If you’re staring at an empty jar wondering exactly how much wax to use to make a candle, this post is for you. There’s a simple trick you can use to figure out the correct amount of wax to use in any container and it only requires 2 things: water and a digital scale. You don’t have to guess! Here’s what to do instead…
How Much Wax to Use to Make a Candle
To figure it out, just use this simple three step process to convert water weight to wax weight. NOTE: I am measuring in ounces. If you measure water weight in grams, you’ll also use grams for your wax weight. Just stay consistent with whatever unit of measurement you choose.
Step 1: Place candle container on a digital scale.
Place a candle container on a digital scale and then tare the scale. Taring the scale just means setting the value to 0 so that when you add water, you’re only measuring the weight of the water by itself, not the water plus the container.
Step 2: Fill the container with water.
Fill the container with water up to the line where you’d like the wax to go. Do not fill it up all the way to the top! You wouldn’t want to pour the wax all the way up to the top or else the candle would overflow. Leave at least 1/2 inch of space.
Write down this water weight.
Step 3: Multiply the water weight times 0.86 to get the wax weight.
Since wax is about 86% of water’s weight, the formula for converting water weight to wax weight is:
Water Weight x 0.86 = Total Wax Weight
If you are not making a scented candle, this is how much wax you need to measure to make your candle.
If you are making a scented candle, you’ll also need to account for the fragrance oil. Take this total wax weight and put it into the calculator in the next section to get the correct wax to fragrance oil ratio.
How Much Fragrance Oil to Use to Make a Candle
If you’re making a scented candle, there are two ingredients that you’ll need to measure: wax and fragrance oil. The number that you found using the water trick does not account for the fragrance oil that you’ll have to add. Use the calculator I created below to figure out the correct ratio of wax to oil.
Fragrance Oil Calculator
Just enter (1) the total wax weight that you figured out with the water trick and (2) your desired fragrance load (typically between 5-10%).
Fragrance Load Calculator
Fragrance Oil Needed: 0 oz
Wax Needed: 0 oz
Make sure you bookmark my calculator page for future use!
Fragrance Oil Formula
If you want to do your own math, the formulas that power this calculator are:
Total Candle Weight (oz) x Fragrance Load (%) = Fragrance Oil Weight
Total Candle Weight - Fragrance Oil Weight = Wax Weight
EXAMPLE: I do the water trick and determine that I need 10 ounces of total wax weight. I decide I want to have a 10% fragrance load.
10 oz of total candle weight x .10 fragrance load = 1 oz of fragrance oil
10 oz of total candle weight - 1 oz of fragrance oil = 9 oz of wax
That means I'll need to use 9 ounces of candle wax and 1 ounce of fragrance oil in this hypothetical example. In the next section, I go over the candle math I used to make a real scented candle from the jar pictured above.
Example: How Much Wax I Used to Make This Candle
To fill the glass candle jar pictured in this post, I measured a water weight of 1 pound, 1 ounce (or 17 ounces total). Multiply that by 0.86 and you get 14.62 ounces. If I was making an un-scented candle, I would use 14.62 ounces of wax. Since I also want to account for a 7% fragrance load, I'll need to use 13.62 ounces of wax and 1.00 ounce of oil.
Here’s all of the candle math:
17 oz. of water weight x 0.86 = 14.62 oz. of total wax weight
14.62 oz of total candle weight x .07 fragrance load = 1.02 oz of fragrance oil
14.62 oz of total candle weight - 1.02 oz of fragrance oil = 13.62 oz of wax
For easy measuring, I used 1 ounce of fragrance oil. I used a little extra wax (13.70 oz) to account for wax shrinkage.
More Candle Making Resources!
I've also created a full tutorial on how to make a scented candle from start to finish. It is super detailed and beginner friendly!
You should also bookmark my fragrance oil calculator for future use!
And if you found this post helpful, you may also want to check these out:
