I Want a 200 g Finished Candle at 10% Fragrance Load — How Much Wax and Fragrance Oil Should Actually Go into the Jar?

The grams, jar by jar

A 10% load expressed as a share of the finished weight is a simple split: one part oil, nine parts wax. A 200 g candle is therefore 20 g of oil and 180 g of wax. Scale it by the number of jars and nothing changes except the totals. The last column adds a 5% allowance — plan 3–5% extra for pour loss and test burns, which is a working assumption, not a measured figure.

Two things to notice. First, the oil column is exactly one-ninth of the wax column at every size: 20 : 180, 100 : 900, 1,000 : 9,000. If your numbers ever break that ratio at 10%, something is wrong. Second, the allowance is added to the finished weight and then split, so it stays at 10%. Adding a few extra grams of oil “to be safe” without extra wax raises the load; adding extra wax without oil lowers it.

The 200 g figure is the weight of the candle, not the jar's brim capacity. Jars are filled to a line below the rim, and CSI does not publish a fill weight for the White Matte Glass Jar. Find yours once: pour your melted wax-and-oil blend to your chosen fill line in one jar, let it set, and weigh it minus the empty jar. That number, not the label on the box, is your W.

Why the jar overflows

The mistake almost always starts with the wax bag. You have a 200 g jar, so you weigh 200 g of wax, melt it, and then add 10% of that — 20 g of oil. The blend now weighs 220 g. It will not fit the jar at the same fill line. Either you pour to the line and have 20 g left in the jug, or you fill higher than intended. Meanwhile the load is 20 ÷ 220 = 9.09%, not 10%.

The 1 kg version of exactly this slip — 80 g into a kilo of wax — is worked in I'm Making a 1 Kg Soy Wax Batch at 8% Fragrance Load — Do I Add 80 g Fragrance Oil to 1 Kg Wax or Should the 8% be Calculated from the Total Finished Candle Weight?, and the production version, where the same error turns a 10 kg batch into 10.8 kg, is in I'm Making 10 Kg of Scented Candles at 8% Fragrance Load — How Do I Calculate the Exact Wax and Fragrance Quantities Without Accidentally Making a 10.8 Kg Batch?. The sum is the same at every scale; only the size of the leftover changes.

Making a one-jar 10% actually 10%

Kitchen and hobby scales usually read in whole grams. A reading of “20 g” can mean anything from 19.5 g to 20.5 g. On a single 200 g candle, that uncertainty moves the load noticeably. On a five-jar batch it almost disappears, because the same half-gram is spread across 100 g of oil.

10% against your wax's ceiling

Only two CSI waxes have a published fragrance ceiling in this series: Luxury Soy Wax Chunks, rated up to 13%, and Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464, rated up to 10%. These are the wax makers' stated formulation maximums. They are not regulatory limits and they are not recommended loads.

CSI 464 is ₹16.49 cheaper per candle here, but a 10% recipe sits on its stated maximum. A one-jar pour with a half-gram reading error could cross it. If you want 10% in CSI 464, mix in five-jar batches or larger, weigh carefully — or ask whether 9% gives you the same result in your jar, which is the question I Reduced My Fragrance Load from 10% to 8% and the Candle Suddenly Burns Better — How Can Less Fragrance Sometimes Produce Better Overall Performance? takes up. In Chunks, 10% sits inside the ceiling with room for weighing error.

If your 10% candle smells strong but the flame struggles, the question is whether to reduce the oil or change the wick. That is its own decision, with its own test grid, in My Candle Smells Strong at 10% Fragrance Load but the Wick Struggles — How Do I Determine Whether Reducing Fragrance or Increasing Wick Size Is the Better Solution?. If the 10% candle smells great cold and weak when lit, see My Candle Has Excellent Cold Throw at 10% but Almost No Hot Throw — Why Doesn't a Higher Fragrance Load Guarantee Stronger Scent While Burning?.

The priced five-jar list

Five jars is the smallest batch that weighs accurately, fits one pack of jars, and gives you enough candles to burn one, cure one, and keep three for comparison. Here is what it uses.

The five spare wicks are deliberate: if the first burn shows the Eco Thin C1 is under- or over-sized for your jar, you have wicks for a second trial without a new order. The Eco Candle Wicks Thick C2 is ₹9.44 each if you need to step up. No table can tell you the right wick for a jar diameter; a burn test can.

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