A container candle is made in eight steps: prepare the jars and wicks, melt the wax, add fragrance at the temperature the wax maker recommends, pour at the pouring temperature, cool slowly, cure, trim the wicks and fix any tops, then label and code. Fragrance and pouring temperature are where most of a batch's problems start. Fragrance oil stirred in too cool doesn't bind with the wax and weeps or smells weak; poured too hot or cooled too fast, the tops sink and crack and have to be reworked. Curing, a week or two for soy wax, lets the scent settle before the candle is sold. Every batch gets a lot code, so a jar that comes back with a problem can be traced to its wax, fragrance and wick. The label carries the burning instructions and warnings buyers expect. In the example below, an Oʻahu soy candle maker pours a batch of 96 jars for wholesale.
The short version
- Eight steps: prepare, melt, add fragrance, pour, cool, cure, trim and fix, label and code.
- Add fragrance at the wax maker's recommended temperature, and stir it in fully.
- Pour at the pouring temperature; cool slowly to avoid sinkholes and cracks.
- Cure before selling, a week or two for soy wax.
- Record the wax, fragrance and wick lots for every batch.
- Rework or scrap jars that fail the top or the label check, and count them.
- TaroStack records each pour as a batch with its lots, rework and scrap. More below.
The eight steps
| Step | What happens | What to record |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Prepare | Jars cleaned and warmed, wicks centered and stuck down | Wick size, jar lot |
| 2. Melt | Wax melted to temperature | Wax lot, temperature |
| 3. Add fragrance | At the recommended temperature, stirred fully | Fragrance lot, load %, temperature |
| 4. Pour | At the pouring temperature | Pour temperature |
| 5. Cool | Slowly, away from drafts | |
| 6. Cure | On racks, a week or two | Cure start date |
| 7. Trim and fix | Wicks trimmed, sunken tops reheated | Reworked, scrapped |
| 8. Label and code | Label, warnings, lot | Jars, lot |
What a candle costs is in how to price homemade candles, and the business plan in candle business plan.
An example: a 96-jar pour
Lehua Glow, a made-up soy candle maker on Oʻahu, pours 9 oz jars for boutiques and a Saturday market. Its wax maker's sheet says add fragrance at 185°F and pour at 135°F. A plumeria batch:
| Step | What happened |
|---|---|
| Prepare | 96 jars, cotton wicks centered |
| Melt | 54 lb of soy wax, lot SW-0911 |
| Add fragrance | Plumeria oil lot PL-1008 at 8% of the wax weight, added at 185°F, stirred 2 minutes |
| Pour | At 135°F |
| Cool | Overnight, room closed |
| Cure | 10 days on racks |
| Trim and fix | 9 sunken tops reworked with a heat gun, 2 cracked jars scrapped, 1 more scrapped at curing |
| Label and code | 93 jars labeled and coded PL-1019; 4 relabeled for a crooked label |
The 8% fragrance load came to about 4.3 lb of oil. Ninety-six jars poured, 93 good: the 9 reworked tops took 44 minutes and the 3 scrapped jars cost about $12 in materials. The batch's yields at each step are worked out in first pass yield formula, and the warnings on the label in candle regulations in the US.
Get the run sheet
Download the candle production run sheet. Two sheets: a blank run sheet to print for each batch, with the eight steps, the check at each and its target, and spaces for the actual reading, the time and initials; and the same run filled in from the example. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
One pour fits on a sheet. Fourteen scents, wax and fragrance from several lots, and boutiques reordering through the holidays, mean the lots and the rework have to be kept across every batch.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack records each pour as a batch with its lots, its rework and its scrap.
Batches from the recipe. A plumeria pour takes wax, fragrance, wicks and jars off stock by the recipe, recording the lots it used.
What came out. The batch records the good jars against what the recipe expected, and scrapped jars are written off with their reason.
Where it went. Each boutique's order records the lots it got, so a fragrance supplier's notice leads to the boutiques that have those candles.
| The job | Clipboard | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Wax and fragrance lots in a pour | Written, maybe | Lots on the batch |
| Good jars against poured | Counted at the end | Yield on the batch |
| Scrapped jars | Thrown out | Written off with a reason |
| Which boutiques got a lot | Invoices | Lots on the order |
Recipes, batches, lots and recalls are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.