I Want My First Candle Tests to Teach Me Something Useful — How Do I Design Them So I'm Changing Only One Variable at a Time?
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Votive jars from ₹31.86 each Fragrance oils from ₹94.40 / 15g Stocked in India · ships nationwide
CSI beginner guides · designing a test that answers something
A test with two variables in it is not a cheaper test. It is a more expensive way of learning nothing.
★★★★★
"Nice glass jars, they look cute. I like the packaging as well."
AshwiniSep 2025
White Matte Glass Jar
★★★★★
"In past five years of testing and searching for the best candle fragrance I would say I found what am looking for strong fragrance in cold throw and hot throw…"
Emma BecharaJun 2026
British Rose Fragrance Oil
★★★★★
"Cute jars, I like it."
AshwiniSep 2025
White Matte Votive Jar 70 gram
★★★★☆
"Fragrance is awesome. Hot throw is also very good after burn candle."
AkanshaVerified buyer · Dec 2025
Lavender Fragrance Oil
★★★★★
"Very good"
Tina Lynette Lazaro MogantiVerified buyer · Dec 2025
Black Matte Glass Jar
★★★★★
"Nice glass jars, they look cute. I like the packaging as well."
AshwiniSep 2025
White Matte Glass Jar
★★★★★
"In past five years of testing and searching for the best candle fragrance I would say I found what am looking for strong fragrance in cold throw and hot throw…"
Emma BecharaJun 2026
British Rose Fragrance Oil
★★★★★
"Cute jars, I like it."
AshwiniSep 2025
White Matte Votive Jar 70 gram
★★★★☆
"Fragrance is awesome. Hot throw is also very good after burn candle."
AkanshaVerified buyer · Dec 2025
Lavender Fragrance Oil
★★★★★
"Very good"
Tina Lynette Lazaro MogantiVerified buyer · Dec 2025
Black Matte Glass Jar
Reviews collected and published through Judge.me on candlemakingsuppliesindia.store. One longer review is shortened with an ellipsis; wording is otherwise unedited.
✓ Stated fill capacities published per jar ✓ 78 jars and containers listed ✓ Bulk pricing & documentation on WhatsApp
Candle Business Guides · Beginner Systems
A controlled test is not a careful test. It is a test where ten things are pinned down in writing and exactly one is allowed to move. This guide gives you the seven things you lock, the fourteen fields you record, the six-jar unit that answers one question, and the three verdicts a batch can honestly return — including "invalid", which is the one beginners never allow themselves.
₹100.06
materials in one data point — a 70 g votive at 8% load: 64.4 g wax, 5.6 g oil, one wick, one jar · six of them answer one question · CSI live pricing, September 2026
Quick answers — read this first
How do I change only one variable? By writing the other ten down before you melt anything, and treating the list as a contract. Wax, wax weight per jar, oil, load percentage and its convention, add temperature, pour temperature, jar, wick position, cure duration, burn protocol. Anything not on the list as "the variable" is not allowed to move.How many jars per test? Six — two levels, three repeats each. One jar is an anecdote. Two that disagree give you no tie-breaker. Three per level either agree, which is a result, or disagree, which tells you your process is the loose variable.
What does it cost? ₹100.06 of materials per 70 g votive at 8% load, or ₹1,077.80 for a complete six-jar basket with a spare jar and two wick sizes. That is the price of one honest answer.
What is the commonest design fault? Not confounding — it is the drifting control. Two jars you believe are identical are not, because the jar's capacity is stated in millilitres and you filled them by eye. One CSI jar states "a fill weight of 200 ml" and "Height 8 cm width 7 cm" — so weigh one filled jar and pin the gram figure yourself.
The short answer
Write the lock list first, in ink: ten constants and one variable, named on paper before any wax melts. A test is defined by what it refuses to change, not by what it changes.
Use a small jar with a stated gram fill: a 70 g votive gives you nine data points per kilo of wax instead of five, and a stated gram capacity means every jar in the batch really does hold the same weight. Where a page gives millilitres, weigh one and record the grams.
Two levels, three repeats, one variable, one melt: melt and scent the whole batch together so that the constants are literally the same wax, not merely the same recipe. Then split, pour, and let only your one variable differ.
In this guide
The confounded row is what almost everyone pours first, because it feels like more learning per jar. It is the opposite: six unique candles produce six unrepeatable results, and the nicest one is the one you will spend the next month failing to make again.
Stated ~70 g wax fill · 9 per kilo
Clear Glass Votive Jar 70 gram · 10 for ₹318.60
Page states load, cure, flashpoint, 0% vanillin
British Rose Fragrance Oil · 50 gm ₹212.40
Send us your lock list
We will tell you what is still moving
Straight answer
How do I design a first candle test so that it changes only one variable at a time?
Write the constants down before you melt anything, and make the list physical rather than mental. Ten things get locked — wax and pack, wax weight per jar, oil and pack, load percentage and which convention it uses, add temperature, pour temperature, jar and its actual gram fill, wick position, cure duration and place, and the burn protocol — and exactly one thing is allowed to move. Then pour six jars: two levels of your one variable, three repeats each. Three repeats is not perfectionism; it is the only way to tell a material difference from your own inconsistency. Do it in a small vessel with a stated gram capacity, because the arithmetic has to be identical across all six: a 70 g votive at 8% is 64.4 g of wax and 5.6 g of oil, so six jars need 386.4 g and 33.6 g — comfortably inside a 500 g wax pack and a 50 gm bottle, with enough left to repeat a batch that goes wrong. One data point costs ₹100.06 of materials: ₹38.51 of Luxury Soy Wax Chunks at the 500 g price, ₹23.79 of British Rose at the 50 gm price, a ₹5.90 Eco C1 wick and a ₹31.86 jar. Critically, melt and scent all six jars' wax as one batch before splitting it, so that "same wax, same load" is literally true rather than approximately true. Record fourteen fields per jar, burn one per level at day 7 and one at day 14, and allow yourself three verdicts — pass, fail, or invalid. The third is the most valuable, because it sends you back to repeat the batch instead of out to buy a different material.
One line: lock ten constants in writing, move one thing, pour six jars from one melt, record fourteen fields, and let "invalid" be an allowed answer.
Designing test two? Clear Glass Votive Jar 70 gram, 10 for ₹318.60 (₹31.86 each, stated ~70 g fill), British Rose Fragrance Oil 50 gm ₹212.40, Eco Candle Wicks Thin C1 10 for ₹59 — six controlled data points for ₹1,077.80 of materials.
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The four faults that make a test teach nothing
Your first batch probably failed as an experiment before it failed as a candle. Those are different problems and only one of them is fixable by shopping.
Four design faults account for nearly every "I poured six candles and still do not know what to do next". Read them as a checklist against the batch you already poured, because recognising which one you committed tells you what to do differently rather than what to buy differently.
Design fault diagnostics
The fault, how it feels at the time, and the specific wrong conclusion it produces
| Fault | What it looks like | Why it feels right | The wrong conclusion it hands you |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · Confounding | Two or more things differ between any pair of jars | More learning per jar, fewer jars wasted | "This combination works" — with no idea which part of it does, so you cannot substitute anything, ever |
| 2 · n = 1 | One jar per level | Why pour three of the same thing? | "C2 is the right wick" — from a single jar that may have had an off-centre wick or a draught |
| 3 · Drifting control | The "constants" were not constant: fill weights by eye, pour temperature sliding across the pour, one wick pushed off centre | They were the same jar and the same wax, so they were the same | "My results are random" — the classic conclusion, and the one that makes people quit |
| 4 · Invisible variables | Cure day, room temperature, burn length and trim length never recorded | Those are not ingredients | "Cure does nothing" or "this oil is inconsistent" — when the real difference was day 4 versus day 11 |
Fault 3 is the one worth dwelling on, because it is the one that survives good intentions. You bought ten identical jars, so you assume ten identical candles. But if the page states capacity as a volume, "filling them the same" is a judgement made by eye at 75°C over a hot pitcher. The White Matte Glass Jar page is a clean example: it states "a fill weight of 200 ml" and "Height 8 cm width 7 cm" — a volume, and a width rather than a stated diameter. Both are useful, neither is a gram figure, and the gram figure is the one your load arithmetic needs. Weigh one filled jar once and the problem disappears for good.
The mistake: making the nicest candle first. There is a strong pull towards making batch one good — a jar you like, a scent you love, a colour, a label. Every one of those adds a variable, and the nicest candle in a confounded batch is the most expensive object in candle making, because you will spend weeks trying to reproduce something whose recipe you cannot reconstruct. Batch one exists to produce a finding, not a product. Pour it in a plain votive, skip dye entirely, and keep the third jar of each group sealed and labelled so the finding has a physical reference.
The ten constants you lock
Here is the contract. Copy it, fill in your values, and pin it where you can see it while you pour. The right-hand column is how you actually hold each one still — because "be careful" is not a control, and most of these need a tool or a number rather than an intention.
The lock list · ten constants, one variable
What to pin down, how to pin it, and what moves if you do not
| # | Constant | How you actually hold it still | What drifts if you skip it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wax, by product and pack | One pack, one batch. Note the pack size you bought it in | Blends differ; even the same wax in a different form melts differently |
| 2 | Wax weight per jar | Weigh each jar's wax to ±0.5 g on a ₹354 scale. Never fill by eye | Load percentage per jar, which is the number you think you are testing |
| 3 | Oil, by product and pack | One bottle for the whole batch. Record the size | Nothing, if it is genuinely the same bottle. Everything, if you top up mid-batch |
| 4 | Load percentage and convention | Write "8% of finished candle" or "8% of wax weight" — they are not the same number | On a 200 g candle the two conventions differ by 1.19 g of oil |
| 5 | Add-fragrance temperature | Thermometer in the wax. Chunks state 80–90°C; Eco Soy CSI 400 states 85°C with a 2-minute stir | How much of the oil binds, which reads exactly like a load difference |
| 6 | Pour temperature | One reading, recorded, for all six jars — pour fast enough that it does not slide | Surface finish, wet spots and glass adhesion. The commonest drifting control |
| 7 | Jar, by product and actual gram fill | Same listing, same pack. Weigh one filled jar if the page states millilitres | Wax weight, load, and the wick's working diameter all at once |
| 8 | Wick position | Wick sticker plus a centring device on every jar, no exceptions | An off-centre wick mimics a wrong wick size and will get your wick blamed |
| 9 | Cure duration and place | Same shelf, same room, lids on, and a written burn date per jar | Perceived strength. Day 4 and day 11 are different candles |
| 10 | Burn protocol | Trim to ~5 mm, up to 3 hours, one room, no competing scent, never unattended | Melt pool time, flame height and throw scores — all of them |
| — | THE VARIABLE | Name it on the sheet. One only. Two levels | If you cannot name it in one word, the test is not designed yet |
One melt beats two recipes
The strongest control available to a beginner costs nothing: melt and scent the entire batch as one body of wax, then split it between the jars. If you mix two separate pots to "the same" recipe, constants 1 to 6 are only as identical as your two pours were. From one pot they are identical by construction. That single change removes half the drifting-control risk from your test, and it is why a batch that tests wick or jar should never be poured in two sittings.Why six jars, and what six jars cost
Six is not a ritual number. It is two levels — the minimum comparison — times three repeats, which is the minimum that can distinguish a real difference from your own variation. Here is the arithmetic and the money, per jar and per question.
Cost per data point · 70 g votive at 8% of the finished candle
What one jar consumes, what it costs, and what six of them buy you
| Line | Per jar | Unit price used | Cost per jar | Six jars |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wax — Luxury Soy Wax Chunks | 64.4 g | ₹598/kg (500 g pack at ₹299) | ₹38.51 | 386.4 g · ₹231.06 |
| Oil — British Rose | 5.6 g | ₹4.248/g (50 gm at ₹212.40) | ₹23.79 | 33.6 g · ₹142.74 |
| Wick — Eco Thin (C1) | 1 | ₹5.90 each at every pack size | ₹5.90 | ₹35.40 (C2 would be ₹9.44 each) |
| Jar — Clear Glass Votive 70 gram | 1 | ₹31.86 each (pack of 10 at ₹318.60) | ₹31.86 | ₹191.16 |
| One data point | ₹100.06 | ₹600.36 | ||
| What you actually buy (smallest packs) | 500 g wax ₹299 + 50 gm oil ₹212.40 + 10 jars ₹318.60 + C1 10 ₹59 + C2 20 ₹188.80 | ₹1,077.80 | ||
Worked out above: a 70 g candle at 8% of the finished weight is 64.4 g of wax and 5.6 g of oil. Wax ₹299 ÷ 500 g = ₹0.598/g × 64.4 = ₹38.51. Oil ₹212.40 ÷ 50 g = ₹4.248/g × 5.6 = ₹23.79. Jar ₹318.60 ÷ 10 = ₹31.86. Wick ₹59 ÷ 10 = ₹5.90. Total ₹100.06 per jar, ₹600.36 for six. The purchased basket of ₹1,077.80 leaves 113.6 g of wax, 16.4 g of oil, four jars and 24 wicks in hand — enough to repeat the batch if it returns "invalid".
Now compare that with the confounded alternative, which costs the same ₹600.36 and returns nothing you can use. That is the real economics of experiment design: the money is identical and only the information differs. It is also why small jars are the right vessel for learning. A 70 g votive gives you roughly nine data points per kilo of wax; a 200 g candle gives you five. If your question needs six jars, the votive answers it for a third less wax.
Do not economise by dropping to four jars. Two levels with two repeats each looks like a 33% saving — ₹400.24 instead of ₹600.36 — and it removes the only thing that makes the test readable. With two jars per level, a disagreement inside a level has no majority and you cannot tell which jar was the odd one. If ₹600.36 is too much this month, keep three repeats and drop to one level plus a repeat of a known reference, or pour the same six jars in a smaller vessel. Reduce the scope, never the repeats. And do not skip testing to save money — the cheaper path is fewer variables, not fewer tests.
The vessels and oil that make locking possible
Constants 2, 4 and 7 all depend on published numbers. These three products were chosen because their pages give you something to lock onto — and because one of them demonstrates exactly why you still have to weigh a jar yourself.
1
Test vessel · stated gram fill, nine per kilo
Clear Glass Votive Jar 70 gram
The right vessel for a controlled test is small, cheap, thick and stated in grams — and this one is all four. Its page states a capacity of approximately 70 g of wax fill, which means constant 2 is a number you can weigh to rather than a level you eyeball. At ₹31.86 a jar a full six-jar batch costs ₹191.16 in glass, and a kilo of wax stretches to about nine of them instead of five 200 g candles. Note what the page does not state: a diameter. So it will tell you which wick works in this jar by burn test, and it cannot tell you in advance.
| Size | Price | Per piece | test jars |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pack of 5 | ₹159.30 | ₹31.86 | ≈5 |
| Pack of 10 | ₹318.60 | ₹31.86 | ≈10 |
₹31.86 per data point in glass · ₹191.16 for a six-jar batch Buy votive jars
2
The jar that shows why you weigh one first
White Matte Glass Jar
A 7 cm-wide matte jar at ₹70.80 each in packs of 5 or 10, and a useful worked example of a real design problem. Its page states "a fill weight of 200 ml" and "Height 8 cm width 7 cm". Millilitres are a volume and your load arithmetic needs grams, so weigh one filled jar and write the gram figure into your lock list — that number is then yours for every batch in this vessel. The stated 7 cm width also gives you something to bracket a wick against, which most jar pages do not. One CSI customer, Ashwini, notes "nice glass jars, they look cute" — appearance is the reason to graduate to this jar after the votive has answered your question.
| Size | Price | Per piece | test jars |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pack of 5 | ₹354 | ₹70.80 | ≈5 |
| Pack of 10 | ₹708 | ₹70.80 | ≈10 |
₹70.80 per jar · weigh one filled before you plan a batch Buy White Matte jars
3
Test oil · its page publishes four lockable numbers
British Rose Fragrance Oil
A single-note floral whose page states four things you can lock a design around: a candle band of up to 10% for soy wax with a cure time of 48–72 hours (and up to 6% for paraffin at 24–48 hours), up to 12% for wax melts, a flashpoint of 192°C, and vanillin content 0% — stated as no discolouration or yellowing in white, cream and pastel waxes. That last line is why it pairs with the white and clear jars above: discolouration would otherwise be an uncontrolled variable in a pale vessel. It is also the cheapest per gram of the oils used across this cluster at ₹4.248/g in the 50 gm size. One CSI customer, Emma Bechara, describes finding "strong fragrance in cold throw and hot throw" at a low percentage — which is a claim you can now go and test properly rather than take on faith.
| Size | Price | Per 100g | 70g votives @ 8% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 gm | ₹94.40 | ₹629.33 | ≈2 |
| 50 gm | ₹212.40 | ₹424.80 | ≈8 |
| 100 gm | ₹342.20 | ₹342.20 | ≈17 |
| 500 gm | ₹1,593 | ₹318.60 | ≈89 |
| 1 kg | ₹3,068 | ₹306.80 | ≈178 |
₹23.79 of oil per 70 g votive at the 50 gm price Buy British Rose
The fourteen-field log sheet
One row per jar, fourteen columns, written at the time rather than remembered afterwards. The test is the log; the candles are just where the data comes from. If you can only manage one improvement to your process, make it this.
Log sheet fields · one row per jar
What to record, when, and which fault it protects you against
| # | Field | Recorded when | Protects against |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jar ID (e.g. C1-a) | Before melting | Losing track of which jar is which after cure |
| 2 | Wax product and pack size | Before melting | Comparing across two waxes without noticing |
| 3 | Wax weight in grams | At weighing | Drifting control — the load you actually poured |
| 4 | Oil product and pack size | Before melting | A mid-batch bottle change |
| 5 | Oil weight in grams | At weighing | "8%" that was not 8% |
| 6 | Load % and convention used | Before melting | The finished-candle versus wax-weight confusion |
| 7 | Add-fragrance temperature, actual | At the pot | Binding differences read as throw differences |
| 8 | Pour temperature, actual | At the pour | Surface faults blamed on the wax |
| 9 | Wick type and size | Before pouring | The variable itself, in a wick test |
| 10 | Sticker and centring used, yes/no | Before pouring | An off-centre wick misread as a wrong size |
| 11 | Pour date, and room temperature if you can | At the pour | Invisible variables across a two-sitting batch |
| 12 | Burn date and cure days elapsed | At the burn | "Cure does nothing" from an unrecorded four-day gap |
| 13 | Minutes to a full melt pool; flame height; soot; mushrooming | During the burn | Wick verdicts based on impressions |
| 14 | Cold throw and hot throw at 30 and 120 minutes, 1–5 | Before and during the burn | Throw comparisons you cannot reconstruct next month |
Fields 12 and 14 are the two people skip, and they are the two that make a cluster of batches add up into knowledge rather than a pile of candles. A fuller scoring sheet for the burn itself is in how to test hot throw before launching a candle fragrance, and the two-oil comparison method is set out in how to compare two fragrance oils using a controlled burn test.
Designing and pouring the batch
1
Write the question as a sentence with one blank in it"Does Eco C1 or Eco C2 reach the glass in 2–3 hours in a 70 g votive of Luxury Soy Wax Chunks at 8% British Rose?" If your sentence has two blanks, you have two tests. Split them and run the more fundamental one first — wick before load, load before cure.
2
Fill in the lock list and leave it visibleTen constants with values, one variable with two levels. Weigh one jar filled with water or wax first if the page states capacity in millilitres. Label all six jars and stick every wick with a wick sticker before any heat is applied, while the glass is clean and dry.
3
Melt one body of wax for all six jarsWeigh 400 g of wax into the pitcher for six 64.4 g jars — that is 386.4 g plus a small allowance for what stays on the sides, typically 3–5% on a batch this size, which is a planning assumption rather than a specification. Bring it to the wax page's stated add-fragrance range and hold it there.
4
Add oil once, to the whole batch, and stir two minutesFor 400 g of wax at 8% of the finished candle, add 34.8 g of oil. Stir gently and continuously for two full minutes — the Eco Soy CSI 400 page specifies exactly that duration and it is sound practice on any soy. One addition means one load for all six jars, by construction rather than by care.
5
Pour all six in one pass at one recorded temperatureLet the batch fall to your target, read the thermometer, write the number down, and pour all six without stopping. Weigh each jar's contents rather than pouring to a line. If the reading has slid more than about 3°C by the last jar, note it — you have found a drifting control and you now know to pour faster or in a smaller vessel next time.
6
Cure all six together, then burn on a schedule you wrote in advanceLids on, same shelf, same room. Burn one jar per level at day 7 and one per level at day 14; keep the third of each group sealed as a reference sample. Trim to about 5 mm before each burn, burn up to three hours, never leave it unattended, and stop immediately if the flame is tall — a flame that is too large is a hazard, not a preference.
The CSI principle
A test is defined by what it refuses to change. Ten constants and one variable, or it is just a batch.
Beginners think the skill is in choosing what to try. It is not — it is in choosing what to hold still, and then proving that you held it still by writing the numbers down. The candles from a well-designed test are often worse than the candles from a lucky batch. The findings are worth immeasurably more.
Test returned a clean verdict? Scale the vessel, not the variables: Clear Glass Votive Jar pack of 5 ₹159.30, White Matte Glass Jar pack of 10 ₹708, British Rose 500 gm ₹1,593 or 1 kg ₹3,068 — 1 kg is the largest listed fragrance pack, and anything above it is a WhatsApp quote rather than a listed price.
Ask for bulk pricing on WhatsApp
Reading the result: pass, fail, invalid
Three verdicts, and the third is the one that saves money. Most beginners allow themselves only two, which is why a confusing batch so often ends in a purchase.
The three verdicts
What the six jars look like, what it means, and what you do next
| Verdict | What the jars show | What it means | Next action |
|---|---|---|---|
| PASS | All three at one level agree with each other, and differ from the other level | You have isolated a real effect of your one variable | Write the sentence down. Carry that level forward as a constant and open the next question |
| FAIL | All six agree with each other — the variable made no difference | Also a result, and often a valuable one | Stop spending on that variable. It is not your bottleneck. Move to the next question |
| INVALID | The three jars within a level disagree with each other | Your process, not your materials, is the loose variable | Repeat the same batch. Do not buy anything. Check constants 2, 6, 8 and 10 first |
| Ambiguous | Two of three agree, one is odd | Possibly a single bad jar, possibly early process drift | Burn the sealed reference jar from that level before deciding |
The habit to build is this: after an unclear result, the first correct move is to repeat the test, not to change a material. A repeat costs you the marginal materials — around ₹600.36 for six votives — and it either confirms the finding or reveals that your process was never stable enough to have a finding. Changing a material at that point does not fix anything; it just adds a variable to a test that already could not be read.
And one honest limit. This design tells you what happened in your jar, with your wax, at your load, in your room. That is exactly what you needed and it is not a promise about anything else: change the wax and the wick verdict may not carry, change the oil and the load verdict may not carry. That is not a weakness of the method, it is the reason the method exists. The related questions are taken up in why every tutorial gives different numbers, which variables to test when three sources disagree and what to finalise first.
Six jars and one variable is an experiment. Six jars and four variables is a memory you will not be able to reproduce.
— CandleMakingSuppliesIndia
Why trust this guide
CANDLEMAKINGSUPPLIESINDIA supplies raw materials, not finished candles. The commercially attractive advice here would be "try more materials". Instead this page tells you to pour the plainest votive in the catalogue, skip dye entirely, buy the smallest listed packs, and — when a batch is confusing — spend ₹600.36 repeating it rather than ₹1,500 replacing something. A maker whose sixth jar confirms a finding keeps making candles; a maker with a drawer of unrepeatable favourites stops.
Every price, pack and specification here comes from live CSI stock in September 2026 and links to the product page, which is always authoritative on current pricing. Stated capacities, loads, cure figures, flash points and discolouration positions are quoted only where a page states them — including where a page gives a volume rather than a weight, which we point out rather than convert. We do not publish burn-test results of our own or promise that a design will produce a working candle; the method produces findings, not certainty.
To have a test design checked before you pour, or for bulk pricing, GST invoicing, MSDS or IFRA documentation, message us on WhatsApp at +91 7397976926.
Frequently asked questions
How many candles do I need for a meaningful first test?
Six — two levels of one variable with three repeats each. Three per level is the point at which a disagreement has a majority, so you can tell a material difference from your own inconsistency. In a 70 g votive at 8% that is 386.4 g of wax and 33.6 g of oil, about ₹600.36 of materials consumed, from a ₹1,077.80 basket that leaves enough in hand to repeat the batch. Four jars looks cheaper and removes the only thing that makes the result readable.
Can I test two fragrances and two wicks in one batch of four?
You can pour it, but you cannot read it. Every jar would differ from every other in at least one way with no repeats anywhere, so a good jar tells you nothing about which factor caused it. Run them as two batches: wick first, because hot throw depends on the melt pool and an under-wicked jar makes every fragrance look weak. Then compare fragrances with the winning wick held constant, identical jar and identical load. Same total spend, two clean answers instead of four unusable ones.
My three jars at the same level came out different. What did I do wrong?
Nothing that a purchase fixes — that result is INVALID, not FAIL, and the correct next move is to repeat the batch rather than change a material. Check four constants in order: was every jar's wax weighed rather than filled by eye; was the load convention the same; did your pour temperature slide across the six jars; and was every wick stickered and centred. In our experience those four account for nearly all within-level disagreement, and all four are free to fix.
Do I really need to record the room temperature and the cure day?
The cure day, yes — always. It is the single most common invisible variable, and a jar burned on day 4 against one burned on day 11 produces the false conclusion that "curing does nothing" or that an oil is inconsistent. Room temperature is a nice-to-have: you cannot easily control it, but noting it lets you explain a surprising batch later. Cure guidance on CSI pages varies by material: fragrance-oil pages commonly state 48–72 hours for soy, and the Luxury Soy Wax Chunks page states a minimum of 48 hours, ideally one to two weeks. The 14–21 day figure often quoted is trade practice, so label it as an assumption in your log.
The jar page gives capacity in millilitres. What wax weight do I use?
Weigh it, once. Millilitres are a volume, wax is sold by weight, and a jar described as a "200 ml fill weight" is not a 200 g candle — any conversion here would be invented. Pour one jar with your actual wax, let it set, weigh it against the empty jar, and write that gram figure into your lock list as constant 7. From then on it is a published-quality number for your own bench. Several CSI jars do state grams, including the 70 g votive and a 150 g fill jar, and those are easier to design around while you are learning.
Should I use dye in my test candles so they look like the real product?
No — not in batch one. Colour adds a fourth material to a test that already has three, and it can mask what you are looking for: frosting, wet spots and any yellowing from a vanillin-containing oil are all easier to read in undyed wax. Colour also has no bearing on the wick or load verdict you are trying to reach. Add dye once the burn has passed, then re-check the appearance only. If discolouration matters to your product, choose an oil whose page states its position — British Rose states vanillin content 0%, no discolouration in white, cream and pastel waxes.
Ten constants. One variable. Six jars.
₹100.06 per data point. ₹600.36 for an answer you can act on.
Clear Glass Votive Jar 70 gram, 10 for ₹318.60 (₹31.86 each, stated ~70 g fill); White Matte Glass Jar, 10 for ₹708 (₹70.80 each, stated 200 ml fill weight, 7 cm width — weigh one); British Rose Fragrance Oil 50 gm ₹212.40, stated up to 10% for soy with a 48–72 hour cure, flashpoint 192°C, 0% vanillin; Eco Candle Wicks Thin (C1) 10 for ₹59 and Thick (C2) 20 for ₹188.80; Luxury Soy Wax Chunks 500 g ₹299. Send us your lock list and we will tell you what is still moving.
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- Which variables should I actually test when three sources disagree?
- Why does every tutorial recommend different temperatures and percentages?
- What should I finalise first so I stop buying incompatible materials?
- How to compare two fragrance oils using a controlled burn test
- How to test hot throw before launching a candle fragrance
- How cure time changes the smell of different fragrance families
- Why does my candle tunnel even with the correct wick?
Editorial standards & sources
About this guide: Written by the CANDLEMAKINGSUPPLIESINDIA team. Product recommendations reflect the CSI range; the lock list, the fourteen-field log sheet, the six-jar unit and the three verdicts apply to any supplier's materials.Customer reviews: The five reviews at the top of this page are genuine, published Judge.me reviews left by CSI customers on their product pages. Names, star ratings, dates and products are as recorded by Judge.me; one longer review is shortened with an ellipsis and otherwise unedited.
Figures verified September 2026: Clear Glass Votive Jar 70 gram — pack of 5 ₹159.30, pack of 10 ₹318.60 (₹31.86 each). White Matte Glass Jar — pack of 5 ₹354, pack of 10 ₹708 (₹70.80 each). British Rose Fragrance Oil — 15 gm ₹94.40, 50 gm ₹212.40 (₹4.248/g), 100 gm ₹342.20, 500 gm ₹1,593, 1 kg ₹3,068. Luxury Soy Wax Chunks — 500 g ₹299 (₹598/kg), 1 kg ₹599, 5 kg ₹2,995, 10 kg ₹5,999. Eco Candle Wicks — Thin (C1) 10 ₹59 (₹5.90 each), Thick (C2) 20 ₹188.80 (₹9.44 each); the C2 10-pack is currently sold out. Candle Making Weighing Scale ₹354, Candle Wick Stickers 1 sheet of 40 ₹100, Wick Centering Device pack of 5 ₹118. Stated specifications, as published on the product pages: Clear Glass Votive Jar 70 gram — capacity approximately 70 g wax fill, thick durable glass, no diameter stated (its body text also refers to a purple matte and a matte white finish, a known copy inconsistency on the listing); White Matte Glass Jar — "a fill weight of 200 ml", "Height 8 cm width 7 cm", no gram capacity and no stated diameter; British Rose Fragrance Oil — up to 10% for soy wax candles with a cure time of 48–72 hours, up to 6% for paraffin wax candles with a cure of 24–48 hours, up to 12% for wax melts, 10–30% of total base for reed diffusers, flashpoint 192°C, vanillin content 0% with no discolouration or yellowing in white, cream and pastel waxes; Luxury Soy Wax Chunks — up to 13% fragrance load capacity, recommended 8% to 13% of total wax weight with 10% recommended, add fragrance at 80–90°C, pour temperature stated as 75–80°C and also 70–80°C in the same description, cure a minimum of 48 hours (ideally 1–2 weeks) before burn tests; Eco Soy CSI 400 — add fragrance at 85°C and stir gently for 2 minutes; Eco Candle Wicks — no diameter range stated for C1 or C2. Loads are wax formulation limits, not regulatory limits, and 1 kg is the largest listed fragrance pack. Arithmetic shown: a 70 g candle at 8% of the finished weight = 64.4 g wax + 5.6 g oil; six jars = 386.4 g wax + 33.6 g oil; wax ₹299 ÷ 500 g = ₹0.598/g × 64.4 g = ₹38.51; oil ₹212.40 ÷ 50 g = ₹4.248/g × 5.6 g = ₹23.79; jar ₹318.60 ÷ 10 = ₹31.86; wick ₹59 ÷ 10 = ₹5.90; per jar ₹100.06, six jars ₹600.36, four jars ₹400.24; purchased basket ₹299 + ₹212.40 + ₹318.60 + ₹59 + ₹188.80 = ₹1,077.80; 400 g of wax at 8% of finished weight takes 34.8 g of oil. Planning assumptions, labelled as assumptions: fragrance load is calculated as a share of the finished candle, and the alternative wax-weight convention differs by 1.19 g of oil on a 200 g candle (200 g total = 185.19 g wax + 14.81 g oil); the 8% starting load, the two-levels-by-three-repeats design, the day-7 and day-14 burn schedule and the ~5 mm trim are our recommendations, not published specifications; the 14–21 day cure figure is trade practice rather than a stated figure; allow roughly 3–5% wax loss for what stays in the pitcher when planning a batch. Prices and availability change — the linked product pages are always authoritative.