I Have ₹10,000 and Want to Start Selling 150 g Soy Candles in Three Fragrances — How Much Should I Spend on Wax, Fragrance Oils, Jars and Wicks?

The sum you have not done

Start with the candle. A 150 g finished candle at 8% fragrance load is 12 g of oil and 138 g of wax. That is the whole formulation; every rupee below comes from those two numbers plus a vessel, a wick and two stickers. Here is a named build at live CSI prices, chosen because every component is in stock and every pack exists.

Now divide. ₹10,000 ÷ ₹214.71 = 46.57, so 46 candles. That already assumes two things in your favour: that you own a thermometer, scale and pitcher, and that packs divide perfectly into 46 units. Neither is usually true. Take 46 as the optimistic figure and subtract what cannot be sold.

One thing has to be settled before any purchase, because it changes the quantity you order. 8% of what? Here it means 8% of the finished candle: 12 g of oil in 150 g. If you meant 8% of the wax, the same candle is 11.11 g of oil and 138.89 g of wax — 0.89 g a candle, or ₹3.04 at British Rose 100 g pricing. Trivial once; on a thousand candles it is 889 g of oil. Note too that 12 g in 138 g of wax is 8.70% of wax weight, so a maker working to "8% of the finished candle" in CSI 464 has less headroom against that wax's 10% ceiling than they think. Write the convention on the recipe sheet before you order — CSI's own catalogue uses both, and Luxury Soy Chunks states its 13% ceiling as a percentage of total wax weight.

The fork: three fragrances thin, or one fragrance deep

Both routes are costed in packs that exist, to the rupee, with the same four bench tools so the comparison is fair. Both carry a second wick size for testing, because Eco Candle Wicks Thick (C2) at ₹188.80 for twenty is the cheapest useful insurance on the list. Neither includes a rupee of packaging, for the reason given below.

Route A capacity: 25 candles. The binding constraint is the fragrance — 300 g at 12 g a candle is 25 — and the jars (30) and wax (3,500 g, also 25) are matched to it deliberately. Subtract nine burn tests, three retained samples and two rejects: 11 sellable units across three fragrances, three or four of each. The ₹1,710.12 remainder is not slack; it is the money for labels and outer packaging, which CSI does not sell.

Route B capacity: 30 candles, limited by the jars this time, with wax for 32 and oil for 41 in hand. Three burn tests, one retained sample and two rejects leave 24 sellable units of one fragrance — 2.18 times Route A from the same ₹10,000, and a tested product rather than three half-tested ones. Note the oil line: with one scent settled, the 500 g pack at ₹3.186 per gram beats four 100 g bottles at ₹3.422 on both price and quantity, ₹1,593.00 for 500 g against ₹1,368.80 for 400 g. That logic only works after the scent is chosen.

Where the money actually goes — and the finding that surprises most beginners

Look again at the per-candle table. The jar is ₹94.40 of ₹214.71 — 44.0%; the wax 32.6%; the fragrance, the line everyone agonises over, 19.1%; wick and both stickers together 4.3%. If you want more units for your ₹10,000, the jar is where the leverage is. Here is a like-for-like comparison.

A ₹12.60 difference per jar costs you three candles. Compare the fragrance decision in the same build: swapping British Rose for Citrus Lemon at ₹3.00 per gram saves ₹5.06 a candle and gains one unit, 46 to 47. So between two realistic jars and two realistic volume oils, the jar is the bigger decision. We will not overstate it: stepping the oil up to Sandalwood at ₹5.0268 per gram adds ₹19.26 a candle and costs four units, 46 down to 42 — slightly more than the jar step. The jar is the largest single line, and among like-for-like swaps the biggest lever; a jump across fragrance tiers can beat it. Both deserve the same arithmetic.

Two more notes on the jar line. The lid is included on the 150 g family — read the product title and never budget a lid separately, because CSI sells no standalone lids. And glass needs a buffer where wax does not: jars break in transit and on the bench, a kilogram of wax does not evaporate. Both lists above carry five spare jars and no spare wax, and that asymmetry is deliberate. A flat percentage buffer across every line is the wrong model.

The fragrance arithmetic for three scents, in packs that exist

At 12 g a candle, a bottle goes further than most people expect. CSI's fragrance ladder is 15 g / 50 g / 100 g / 500 g / 1 kg at most, and not every oil carries every rung — Tobacco Vanilla starts at 100 g, Mint Sandalwood and Vanilla Orange Blossom have no 500 g, and several Royal-line oils skip 15 g and 50 g. Check the listing before planning around a size. There is no pack above 1 kg in the catalogue.

Two facts jump out. Sandalwood is flat at ₹5.0268 per gram at 100 g, 500 g and 1 kg — ₹502.68, ₹2,513.40 and ₹5,026.80 are the same rate three times over, so there the kilogram buys nothing but fewer parcels. On the other two the saving from stepping up is small: British Rose falls from ₹3.422 to ₹3.068 per gram, 10.3%; Citrus Lemon from ₹3.00 to ₹2.832, 5.6%. CSI publishes no quantity discount, no price slab, no rate card, no minimum order quantity and no credit term — that ladder is the whole of it. If you were bracing to negotiate a bulk price, there is nothing to negotiate, which frees this decision from price entirely and makes it a cash-and-risk question.

The lines that are easy to forget, the ceiling, and the tools

In both lists, and routinely left out of first budgets: Candle Wick Stickers at ₹100.00 for a sheet of 40, ₹2.50 a candle — the 100-sticker sheet is out of stock, so plan on the 40 — and the Candle Care Stickers Roll at ₹413.00 per 500 one-inch stickers (₹0.83 each) or ₹699.00 per 1,000 at 1.5 inch (₹0.70). Together ₹3.33 a candle, 1.6% of the build — the difference between a finished product and a jar of wax.

Choose a wax that publishes a ceiling. Only three of CSI's sixteen waxes state a maximum fragrance load: Luxury Soy Wax Chunks up to 13% of total wax weight, Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464 up to 10%, and Premium Coconut Soy Wax CSI 468 up to 13%. The other thirteen publish none. These are formulation limits set by the wax maker, not regulatory limits — but a published ceiling gives you a documented number to work inside, which is worth having on a first sellable product. On 138 g of wax per candle: CSI 464 ₹70.02, Luxury Soy Chunks ₹82.66, Coconut Soy CSI 468 ₹89.70. CSI 464 is the cheapest with a stated ceiling, which is why both routes use it.

Tools, if you do not own them. A Pen Thermometer at ₹354.00 and a Candle Making Weighing Scale at ₹354.00 are not optional on a page about repeatability: load is a weight percentage, so millilitres will not repeat, and pour temperature decides the finish. Add the Steel Pouring Pitcher, Large 600 ML, ₹708.00 — the 150 ML size is out of stock — and Bamboo Stirring Sticks at ₹118.00 for five: ₹1,534.00 for the four. CSI's published starter set, which also includes the CSI Pro Mixer at ₹349.00, is ₹1,883.00.

Finally, the part that works against us. If your wax, wick and jar are not yet settled, you should not be buying for sale at all. Spend ₹2,000 to ₹3,000 on 15 g and 50 g fragrance samples, one jar pack, a kilogram of wax and both wick sizes; pour, cure, burn, record; come back for inventory once you know what you are making. Committing the whole ₹10,000 before the formula is settled buys the wrong thing. CSI publishes no pricing guidance, no recommended margin and no suggested retail price, and nothing here predicts what will sell — these are materials counts, not a forecast. For the pricing side, how to price candles in India, whether candle making is actually profitable and what it actually costs to start cover it properly.

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