My Fragrance Supplier Changed a Formula Without Informing Me — What Documentation and Testing Should I Request Before Using the New Batch?

Quarantine before anything else

You opened a new delivery of an oil you have used for months and something is different — the colour, the thickness, the smell on a blotter, or the way test candles throw. Or the supplier mentioned, after the fact, that the oil was "updated". Either way you now hold a material that has not been approved.

The first step costs nothing: quarantine it. Put a label on every container — "HOLD — do not use", the date and the lot number — and store it apart from approved stock. Do not mix it into a part-used container of the old lot. If you have already poured some candles from it, label and hold those too.

Then size what is at stake. Say the delivery is 5 kg at ₹4,000.00 per kg (your figure): 5 × ₹4,000.00 = ₹20,000.00 of oil. At 16 g per 200 g candle, it makes 5,000 ÷ 16 = 312 candles. At a ₹599.00 retail price (your figure), that is 312 × ₹599.00 = ₹186,888.00 of product resting on an oil nobody has approved.

The documents to request

Ask the supplier in writing — a WhatsApp message or email you can file. You are not asking for the formula; suppliers rarely disclose it and you do not need it. You are asking what changed, and whether the safety and compliance information changed with it.

If the supplier says nothing changed and it is ordinary lot-to-lot variation, ask them to put that in writing too. Variation that you can smell and see is still worth testing, whatever it is called.

For CSI oils, the product pages state that IFRA and MSDS documents are available on WhatsApp request at +91 7397976926. The pages publish no shelf life or storage temperature, so ask for any guidance for the specific lot and keep the reply with your batch records.

Bench checks against your retained sample

Your retained sample — a small sealed bottle of the old lot, kept cool and dark — is the reference everything is judged against. If you do not have one, use the oldest unopened stock of the old lot you can find, and start keeping retained samples from today.

Candle tests before release

If you have no fresh old-lot oil left to pour a reference, use your retained candles from earlier batches, but remember they are aged themselves. Note that in the record.

Keep the set small but matched. A suggested starting point is four candles from the new batch and two from your retained old-lot oil, poured on the same day from one wax lot, plus one unscented control. Four new-batch candles at 16 g use 4 × 16 g = 64 g — a negligible share of a 5 kg delivery, and far cheaper than a production run you might have to withdraw.

Release, restrict or reject

Release when the documents show no change that affects your process and the candles pass every test. Update your specification with the new lot and MSDS revision.

Restrict when fresh tests pass but the aged check has not finished. Use the batch for production you will sell quickly, and hold no finished stock from it beyond the age your tests have reached.

Reject when the documents are refused, the flashpoint or IFRA position has changed in a way your process cannot accommodate, or the candles fail. Return the lot or ask the supplier for a resolution, in writing.

Stop it happening again

Ask every supplier, CSI included, to confirm in writing whether they will notify you of formula changes, and on what terms. Keep a retained sample of every lot you approve, record lot numbers against candle batch codes, and smell every delivery against the retained sample before it joins approved stock. None of this stops a supplier changing a formula. All of it stops a silent change reaching your customers.

Where this page fits

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

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