How Do I Compare Wax A and Wax B Using Cost per Visually Acceptable Candle Rather than Raw Wax Price?

The straight answer: divide everything you spend by the candles you can sell as designed

Cost per visually acceptable candle is the total cost of a batch — every material at its real price, plus labour, plus what you spend on the candles that do not look right — divided by the candles you can sell at full price exactly as designed. It folds three things into one number: what each wax costs inside a candle (not per kilo), what share of candles each wax gives you that pass your house standard, and what a failing candle costs you. Compare two waxes on that number, measured in your own jar after a temperature cycle, and the cheaper wax per kilo may or may not stay cheaper.

The worked example compares Natural Soy Pearl Wax (Wax A, ₹424.80/kg at the 5 kg bag) with Luxury Soy Wax Chunks (Wax B, ₹599.00/kg at the 5 kg bag) in the Clear Glass Jar with Golden Lid (150 gram) — 150 g at 8% Bergamot Amber, 12 g oil and 138 g wax. Per kilo, Wax B costs 41.0% more. Per candle, with the jar, oil, an example wick line, example labour and an example label in, it costs only 9.5% more: ₹276.21 against ₹252.17. Wax is 23% of the candle here, so a large per-kilo gap becomes a small per-candle one.

Whether that small gap is worth paying depends on the acceptable shares your own test produces. If Wax A gives 80% acceptable candles and failing candles are sold as seconds at an example 30% off, Wax B wins once it reaches 84.8%. If failing candles go out at full price behind an example wrap label, Wax B must reach 87.2% — it has to beat Wax A outright, because hiding is cheap. CSI publishes no adhesion data for either wax; the Chunks page claims "excellent adhesion to glass and container surfaces reduces wet spots and pull-away" and "minimal frosting or wet spots when used correctly", and the Natural Soy Pearl page makes no adhesion statement. Neither page is a measurement. The test on this page produces the two shares; the formula turns them into a decision.

The formula, step by step

For a batch of N candles, of which a share a pass your house standard and the rest go to one disposition costing D each:

Three choices make the formula honest. What goes in "make": materials at real prices, labour, and any process step one wax needs and the other does not — if one wax needs jar warming or slower cooling, that cost belongs to it alone (the process-cost post shows how to charge it). What D is: the cost of what you actually do with a failing candle — an example ₹14.00 for a wrap label and fitting if it still sells at full price, an example ₹149.70 of margin given up if it is sold at 30% off ₹499.00, the rework or scrap cost if that is your rule. Keep the treatments separate; the true-cost post covers what belongs in D and what would be double counting. What counts as acceptable: your house standard, written before the test and applied after a temperature cycle, not on pour day.

Because Wax B costs more to make, it wins only if its acceptable share is high enough. Setting the two costs equal gives the share Wax B must reach for any measured share of Wax A: a_B ≥ (make_B + D) ÷ (C_A + D), where C_A is Wax A's cost per acceptable candle. The table below solves it for both treatments. Read across: find your measured Wax A share, and the cell tells you what Wax B must achieve in the same test to be the cheaper wax per acceptable candle.

Two patterns stand out. In the labels treatment, Wax B must beat Wax A by a wide margin at every level — failing candles cost only ₹14.00 each, so the ₹24.04 Wax B adds to every candle is hard to earn back; once Wax A reaches 95%, Wax B cannot win at all. In the discount treatment the margin Wax B needs is smaller — at Wax A = 80%, 4.8 points rather than 7.2 — because each candle it saves from discounting is worth ₹149.70. A Wax B result that lands between the two lines wins in one treatment and loses in the other. Same two waxes, same jar, same oil: the right answer can flip with what you do with a spotted candle. That is why the treatment must be fixed before the test, not chosen afterwards to suit a preferred wax.

A worked batch, with letters instead of brand names

Suppose your own post-cycle test returns 75% acceptable for Wax A and 88% for Wax B — illustrative shares chosen only to show the arithmetic; CSI has no such result for Natural Soy Pearl, Chunks or any other wax, and yours may come out the other way. On a 100-candle batch:

In the illustration, Wax B is cheaper per acceptable candle in the labels treatment (₹315.78 against ₹340.89) and cheaper in the discount treatment (₹334.28 against ₹386.12). A 41% per-kilo premium has become a saving of ₹51.84 per acceptable candle when spotted candles are discounted. That is the whole point of the method: the per-kilo ranking and the per-acceptable-candle ranking are different questions, and only the second is about money.

The side-by-side test that produces the two shares

Everything except the wax is fixed: one delivery of Clear Glass Jar with Golden Lid (150 gram), one bottle of Bergamot Amber, 8%, the same wick, the same jar preparation (wiped with Isopropyl Alcohol Spray, fully dry, warmed to a measured, recorded temperature if that is your routine — an example arm is 35–45°C on the glass, never hotter than the pour or the jar's limit), the same shelf. Each wax pours at its own guidance: CSI's Chunks page gives fragrance addition at 80–90°C and pour at 75–80°C in its spec table (its step list says 70–80°C); Natural Soy Pearl's page publishes no temperature, so follow the wax maker's instructions or ask CSI on WhatsApp, and record what you use. The Clear 150 g jar's page states "safe for hot pour up to 85°C".

How many jars depends on how close the two waxes are. The share in an arm moves in steps of one jar: 16.7% with 6 jars, 8.3% with 12, 4.2% with 24. If the table above says Wax B must beat Wax A by only a few points, a 6-jar arm cannot tell you whether it did. This page uses 12 per arm as a working practice; each extra jar costs about ₹229.60 in Wax A or ₹250.16 in Wax B (jar, wax at the 1 kg rate, oil at the 100 g rate, example wick). How many jars per wax goes deeper on arm size.

The priced kit

The 24 jars come as 3 × pack of 10, leaving 6 spare for a re-pour; the pack of 20 is listed but in limited stock. Natural Soy Pearl's smallest bag is 1 kg. The Eco Thin C1 line is an example wick: CSI publishes no wick size for this jar, the test does not involve burning, and whichever wax wins still needs its wick, load and burn confirmed. If you buy the oil for the test, take it in one order so both arms share a bottle.

The decision rule

If Wax B wins, price production from the listed bags. Chunks' 5 kg bag (₹2,995.00) is cheaper per kilo than its 10 kg bag (₹5,999.00); Natural Soy Pearl falls from ₹450.00/kg at 1 kg to ₹424.80/kg from 5 kg. Per 1,000 candles with a 3% pour-loss working allowance: Chunks 28 × 5 kg + 2 × 1 kg + 1 × 500 g for ₹85,357.00; Natural Soy Pearl 14 × 10 kg + 3 × 1 kg for ₹60,822.00. Larger quantities are quoted on WhatsApp; no volume discount is published. The payback post adds the one-off cost of switching, and the pilot post covers the step before a large order.

The CSI products in this comparison

Where this fits in the section

This page owns the cost-per-visually-acceptable-candle formula and the threshold a dearer wax must clear. The section hub applies it at 2,000 candles a month; the reject ledger prices each disposition; the true-cost post decides what goes into D; the process-cost post charges preparation to the wax that needs it; the exact-jar post explains why the test jar must be the production jar; and the scorecard post sets adhesion beside throw, burn and labour.

Frequently asked questions