The short answer
Add up your true cost for one candle: wax, fragrance oil, jar, wick, label and packaging, plus your labor, a waste allowance and a share of overhead. Multiply that cost by the markup you choose (for example 3×), then subtract the selling fees for where you sell. What is left is your real profit. Wholesale is a separate calculation.
Step 1: Find your true product cost
Every price starts with one number: what it costs you to make one sellable candle. Most makers count the wax and fragrance and stop there. The jar, the wick, the label, your time and the candles you melt down along the way are all part of the cost too.
Your true product cost has five parts:
| Part | What goes in it | How to work it out |
|---|---|---|
| Materials | Wax and fragrance oil | Amount per candle × what you paid per unit. Include the shipping you paid on the supplies. |
| Packaging and parts | Jar or tin, lid, wick and wick sticker, labels, box, tissue | The landed cost of each piece for one candle. |
| Labor | Melting, pouring, cleanup, labeling, packing | Your hourly rate × minutes for the whole batch ÷ the number of sellable candles in it. |
| Waste | Wax and oil lost to spills, pot residue and rejected pours | A percentage of your wax + fragrance cost that matches what you actually lose. |
| Overhead | Test candles you never sell, tools, software, website, insurance, studio costs | Your monthly or yearly overhead spread over the candles you expect to sell. |
Keep selling costs out of this number. Marketplace fees, card fees and booth fees depend on where a candle is sold, so they come off the price later (Step 3). Mixing them in here hides how much each sales channel really takes.
Labor is per batch, not per candle
Time a whole batch from setup to the last label, then divide. At $30 an hour, a 30-minute batch of 12 candles adds $30 × 0.5 ÷ 12 = $1.25 of labor to each candle.
Free tool
Plug in your own supplies, labor and fees and see your true cost, price and what you keep, free to use.
A worked example
Here is one 8 oz candle, with example supply prices. Swap in your own receipts; these are not price suggestions.
| Line | Example | Cost per candle |
|---|---|---|
| Wax | 8 oz at $4.26 per lb | $2.13 |
| Fragrance oil | 0.4 oz at $3.55 per oz | $1.42 |
| Jar, wick, label and packaging | Added together | $7.55 |
| Labor | $30/hr, 30-minute batch of 12 | $1.25 |
| Overhead | Your share per candle | $2.00 |
| True product cost | $14.35 |
This example uses no waste allowance. If you lose, say, 10% of your wax and oil, add 10% of $3.55 (the wax + fragrance line) to the total.
Step 2: Choose your price as a multiple of cost
Once you know your cost, pricing is a decision you make, not a formula you look up. A simple way to decide is to pick a multiple of your true cost. The CandleEasy Candle Cost & Pricing Calculator offers 2×, 2.5×, 3× and 4×, or a custom price of your own.
| Multiple | Price for a $14.35 cost |
|---|---|
| 2× | $28.70 |
| 2.5× | $35.88 |
| 3× | $43.05 |
| 4× | $57.40 |
Then sanity-check the result against the market: what do candles of a similar size, quality and look sell for in the places you sell? If your price lands far below them, you may be undercharging. If it lands far above, your cost may be too high or your product needs to earn the difference.
Markup is not margin
A 3× price is a 200% markup on cost, but your margin (profit ÷ price) can never reach 100%. At $43.05 with no fees, profit is $28.70 and margin is 67%. People mix the two up all the time, so say which one you mean.
Step 3: Subtract selling fees and see what you keep
The price a customer pays is not what reaches you. Each sales channel takes something. Work out your real profit like this:
Selling price − channel fees − event cost per candle − true product cost = what you keep.
Your actual margin is what you keep divided by the selling price.
| Where you sell | Fees to subtract | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Cash at a market | None on the sale (booth costs still apply) | — |
| Etsy (US seller, Etsy Payments) | 6.5% transaction fee + 3% + $0.25 payment processing + $0.20 listing fee | Etsy's published fee policy |
| Card reader in person | Your processor’s current in-person fee | Your card processor's own pricing page |
| Shopify, Wix, Squarespace | Your plan's % fee, any flat fee per order, and your monthly plan cost ÷ the candles you sell in a month | Your own plan and your own sales |
| Markets and fairs | Booth fee + travel + other event costs ÷ the candles you expect to sell there | Your own costs (see below) |
Using the $14.35 candle at 3× ($43.05) on Etsy: fees are about 9.5% of $43.05 plus $0.45, which is $4.54. What you keep is $43.05 − $4.54 − $14.35 = $24.16, an actual margin of about 56%. Etsy's transaction fee is also charged on shipping you collect, and Etsy's Offsite Ads fee applies only to orders that come through those ads, so check your own sales against Etsy's fee policy.
Fees change, and every platform plan is different. Take the numbers from each company's own fee page on the day you price, not from an old blog post.
Find your break-even
If what you keep comes out negative, you are paying to sell that candle. The lowest price that breaks even covers your cost and every fee. For the $14.35 candle on Etsy, a $15 price loses about $1.23 per sale; break-even is about $16.35.
Pricing for markets and craft fairs
A booth fee is a real cost of every candle you sell at that event. Spread it out: add the booth fee, travel and other costs, then divide by the number of candles you honestly expect to sell.
Example: a $125 booth, $40 of travel and $10 of other costs is $175. If you expect to sell 50 candles, each one carries $3.50 of event cost. If only 25 sell, each carries $7.00, so plan with a realistic number, not your best day. A $40 candle with that $3.50 share, paid by card at 2.6% + 15¢, leaves $40 − $1.19 − $3.50 − $14.35 = $20.96.
More on running a booth in How to Sell Candles at Craft Fairs.
Wholesale vs. retail pricing
Selling to shops is different math. A shop buys at your wholesale price and resells at its own retail price, so both of you need a margin out of the same candle.
- Wholesale price = your true cost ÷ (1 − the margin you want). At a 50% margin: $14.35 ÷ 0.5 = $28.70.
- Suggested retail (MSRP) = wholesale ÷ (1 − the shop's margin). At a 50% shop margin: $28.70 ÷ 0.5 = $57.40.
With 50% for you and 50% for the shop, retail lands at exactly 4× your cost. Retailers call doubling the wholesale price "keystone." It is a useful wholesale benchmark, not a rule for your own direct sales, and it is not charging twice for anything: your labor sits once in your cost, and the shop's markup pays for its rent, staff and risk.
If your direct-to-customer price is far below the MSRP a shop would need, shops will struggle to stock you. Check this before you set your retail price in stone.
Common pricing mistakes
- Leaving out labor. If your time is not in the cost, you are working for free and cannot hire help later.
- Forgetting test candles. Burn tests use real jars, wax and oil. They belong in overhead.
- Pricing for the cheapest channel only. A price that works with cash can lose money on Etsy. Check what you keep in each place you sell.
- Guessing fees. Use the platform's and processor's own published rates.
- Never revisiting. When supply prices or fees change, your cost changes. Re-run the numbers.
Your costs depend on a reliable recipe, so it helps to have your fragrance load and wax amount settled before you price. If you are just starting out, see How to Start a Candle Business.
Common questions
What is a good markup for candles?
There is no single correct markup. Work out your true cost first, then choose a multiple (for example 2×, 2.5×, 3× or 4×) and check what you keep after fees in each place you sell. Compare the result with similar candles in your market.
How do I calculate the cost of one candle?
Add materials (wax and fragrance oil), the jar, wick, label and packaging, your labor for the batch divided by the candles in it, a waste allowance and a share of overhead. That total is your true product cost.
Should I include my time in the price of a candle?
Yes. Multiply your hourly rate by the minutes the whole batch takes, then divide by the number of sellable candles. Leaving labor out makes the business look more profitable than it is.
How much does Etsy take from a candle sale?
For a US seller using Etsy Payments, Etsy publishes a 6.5% transaction fee, a payment processing fee of 3% + $0.25, and a $0.20 listing fee, with Offsite Ads fees on orders from those ads. Check Etsy's fee policy for current rates.
What is keystone pricing for candles?
Keystone means a shop doubles your wholesale price to set its retail price. If you also price wholesale at a 50% margin, retail ends up at about 4× your cost. It is a wholesale benchmark, not a rule for your own direct sales.
Sources
- Etsy Fee Basics — Etsy Help Center
- What are Payment Processing Fees for Selling on Etsy? — Etsy Help Center
- Square fees — Square
- Candle Cost & Pricing doctrine v3 and calculator tests — CandleEasy (CLAUDE.md; src/lib/__tests__/calculators.test.js)
Updated October 5, 2026. These guides are starting points — always burn test your own candles.