You’ve got your mould or your container and you’re ready to make some candles but how much wax do you need?
Find out more about the different waxes available.
It’s easy to work out.
- Fill the container or mould with water (if it’s a mould, cover the hole with your finger) to the proper level
- Tip the water into a measuring jug, round up to the nearest 10ml or so
- Deduct 20%
- That’s the number of grams of wax to use
For example if your container takes 250ml of water, you would use 200g of wax (250-50).
This is because 1ml of water weighs exactly 1 gram (for the nerds amongst you this is because a kilogram is defined as the weight of 1 litre of water). So 250ml of water weighs 250g. However, wax is slightly less dense than water so you need to deduct 20% or so to get the right weight in wax.
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HI Peta i sent away for more wax which i have received thank you ,i have a block and some granuals what are these for or are they all the same, to mix together.
i am sorry but i do not use facebook at all as i got hacked once .or twitter..
It’s best not to mix waxes Maurice. If the block and pellet waxes you’re referring to are supplied by us, the block is a container wax not suitable for use in moulds, and the pellet wax is for moulded candles and not suited to use in containers!
HI Peta many thanks for that i think i might have to order more wax for your round moulds as i am hooked on them thanks again Maurice.
Hi, could you please tell me if this calculation allows for some extra wax to use to fill in the valley created around the wick after the candle has cooled first time?
Yes, Claire, it does – it’s only an approximation in any case. If in doubt, melt a bit more than you expect to need.
Ok so I need the calculator during my many blonde moments but this formula works for me every time. If I am making more than one candle I have tart molds on standby as I can normally make at least a sample size from what is left over. Better a little left over than the nightmare of not enough!
Hi, could you tell me if this calculation is the same for any kind of wax you use or if its only for certain waxes.
Thank you !
Yes this applies to all wax types Jessica
As a typical votive mold will hold little water and having no way to measure this small amount, can you please tell me the typical weight for wax for making a votive.
Thanks in advance
About 50g
Hi Kevin ane Peta, bought your book and I’m on the lay chapter now! Thanks a lot a very effective book, I read somewhere that an easy way to calculate the wax amount is by simply filling the container twice with the wax almost to the top (soy wax in my case)
Can this work too?
Hi Luisa, I think our technique is better because the other method will give different results depending on how big the flakes are.
Hi. So if my container holds 450mls, I use 20% less wax = 360mls. I want to use a 10% fragrance load. Will this be 36mls or 45? Thanks
Technically, the 10% refers to weight so you should really weigh your scent and add 36 grams to the wax – 36ml is roughly right, though it might be somewhat out either side depending on how dense the scent is.
sorry being really think, I must be tired just cant think. so if I have 230g of wax how many mls of scent do I need in mls for the strongest scent please sorry.
23ml!
Hi,
Do you have an easy way, like with the wax calculations, of how to work out how much scent/fragrance I need to use. I’d be really grateful for any help.
Thanks.
I wanted to make a candle in a holder I have, the volume is .5 cubic foot, it is a cylinder, when I do the math it works out to 10000 millilitres of wax needed, it is 7 inch radius and 8 inches high, that certainly would cost a fortune to buy that much wax
Hi Scott, that doesn’t sound right at all! I haven’t got an equivalent size container here to check the maths but I would estimate you’ll need around 2-3kgs wax for this project. You will probably need multiple wicks for a candle of this size though and I would recommend pouring a low level ‘test burn’ in your container to be sure the wicks are correct before completing the actual candle. ^peta
Scent addition is quite a personal choice Karen. Depending on how strong a scent you’re using, and whether you like heavily scented candles. We generally recommend a 10% scent addition, so 10ml per 100g wax 🙂 ^peta