How much time it actually takes
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Three different clocks, and only one of them is the one people picture.
Pouring is the short part
Melt, add, stir, pour: under an hour for a batch, most of it waiting for temperature.
Then cleaning down, which has to happen while things are warm.
The cure is dead time
One to two weeks before the candle is sellable, during which it occupies space and cash and cannot be judged.
It is not work, and it is a scheduling constraint that makes candle production a two-week pipeline rather than a same-day job. Producing for a market on the Thursday before is not possible.
Testing is the real commitment
A single test candle is burned in four-hour supervised cycles until it is gone. For a medium container that is several days of evenings.
Three wick candidates per combination, and every new fragrance is a new combination.
Which means adding a fragrance to a range is a week or two of testing, not an afternoon of pouring, and that is the fact that most shapes how fast a range can grow.
A realistic week
One pouring session of a few hours producing a few dozen candles.
Evenings of burn testing alongside it for whatever is in development.
A finishing session two weeks later: trim, clean, label, band, box.
And a market day, which is a whole day for what one pouring session produces.