I Reduced Fragrance from 10% to 8% — Should I Repeat Wick Testing Even Though the Jar and Wax Have Not Changed?

Why a lower load still needs a confirm

Moving a 150 g candle from 10% to 8% takes the oil from 15 g to 12 g, 20% less, and puts 3 g of wax in its place. The fill line does not move. What the wick draws does change. Higher loads commonly make a flame smaller or sootier; take oil out and the same wick may now run a deeper pool or a taller flame, especially in the final third, where heat tends to build. It may also be fine. The only way to know is to burn it: which is why the C2 arm is not optional. The flame-height mechanics are the 6%-to-10% flame post; this page is about what the change lets you buy.

Ceilings are generous here. Chunks' page states "up to 13% fragrance load capacity" and its FAQ "13% of total wax weight"; 10% of the candle was 11.11% of the wax, inside that either way, and 8% is 8.70%. British Rose states "up to 10% soy", so your old candle sat at the oil's own limit. Where the basis of a ceiling really matters (a 10% candle in a wax capped at 10%) is the unscented-versus-10% post. And if you are changing the load across a whole collection rather than one candle, use the collection-wide load-change plan, not this page.

The confirm order: two arms, six candles

The worked example jar is CSI's 200ml Salsa Amber Glass Jar, whose page says "Pairs well with C2 Eco Wicks". It gives no diameter, so we make no geometry claim about it; measure your own. Its capacity is 200 ml; candle-maker rules of thumb put wax to the brim at roughly 0.86–0.9 times the water weight (172 g to 180 g), and your fill line sits below the brim, so we use a labelled 150 g fill. Weigh your own fill once and keep it.

One 100 g bottle leaves 28 g after six candles: two candles' worth, not a full re-poured cell. If you want a three-candle re-pour in reserve, add a 50 g (₹554.60 for both, leaving 78 g). Per candle in the test, at the 100 g oil price: C2 ₹133.17, C1 ₹129.63, excluding the jar.

What this confirm deliberately leaves out

It is tempting to treat any change as a reason to run the whole ladder again. For a load reduction that is money spent on a direction the change does not point in. Less oil does not commonly make a candle need a bigger wick, so the rung above your current one has little to tell you. Here is what each extra arm would cost against what it could change.

Three candles per arm is the floor because one candle can fail for reasons unrelated to the wick (an off-centre tab, a draught, an air pocket), and with three, one odd candle is outvoted. If your jar or wax changed at the same time as the load, this is no longer a confirm: go back to the full three-rung ladder in the cluster hub. And if you have no 10% candles left to compare against, the optional control in step 2 is the cheapest way to see what the change did.

Payback: when the cheaper-wick arm earns its keep

Split the confirm order in two. The C2 arm (₹585.50 with jars) is the price of keeping your current product safely approved at 8%; you pay it whatever happens. The C1 arm (₹574.88) is a bet: it costs that whether C1 passes or not, and it only pays back if C1 wins. If it does, each candle saves ₹3.54, flat, in every pack. On top sits the saving you already chose: 3 g less oil per candle is ₹9.20 at the 1 kg price, ₹7.41 net of the wax that replaces it.

Read it as a rule of thumb (our judgement): the C1 arm repays once 163 candles have been made on C1. At 100 a month that is a couple of months; at 50 a month about 3.2. So pour it for any line you expect to keep for a season or longer, and skip it for a one-off batch or a line you are about to retire. A C1 that passes can save ₹8,496.00 a year at 200 candles a month. The same logic is how CSI's wick prices work against you in the other direction: going up a rung costs the same ₹3.54 a candle for ever, which is why the 6%-to-9% post asks whether a load rise is worth it at all.

Reading the result and what each one buys

Screen at burn 3, approve only on the full life, three candles out of three: the gates are set out in the cluster hub's approval rule.

Switching production to the new wick

If C1 wins, size the order from production: wicks = candles × wicks per candle × (1 + allowance), with 5% as our worked-example allowance. At 100 candles a month that is 105 C1 a month: a 100-pack and a 20-pack (₹708.00) or two 50s and a 20 (₹708.00), 120 wicks either way, the same ₹5.90 per wick. The same month on C2 would have been ₹991.20 (₹1,038.40 in packs); on C1 it is ₹619.50, ₹4,460.40 a year less.

Reorder point = daily use × your lead time + safety stock: at 3.5 a day, a 14-day order-to-bench time (your figure; CSI dispatches from Pune and publishes no lead times or stock depth) and a week of cover, reorder at about 74 C1. The C2 you still hold (say 80 wicks, ₹755.20) is not waste: move it to lines still approved on C2. How to wind down the larger wick when a product moves down a rung is the wick-down transition post; if this one oil is now the only C1 line in your range, whether to stock C1 for it at all is the odd-one-out SKU post.

What to buy, and what you already own

Five items, chosen on page statements, price and stock on 1 October 2026. CSI publishes no wick-performance data, so nothing here is ranked on burn results. Candle counts use 12 g of oil per 150 g candle at 8%.

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