighing Tolerance Tight Enough for Consistent Candles?
- Two Team Members Pour the Same Candle Differently and the Results Are Inconsistent — Which Production Steps Need Written Specifications Rather Than Personal Judgement?
- My Candle Formula Works When I Make It Myself but Changes When Employees Produce It — How Do I Convert My Personal Process Into a Repeatable Production SOP?
- I'm Producing 500 Identical Candles Across Several Days — How Do I Make Day-One and Day-Three Batches Smell, Look and Burn the Same?
- I Need Every Candle in a 1,000-Piece Corporate Order to Be Consistent — What Production Checkpoints Should I Use From Raw-Material Weighing Through Final Packing?
- When I Pour 50 Candles From One Pot, the First Candles Have Smooth Tops but the Last Candles Develop Rough Surfaces — What Is Changing During Production?
- My First 20 Candles Pour Perfectly but the Wax Becomes Too Thick Before I Finish the Remaining 80 — How Do I Maintain a Consistent Pouring Temperature?
- I Keep Reheating the Wax While Pouring a Large Batch — Could Repeated Heating Change Fragrance Performance Between the First and Last Candles?
- I Need to Produce 500 Candles in Seven Days — How Do I Calculate Whether My Current Melting Equipment, Moulds and Workspace Can Handle the Production Volume?
- How Many Candles Can I Make With 10 Kg of Soy Wax?
Customer reviews: The reviews at the top are genuine, published Judge.me reviews — Tanya Walia (5★, verified); Arminder Kaur (5★, verified); Subhankar Roy (4★, verified); Lalitha Jagan (5★, not recorded as verified); Sakshi Jain (5★, verified). Names, ratings, dates and products as recorded by Judge.me.
Product facts (September 2026, CSI live store): Electric Wax Melter (Imported) 10 kg capacity ₹21,240.00, 20 kg capacity ₹25,960.00; its product page states 9.5 litres per melt, a 60–100°C display with ±10°C deviation, and about 30 minutes to melt 10 kg of soy at 100°C. Mini melter (1 litre) ₹2,360.00. Steel Pouring Pitcher 600 ml ₹708.00 (150 ml out of stock). Weighing scale ₹354.00 and pen thermometer ₹354.00, capacity/range not published. Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464 (flakes) ₹507.40/kg at every pack; Eco Candle Wicks ₹5.90 (C1) / ₹9.44 (C2) each. Published oil flashpoints include Roasted Coconut 93°C and Gardenia 98°C.
Assumptions: Fragrance load is a percentage of total candle weight (200 g = 184 g wax + 16 g oil at 8%); planning wastage 5%. Melted soy wax taken as roughly 0.9 g per ml for rough volume conversions. Tolerances, stir times, sampling plans, hold times and capacity rates on this page are suggested starting points to validate in your own production, not measured CSI data. Worked examples are illustrations. Prices and availability change — product pages are authoritative.