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How to price candles

Candles look cheap to make until you add up every line. Fragrance oil, vessels and testing time eat margin quickly, and many new candle makers price from wax cost alone. Here's how to build a price that pays you.

1. Materials per candle

Work out cost per candle, not per bulk bag. Weigh the wax that actually goes into one candle and divide your bulk price by that. Do the same for fragrance oil at your load percentage. Then add the wick (and wick sticker or centering tool if it's single-use), the vessel and lid, the warning and brand labels, and any dye. Count your failed test pours too: if one batch in ten gets scrapped, add about 10% to materials.

2. Labor

Time a whole batch from setup to cleanup, including melting, pouring, curing checks, trimming wicks, labeling and packing. Divide by the number of candles. Pay yourself a real hourly wage. If you leave labor out, you can't afford to hire help or grow.

3. Overhead

Overhead is everything that isn't in one candle: thermometers, pitchers, a heat gun, testing supplies, insurance, software, photography. Estimate a monthly total, divide by how many candles you make each month, or use a simple percentage of materials plus labor.

Platform and payment fees

Marketplaces usually take a percentage of each sale plus fixed per-order or per-listing charges, and payment processing is often separate. Fee schedules change, so read your platform's current fee page rather than trusting a number you saw once. Remember that fees are charged on the price the customer pays, so they grow as your price grows. Calculate them on your final price, not on your cost.

For candles, shipping weight matters too. Glass vessels are heavy and need extra padding, so price in packaging and either charge real shipping or build it into the price.

Choosing a markup

Once you know your true cost (materials + labor + overhead), multiply it to get a price. A common maker rule of thumb is wholesale at about 2× true cost and retail at about 2× wholesale, but that is a starting point, not a law. Check the result against what comparable products actually sell for, then decide whether your quality, story or speed justifies sitting above or below that range. If the price you need is far above what buyers pay, the fix is usually cost or time, not a smaller margin.

Worked example

Notice that the profit line comes after you've paid yourself for your time. That's the number that tells you whether this product is a business or a hobby.

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