Starting a candle business is less paperwork than food and more testing. The work that decides whether you have a business is the burn test: each jar size with each wax, wick and fragrance load, burned all the way down, checking the melt pool, soot, tunneling and how hot the jar gets, before a single candle is sold. The rules are short. The label needs what any packaged consumer product needs: what it is, the net weight, and your name and address, and fire safety warnings are standard practice. Wicks with a metal core may hold no more than 0.06% lead, and cartons you ship to stores are marked to say so. You'll need a business name and your state's tax license or seller's permit, in Hawaii a $20 general excise tax license, plus any local license your city asks for, and product liability insurance, which shops and markets often ask to see. Then the numbers: a cost for each candle, a retail price and a wholesale price at about half, so shops can sell it at yours. In the example below, an Oʻahu candle maker launches for about $2,400. Below are the steps, the rules, the example, and a free launch checklist.
The short version
- Burn-test every jar size, wax, wick and fragrance load before you sell.
- Label: what it is, net weight, your name and address; warnings are standard practice.
- Metal-cored wicks: no more than 0.06% lead.
- A business name and your state's tax license; in Hawaii, a $20 general excise tax license.
- Product liability insurance; shops and markets often ask for it.
- Price from the cost a candle, with wholesale at about half of retail.
- Let candles cure before you sell them.
- TaroStack keeps each pour as a batch, with its wax and fragrance lots and its cost. More below.
The steps
| Step | What it means |
|---|---|
| Materials | Wax, wicks, fragrance oils, jars and lids from suppliers you can reorder from |
| Burn tests | Full burns of each size and scent, logged: melt pool, soot, jar heat |
| Name and tax | Business name, state tax license or seller's permit, local license if any |
| Insurance | Product liability, with certificates for markets and shops |
| Labels | Identity, net weight, name and address, safety warnings, the scent |
| Prices | Cost a candle, retail, and wholesale at about half |
| First pour | A batch big enough for the first market, cured before it's sold |
The license layers are in candle business license, the label in candle regulations US, and pricing in how to price homemade candles.
The rules
| Rule | Where |
|---|---|
| Net weight | The net quantity on the label, by weight for a solid (16 CFR 500.7) |
| Lead in wicks | Metal-cored wicks with no more than 0.06% lead in the core; outer cartons marked "Conforms to 16 CFR 1500.17 (a)(13)" (16 CFR 1500.17) |
| Tax license, Hawaii | A one-time $20 general excise tax license; 0.5% on wholesale, 4% on most other sales (Hawaii Department of Taxation) |
Other states have a seller's permit instead. This is general information, not legal advice.
An example: an Oʻahu candle maker's launch
Lehua Glow, the made-up soy candle maker on Oʻahu I use in these examples, started with a 9-ounce jar and a 4-ounce tin in five scents, aiming at a Saturday market on March 6:
| Step | Weeks before | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Wax, wicks and fragrance samples | 12 | $180 |
| Burn tests | 10 | $120 |
| Business name and general excise tax license | 8 | $20 |
| Product liability insurance | 6 | $450 |
| Labels | 6 | $300 |
| Jars, lids and boxes | 5 | $620 |
| Wax and fragrance oil | 5 | $680 |
| Market stall, first booking | 2 | $50 |
| Total to start | $2,420 |
The burn tests changed two things: the plumeria scent tunneled in the 9-ounce jar until the wick went up a size, and the coconut lime at 10% fragrance sooted, so it dropped to 8%. That's why testing starts ten weeks out. The jar's full cost came to $6.41, so it sells for $26 at the market and $13 to shops. What a market day brings in is in how to sell candles at farmers market, and the plan in candle business plan.
Get the checklist
Download the candle launch checklist. One sheet: type your first sale date, and each step's due date counts back from it, with the cost and the date done; the status shows on time, late, to do or overdue, and the total to start adds up. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
After launch, fourteen scents in three sizes, wax and oil from four suppliers, and a shop order for 48 jars of the one scent you're out of: the checklist was for getting started.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each pour as a batch, with what went in and what it cost.
Each pour a batch. A pour is a batch from the candle's recipe, taking wax, fragrance, wicks and jars off stock and adding finished candles with a lot of their own, so the wax and fragrance lots behind a candle are on record.
Cost from what you paid. Each batch is costed from what its materials cost, so the $6.41 jar updates when fragrance oil goes up.
Reorders in days of cover. Fragrance oils, wax and jars come up on the reorder list in days of cover, with each supplier's lead time and minimum, so the best-selling scent doesn't run out before a shop order.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Which wax went into a pour | Not recorded | Lots on the batch |
| Cost a jar | Worked out once | From each batch |
| Fragrance for the best seller | Remembered, or not | Reorder list in days of cover |
| Jars on hand | Count the boxes | Stock of the jar item |
Recipes, batches, costing and the reorder list 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.