Candle Making
Wax, fragrance, and vessels costed per pour — and per wholesale batch.
Candles feel cheap to make until you add it up. Wax and fragrance are bought by the kilo or bottle but used by the gram; wicks, dye, vessels, and labels are small numbers that stack; and a wholesale order lives or dies on a per-unit cost you can actually trust.
CrafterBy costs wax and fragrance by weight per candle, tracks every component, and prices a single candle or a 200-unit batch from the same recipe. When your fragrance supplier raises prices, every scent that uses it updates at once.
The challenge
- Costing wax and fragrance by the bottle, not the gram poured
- Forgetting wicks, dye, vessels, and labels
- No reliable per-unit cost for wholesale runs
- Underpricing larger vessels
How CrafterBy helps
- Cost wax and fragrance by weight per candle
- Track wicks, dye, vessels, and packaging per unit
- Price a single pour or a full wholesale batch
- Scale cost automatically by vessel size
How to price your Candle Making work
- 1Add wax and each fragrance oil as materials priced per gram.
- 2Enter the pour weight and fragrance load (e.g. 8%) for the vessel.
- 3Add wick, dye, vessel, lid, and label as components.
- 4Add pouring and finishing labor for the batch, divided per candle.
- 5Set a wholesale and a retail margin on the per-candle cost.
Worked example
8 oz soy container candle
- Soy wax, 200 g @ $0.006/g$1.20
- Fragrance oil, 16 g @ $0.09/g$1.44
- Vessel + lid + wick + label$3.85
- Labor (pour + cure handling, per unit)$1.75
- Dye + consumables$0.35
Wholesale near $12–13 still leaves margin — because the $8.59 cost is real, not rounded.
Common pricing mistakes
Ignoring the vessel and packaging, which often cost more than the wax.
Not counting cure time and handling as labor.
Quoting wholesale from a gut number instead of a per-unit cost.
What you'll cost & track
Materials you'd track
Equipment run-cost
Price products like
Frequently asked questions
How do I price candles for wholesale?
Build a true per-candle cost — wax and fragrance by weight, vessel and wick and label, plus labor divided across the batch. Set your wholesale price at a margin above that; retail is usually about double wholesale.
How much fragrance cost should I include?
Cost fragrance by the gram at your fragrance load (commonly 6–10% of wax weight). At 8% on a 200 g pour that's 16 g — small per candle, but real across a batch.
Why is my candle margin lower than I expect?
Usually the vessel, lid, and packaging. They're bought in bulk and forgotten per unit, yet often exceed the wax cost. Track them as components and the true margin appears.