How Much Wax Do I Need? Candle Container Calculator
Weigh the water your container holds, choose your wax type and fragrance load, and get the exact wax and fragrance oil to melt for one candle or a whole batch.
The formula
Worked example. a jar that holds 200 g of water, filled with soy wax at 8% fragrance, takes 172 g of candle: 159.3 g of wax and 12.7 g of fragrance oil.
How to use it
- Fill one empty container with water up to the line where you want the candle surface to sit, usually 1–2 cm (about half an inch) below the rim.
- Weigh the water and enter that weight. Use the same unit, grams or ounces, for everything else.
- Choose your wax type. Wax is lighter than water, so the same jar holds less wax by weight than water.
- Enter how many containers you are filling and your fragrance load, then melt the wax amount shown and add the fragrance oil amount shown.
Questions
Why not just use the container's volume in ml or fl oz?
Wax is sold and measured by weight, and liquid wax is less dense than water. Weighing water is the most reliable way to measure the real fill volume of an oddly shaped jar, and the density factor converts it to wax weight.
Why is fragrance subtracted from the wax instead of added on top?
The jar only holds a fixed amount. Fragrance oil takes up part of that space, so adding it on top of a full wax measure would overfill the container. This calculator splits the fill weight into wax and oil so the total still fits.
Should I make extra?
Melt 5–10% more than you need when you are new to a container. Some wax stays in the pouring pitcher, and soy wax can sink around the wick as it cools, which you may want to top up with a second pour.