Turning a recipe into a product
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People often start from a ratio found online. The distance to a product is measured in tested combinations.
A recipe is not a specification
A recipe says "soy wax, 10 percent fragrance, CD 12 wick".
A specification says which soy wax by product number and supplier, which fragrance by name and supplier, the load as a percentage of the finished candle, the wick by series and size, and the vessel by supplier and part number.
Change any of those five and you have a different candle, which is why the specification is written at that level of detail or it is not a specification.
What a product has
A specification naming all five components.
A process: melt temperature, fragrance addition temperature, pour temperature, cooling method, cure time.
A burn record showing the combination was tested to the bottom of the candle.
Acceptance criteria: what a good unit looks like, weighs and burns like.
A label carrying the mandatory statement where it applies and the F2058 safety labeling.
The tests a recipe never gets
A full four-hour-cycle burn to the base, with the vessel temperature checked.
Three wick sizes compared side by side.
A cured candle rather than a fresh one.
A fill weight check across a batch, so the declared net weight is a fact.
What you end up with
A document per combination, not a pot of wax. That document is what scales, what a co-packer can be quoted from, and what answers a retailer who asks whether you test.
The candles are this week's output of it.