One Lavender Fragrance Costs ₹3,000 per Kg and Another Costs ₹5,000 but Performs Better at a Lower Load — How Do I Determine Which Is Actually Cheaper per Candle?

The per-candle maths with your two prices

Start with the two figures you gave: one lavender quoted at ₹3,000 per kg, which you find needs 10% to perform, and another quoted at ₹5,000 per kg, which performs at 6%. These are your hypothetical figures, not CSI prices, and they make a clean example.

This series calculates load as a percentage of total candle weight. In a 200 g candle, 10% is 180 g of wax plus 20 g of oil, and 6% is 188 g of wax plus 12 g of oil. Price per gram is the 1 kg price divided by 1000, so ₹3,000 becomes ₹3.00 per gram and ₹5,000 becomes ₹5.00 per gram.

The first two rows are the answer to your question: ₹60.00 each. On oil alone, neither lavender is cheaper. The last three rows show how quickly that changes. If the cheaper oil turns out to work at 9%, it drops to ₹54.00. If the dearer oil actually needs 7% to match, it rises to ₹70.00. The tie is sensitive to a single percentage point, so the load figures you feed into the sum need to come from real tests, not impressions.

The break-even load, as a rule you can reuse

There is a simple way to find where two oils cost the same per candle. Divide the cheaper oil's price by the dearer oil's price, then multiply by the load the cheaper oil needs. With your figures: ₹3,000 ÷ ₹5,000 = 0.6, and 0.6 × 10% = 6%. So the ₹5,000 oil only wins on oil cost if it meets your target at below 6%. At exactly 6% it ties. Above 6% it loses.

Because the candle weight cancels out, the rule works for any size. A 300 g candle at your two loads would carry 30 g and 18 g of oil, and 30 g × ₹3.00 and 18 g × ₹5.00 both come to ₹90.00. The ratio decides, not the jar.

What the oil tie hides: wax, wick and headroom

Oil is not the only ingredient that moves when the load moves. At 10%, oil replaces 8 g of wax compared with 6%. With CSI 464 at ₹507.40 per kg, or ₹0.5074 per gram, the wax in the 10% candle costs 180 g × ₹0.5074 = ₹91.33 and the wax in the 6% candle costs 188 g × ₹0.5074 = ₹95.39. Add oil and wax together and the 10% candle is ₹151.33 against ₹155.39 for the 6% candle, a gap of ₹4.06 in favour of the cheaper oil.

That small saving comes with costs that do not show on the invoice. CSI 464's page states fragrance up to 10%, so the 10% candle sits at the ceiling. There is no room to go up if a batch feels weak in winter or a customer asks for more strength. Higher loads can also sit less comfortably in the wax, show surface oil, and change how fuel moves up the wick, which may mean a different wick or more carbon at the tip.

So the honest reading of your tie is this. If the dearer oil meets your target at 6% and burns cleanly on your standard wick, it is often the better commercial choice at the same oil cost, because it leaves headroom and asks less of the wax. If the cheaper oil burns just as cleanly at 10% and customers cannot tell them apart, its ₹4.06 wax saving is real.

Running the same sum on CSI Lavender

Now apply the method to a live price. CSI Lavender is ₹5,221.00 per kg, which is ₹5.221 per gram. Its product page states a candle load of 6–10% and rates it "Strong"; that rating is the page's own description, not a measurement, so your test still decides.

Set CSI Lavender at 6% against your two quotes and it lands at ₹62.65 per candle, ₹2.65 above your ₹60.00 tie. Across 100 candles, your two options would each need ₹6,000.00 of oil, from 2,000 g × ₹3.00 and 1,200 g × ₹5.00. CSI Lavender at 6% would need ₹6,265.20. If CSI Lavender only performed at 8% in your system, it would cost ₹83.54 per candle and lose clearly. The same maths that favours a strong oil at a low load punishes any oil that needs a higher one.

Pack size moves the figure slightly too. The 500 g pack is ₹2,620.00, which is ₹5.24 per gram, so a 6% candle poured from it costs 12 g × ₹5.24 = ₹62.88. The kilogram is marginally cheaper per candle, but only worth it once the load has been proven.

Turning the numbers into a buying decision

Once both oils have tested loads and costs, the choice usually falls into one of three patterns. If the dearer oil passes below its break-even load, buy it; it is cheaper per candle and gentler on the wick. If both pass at exactly break-even, choose on burn cleanliness, headroom and supply, since the oil cost is a wash. If the dearer oil needs more than its break-even load, the cheaper oil wins on cost, and the only question left is whether its burn at the higher load is good enough to sell.

Keep the scale of the decision in view too. A gap of a few rupees per candle looks trivial on one jar and becomes a meaningful sum over a year of production. Multiply any per-candle difference by the number of candles you expect to pour of that scent before you decide it does not matter.

How to find the loads that go into the sum

Every figure above depends on one input you cannot look up: the lowest load at which each oil meets your target. Here is a controlled way to get it.

Add oil below its published flashpoint and at the wax maker's stated temperature, stay with every burning test candle, and stop any test that smokes or flares. A cheaper oil that only performs by smoking is not cheaper.

Where this page fits

CSI already has guides that cover parts of this question. This page answers the specific oil-in-wax question above; these go deeper on the rest:

Three things to buy for this job

Frequently asked questions