Wax Melts

Wax melts is a high-volume search term in every keyword tool I have checked (Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs and Semrush all place US monthly search volume in the low tens of thousands, comfortably higher than how to make candles). Whatever the exact number this month, the direction is clear: shoppers who want a flameless version of a scent they already like are searching, and if you do not offer one, that demand goes to a competitor.

The good news is a wax melt is almost free to add to your range. Same wax pot, same fragrance, no wick to test. The technical work is a one-day exercise and the SKU pays for itself inside a month.

Making a wax melt from your existing candle recipe

Melt your normal container wax to 80°C. Add fragrance at the same load percentage you use for the parent candle. Stir for two minutes. Pour into a clamshell mould at 65–70°C. Cool at room temperature for two hours. Pop out. Cure for a full week before you judge the throw.

The one adjustment: most makers push the fragrance load one percentage point higher on melts than on candles. Melts have no flame to burn off oil, so the top note stays longer and the throw is stronger per gram of wax. Do not go above 12 percent on soy or you will get seepage on the clamshell.

Pricing the melt against the parent candle

A 100 g clamshell of wax melts should retail at roughly 40 to 45 percent of your parent-candle RRP. If the 200 g candle sells at the pricing-ladder RRP, the matching melt sits a little under half that shelf price. That ratio protects the candle from being cannibalised (the melt is not a cheap substitute, it is a flameless version) and it keeps the true-cost margin healthy because clamshell packaging is a fraction of the cost of glass.