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Candle making
All Containers›Shop by use case›Candle making›Beyond the jar›Making it for somebody elseShop all candles →
Beyond the jar

Making it for somebody else

By Dwight Davis, Founder

Updated

On this page5

Corporate gifting, hotels, weddings and brands that want a candle without making one. Steady work at known volumes.

A real market

Candles are a gift and a hospitality product, which makes the private-label market larger and more reliable than the retail one.

No shelf risk, a known quantity and a known date, and usually a single fragrance in a single vessel, which means one tested combination rather than twelve.

What they are buying

Usually your existing formula with their artwork. Occasionally a bespoke fragrance, which should be priced as development rather than absorbed.

And a deadline. A wedding does not move, and a hotel opening does not move. With a two-week cure on top of production, the schedule is tighter than it looks.

Who tests

You do, and this is the clause to be clear about.

If they specify a vessel, their own branded jar, a particular tin, that is a new combination and it needs a burn test before the order is poured, not after.

A client-supplied vessel of unknown provenance is the risk case: you do not know whether it is annealed for candle use, and it is your candle inside it.

Price the testing into the quote and say so, because it is real work and it is the reason a private-label order has a lead time.

What to agree

Quantity, unit price, date, and who supplies artwork and vessels.

Overrun and shortfall, because label and vessel minimums mean there will be one.

Whose name goes on the label as manufacturer, packer or distributor.

And what they may claim in their own marketing, since a client describing your candle as non-toxic or therapeutic has made a claim with your product inside it.

References

No published source. This page is written from practice rather than from published guidance. No extension service or agency publishes on this question for candles, so nothing here is cited, and it should be weighed as experience and not as a standard.
Written from the federal regulation, the CPSC material and the published scope of the ASTM candle standards. The standards themselves are copyrighted documents that must be bought; what is described here is their scope and requirements as published, not their text. Your own burn testing against your own vessel and wick is what establishes whether a candle you made is safe.