I'm Starting with 100 Candles — Exactly How Much Wax, Fragrance Oil, Wicks and Jars Should I Buy Including Testing and Wastage?

Four layers on top of 100

A shopping list for 100 candles built as "one candle × 100" runs short every time, because making candles has losses that do not show up in a single-candle recipe. Some wax stays on the jug. A candle or two sinks or cracks and cannot be sold. Test candles use material before production starts. And you cannot buy 18.9 kg of wax; you buy 19 kg or 20 kg, in the packs the supplier lists. The fix is to build the list in layers, each one explicit, so you can see what each costs and change the assumptions to your own.

Layers 2 and 4 are working assumptions, and they are the ones to replace with your own figures once you have run a batch or two. The series convention is "plan 3–5% extra for pour loss and test burns"; this page uses the top of that range because a first 100-candle run is usually the least efficient one you will ever pour. The reject allowance of one pour per scent is also an assumption, not a CSI measurement. If your first batches show fewer rejects, cut it; if more, raise it. How to include spillage, leftover fragrance, broken jars and rejects in production cost goes deeper on measuring them.

The bill of materials

Here is the full list, material by material, from the net need to the pack you actually order. The leftover column is what you still hold when the 100 candles are finished, before any of it is used for the next batch.

The wax need of 20,870 g rounds up to 21 kg. The pack mix does not change the price for CSI 464, which is ₹507.40 a kilo at 1, 5 and 10 kg. It would for Luxury Soy Wax Chunks, where the 10 kg (₹5,999.00) is ₹9.00 dearer than two 5 kg packs; if you use the Chunks, buy 5 kg packs. Twelve spare wicks are a deliberate margin: wick sizing for a jar diameter is not published here, and if the test candles show the wick needs changing, a re-pour of a few candles should not need a new order. Standardising one jar is what makes a list like this repeatable.

Fragrance, scent by scent

Oil is the one line calculated per scent, because it is the one material that cannot move between scents. Each scent needs 26 pours × 16 g = 416 g, plus 5% for pour loss, 436.8 g. The table shows the cheapest combination of in-stock packs of 50 g and above that covers it. The 15 g testers are counted separately, because they are used up in the test candles.

All four come out the same way: four 100 g bottles and one 50 g, 450 g in all. The obvious alternative is a single 500 g, and for every one of these oils it costs more, because it is 50 g of oil you do not need. That holds even where the 500 g is cheaper per gram. Dark Vanilla's 500 g is ₹7.68 a gram against ₹7.90 at 100 g, yet it costs ₹3,840.00 against ₹3,570.00 for the 450 g mix. Blue Ocean is priced almost flat from 50 g to 1 kg (₹4.94 to ₹4.96 a gram), and Gilli Mitti is exactly ₹8.96 a gram at every size from 50 g up, so for them the 500 g is simply 50 g more oil. A per-gram break only saves money on grams you will use. None of this is a reason to buy a kilo for a 26-candle need.

The true cost of a sellable candle

The naive way to cost a candle is to price one: 184 g of wax, 16 g of oil, a wick and a jar. At 100 g oil rates and CSI 464 wax, that gives the figures in the second column below. Multiply by 25 per scent and add them up, and 100 candles appear to cost ₹28,090.16. The real list costs ₹32,440.22. The difference, ₹4,350.06, is testing, rejects, pour loss, spare jars and wicks, and pack rounding. Spread over the 100 you can sell, it is ₹43.50 a candle.

Part of that hidden cost comes back. The leftover wax, oil, jars and wicks are real stock for the next batch, so the true cost of the second 100 candles will be lower. But you should price the first 100 as if it will not come back, because a new business cannot be sure there will be a second batch of the same scents. Material cost here excludes labour, labels, packaging, freight and GST. The true cost of a 200 g soy candle adds lid, label and packaging lines, and whether ₹180 of materials leaves margin at ₹499 shows how to test a price against it.

What is left afterwards

When the 100 candles are poured and any rejects set aside, the list above leaves: up to 1,124 g of wax, less whatever pour loss took; 34 g of Blue Ocean, 34 g of Cinnamon, 34 g of Dark Vanilla, 34 g of Gilli Mitti (Patchouli) before pour loss; 2 jars; 12 wicks; and 12 wick stickers. That is not dead stock. Wax, jars and wicks move to the next batch of any scent. The oil leftovers are the start of each scent's next order, and the most useful input for deciding how much of each to buy next time.

For the next batch, run the same layers with your measured figures. A lean inventory for the first three months covers pacing, how much wax to hold before marketing covers the wax buffer, and 500 custom candles scales the same method to a customer order.

Frequently asked questions