Candle pricing calculator

What a candle costs you, and what it has to sell for. Materials, your time at a real hourly rate, and overhead — worked into a wholesale and a retail price that agree with each other.

INPUTS
Materials, per candle
$ /kg
$3.86 per lb
g
$1.53 of wax
$ /kg
g
$0.65 of oil
$
$
$
$
$
RESULTS
PER CANDLE
Costs you
$9.25
$5.05 materials $3.00 labour $1.20 overhead
Wholesale
$18.50
$9.25 to you
Retail
$40.69
$31.44 to you
Retail margin
77%
Profit on a batch of 12
$377.32
candles

How this is worked out

A price built from a competitor rather than from a cost is a guess. This works the other way around. Materials are counted at the amount actually used per candle, not per pack, so wax and fragrance are priced by weight. Your time is paid at an hourly rate you choose. Overhead — insurance, listing fees, stall fees, hosting — is divided across the units you expect to sell in a month, so it lands on each candle rather than disappearing. That total is what the candle costs. From there the wholesale price is the cost divided by one minus your margin, and the retail price is a multiple of wholesale, so the two channels stay consistent with each other.

unit cost = materials + (minutes ÷ 60 × hourly rate) + (monthly overhead ÷ monthly units)
wholesale = unit cost ÷ (1 − wholesale margin)
retail = wholesale × retail multiplier

Questions makers ask

How do I price a handmade candle?
Work out what one candle costs you — materials, your time at a real hourly rate, and a share of your monthly overhead — then set a wholesale price that leaves the margin you need, and a retail price at roughly two to two and a half times wholesale. Pricing from what other sellers charge, rather than from your own costs, is how makers end up working for nothing.
Why does the calculator charge for my time?
Because your time is the largest hidden cost in a handmade product, and leaving it out produces a price that looks profitable but is not. If a candle takes twelve minutes across melting, pouring, labelling and packing, that is a real cost whether or not you pay yourself for it. Set the rate to zero if you want to see materials only, but do it deliberately.
What is the difference between margin and markup?
Margin is profit as a share of the selling price; markup is profit as a share of the cost. A 50% margin doubles your cost, but a 50% markup only adds half of it. This calculator uses margin, because that is what a shop buyer means, so cost divided by one minus the margin gives the price.
What margin should I aim for on wholesale?
Around 50% is the common target, meaning the wholesale price is double what the candle costs you. That is what leaves room for a shop to apply its own keystone markup and still land at a retail price your own customers would recognise.
Should my retail price match what shops charge?
Yes, and that is the point of pricing wholesale first. If you sell direct for less than the shops stocking you, you undercut your own stockists and they stop reordering. Set retail from the wholesale price and hold it, whichever channel the sale comes through.
Does this include selling fees and tax?
Not directly. Marketplace fees, payment fees and stall costs belong in the monthly overhead figure, which the calculator spreads across the units you sell in a month. Tax depends entirely on where you are and how you are registered, so it is left out — take advice locally rather than guessing.

Read before your next batch

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