To price a clamshell of wax melts you add up its full cost first: the soy wax and fragrance by the batch, your time at an hourly rate, the clamshell and label, and a share of overhead like rent and power. That's what one clamshell costs you. Then set the price so that, after card and selling fees, it leaves the margin you want: price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate). For a 2.5-ounce clamshell of six cubes that costs $2.24 to make, a 55% margin after 3% fees means $5.33, rounded up to $5.50. Fragrance oil costs more than the wax, so the scent load decides the price. Wholesale to shops is a different price, set so it still covers the full cost with something left. In the example below, an Ohio wax melt maker prices for its online shop and a boutique.
The short version
- Full cost = supplies a clamshell + your time + clamshell and label + overhead.
- Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate).
- Count your time at a real hourly rate, even if you don't pay yourself yet.
- Price by the fragrance load; a 10% load costs more than 6%.
- Shipping supplies go in packaging if you sell online.
- Check what wholesale leaves after full cost before saying yes.
- TaroStack keeps wax, fragrance and clamshells counted and costs every batch. More below.
What goes into a clamshell's cost
| Part | How to count it |
|---|---|
| Supplies | The batch's cost ÷ clamshells a batch |
| Your time | Hands-on minutes for the batch ÷ clamshells × your hourly rate |
| Clamshell and label | Per clamshell |
| Overhead | Rent, power, tools, spread over the clamshells you make |
| Fees | Card and market fees as a share of the price |
What a wax melt business looks like over a year is in wax melt business plan, and candles in how to price homemade candles.
An example: a clamshell of six cubes
Maumee Melt Co., a made-up wax melt maker in Toledo, Ohio, pours 40 clamshells of six cubes from six and a half pounds of soy wax:
| Supply | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Soy wax | 6.5 lb | $19.50 |
| Fragrance oil | 10 oz | $20.00 |
| Dye | $1.00 | |
| A batch | $40.50 |
| A clamshell | Cost |
|---|---|
| Supplies, $40.50 ÷ 40 | $1.01 |
| Time, 75 minutes for the batch at $20 an hour ÷ 40 | $0.63 |
| Clamshell and label | $0.40 |
| Overhead | $0.20 |
| Full cost | $2.24 |
At a 55% margin after 3% card fees, the price is $2.24 ÷ 0.42 = $5.33, so $5.50. At $5.50, each clamshell leaves $3.10. It had been asking $5, which leaves $2.61, and kept $5 for its online shop, where shipping is charged on top. A boutique asked for clamshells at $3.25, which leaves $0.91 each. The fragrance oil is $20 of the $40.50 batch; the wax is $19.50. The labels candles and melts carry are in candle business plan.
Get the calculator
Download the wax melt price calculator. One sheet: type the batch's supplies, amounts and costs, the clamshells it makes, the hands-on minutes, the clamshell and overhead, your hourly rate, card fees and the margin you want; the full cost, the price for your margin rounded up, and what a wholesale price and a test price leave fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The calculator prices a clamshell on paper. A new fragrance supplier or a wax price rise changes the cost of every scent on the shelf, a few cents at a time.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps wax, fragrance and clamshells counted, and costs every batch.
Supplies in their units. Wax bought by the 50-pound case is used by the pound, and fragrance bought by the pound is weighed by the ounce.
Designs as recipes. Each clamshell is a recipe of its supplies, so a batch takes them off stock and is costed from what they cost, and good and rejected pieces are recorded.
Reordering. Supplies come up on a reorder list in days of cover, worked out from how fast they're used.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Supplies on hand | Count the shelf | Stock in its own units |
| What a batch cost | Prices you type | Costed from what you paid |
| Which fragrance lot went in | Not recorded | Batches by lot |
| When to reorder | When it's low | Reorder list in days of cover |
Recipes, units, costing and reorder lists 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.