I Have 1,000 Candles Stored for Diwali and Summer Temperatures Are Causing Sweating — How Can I Reduce Inventory Risk?

The first 48 hours: stop the heat working

You poured 1,000 candles early for Diwali, which was sensible planning. Summer arrived first, and some of them are sweating. The urge is to start testing new formulas. Resist it for now. The candles already exist, and the only variable you can change on them today is where they are kept.

Move all the finished candle stock to the coolest space you can secure: an interior room, the ground floor, a space away from roofs and sun-facing walls, or a room with air-conditioning if you have one. Keep cartons off the floor if there is any damp, and leave gaps between stacks so air can move. Record where everything has gone. If you cannot move all of it, move the cartons that were nearest heat sources first.

Then stop all dispatch from this stock until it has been inspected. A short pause is cheaper than a wave of oily arrivals in the busiest season of the year.

Inspect and grade every candle

Open every carton. Yes, all of them. Sweating is often uneven: candles near the outside of a stack, on the top layer or nearest a warm wall can show oil while those in the middle look fine. Sampling ten cartons and extrapolating is how faulty candles slip through.

Use one simple, written test for every candle: look across the surface under a good light, then press a clean tissue lightly on top. Fragrance oil leaves a translucent, scented, greasy mark that does not dry off; condensation is watery and disappears. Grade each candle into one of three groups and mark the carton.

Quarantine means a separate, labelled shelf and a separate line in your stock records. B-grade candles are not a “sell later” group. They have shown that the formula is near its limit at the temperatures they met, and they need either a documented retest or a rework.

Plan sell-through so the risk shrinks every week

For the A-grade stock, the aim is to sell it while it is still clean and to keep checking it. Pick from the coolest storage first. Recheck each candle at packing with the same tissue test. Keep a few labelled candles from each production batch in your warmest remaining storage as early-warning samples; if those start to show oil, re-inspect that batch before its next dispatch.

Be honest with yourself about the season ahead. If more hot weeks are coming before Diwali, the A-grade stock is still at risk. Cooler storage is the main lever, and a cooler space rented for a few weeks may cost less than the candles it protects.

Price rework against scrap

Put a number on what is at stake. Suppose your candles are 200 g, poured at 10% total load in CSI 464 with Lavender in a matte 200 ml jar with an Eco C1 wick. These are example inputs; use your own formula.

Materials per candle: 180 × ₹0.5074 = ₹91.33 wax; 20 × ₹5.221 = ₹104.42 oil; ₹91.33 + ₹104.42 + ₹70.80 + ₹5.90 = ₹272.45. Across your 1,000 candles: 1,000 × ₹272.45 = ₹272,450.00 in materials, before packaging, labour and GST.

Now suppose the example triage finds 130 B-grade and 50 C-grade candles, 180 in quarantine: 180 × ₹272.45 = ₹49,041.00 of materials at risk.

Rework by dilution: 180 candles × 200 g = 36,000 g of scented wax at 10%, holding 3,600 g of oil. To reach 8%: 3,600 ÷ 0.08 = 45,000 g, so add 9,000 g of plain wax, and the batch now fills 225 candles of 200 g. Check: 3,600 ÷ 45,000 = 8%.

This assumes the 180 original jars are recovered undamaged and cleaned, and that the remelted wax is free of debris. Remelting resets cure and may lose some fragrance to heat, so the reworked candles must be wick-tested and heat-tested again before any of them are sold. Do not top up oil to compensate; the whole point is to lower the load.

Document the incident while it is fresh

An inventory problem of this size deserves a written record, not just a memory of a stressful week. Note the production dates and batch numbers of the affected candles, the formula used, where each carton was stored and for how long, and how many fell into each grade. If you had a thermometer in the storeroom, add its readings. This is the information that tells you whether the issue was one hot corner, one batch, or the formula itself.

Look for patterns. If every B and C candle came from the cartons along one wall, storage was the main driver. If they came from one production day, check that day's weighing and pour records for a process slip. If they are spread evenly across all batches and positions, the formula has too little margin for your storage season, and that is a raw-material decision for next time.

Retesting B-grade candles

If you want to give slight-film candles a chance before rework, do it with a written rule. Hold them in your coolest storage for a set period of your choosing, then move a sample of them into a controlled warm cabinet or room at the condition you will treat as your summer standard, and supervise it. If any of the sample shows oil again, the whole B group goes to rework or scrap. Only if the sample stays completely clean should you consider releasing the group, and even then, recheck every candle at packing.

Customers and pre-orders

If some of this stock is promised to customers or corporate buyers, tell them early if quantities or dates may change. A short, honest message about quality checks is far easier than explaining an oily gift box after Diwali. Do not substitute a different formula into a confirmed order without telling the buyer.

Make sure next Diwali is different

Pouring festive stock months early is a good plan only for a formula proven to sit through your storage season. Before the next early run, put six candles through a warm-hold and cycle test at conditions you choose, in a controlled warm cabinet or room, never an oven. Check your load on a wax basis: 10% of total is 11.11% of wax weight, above CSI 464's stated up-to-10%. A lower load, such as 8% (8.70% of wax weight), costs less oil and leaves more margin for a long, warm wait.

Where this page fits

CSI already has guides that cover parts of this question. This page answers one sweating decision; these cover the neighbouring questions:

Three things to buy for this fix

Frequently asked questions