Picking your wax and how you start a candle recipe
Every candle Ellie builds starts from a wax you pick yourself — here's why the wax comes first, and the handful of ways to kick a candle recipe off.
When you ask Ellie to build a candle, the first real decision is which wax you're pouring. Everything after it — pour temperature, how much fragrance the recipe can hold, the wick she suggests — leans on that pick. Here's why the wax comes first, and the ways you can start a recipe.
Why your wax comes first
Your wax sets the melt point, the pour temperature, and how much fragrance it can hold. Ellie needs to know it before she can size the pour, dose the scent safely, or recommend a wick — so a wax is required to start.
Unlike the resin wizard, which quietly pre-picks your default resin, the candle wizard does not default a wax for you. You choose one every time, on every mode. In Guided it's a step you tap through; in Collab and Advisor it's a Wax dropdown that starts on — pick a wax — until you set it. That's on purpose — most makers run more than one wax, and the right one depends on the candle you're making.
Heads up: the wizard can't start on an empty shelf. If your pantry has no wax — or no fragrance oil — Ellie stops and sends you to the pantry to add one before you can build. You'll see an Open Pantry button that drops you on the right tab.
If you'd rather stock the shelf first, see your candle pantry and the waxes shelf.
Three ways to work
The candle wizard has three modes, and you can switch between them any time from the pill at the top:
| Mode | Feels like |
|---|---|
| Guided | One decision per step — Ellie walks you through it. |
| Collab | A single condensed screen — set your direction, Ellie fills the rest. |
| Advisor | A full control surface — you drive, Ellie validates and calculates. |
Whichever mode you're in, the wax is still yours to pick. For a fuller tour of what each mode changes, see the wizard tiers and the candle wizard overview.
The ways to start a candle recipe
Once your wax is set, there's more than one on-ramp into a recipe:
- Describe a mood or occasion — the Guided flow opens by asking what mood you're after (an occasion is optional), and Ellie leans the scent that way.
- Start from a scent — hand a fragrance or a blend over from the Scent Studio, and the wizard opens with that scent already in place.
- Start from a color — bring a colour you matched in Inspire, and the wizard seeds that dye as your starting point.
- Remix or re-check a saved recipe — from a candle recipe you've saved, send it back into the wizard to build a variation or ask Ellie to review it (see refining a candle recipe).
- Enter one by hand — if you already know the recipe, skip the wizard and record it on the manual candle recipe form. (That one needs editor access on the studio.)
Whichever door you come in through, you'll still confirm your wax, and Ellie takes it from there. If you need to change the wax on a recipe later, see changing the vessel or wax.