How to Make Candles to Sell from Home {The Ultimate Guide to Selling Candles for Huge Profit in 2025}

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How to Make Candles at Home to Sell – A Comprehensive Guide

If you’re looking for a profitable side hustle that you can do from home, making candles to sell is at the top of our list!

Who doesn’t love the feeling of an empty sink, clean sheets, a good movie and a new candle to burn?! C’mon it’s so relatable, there are viral social media posts about this!

Big brands know we love the smell of burning candles and they’ve capitalized on this by creating new scents for every season and every occasion that exists. They know people are willing to spend big bucks on this!

This is why selling candles is a great way to earn some extra cash. Not sure how to make candles at home to sell? Well don’t worry, this guide covers everything you need to set your candle making business up for success!

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Scented candles are super popular as they bring the feeling of love and warmth into a home. In fact, according to candles.org, approximately one in five women say they use candles to decorate both the interior and exterior of their homes!

Why Start Making Candles to Sell?

Making candles to sell might be one of easiest businesses to start because it requires no official certification and very little start up capital.

It’s easy to learn – the recipes can be accessed from YouTube and Pinterest, and it can be done right from the comfort of your home.

Making and selling candles allows you to channel your inner entrepreneur, work your own hours and be your own boss. It allows you to be creative, adventurous and grow your own business!

How many businesses let you start without investing thousands of dollars in setting up a storefront and purchasing goods to keep in stock? Uhhh…Exactly!

Starting a Candle Business 101

How do I start a Candle Business?

By now, you already know that making candles to sell is a smart business idea! By no means does this mean that the process will be an easy one. But you’ll need to stay focused whenever challenges arise.

If you want to start a candle business, you’ll need to:

• Brainstorm and Research

• Expand your Knowledge

• Get your Supplies and Ingredients

• Experiment with Different Scents

• Build your Brand

• Set up your Social Media Profiles

• Decide on your Marketing Strategies

• Create a Few of your Best Candles

• Photograph your Products

• Market, Market, Market!

Each one of these points are explained in detail below, right from the very beginning when you start brainstorming your ideas all the way to when you start making your first sales!

A Step by Step Guide on How to Make Candles to Sell

1. Brainstorm and Research

Before you start any major project or business venture, planning is a must! You need to research your competitors, brainstorm ideas, set realistic goals and have a solid plan that outlines exactly what steps you will take to achieve these goals.

How many hours per week can you dedicate towards making candles?

How many hours per day can you allocate towards creating content (hello promos, ads, flyers, videos!) to add to your social pages?

How much income do you want to earn per month from this business? And by when do you want to be earning this much?

How much does it cost to make a candle?

How do you plan to outshine your competitors? What will make YOUR product unique and special?

What are the trending scents for each month?

What are the top sellers for the big brands?

There are so many details that your brainstorming sessions will cover. Remember that every successful business once started with a good plan! Write it all down. Get a planner specifically for all your business related brain dumps!

View Planner on Amazon

2. Expand your Knowledge

Maybe you know a little about making candles, or maybe you know nothing at all. It doesn’t matter. The internet makes it super simple to learn new skills and expand your knowledge! Seriously, anyone can learn how to make candles to sell!

You can opt for free videos from YouTube, free tutorials from Pinterest and Google, or you can even explore paid options from sites like Coursera.

You can learn new tips and tricks to help your candles stand out from your competition. Or you can use your spare time to learn and improve your business and marketing skills.

All of these can help you get ahead in the candle making business!

3. Get your Supplies and Ingredients

After you’ve done your research, it’s time to purchase the necessary supplies and ingredients to get started on making your candles to sell. Some of the most common items include:

– Candle Wax

– Colorants and dyes

– Pouring Pot

– Additives

– Fragrances

– Heat Source

– Molds

– Containers for the candles

– Wicks

– Thermometer

– Digital Scale and other measuring equipment

– Labels (Reach out to a local business to get these customized)

– Packaging supplies and boxes for shipping

As you gain more experience and start turning a profit, you can invest in more equipment. As a beginner, I advise that you keep it simple to start off. A detailed tutorial on how to make candles using these tools is included below.

4. Experiment with Different Styles, Scents and Additives

Now that you have all your supplies and ingredients, you can start experimenting. Remember all the research that you did? This will come in handy now!

Take a look at the most popular scents, colors and styles from all the top brands, and recreate them with your own unique spin. Make them even bigger and better.

Create your own signature scents. Come up with clever names. Use what’s in and trending to drive your experiments.

5. Build your Brand

Building your brand isn’t necessarily the 5th step in this process – it can be done right from the start. This can be a work in progress while you do your research and experiment with creating your candles.

It is a very important step though, and should be treated as such. You will need to think about your company name, your brand colors and the brand aesthetics.

Are you in love with pink and pretty, a pastel palette, or bright and bold? Whatever you choose will need to be reflected in your logo, your social media pages, your product photography and your candles.

You know how sometimes you can look at a candle and know exactly what brand it is and where it was bought? That’s the goal for your candle making business too!

6. Set up your Social Media Profiles

As soon as you decide on your business name, you’ll want to grab and reserve your social media handles! Try to get it on Instagram, email (hotmail/gmail), Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok and whatever other social media sites you plan to use.

Once you reserve your handles, you can use your logo, brand colors and brand aesthetic to set up your social media profile.

7. Decide on your Marketing Strategies

A huge part of successfully making candles to sell is being able to market your product to increase your sales!

Your marketing strategy is probably the most important aspect of this “How to Make Candles to Sell” guide – second only to the actual product creation.

Your marketing strategy will affect your income, so it’s important to do your research and make an educated decision.

Your marketing strategy will include taking aesthetic photographs of your products that are on point with your brand, posting on social media at just the right times, finding creative ways to grow your audience (hello giveaways!), choosing the right influencers to collab with to promote your products, planning perfectly timed launches and deciding on when you’re willing to spend money on ads and promotions.

Remember that sometimes you’ll need to spend a little to make a lot, but you are trying to earn extra income so these investments need to be worth it.

8. Create a Few of your Best Candles

After experimenting, you would have figured out your best blends that could possibly become your best sellers. You’ll want to create some of these to start off your candle making business.

These will be the ones that you will photograph for your social media pages. Ensure that they are beautiful and on brand.

9. Photograph your Products

When you first start selling candles, you’ll need to have the prettiest pics! A huge challenge with selling scented products virtually is that the scent cannot sell itself. This is why the pictures and videos need to do twice the work.

To set up a successful candle making business, there is no room for sloppy pictures. The market is too competitive and the niche is one that lends itself to beauty and aesthetics.

If you want to have a chance in this business, you’ll need to ensure that your pics are beautiful, align with your brand, are tastefully styled and are well curated. Think pretty overlays, gorgeous props, fresh flowers, knitted blankets…

When taking photographs, remember that natural light is best so set up close to a window or door. Your phone is perfectly capable of taking professional-looking pics but still check out online tutorials and short courses to improve.

As your business grows, you can consider hiring a professional photographer or investing in more photography equipment, props or gear!

10. Market, Market, Market!

Finally, you’re ready to sell! YAY!

You’ve done your research, created your product, taken pretty pics and posted online. What next? Wait for sales to come in? No way! You’ve gotta MAKE those sales happen! You’ve gotta MAKE people want your product!

Step #7 above outlined some of the marketing strategies that can blow up your business. You can use all of them together to set your candle making business up for success!

For example, why not plan the launch of your new winter line for the day after Thanksgiving? Launch with incredible Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, plus a to-die-for Giveaway with ALL the new Christmas scents!

Maybe you can even partner with a few other businesses for the giveaway. Make it something people want to enter to win. You all will gain new followers and new eyes on your products.

Tease your audience by dropping hints of the launch, giveaway and sale for the entire month of November. Use reels, use stories – it adds a personal touch to your brand.

Yes, I know you want to learn how to make some extra money from home. You’re here to learn how to make candles to sell from home. But I want you to think beyond just selling online. I want you to DREAM BIG.

Part of your marketing strategy should be allocating some days to visit shops and establishments to show your products and sell yourself as a candle supplier. This will take you to the NEXT LEVEL! You can do this!

There are many genius ways to market your products and succeed at selling candles from home. Keep reading and educating yourself on best practices and tried and true techniques! Maybe you can check out books such as The 1-Page Marketing Plan!

View Book on Amazon

How to Make Candles to Sell – A Detailed Tutorial

Now that you know how to get your candle making business set up for success, let’s get into the actual step by step process of actually making the candles.

1. Get all your supplies

There are various types of candles and making each type will require different tools and equipment. If you’re just starting off, you’ll want to decide which type of candle you’re making and invest in tools for that type only.

For example, there are container candles, votive candles, dipped candles, pillar candles etc. The container candle is probably the most popular candle today, as it is used to decorate millions of homes around the world!

Here are the basic supplies to get you started:

– Wax Melting Supplies

A double boiler – This can be bought or you can simple use two pots, a smaller aluminum pot inside another. The inner pot will contain the wax and the outer pot will hold the boiling water.

A thermometer – You will need an accurate thermometer, like a candy/cheese thermometer to keep track of the temperature of the wax. Ensure that the thermometer is not touching the pan itself, otherwise your reading will be wrong. Also, do not let your wax touch the heat source directly. Wax can start a fire if it heats to around 300 degrees or higher. So do not let it overheat!

– Wicks

There are different types of wicks including flat wicks, square wicks and cored wicks. Zinc cored wicks are the most common that are used for container candles! The metal core holds the wick upright for the wax to be poured into the jar.

If you choose to use a wick without a metal core, you’ll need to stick one end to the bottom of the jar (hot glue works!) and then get a wicking bar to place across the top to tie the wick to.

– Wax

There are several types of wax that can be used when making candles to sell. These include beeswax, stearin candle wax, soy wax, synthetic wax, but paraffin wax is the most commonly used.

You can purchase paraffin wax by the slab or as pellets. If you’re starting off with container candles, choose to purchase wax with a lower melting point.

– Fragrances

Most people buy a candle for its scent. Choose scents and fragrances that are popular and safe. Remember to read the directions to ensure that you add the right proportions.

– Colorants

The color of your candle will depend on the fragrance you chose. For example, a lavender scented candle is usually light purple in color. Scent and color go in hand.

You can use dyes and pigments to get different shades. Dyes change the color of the entire candle, both inside and out, whereas pigments only coat the outside of the candle.

– Molds & Containers

There are many different types of molds and containers that can be used. Be creative!

– Vybar (Optional)

Vybar 260 is a great additive for container candles and assists with intensifying the candle’s scent.

2. Set up your Workspace

Remove highly flammable materials from the area and ensure that you have all your materials ready. For example, always have a fire extinguisher and baking soda (for small wax fires) nearby.

3. Melt the Wax

Use your double boiler to melt your wax. Of course you can stick to using two pans when you are just starting out but this may be a little more messy and complicated.

Break up the wax into small pieces and add it to the inner pan. Keep checking the water level in the outer pan to ensure that it doesn’t dry out.

Use your thermometer to keep checking the temperature.

4. Add the Fragrance

How much fragrance you add in will depend on how strong you want the candle scent to be. A good rule to follow is using 1 – 2 tbsp of fragrance per pound of wax.

5. Add the Colorant

You can use either dyes or pigments to color your candle. Dyes come in either liquid form or as blocks. Experiment with both to see which you prefer.

Alternatively, you can also use pigment flakes to add color.

6. Set up the Wicks & Containers

Prep your wicks and containers by ensuring that they are clean and dry and sticking your wick to the bottom of your container.

7. Pour the Wax

Once all your additives are in, and you’ve achieved your desired color, it’s time to pour your wax into your containers and molds. Be careful!

8. Allow Wax to Cool

Leave your wax to cool and watch your beautiful candles form! Congrats!

Additional FAQs on Making Candles to Sell:

How to Make Scented Candles to Sell

Making scented candles to sell is as easy as experimenting with different fragrances. All you need to do is follow the tutorial above but include the fragrances.

The general rule of thumb is to use about 1 – 2 tbsp of fragrance per pound of wax.

How to Make Soy Candles to Sell

Many people prefer to purchase eco-friendly candle options. In this case, you’ll need to start offering soy candles! Making soy candles is as simple as swapping out the paraffin wax for soy wax flakes. Soy wax is actually easier to work with too!

What you will Need to Start Selling Candles

• Wax Melting Supplies (such as a double boiler, pouring pot etc.)

• Wicks

• Wax

• Fragrances

• Colorants

• Molds and Containers

• Thermometer

• Digital Scale for measurements

• Labels

• Boxes and shipping materials

All of these are linked above to make your life easier.

FAQ: Is there a market for selling candles?

According to the National Candle Association, the “U.S. retail sales of candle products are estimated at approximately $3.14 billion annually”. If that doesn’t show that there’s a market for selling candles, then I don’t know what does!

So yes, there is a huge market for selling candles and making candles to sell is most definitely a profitable business idea!

Where to Sell your Homemade Candles for the Biggest Profit

A huge part of learning how to make candles to sell from home, with a profit, is knowing exactly where to get the most sales! You can utilize some (or ALL!) of these platforms to increase your profits! Obviously the more eyeballs you get on your products means more money in your pockets!

So where can you sell your homemade candles? Let’s start with the online options for selling candles!

1. Instagram

On IG, you can have a huge audience and it’s free to use. You can utilize stories, reels, typical posts, as well as paid ads. Many businesses thrive on the IG platform!

2. Facebook

Similarly to IG, you can use Facebook for selling candles. On Facebook, you can create a business related profile, a business page, use Facebook Marketplace or also paid ads. You can use Facebook to reach thousands of local people on a daily basis!

3. Etsy

All you need is 20 cents to launch your very own store on Etsy! On this forum, you can list your products and promote all from the comfort of your couch.

According to Backlinko, Etsy has 81.9 million active buyers! Holy Moly! That’s a lot of eyeballs on your products!

4. eBay

If you post less than 250 items per month, eBay will let you post your items for free! You will need to pay 35 cents for most listings over this number. eBay is a must when is comes to selling your candles online!

5. Your own website

How awesome would it be to have your own online website and online store to sell your candles? Pretty cool, right?!

Creating your own website might seem like it’s way over your head, but trust me it’s not as complicated as it sounds. You can look into purchasing your URL (that’s www.yourbusinessnamehere.com) and hosting from a hosting company like Bluehost and then follow the step by step instructions to launch using wordpress.org. You can check out this detailed tutorial on how to set up.

After setting up, you can integrate with a plugin like WooCommerce to set up your store.

An alternative route to setting up an online store is using Shopify. Just sign up and follow the steps. Remember that part of a successful business is learning new things and adapting to change!

The great thing about having your own website and online store is that you’ll get to utilize SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to get your site on Google for searches related to candle products. This widens your potential customer base and will increase your income significantly!

Selling Candles Offline

Additionally, you can allocate some of your free time to pitching and marketing your products to local shops and stores. You just might get them to carry your line! Now, how amazing would that be?!

FAQ: Can I make money selling homemade candles?

Yes, of course you can! As mentioned earlier, making candles to sell from home is a great way to earn extra money as there’s most definitely a market for it.

These days, people are also supporting small businesses and promoting locally made products. People love homemade and handmade.

The advantage you have over large brands and their mass produced candles is that you pour your heart and soul into each of your unique candles. And people are willing to pay for this!

Legal Requirements for Selling Homemade Candles

There are a few legal requirements and industry standards for candles and candle products that you should abide by.

The Industry Standards have been developed and published through the ASTM International standards organization to help guide you with creating a quality candle.

One of these safety standards include having cautionary labels that warn customers to always burn their candles within sight and to keep candles away from children or things that can easily catch fire.

Other safety standards include the Heat Strength of Glass Containers Standard, the Fire-Safety Design Standard, and the Candle Accessories Standard.

To learn more and get all the details on the various safety standards, you can visit the National Candle Association site. The actual standards and specifications will need to be purchased and downloaded from ASTM.

Another option to ensure that you are manufacturing candles that are safe and compliant is to utilize the Regulatory Robot on the CPSC’s website. The CPSC is the Consumer Product Safety Commission and is the body in charge of regulating candle manufacturing.

The Regulatory Robot is a tool that is made especially for small businesses (like yourself!) to easily guide you through the requirements for making products to sell! All you have to do is answer some questions about your product and a report will be generated informing you of some of the requirements for you to be compliant.

These include the FHSA Labeling requirements (e.g. including labels with signal words such as WARNING, DANGER or CAUTION on your product, “Keep Out of Reach of Children”, name and address of manufacturer etc.).

The report will also give information on the legal requirements such as the rules for standalone metal-cored candlewicks.

Did you know that standalone metal-cored candlewicks are banned unless the metal core of each wick has a lead content that is not more than 0.06 per cent of the weight of the metal core? And so the outer package or wrapper of metal-cored candlewicks need to be labeled with “Conforms to 16 CFR 1500. 17(a)(13).” Get more info here.

There may be other legal requirements that you will need to know.

Just check out the CPSC’s Regulatory Robot. It’s so helpful with these requirements to ensure that you are compliant and distributing a safe and high-quality product!

FAQ: Do you need FDA approval to sell candles?

You do not need FDA approval to make candles to sell from home. In fact, products such as scented candles are not regulated by the FDA but are regulated by the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) instead.

The CPSC has a very helpful online tool called the Regulatory Robot that will help you create a high-quality candle that you can distribute while following all the rules and being compliant.

Additional Info on How to Make Candles at Home to Sell

– Can I make my own candles and sell them?

Yes, of course you can! Making candles to sell is a great way to work from home and earn extra income.

– How to sell candles from home?

This entire guide would have walked you through how to make candles to sell from home. Almost anyone can get started with very little investment upfront. It’s as easy as making your candles, taking pics and marketing them, all from the comfort of your home!

– Can I sell candles online?

Yes, you can sell candles online. In fact, selling candles online is one of the easiest ways to grow your candle making business!

Almost everyone (and their dog!) has a social media profile these days. Online is where everyone’s at! And if there’s one thing I know about business is showing up where the people are.

So if you’re not already selling your candles online, please do so quickly! You’re leaving money on the table!

– How much does it cost to make a candle?

When you factor the cost of all the supplies, the cost to make a candle can range from around $3 to $6 (depending on the brand of your supplies). Candles sell from $10 and up, so you can see that your profit can be 100% and more!

Of course, it will be way more to get started if you need to purchase all the ingredients and all the equipment. But you can make many candles with your initial startup and some of the tools will last you for years!

– Is candle making profitable?

If candle making wasn’t profitable, the candle making business would have been a bust a long time ago! For as long as I’ve known, candles have been a staple in every household and a part of gift giving for every occasion and for every season.

There’s a reason for this, and it’s quite simple. The candle making business is a profitable one! There’s the market for it, and it sells for big bucks!

When you look at the cost to make a candle and then look at the price that a candle sells for, there’s no doubt about it that the candle making business is an immensely profitable one!

– How much money do you make selling candles?

How much money you make selling candles will depend on how much work you put in. I know, I know. This is such a generic answer. But honestly, this is the truth.

One person can make dollars and another can make thousands of dollars each month. Think about it – when you start selling candles, you’re a business person, an entrepreneur. And as a business owner, there’s no limit on the amount of money you can make each month.

Put as much time and effort into creating new products, updating your socials and marketing your products, and you will start making a full time income soon enough!

– Is it legal to make and sell candles?

Yes. It is totally legal to make and sell candles. However, there are a few rules and requirements that you need to abide by to ensure that you are compliant and manufacturing high quality products.

Check out the Regulatory Robot on the CPSC’s site for more info.

Final Thoughts on How to Make Candles to Sell for Profit

Now that you know that there is a market for homemade candles, and you know exactly how to make your candle making business a success, what are you waiting for? Start gathering your supplies, find your signature product, start marketing and watch those sales start rolling in!

Do you know of any other tips on how to make candles to sell from home? If you have any additional hacks or advice, be sure to share with us in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you!

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