I Already Have Wax but Need Everything Else for 200 Candles — What Should My Fragrance, Wick, Jar and Dye Shopping List Look Like?

First check: does the wax you own cover 200 candles?

The title says the wax is already owned but not how much or which. This page uses 20 kg of CSI 464 — two 10 kg bags — as a labelled example; replace it with what is actually on your shelf. Whatever the wax, check three things before buying anything else: its stated fragrance ceiling (CSI 464's page states up to 10%, so 8% is inside it), how many candles it really covers, and whether you can buy more of the same wax if it falls short.

At the 100 g worked example, 20 kg pours 198 candles' worth after allowances — 186 saleable once the 12 test candles are taken out. The full batch needs 21,352 g, so the owned wax is 1,352 g short. The cheapest CSI 464 top-up is 1 × 1 kg + 1 × 500 g at ₹767.40; the list uses 1 × 1 kg + 1 × 500 g at ₹767.40. Only top up with the same wax you own — a different wax in the same batch is a different candle, and would need its own test.

The BOM for 200 candles in two scents

The container is the Yankee Glass Jar 130 ml with clear cap, sold singly at ₹47.20 with its cap — one of the two CSI jars that come lidded, which removes a lid line from the list. "130 ml" is the brim volume, not a fill weight: solid soy wax is lighter than water (a labelled approximate 0.86–0.90 g per ml, varying with wax, temperature and fill line), and nobody fills to the brim. This page plans at 100 g — an illustrative figure; CSI does not publish fill weights for its glass jars (only the 85 g Golden Aluminium Tin and the 50 g Heart Cutout Velvet Jar have published fills). Weigh one filled jar and replace it.

Note what the stack does to each line. The test candles and re-pours touch every consumable, so the wick count (224) and the sticker count are both well above 200. Pour loss touches only wax and oil. Breakage touches only the glass: 217 jars for 212 candles. Applying the same percentage to everything — the usual shortcut — would either under-buy wicks or over-buy jars, and on a ₹47.20 jar the second mistake is the expensive one.

The shopping list, line by line

Two festive scents: Spicy Cinnamon and Juicy Orange, 100 candles each. Neither is chosen for throw (CSI publishes none) or for sales (no data); they are an example warm-spice and citrus pair for the Diwali season. Both get cheaper per gram at larger sizes — Spicy Cinnamon is ₹6.99 a gram at 100 g and ₹6.50 at 500 g and 1 kg; Juicy Orange is priced almost flat at about ₹7.50 a gram from 100 g up. So the rounding differs: Spicy Cinnamon's 955 g is cheapest as 1 × 1 kg, while Juicy Orange's 902 g is cheaper as 1 × 500 g + 4 × 100 g + 1 × 15 g (₹6,871.00) than as a 1 kg bottle (₹7,499.00) — ₹628.00 saved for a few more bottles to open.

The ₹142.38 per saleable candle is what you are paying CSI for everything except the owned wax. For reference, the wax actually melted from your shelf is worth about ₹10,148.00 at CSI 464's ₹507.40 a kilo — useful when you price the finished candle, because owned wax is not free wax, it was simply paid for earlier. Labour, packaging, freight and GST are not included.

Dye: buy for the trial, then for production

CSI publishes no dose per kilo for its dyes and no chip weight, so the dye quantity for 200 candles cannot be calculated in advance — only measured. The list therefore buys the dye in two steps: a trial quantity now, and a production quantity once your trial has fixed the dose. The second line on the list is a labelled example, not a calculation.

Buy now, buy after testing

If the batch is for Diwali, Sunday 8 November 2026, work backwards: a 7-day cure on the ladder (a labelled checkpoint), a few days of burns, then production and another cure before dispatch. Ordering the 'now' list this week leaves that time. The wick and dye that pass are the only things still to buy. Delaying bulk buys until the wick passes explains why the production wick never goes on the first order.

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