Wax melt calculator
How much wax and fragrance oil do your wax melts need?
Measure one clamshell or snap bar mold, choose your fragrance load, and get the amounts for one mold or a full batch. Add your supply prices to see the cost of each clamshell.
Enter the size of one mold and your fragrance load to see the amounts.
Per mold
Batch: 10 molds
Cost
| Wax | — |
| Fragrance oil | — |
| Clamshell and labels | — |
| Cost per clamshell | — |
| Whole batch | — |
How the calculator works
One clamshell is treated like a small candle jar. The water it holds tells you its volume, and the wax factor converts that volume to the weight of melted wax and oil it takes.
Pour weight = water weight × 0.86
Wax = pour weight ÷ (1 + fragrance load)
Fragrance oil = wax × fragrance load
With the defaults: 3.1 oz of water × 0.86 = 2.67 oz per clamshell, made of 2.42 oz wax and 0.24 oz fragrance oil at a 10% load. Ten clamshells with 5% extra need 25.4 oz (1.59 lb) of wax and 2.54 oz of fragrance oil.
That lines up with CandleScience's clamshell recipe, where half a pound of wax fills about three clamshells.
Choosing a fragrance load for melts
Melts have no wick, so the limit is how much oil the wax can hold without sweating. Start around 8–10% and test in a warmer. Check the IFRA certificate for each fragrance oil too. It lists the maximum safe usage level, which can be lower than your wax's limit.
For pour temperatures, curing and labeling, read wax melts: how much wax and fragrance per clamshell. For candles, use the wax & fragrance calculator.