Fragrance Oils for Silicone Mould Candles

Weigh the mould before you calculate anything

Every fragrance calculation is a share of the finished piece's weight: oil = weight × load. For a jar, the fill weight is often printed. For a silicone mould it almost never is, and CSI does not publish cavity weights for any of its moulds. The rose, peony, lotus, teddy and ladoo moulds all come without a number. So before you think about oil, find out what your cavity holds. It takes about ten minutes and a weighing scale (₹354.00).

Step one: water. Stand the mould on the scale, zero it, and fill the cavity with water to where your wax line will be. Read the grams. This is an upper bound, not your answer. Step two: wax. Pour the same cavity with plain melted wax, with no oil or dye, and let it set fully. Demould it and weigh the piece. Wax is lighter than water, so this figure will be lower than the water figure, and it is the one to use. Keep the plain piece as a remelt. Step three: repeat once. Detailed moulds trap air and shrink on setting, and a second wax fill tells you whether your first was typical.

Once you have the real wax weight, the table's arithmetic works for any mould. Multiply by the load for oil and subtract for wax. Write the weight on a strip of tape on the mould itself so you never have to guess it again. If you run a range of shapes, keep a one-page sheet of every mould's weighed fill. It becomes the base of every batch plan and every price. For multi-cavity moulds, weigh the whole tray and each cavity separately, because edge cavities are not always the same as centre ones.

CSI's silicone moulds for scented candles

CSI's mould range falls into three groups: pillar moulds for cylinders and shaped pillars, decorative moulds for flowers, fruit and figures, and multi-cavity trays mainly used for wax melts. This page covers the first two. Wax-melt trays are covered in the wax melt cluster. Every price below is per mould. None of them has a published cavity weight.

Four decorative moulds were out of stock on the pull date and are not in the table: the Twisted Pillar, Maple Leaf, Mini Pumpkin and Succulent moulds. The 5 × 7 cm size of the Ribbed Pillar Mould was also out. The David Candle Mould (₹3,540.00) had a single unit in stock, so treat it as unavailable for planning a batch. For plain pillars, the Pillar Candle Mould (₹942.82, Tall 11.2 × 6.3 cm or Short 8.6 × 6.5 cm) and Ribbed Pillar Mould (₹1,060.82 and ₹1,414.82) are covered in Best Fragrance Oils for Pillar Candles. Their dimensions are published but their fill weights are not, so weigh them too.

Price per mould matters less than it looks. A ₹295.00 lotus mould that you pour 50 times costs ₹5.90 a piece in mould. A ₹590.00 rose mould spread over the same 50 pours costs ₹11.80 a piece. How many pours a silicone mould survives is not published and depends on your wax, oil, temperature and care, so treat these as illustrations. Track your own count. It is the only way to know your real mould cost per piece.

Scenting and pouring into silicone

The steps below are general candle-making practice for scented silicone-moulded candles. Pour temperatures and cure times depend on your wax, so follow the wax's product page and your own tests for the numbers. We will not invent them here.

Looking after the mould

In general candle-making practice, silicone moulds can lose their gloss, become slightly tacky or lose fine detail after many pours of scented wax. Some makers find certain oils age a mould faster than others. CSI publishes no mould-life data and no oil-by-oil silicone compatibility, so we cannot tell you how many pours to expect. What you can do is slow the wear and notice it early.

Let the mould cool fully between pours rather than refilling it hot. Wipe it with a soft cloth; do not scrub the detail. Store it flat and uncompressed, away from sunlight. If you run several scents, consider keeping one mould per scent family. That stops a strong spice carrying into a delicate floral and lets you see if one oil ages a mould faster. When the gloss on your pieces fades or petals start to tear where they did not before, the mould is telling you it is near the end. That is when to retire it, before it costs you a batch.

Cost per silicone-moulded piece

Decorative pieces come in every size, so we price three illustrative weights: 60 g, 100 g and 150 g. All are at an 8% working load, in Soy Pillar Wax at ₹0.60 a gram. Each includes one braided wick at ₹12.00 as a costing placeholder, because wick size is not published and some decorative pieces are sold unwicked. Oils are priced at their 100 g rate.

A 100 g bottle covers 60 g: 20.83 pieces, 100 g: 12.50 pieces or 150 g: 8.33 pieces at 8%. If you sell a piece unwicked, as a décor or fragrance object, take ₹12.00 off each figure. Add your mould cost per piece from your own pour count: ₹590.00 across 25, 50 or 100 pours is ₹23.60, ₹11.80 or ₹5.90 a piece. Pour counts are illustrative. For a range of shapes sold together, Wholesale Fragrance Oils for Decorative Candle Makers costs a wholesale decorative order, and Where to Buy Fragrance Oils for Commercial Decorative Candle Production covers commercial sourcing.

Three oils to start silicone-mould work with

These three are chosen for silicone decorative work for stated reasons: a floral that matches flower moulds, a fruit that matches fruit shapes, and a low-cost blend for practising technique. They are not ranked by throw, and we have not published pillar-wax or silicone compatibility for any oil. Test each one in your wax and mould. For a wider scent-to-shape list, see Best Fragrance Oils for Moulded Candles.

Where next? If your moulded pieces are pillars rather than decorative shapes, Best Fragrance Oils for Pillar Candles and How Much Fragrance Oil Should I Use in Pillar Candles? cover choosing oils and loads for pillars. If you want the scent to match the shape, Best Fragrance Oils for Moulded Candles pairs CSI's moulds with oils. If you are asking how far the load can go before a decorative piece loses its shape, I'm Making Decorative Mould Candles — How Much Fragrance Oil Can I Add Without Affecting the Candle Structure? takes that question on directly. When a shape proves itself and you are buying in quantity, Buy Fragrance Oils for Pillar Candle Making sizes the order and Buy 1 Kg Fragrance Oil for Pillar and Mould Candle Making covers when a kilo of oil makes sense.

Frequently asked questions