I Want to Make a Rose Candle for Wedding Favours — What Raw Materials Do I Need for a 100-piece Pilot Order?

Start with one favour, not with one hundred

A 100-piece pilot order is a trial: a couple, a planner or a venue wants to see a run of favours before committing to the full guest list. That makes it a different purchase from a 100-candle production run. It has a client approval in the middle, a cosmetic standard (every favour is looked at closely on a table), a fixed date, and usually a second, larger order behind it that depends on how the pilot goes. The materials list has to cover the 100 favours, the samples the client approves, the favours you reject on looks, and nothing else.

The good news is that the container question is easier than for any full-size candle. CSI has only two containers with a published fill, and both suit favours: the Heart Cutout Velvet Jar, Red, 50 g wax capacity (₹45.00 each, ₹450.00 for 10; the white version is out of stock) and the Golden Aluminium Tin, 85 g fill (₹30.00 each in a 12-pack). No fill check is needed. The jar's listing says "50 g wax capacity"; this page treats 50 g as the finished favour, so at an 8% working load it is 4.0 g of oil and 46.0 g of wax. If you read it as 50 g of wax alone, the oil at a true 8% would be 4.35 g and the favour 54.35 g — weigh one to see which your fill line gives.

Two roses at two price points

CSI lists several rose-family oils; this page compares two that sit far apart on price. British Rose is near the top of CSI's best-selling sort and one of the few oils with a real per-gram break: ₹6.29 a gram at 15 g, ₹3.42 at 100 g, ₹3.19 at 500 g and ₹3.07 at 1 kg — the 1 kg is 10.3% cheaper per gram than the 100 g. Smoked Rose Royale has no pack below 100 g (₹799.00) and costs ₹8.00 a gram at every size. CSI publishes no throw or composition data for either; which rose suits the wedding is for the couple and your test, not the price list.

At favour size the oil is a small number either way — but it is multiplied by every guest. The real difference in the pilot is the pack: British Rose can be tested from two 15 g bottles; Smoked Rose Royale cannot be tested from less than 100 g, so a test of it leaves most of a bottle over. That is fine if it wins (the leftover is pilot oil) and a cost if it does not.

The development kit: container, rose and wick together

Favours are small enough that a full cross of the open choices is affordable: two containers × two roses × two wicks × two favours, plus one British Rose shelf favour per container, is 18 pieces. One wax is held fixed — Chunks, whose page states a 13% maximum, giving headroom over 8% — because the client is choosing the look and the scent, not the wax. If you sell a different wax already, use it; the vanilla post shows when a wax belongs in the first purchase.

Smoked Rose Royale is the single biggest line: ₹799.00 for a 100 g bottle when the kit needs 45.4 g. If the couple has already said "classic rose" or the budget is fixed, drop it and the kit is ₹2,306.80. The velvet jars are cheapest here as 1 × pack of 5 + 4 × single (₹405.00) rather than a 10-pack (₹450.00); the tins only come in twelves. The Eco Thin C1 10-pack is out of stock on the 4 October re-check, so it is a 20-pack.

Testing a favour the way a guest will see it

Safety stays a knock-out: "no worse than the other candidates, within your container supplier's guidance and the recognised candle fire-safety standard you work to" (ASTM F2417 is a commonly cited US standard). Favours are often lit on crowded tables; a flame that is merely acceptable in a kitchen test is not good enough here.

The 100-piece pilot list

The pilot stack follows the series order. (1) Approval samples are counted as whole favours: 3 here — one for the couple, one for the planner, one retained — a labelled assumption. (2) Rejects are allowed for by dividing by (1 − 5%); favours are judged closely, so the example reject rate is higher than for a jar candle. (3) Pour loss of 5% applies to wax and oil only. (4) Breakage applies to fragile containers only: a labelled 3% for the velvet jar (treated as fragile — check its material on the product page), none for the metal tin. (5) Everything is rounded to real in-stock CSI packs. All four allowance figures are yours to replace.

Two rounding details. British Rose's 455.4 g for the velvet pilot fits in one 500 g bottle (₹1,593.00), and that is cheaper than buying 100 g bottles; for the tin pilot the 774.1 g is covered by 1 × 500 g + 3 × 100 g. The velvet jars come as 11 × pack of 10 + 2 × single for 112 jars — eleven 10-packs and two singles is cheaper than twelve 10-packs. The per-favour figures include the leftovers you carry into the full order, so the real per-favour cost on repeat orders is lower.

Buy now, buy after the client approves

The series rule is that production quantities of the wick — and of a new oil on a client-approval order — are bought only after the test passes and, here, after the client signs off the sample. Containers and wax that are the same whichever rose wins can be bought earlier, once the container is chosen.

If the full order follows, the 500 × 100 g wedding-candle post handles a two-fragrance wedding order at scale, the 100 × 100 g rose favours list sizes a slightly bigger favour, and the client-approval post explains why the oil waits for sign-off. If the couple wants a custom colour, the custom-colour wedding post adds dye trials and the pastel-pink rose post builds the dye ladder.

The CSI products for the pilot

Related questions

For the brief → kit → production method on a full-size candle, start at the lavender hub. If favours are one of three sizes you plan to sell, the 50 g / 200 g / 500 g plan combines them in one procurement list.

Frequently asked questions