I Have 250 Jars with a Tested 160 g Wax Fill — How Much Wax and Fragrance Should I Order to Fill All of Them at 8% Fragrance Load?

Three readings of "160 g"

Makers say "a 160 g fill" in two different ways. Some mean the weight of the finished, scented candle in the jar. Others mean the weight of wax they pour, and think of the fragrance as something added to it. Both are common, and the maths gives different answers. CSI's convention across this series is the first: load is a share of the finished weight, so oil = weight × load and wax = weight − oil.

The second reading is the one most people use without realising it: weigh 160 g of wax, add 8% of that as oil. It gives a true load of 7.41%, not 8%, because 12.8 g of oil in a 172.8 g candle is 7.41% of the whole. The third reading fixes the percentage with the formula oil = wax × L ÷ (1 − L), but the candle is now 173.91 g. Neither fits the jar you tested at 160 g.

So the question to ask of your own test is simple: was it scented, and was it poured to the line? If yes, 160 g is finished weight, and the first row is your recipe. If you tested plain wax, the scented candle will sit at a slightly different weight at the same line, because oil and wax do not weigh the same per millilitre. Pour one more jar with oil before you order. Estimating from a water reading and the 200 ml jar guide cover how the fill was found in the first place.

The allowance stack for 250 jars

With the per-jar split fixed, the order is built in a fixed sequence: net need first, then extra finished candles, then a percentage for loss, then rounding up to packs. Doing the steps in this order keeps each allowance visible, so you can see what each one costs and cut it on the next run if it proves generous.

Why no test candles? Because you have already tested: the fill is known. Retained jars are different. They are finished production candles you deliberately do not sell, one kept as a reference for colour, fill height and scent, one burned after the run to confirm the batch behaves like the test. Two is our working figure; a corporate client who wants approval samples may need more. When a client wants samples first covers that case.

Why 5% loss rather than 3%? It is a judgement. A 250-jar run usually means one or two big melts, a pouring jug, and residue on every surface the wax touches. Wax left in the melter, spills, a jar or two that sinks badly and is remelted: at this scale a few kilos go missing easily. Measure your actual loss on this run (wax opened minus wax in jars) and use that number next time.

Rounding to real packs

The wax need is 38.95 kg. CSI's container waxes come in 500 g, 1 kg, 5 kg and 10 kg bags, so 39 kg is three 10 kg, one 5 kg and four 1 kg bags. You could also simply buy four 10 kg bags (40 kg) for fewer bags to handle: in Chunks that is ₹23,996.00, ₹608.00 more for one extra kilo. The oil need is 3,387 g. Oils are listed up to 1 kg a bottle, so the cheapest cover in Lavender is three 1 kg bottles and four 100 g bottles: 3.4 kg for ₹17,823.00.

Per jar, the CSI 464 version works out at about ₹147.42 of wax, oil and wick at the kilo and single-wick rates: ₹74.69 of wax, ₹66.83 of Lavender at its 1 kg rate, ₹5.90 of wick. Add your jar. The figure excludes labour, packaging, freight and GST. The CSI 464 and Chunks bills differ by ₹3,599.40 on this order; both are rated above 8%, so the choice is about how each wax looks and burns in your jar, which your test candle has already shown you if you tested in the wax you are ordering.

One scent or two

Many 250-jar orders are not one scent. When they split, the wax total does not change, but the oil must be calculated and rounded per scent, because you cannot pour Lavender from a Sandalwood bottle. Each scent carries its own retained jar and its own share of the loss allowance.

The oil need is identical to the one-scent order, 3,387 g, but rounding happens twice, so the bottles are chosen separately. The "cheapest" combinations above include 15 g bottles because they happen to close the gap for the least money; in practice many makers would buy 2 kg + 50 g of Lavender (₹10,712.00) and 1 kg + 500 g of Sandalwood (₹7,540.20) for simpler stock. Either way, the per-scent method stops the classic mistake of ordering 3.4 kg of "oil" and discovering one scent is short. A three-scent wedding split and a multi-size, multi-scent sheet take this further.

If the load changes

Your jar holds 160 g whatever the load, so changing the load only changes the split. The wax and oil move in opposite directions and the total stays put. That makes load changes easy to re-cost at the last minute.

Moving from 8% to 10% adds 847 g of oil and removes the same weight of wax. In Lavender at the kilo rate the oil change is worth about ₹4,420.73 across the run. The ceilings are the wax makers' stated formulation maximums, not targets: Chunks up to 13%, CSI 464 up to 10%. At 10% in CSI 464 you are at its limit, which leaves no room for weighing error; if you want 10%, Chunks gives more headroom. A load change also needs a new test burn, because more oil can change the melt pool and the wick choice. Ordering oil at 10% covers that load in detail.

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