Candles scale cleanly because they're two ingredients, wax and fragrance, and the fragrance is a percentage of the wax at any size. Melt in a wax melter instead of a pot on the stove, add fragrance at the temperature the wax maker gives, pour every jar by weight, and let the batch cure before it ships. Done this way, a candle maker that poured 7 jars at a time pours about 260 in a day, and the cost of a 9-ounce candle falls from $11.29 to $4.88. Below is the recipe at three sizes, the steps, the loss, what a candle costs at each size, and a free scaling calculator.
The short version
- Write wax and fragrance as percentages: 10% fragrance in the example.
- Melt in a wax melter, to the wax maker's temperature.
- Add fragrance by weight at the temperature the wax maker gives, and stir.
- Pour every jar by weight, with wicks centered.
- Cure a week or two before shipping; burn-test new combinations.
- The jar, wick and lid cost about as much as the wax and fragrance.
- TaroStack keeps the recipe by weight, takes each batch's ingredients off stock and checks its yield. More below.
The recipe, by percentage
Lehua Glow, the made-up candle maker on Oʻahu I use in these examples, poured 7 jars at a time from a pot until a gift shop ordered 250 for the holidays. Its recipe, weighed:
| Ingredient | % of the mix | Kitchen batch, 4 lb | One batch, 50 lb | The run, 150 lb | Cost a lb, bought in bulk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soy wax | 90% | 3.60 lb | 45.0 lb | 135.0 lb | $2.20 |
| Fragrance oil | 10% | 0.40 lb | 5.00 lb | 15.0 lb | $18.00 |
| The whole mix | 100% | 4 lb | 50 lb | 150 lb |
The 150 pounds cost $567.00 in wax and fragrance; the fragrance is a tenth of the weight and nearly half the cost, so its price matters more than the wax's. Margins on a jar are in candles profit margin.
The steps, at 150 pounds
- Prepare the jars. Clean, warmed jars with wicks stuck and centered.
- Melt by the melter. About 50 pounds of wax a melt, to the temperature the wax maker gives.
- Add fragrance by weight. At the wax maker's fragrance temperature, stirred for two full minutes so it binds.
- Cool to pouring temperature. As the wax maker gives; too hot and the tops sink, too cool and the sides pull away.
- Pour by weight. 9 ounces a jar on a scale, wicks held straight.
- Cure. A week or two on racks before shipping; the scent throw improves as it cures.
- Label with a lot code. Every candle carries the batch's lot, with the warning label shops expect.
The run takes one person about 8 hours, pouring one melt while the next one heats.
What a candle costs at each size
| Per candle | Kitchen batch, 4 lb | Bulk run, 150 lb |
|---|---|---|
| Ingredients | $4.16 (grocery prices) | $2.17 (bought in bulk) |
| Packaging | $2.80 | $2.10 |
| Labor at $20 an hour | $4.33 (13 min a candle) | $0.61 (1.8 min a candle) |
| Cost of a candle | $11.29 | $4.88 |
Wax by the 50-pound case and fragrance by the gallon cut the wax and fragrance by about half, and the labor falls from 13 minutes a candle to about 2. The jar, wick, lid and label don't fall as much. Selling them is in how to sell candles at farmers market, and the year in candle business plan.
Burn tests at scale
A new wax, fragrance or wick size changes how a candle burns, so a bulk maker burn-tests every new combination before pouring a run of it: how wide the melt pool gets, how high the flame, whether it tunnels or smokes. A run of 260 that tunnels is 260 returns.
Get the calculator
Download the candle scaling calculator. Two sheets: scale the recipe, where you type each ingredient's percentage and cost a pound and the raw mix you want, and each ingredient's weight for the run fills in, with the melts, what comes out after the pour loss, the candles it fills and the cost of each candle; and weigh the loss, where what went in and came out over a few batches gives your average pour loss. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Fourteen scents, three sizes, wax from two cases opened on different days, and a gift shop asking about one jar that smoked. A sheet can say how much fragrance a run needs, but not which fragrance lot went into which candle, or how many 9-ounce jars are left.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps the recipe by weight, takes each batch's ingredients off stock and checks its yield.
The recipe in the units you use. A recipe holds each ingredient by weight, with wax bought by the 50-pound case and used by the pound, and the cost of every candle comes from what you paid. "What could I make right now" says how many runs the wax, fragrance and jars on the shelf allow.
Each run a batch. A run takes its ingredients off stock, records the lots of wax and fragrance it used, and gets a lot of its own for the candles, with how much came out good, how much was rejected and the labor minutes.
Yield checked from history. From your own batch history, TaroStack says whether a recipe yields what it claims and which ingredient's quantity is off, so a pour loss that creeps up shows in the numbers. A box of cracked jars is an adjustment with its reason, spoiled, and shows in the waste report.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Ingredients for Thursday's run | Multiply, then check the shelf | What could I make right now |
| Which fragrance went into a run | Not written down | Lots recorded on the batch |
| The real pour loss | Weighed now and then | Good and rejected on every batch |
| Cracked jars | Thrown out, forgotten | Adjustment with a reason |
Recipes, batches, lots and yield 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.