I Need 1.3 Kg of a Fragrance but It Is Available in 500 g and 1 Kg Packs — How Do I Choose the Most Sensible Purchasing Combination?

Price every combination — the answer depends on the oil

The instinct is to buy the 1 kg and top up — one big bottle, a few small ones, and the bigger bottle must be the better rate. On CSI's listed catalogue that instinct is right for some oils and wrong for others, because each oil has its own price ladder. For most oils, the per-gram price barely moves above 100 g; for a few, the 1 kg is genuinely cheaper; for a handful, the 500 g is the cheapest size of all; and for one or two, the 500 g is the dearest. The only way to know is to price the real combinations for the oil you are buying.

For 1.3 kg there are six sensible combinations to price: three exact covers (1 kg + 3 × 100 g, 2 × 500 g + 3 × 100 g, 13 × 100 g) and three round-ups (3 × 500 g and 1 kg + 500 g at 1.5 kg; 2 × 1 kg at 2 kg). Choose the cheapest exact cover with a sensible number of bottles — then look at the round-ups. If a round-up costs less than the exact cover, buy it; you get extra oil for less money. If a round-up's extra grams cost much less than the oil's normal per-gram price, buy it only if you will use the extra. Otherwise buy exactly.

Where does a figure like 1.3 kg come from? In this page's example it is the oil for about 77 candles of 200 g at 8% with a 2% reject allowance and 3% pour loss: 1,294.9 g, which the reader rounds to 1.3 kg. This page uses the reader's 1,300 g exactly. If your figure already includes allowances, do not add more before you choose packs. Converting a formula into a 30-day purchase order shows how the requirement is built.

Saffron Cedarwood: where the 500 g beats the 1 kg

Saffron Cedarwood is the clearest example of why the instinct fails. Its listed prices are 15 g ₹103.84, 50 g ₹354.00, 100 g ₹696.20, 500 g ₹2,584.20 and 1 kg ₹6,867.60. Per gram that is ₹6.92, ₹7.08, ₹6.96, ₹5.17 and ₹6.87. The 500 g is the cheapest size by a distance; the 1 kg is nearly as dear as the 100 g. (Sage and Cedarwood is priced identically from 50 g up.) So for 1.3 kg, any combination built on the 1 kg loses.

Eight oils, eight answers

The grid below prices all six combinations for eight CSI oils. The bold figure in each row is that oil's sensible exact cover — the cheapest, or one within ₹20 of it that needs far fewer bottles. Read across each row to see whether any round-up beats it.

Four patterns cover almost every oil on CSI's list. Big break at 500 g — Citronella (₹7.67 a gram at 100 g, ₹2.95 at 500 g): here 1 kg + 500 g (₹4,366.00) costs less than any exact 1.3 kg cover (₹5,192.00), so you buy 1.5 kg and pay less. 500 g cheapest, 1 kg dear — Saffron Cedarwood and Sage and Cedarwood: build on 500 g. 1 kg genuinely cheaper — Lavender, British Rose, Mango Coconut, Forever Red: 1 kg + 3 × 100 g is the exact cover; for Mango Coconut the 1.5 kg round-ups add 200 g at ₹2.41 a gram, well under its normal rate. Flat or inverted — Love Spell (its 500 g at ₹5.00 is its dearest size; 100 g and 1 kg are both about ₹4.49–₹4.50) and Vanilla Orange Blossom (no 500 g listed): the 1 kg + 3 × 100 g and 13 × 100 g covers differ by a few rupees, so choose fewer bottles.

Sensible is not only cheapest: four more checks

The first check overrides the rest. If Saffron Cedarwood is new to your range, the sensible 1.3 kg purchase today is none: buy one 100 g (₹696.20) — enough for 6.1 test candles at 8% with loss — and buy the 1.3 kg after the test candles pass. Buying full fragrance quantity before the client approves is the same rule for corporate orders, and the minimum-pack post covers the case where even 100 g is more than a test needs.

The festive batch, priced

Here is the whole CSI order around the 1.3 kg: 77 candles of 200 g at 8% in White Matte jars (the 200 g fill is the reader's weighed figure — CSI does not publish this jar's fill), Luxury Soy Wax Chunks as the wax, Eco Thin C1 as the reader's tested wick. The allowance stack is the series' order: no test candles (the formula is approved), 2% rejects on consumables, 3% pour loss on wax and oil, 1% breakage on glass, then real in-stock packs.

CSI subtotal ₹22,578.00. The wax is 3 × 5 kg of Chunks: 14.89 kg needed, and three 5 kg bags at ₹2,995.00 are cheaper than a 10 kg + 5 kg pair. Choosing 3 × 500 g of Saffron Cedarwood raises the order to ₹23,073.60 and leaves 200 g for the next batch. The 13 kg versus 10 kg wax post runs the same carry-or-not test for wax.

The method for any awkward oil quantity

Write the requirement once, after allowances. List the oil's in-stock sizes from 100 g up (15 g and 50 g only if the bottle count stays sensible). Price every exact cover and the nearest round-ups. Take the cheapest exact cover with few bottles; then check whether any round-up is cheaper outright (buy it) or adds grams at well under the oil's normal rate (buy it only if you will use them). Finally run the four checks — approval, use, storage, cash. The whole exercise takes five minutes per oil and, as Saffron Cedarwood shows, can be worth well over a thousand rupees.

When one oil feeds several products, add their requirements before choosing packs — combining three products' BOMs for one oil and candles and wax melts in the same fragrances show how. When several oils are bought at once, a four-fragrance corporate order and one consolidated monthly order keep each oil's rounding separate. Carried grams go on the next sheet as opening stock — the reorder sheet has a column for them.

This page sits in the procurement cluster that closes with the complete procurement system, where pack-size selection follows supplier minimums. Buying frequently versus in bulk decides which oils deserve round-ups at all, and safety stock by material role explains why a slow oil rarely does.

Frequently asked questions