Having somebody else make it
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Contract pouring is well established in this category and it is the usual route past the hand production ceiling.
What a candle co-packer does
Buys materials, pours to your specification, cures, finishes, labels and often packs to a case.
What they do not do is develop your product or decide your wick. A co-packer makes what you specify.
What they need from you
A full specification: wax product number, fragrance and load, dye, wick series and size, vessel part number.
A process with real temperatures and a cure time.
Acceptance criteria, so there is something to accept or reject against.
And approved packaging components and compliant label artwork.
Which is why the recipe-to-product work pays twice: a maker with a specification can be quoted; a maker with a recipe cannot.
Who owns the testing
The important question and the one most often left vague.
If they pour to your specification, the burn testing behind that specification is yours, and it was done on your equipment with your vessels. If their process differs, a different pour temperature, a different cooling regime, the candle can behave differently from the one you tested.
Agree explicitly who tests, what is tested, and that you receive the records. And burn test their first production run yourself before it ships, whatever the agreement says.
You are the firm named on the label. The responsibility follows the name.
Minimums and lead time
Minimums are usually thousands per run per SKU, and a run cannot be topped up in a hurry.
Add the cure on top of their lead time. A four-week quoted lead time on a candle is really six before anything is sellable, and planning against the quoted number is how a fourth quarter goes wrong.