Published by WickAndWax
Working knowledge for small batch candle and soap makers: labeling law, batch records, cure times, cost per unit and market season.
Nine working articles, written for makers who pour their own batches and answer their own customer email. Every one of them starts from a question a studio owner actually asked, and finishes with something you can put on the bench this week.
regulation and compliance
Candle labels answer to the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act plus fire safety warning standards. Here is the required identity, net weight, responsible party and warning copy, and where each one goes.
numbers and benchmarks
Bulk oil pricing, cure loss, packaging and rejected bars all move your real unit cost. This walks through building a per bar figure you can price against with confidence.
practical guide
MoCRA changed federal cosmetic oversight, but true soap is carved out and small businesses get exemptions. Here is how to work out which category each of your products falls into.
comparison
Wax choice drives burn performance, fragrance load, pour temperature and margin. A side by side look at how the common waxes behave in real small batch production.
checklist
Cure time affects hardness, mildness and how a bar holds up in transit. A working system for setting cure dates per batch and knowing which rack is ready to pack.
mistakes to avoid
A complaint is a traceability question first and a service question second. How to find the lot, judge whether it is a real defect, respond well and decide about a recall.
trends and outlook
Wholesale trades margin for volume and predictability, and it raises the bar on labeling, lot codes and lead time. What changes in the work when a shop places a standing order.
case study
Following one fragrance lot from delivery through pour, cure, label and shipped order shows exactly where lot data has to be captured and how a simple coding scheme holds up.
field report
From wax melt schedules to label printing and cure bottlenecks, a walk through the constraints that decide how many units one maker can honestly ship in a peak week.
Lot numbers are the thread that ties a wax carton to a cure rack to a customer order, and almost everything else in the studio hangs off them. The guide follows one fragrance lot from delivery through pour, cure, label and shipped order so you can copy a scheme that holds up.
How does a small studio actually assign lot numbers so one order can be traced back?
Then work outward: the eight other pieces in The Pour Room each take one part of it further, and every one links back here.
