I Have 500 Empty Jars Ready for Production but My Normal Fragrance Is Unavailable — What Should I Validate Before Switching to Another Supplier?

What changes when the supplier changes

A supplier switch is really two changes that arrive together. The first is a different oil. However close the name — "rose" from one supplier and "rose" from another — the oil is a different blend, and in general candle-making practice a different blend can throw, colour, sweat and burn differently in the same wax, wick and jar. The second is a different supplier: different pack sizes, different documents, different stock behaviour, a different way of telling you — or not telling you — when something changes. Most makers validate the first and forget the second, then discover in week three that the new supplier cannot supply the quantity the 500 jars need.

The jars themselves are the one thing that makes this easier. Because they are already on your shelf, every jar-related result you hold — fill weight, fill line, how the glass behaves with your wick — stays valid, as long as the tests are poured in these jars. That is the rule that trips people up: testing the new oil in a spare jar of a different shape and then pouring 500 of yours. The jar is part of the system being tested. Use twelve of the 500.

Qualifying the new supplier before the oil

This part costs nothing but a few messages, and it should happen on day one, in parallel with ordering test oil — because a candidate that passes every candle test is useless if the supplier cannot deliver 8 kg of it. The questions below are the ones to settle before you commit your jars. Where the answer for CSI is known from our listings, it is stated; where it is not published, it says so.

Two answers in that column matter more than they look. CSI does not publish lot numbers, lot-to-lot consistency data or change notices, so if CSI becomes your supplier, you will need your own retained-sample routine from the first bottle — the reformulation page sets it up. And CSI's listed bottles stop at 1 kg per listing, so an 8 kg requirement is eight or more bottles or a quote; check stock for the whole quantity before the test candles are poured, so a passing oil can actually be bought.

The retest matrix for a supplier switch into existing jars

KEEP means still valid, CONFIRM a short side-by-side check, REPEAT the full test, NEW a test the old arrangement never needed.

Two lines in that table are specific to this situation. Mixing and pour behaviour is a CONFIRM because you will be mixing the new oil at production scale for the first time; note on pour day whether it blends the way the old oil did and how the surface sets. Scale behaviour is NEW because a twelve-candle test and a 438-candle run are poured differently — bigger jugs, longer holding, more handling. The pilot lot exists to catch what only shows at scale. The 2 kg to 20 kg batch page explains why scale alone can change a result.

Gate 1: the twelve-jar test

Each candidate gets 4 candles in your jars at your usual 8% and your usual 200 g fill (the fill is your own weighed figure; this page uses 200 g as the example): three to burn, one of them to the end, and one to store. The control set is 4 candles poured from whatever old oil you still hold. If none is left, use retained candles from your last batch for appearance and throw reference, and write down that they are older. The two candidates here — British Rose and Smoked Rose Royale — are an example for a maker whose usual oil was a rose from another supplier; they are chosen by family name only, and CSI makes no claim that either matches any other oil.

CSI publishes no flame-height or jar-temperature limit. The safety lines pass when they are no worse than your controls and within your jar supplier's guidance and the fire-safety standard you work to — ASTM F2417 is commonly cited. Your jars being ready does not change that line.

Gate 2: the pilot lot

When a candidate passes Gate 1, do not pour all 488 remaining jars. Pour a pilot of 48 — about a tenth — with the passing oil, from one production-size batch, using your normal production equipment and routine. The pilot answers the questions twelve hand-poured candles cannot: does the oil mix and pour the same way in your big jug, do the surfaces set the same way across a full tray, are fill weights consistent, does anything change when the batch sits longer before pouring? Pilot oil: 48 × 16 g = 768 g.

If the pilot passes, the pilot jars are sellable stock — the pilot is not a cost, only a pause. If it fails, you have lost 48 jars' worth of wax and oil, not 488. Keep one pilot candle unburned as the reference for the main run and for the next lot of the new oil.

The test kit and the production order

Smoked Rose Royale is listed from 100 g (no 15 g or 50 g), so its test quantity costs more than British Rose's; that is a real cost of screening it, and a reason to strip-test first and only bring it into candles if it is a genuine contender. Now the production side, for the 488 jars left after testing, at 8% with a 3% allowance (a working assumption): 8.04 kg of oil and 92.49 kg of wax.

The two candidates differ by ₹41,854.00 on this run — ₹85.77 a candle — which is worth knowing but should not decide the test; the candle does. British Rose has one of the few real bulk steps on CSI's list (₹3.42 a gram at 100 g, ₹3.07 at 1 kg, 10.3% lower), while Smoked Rose Royale is flat at about ₹8.00 a gram from 100 g to 1 kg. For quantities like these, confirm stock for the full amount on WhatsApp before Gate 1; larger quantities are quoted and no volume discount figure is published.

The decision rule and the release record

Write it before anything is poured: commit the jars only when (1) a candidate passes every Gate 1 line against the controls, (2) the supplier has confirmed in writing the quantity for the whole run and supplied MSDS and IFRA documents, and (3) the pilot lot matches the Gate 1 candles. If the candidate is noticeably different in a blind comparison, sell it under a new name. If no candidate passes, the jars wait.

When the jars are committed, record it: the new supplier and oil, order dates and bottle sizes, the documents received, the Gate 1 scores, the pilot checks, and which production batches used which order. Keep a sealed retained sample from each bottle and one unburned candle from the pilot. Add the new oil to your approved-supplier list with its status — the approved-supplier list page shows how — so the next person buying oil does not change the formula by accident.

Related pages

If your constraint is a date rather than a jar stock, the bestseller stock-out page has the dated minimum-validation plan. If you would rather never be in this position again, the backup-supplier page shows how to pre-qualify an alternative before the stock-out. For the substitute check when a supplier change is planned rather than forced, see the fragrance-supplier page. And for everything a fragrance change can touch, the checklist is the hub.

Frequently asked questions