I Want Scented Tealights With Noticeable Fragrance Despite Their Small Melt Pool — What Should I Realistically Optimise?
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What helps most? A strong oil, a wick that reaches a full pool quickly, and testing the Big Tealights cup. Extra load helps least.
What load should I start at? A suggested 8% of total weight, tested against 6% and 10%, inside the oil’s stated range such as Lavender’s 6–10%.
How do I add under 1 g of oil per tealight? Make a batch: 500 g at 8% is 460 g wax and 40 g oil, enough for 41 tealights at a 12 g example fill.
Set the right expectation first
Fragrance from a burning candle comes off the melt pool. A tealight’s pool is a few centimetres across and only a few millimetres deep, so it holds very little warm, scented wax at any moment. A 200 g jar candle with a wide pool simply has more scent in play. No choice of oil, load or wax changes that geometry.
So the realistic goal for a scented tealight is noticeable fragrance at close range, in a small room, or from several tealights burning together. A single tealight scenting a bathroom, a desk or a bedside is achievable. One tealight scenting an open-plan living room is not, and selling it as if it were leads to disappointed reviews. Write the product description around what it really does, and then optimise the few things that genuinely move the result.
| Lever | Effect | Realistic action |
|---|---|---|
| Oil choice | Large | Choose oils rated strong on their own pages and with depth, not only top notes |
| Reaching a full pool quickly | Large | Wick-test with the oil in, so the pool reaches the wall early |
| Cup size | Medium | Test the Big Tealights cup, which holds more wax and a wider pool |
| Cure time | Medium | At least the 48–72 h CSI states for soy before judging |
| Fragrance load | Small to medium | Work within the oil’s stated range; more oil can drown a tiny wick |
| Pool diameter | Fixed by the cup | Cannot be changed without changing the cup |
Oil choice does more than load
Because the pool is tiny, an oil that performs well at modest loads is worth more than a weak oil pushed hard. Product pages give their own strength ratings, which are the pages’ descriptions rather than measured data. Lavender is rated “Strong” on its page and has a stated candle load of 6–10%. Eucalyptus Spearmint is rated “moderate to strong”, with a published flashpoint of 199°C and up to 10% in soy. Lemongrass and Lime is rated “moderate”, so it is a weaker candidate for this format.
Watch citrus in particular. The Citrus Lemon page itself warns that citrus top notes are volatile and fade faster than warmer families, and advises the full 48–72 h cure and the upper end of the range. In a tealight that fading shows up fast, so a citrus scent needs extra testing before you list it.
Load, wax and the arithmetic of tiny amounts
Use CSI 468 coconut soy for this test. It states loads up to 13%, so a 10% load of total weight, which is 10 ÷ 90 = 11.1% of wax weight, stays inside its figure; CSI 464’s stated 10% would not cover that top step. Its stated pour temperature is 58–60°C, which is a helpful reference when you pour many small cups in a row.
The awkward part of scented tealights is how little oil each one holds. CSI does not publish the fill weight of its tealight cups, so weigh your own; this page uses 12 g for a standard cup and 25 g for a big cup as example figures. A 12 g tealight at 8% holds 12 × 0.08 = 0.96 g of oil, which is too small to weigh cup by cup with any confidence. So make the oil and wax as one batch and pour from it. A 500 g batch at 8% is 460 g of wax and 40 g of oil, and it pours 500 ÷ 12 = 41.7, so 41 full tealights.
Price the load steps per piece. At the Lavender 1 kg price, oil costs ₹5,221.00 ÷ 1,000 g = ₹5.221 per gram. At 8% the oil in one 12 g tealight costs 0.96 × ₹5.221 = ₹5.01. At 10% it is 1.2 g × ₹5.221 = ₹6.27. The step from 8% to 10% adds ₹6.27 − ₹5.01 = ₹1.26 per tealight, small in money but not small for the wick, which now has a quarter more oil to burn through in a tiny pool.
A test set that finds the honest best
No dedicated tealight wick is listed on the CSI range, so if you have already burn-tested an unscented tealight, start from that wick, and if not, start with Eco Candle Wicks Thin (C1). Either way, retest now: fragrance oil changes how a wick burns, and a wick that was fine unscented can drown or smoke at 10%.
| Batch | Oil and load | Cup | Wax + oil | Pieces |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Lavender 6% | Standard | 94 g + 6 g | 8 at 12 g |
| B | Lavender 8% | Standard | 92 g + 8 g | 8 at 12 g |
| C | Lavender 10% | Standard | 90 g + 10 g | 8 at 12 g |
| D | Eucalyptus Spearmint 8% | Standard | 92 g + 8 g | 8 at 12 g |
| E | Lavender 8% | Big Tealights cup | 92 g + 8 g | 4 at 25 g |
Lavender total: 6 + 8 + 10 + 8 = 32 g from a 50 g pack. Eucalyptus Spearmint: 8 g from a 15 g pack. CSI 468: 94 + 92 + 90 + 92 + 92 = 460 g from one 500 g pack. Cups: 32 standard and 4 big. Wicks: 36, so one 50-pack of Eco C1.
| Item | Pack | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Lavender | 50 g | ₹270.00 |
| Eucalyptus Spearmint | 15 g | ₹68.44 |
| CSI 468 coconut soy | 500 g | ₹325.00 |
| Standard aluminium cups | 50 | ₹330.40 |
| Big Tealights Empty | 10 | ₹118.00 |
| Eco Candle Wicks Thin (C1) | 50 | ₹295.00 |
| Total | ₹1,406.84 |
Working: 270.00 + 68.44 + 325.00 + 330.40 + 118.00 + 295.00 = ₹1,406.84. Lavender’s flashpoint is not published on its page, so ask CSI for the MSDS on WhatsApp and add the oil well below that figure.
Buy this to test
50 g of Lavender, 15 g of a second oil, 500 g of CSI 468, 50 standard cups, 10 big cups and a 50-pack of Eco C1, for ₹1,406.84.
Buy this once validated
CSI 468 in 5 kg or 10 kg packs, where the 10 kg pack works out at ₹6,370.00 ÷ 10,000 g = ₹0.637 per gram, the winning oil in 500 g or 1 kg packs, cups in packs of 100 or 500 and wicks to match. Pour production in 500 g oil-and-wax batches so every tealight carries the same load.
Where this page fits
CSI already has guides that cover parts of this question. This page turns the product above into a raw-material list; these go deeper on the rest:
Three things to buy for this job
| Option | Price | Status on the October 2026 pull |
|---|---|---|
| 15 g | ₹105.02 | In stock |
| 50 g | ₹270.00 | In stock |
| 100 g | ₹540.00 | In stock |
| 500 g | ₹2,620.00 | In stock |
| 1 kg | ₹5,221.00 | In stock |
| Option | Price | Status on the October 2026 pull |
|---|---|---|
| 500 g | ₹325.00 | In stock |
| 1 kg | ₹650.00 | In stock |
| 5 kg | ₹3,185.00 | In stock |
| 10 kg | ₹6,370.00 | In stock |
| Option | Price | Status on the October 2026 pull |
|---|---|---|
| Pack of 10 | ₹118.00 | In stock |
| Pack of 100 | ₹1,180.00 | In stock |
CANDLEMAKINGSUPPLIESINDIA supplies raw materials and production equipment, not finished candles. This guide separates general candle-making practice from what CSI's own product pages state, says plainly where CSI publishes no figure (wick sizes, burn times, hardness), and labels every wick, load, test count or margin as a starting point for your own validation.
Prices are live CSI prices from October 2026; product pages are authoritative. Where a spec is not published — such as a wick size for your jar, a mould's cycle life or a wax's survival temperature — this guide says so rather than filling the gap.
For bulk quotes, GST invoicing, IFRA and MSDS documents, message us on WhatsApp at +91 7397976926.
Frequently asked questions
- I Want to Produce 1,000 Tealights for Diwali — How Do I Calculate Wax, Fragrance, Wick and Cup Quantities?
- I Want My Tealights to Burn for Several Hours Without a Huge Flame — How Do I Choose the Correct Wick for the Cup Diameter?
- I Want to Make Votive Candles That Release From Their Moulds Cleanly — Should I Use Container Wax or a Harder Wax?
- I Want to Make Scented Votives for Hotels — What Raw Materials Should I Test Before Quoting a 2,000-Piece Order?
- I Want to Make Mini Candles as Wedding Favours — How Do I Choose a Jar and Wick Combination for a Very Small Fill Weight?
- I Want to Make 50 g Mini Jar Candles for Corporate Gifting — How Do I Get Noticeable Hot Throw From Such a Small Candle?
- I Want to Make a Candle Discovery Set With Five 50 g Candles — Should Each Fragrance Have Its Own Wick Test Even Though All Jars Are Identical?
- I Want to Sell Mini Candles at ₹199–₹299 — How Do I Choose Raw Materials That Keep COGS Controlled Without Making the Product Feel Cheap?
- Which Candle Fragrance Oils Give the Strongest Hot Throw in Soy Wax?
- What Fragrance Load Should You Use for Floral, Woody and Gourmand Oils?
Customer reviews: The reviews at the top are genuine, published Judge.me reviews — Thenirvaofficial (5★, verified); Kaushiki Satarkar (5★, verified); Monika Deep (4★, verified); Suvarna P (5★, verified); Sooraj R (5★, verified); Akansha (4★, verified). Names, ratings, dates and products as recorded by Judge.me.
Product facts (October 2026, CSI live store): Lavender Fragrance Oil: 15 g ₹105.02, 50 g ₹270.00, 100 g ₹540.00, 500 g ₹2,620.00, 1 kg ₹5,221.00 — single-note lavender; top fresh lavender, middle herbal green, base soft musk · stated candle load 6–10% · rated "Strong" on the product page · flashpoint and vanillin not published on the page. Premium Coconut Soy Wax CSI 468 (flakes): 500 g ₹325.00, 1 kg ₹650.00, 5 kg ₹3,185.00, 10 kg ₹6,370.00 — coconut-soy blend · stated melt point 50–53°C, pour 58–60°C · stated fragrance load up to 13% · stated shelf life 60 months. Big Tealights Empty: Pack of 10 ₹118.00, Pack of 100 ₹1,180.00 — product title states "~9 hours burn".
Assumptions: Fragrance load is a percentage of total candle weight (200 g = 184 g wax + 16 g oil at 8%); CSI wax pages phrase their ceilings as a share of wax weight. Material cost per candle covers wax, oil, vessel, wick and dye only — it excludes packaging, labels, labour, shipping and GST. CSI publishes no wick sizing chart, burn times or wax survival temperatures, so every wick named is a candidate to test. Retail prices, budgets, margins and packaging costs are the reader's own figures. Test counts and loads are suggested starting points. Prices re-checked 1 October 2026; product pages are authoritative.