My Expensive Fragrance Performs at 6% While My Cheaper Fragrance Needs 10% — How Do I Calculate Which One Gives Better Performance-Adjusted Cost?

Why the invoice cannot answer this question

You have two oils in the same scent family. One is expensive per kilogram but passes your throw standard at 6%. The other is cheaper per kilogram but only reaches the same standard at 10%. Which is better value?

The first instinct is to compare the oil cost per candle, and that is a good start. But it leaves out three things that often decide the matter: the wax and wick that change with the load, the candles you cannot sell, and how well each oil actually performs once it gets there. A performance-adjusted cost folds all of those into one number.

This page walks through the formula, then applies it to two CSI pairs where the question comes up naturally: Vanilla Bean against Cinnamon Vanilla, and Royal Oud against Woody Oud.

The performance-adjusted cost formula

The formula has three layers. Each one is simple on its own.

Written as one line: (oil + wax + wick) ÷ yield ÷ score. The lower result is better value. You can leave out labour and packaging, because they are the same for both oils; the formula only needs the costs that differ.

Worked example: Vanilla Bean at 6% against Cinnamon Vanilla at 10%

CSI Vanilla Bean is ₹7,646.00 per kg, or ₹7.646 per gram. CSI Cinnamon Vanilla is ₹4,554.80 per kg, or ₹4.5548 per gram. Suppose your tests found Vanilla Bean passing at 6% and Cinnamon Vanilla needing 10% in the same 200 g soy candle. The wax is CSI 464 at ₹507.40 per kg, or ₹0.5074 per gram.

Before any adjustment, the two oils cost almost exactly the same in oil per candle, and Cinnamon Vanilla is slightly cheaper once the displaced wax is counted. On that basis alone, you might choose the cheaper oil.

The illustrative inputs change the picture. If the higher load needs a thicker wick to burn cleanly, if a few candles fail your check, and if the panel scores it lower, the cheaper oil ends up ₹54.38 − ₹44.56 = ₹9.82 dearer per performance point. None of those inputs are facts about these oils; they are the kind of thing your own tests might show. That is the point of the formula: it tells you which measurements to take.

Two further notes on this pair. Both product pages list vanillin at 2.5%, so discolouration risk in light wax is a shared concern rather than a difference between them. And their flashpoints differ: Vanilla Bean's page gives 203°C, Cinnamon Vanilla's gives 270°F (132°C). Add each below its own published figure and at your wax's stated addition temperature.

Worked example: Royal Oud at 6% against Woody Oud at 10%

Sometimes the expensive oil wins before any adjustment. CSI Royal Oud is ₹6,400.00 per kg; its product page describes it as a perfume-grade concentrate and suggests starting tests at 6–8%. CSI Woody Oud is ₹4,531.20 per kg with a stated soy range of 6–10%.

If Royal Oud passes at 6%, its oil cost in a 200 g candle is 12 × ₹6.400 = ₹76.80. If Woody Oud needs 10%, its oil cost is 20 × ₹4.5312 = ₹90.62. Adding wax at CSI 464's price gives ₹76.80 + ₹95.39 = ₹172.19 for Royal Oud and ₹90.62 + ₹91.33 = ₹181.95 for Woody Oud. With illustrative panel scores of 4.0 and 3.9, that is ₹172.19 ÷ 4.0 = ₹43.05 and ₹181.95 ÷ 3.9 = ₹46.65 per point.

Two practical cautions. Royal Oud's page states a longer cure of 72–96 h because oud takes longer to express, so judging it at 48 h would under-score it and distort the whole calculation. And at the time of CSI's September 2026 price pull, Royal Oud's 100 g pack was out of stock, so testing may mean buying the 500 g at ₹3,300.00, which is ₹6.60 per gram, or 12 × ₹6.60 = ₹79.20 per candle at 6%. Use the pack you will actually buy in your arithmetic.

If Woody Oud also passes at a lower load in your system, the comparison changes again. At 8% its oil cost would be 16 × ₹4.5312 = ₹72.50, below Royal Oud at 6%. That is why the formula always uses each oil's own tested passing load rather than an assumed one.

Gathering the three inputs properly

The arithmetic takes minutes. The inputs take a proper test, and each one has a common way of going wrong.

The passing load

Find it separately for each oil with a short ladder inside the stated range, judged after the page's cure minimum. Do not compare an oil you tested carefully against one you poured once at a guessed percentage; the careless one will usually look worse or better than it really is.

The yield

Count every candle poured for the comparison, and every one you would refuse to sell: sweating, frosting you cannot accept, a wick that drowns or smokes, a surface that cracks. A suggested starting point is a small batch per oil, enough that one failure is visible as a proportion. Yield from three candles is noisy; treat it as a warning sign, not a precise figure, until you have more pours.

The score

Use a blind panel, coded jars and a random order, with the same room and the same burn period for both oils. Score after the burn has settled rather than in the first minutes. If the two scores are within a few tenths of each other, repeat the session on another day before trusting the gap, because noses vary with fatigue and mood.

Using the result without over-trusting it

The formula is a decision aid, not a verdict. Small differences in score can swing the result, so treat any gap under a few rupees per point as a tie and let other factors decide: scent character, discolouration in your chosen wax, how the oil fits the rest of your range, and whether the pack sizes suit your volumes.

Large gaps are more trustworthy, especially when they come from differences you can see, such as a wick that mushrooms or a batch that sweats. Those are the costs that quietly eat margin when nobody is measuring them.

Where this page fits

CSI already has guides that cover parts of this question. This page answers the specific oil-in-wax question above; these go deeper on the rest:

Three things to buy for this job

Frequently asked questions