Adding a wax: catalog lookup, wax family, and blends
Add the wax you actually pour — start typing a brand and Ellie fills in the specs, then keep your own editable copy of the melt point, pour window, and top-off.
Your waxes live on the Waxes shelf of the candle pantry, alongside your wicks, fragrance oils, and vessels. Adding one tells Ellie what you actually pour with, so the recipes she builds use the right pour temperature, fragrance load, and cure time for that wax. For the four-shelf tour, see your candle pantry.
Start with the name
Open the Waxes shelf and tap + Add wax. Start typing the wax name and Ellie checks her branded catalog for a match. When she finds one, she offers it in a small card — accept it and she fills in the name, brand, wax family, and the working specs for you, so you're confirming what she found rather than typing everything from scratch. If nothing matches, or it's a blend you mixed yourself, you can fill the form in by hand.
Wax family
Every wax belongs to a wax family, and it's the one field Ellie leans on most. Choose the one that matches what you pour:
| Family | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Soy | Natural soy container and pillar waxes. |
| Paraffin | Traditional petroleum-based waxes. |
| Coconut | Coconut and coconut-blend waxes. |
| Beeswax | Pure or blended beeswax. |
| Blend | A parasoy or custom mix that doesn't sit in one family. |
| Gel | Mineral-oil gel — a different medium, poured hot. |
If you mixed your own blend, choose Blend and record the rest of the specs by hand so Ellie has real numbers to work from.
The numbers Ellie needs to size a pour
When you add a wax by hand, four fields do the real work — Ellie can't size a pour without them, so she asks for them on a new wax:
- Wax family — sets the baseline behaviour above.
- Pour temp low (°F) — the bottom of your pour window.
- Fragrance load max (%) — the highest fragrance percentage this wax will hold.
- Density factor — how the wax's weight relates to its volume, so Ellie can turn a vessel's fill volume into a wax weight.
A catalog match fills all four for you. A hand-typed wax needs them before it will save — you'll see a prompt to add the wax family, pour temp (low), max fragrance load, and density factor.
The rest of the specs
Below those, you can record the fuller working spec — all optional, all editable later:
| Field | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Melt point (°F) | The temperature the wax turns liquid. |
| Fragrance-add temp (°F) | When to stir fragrance in. |
| Pour temp high (°F) | The top of your pour window. |
| Fragrance load min (%) | The bottom of the usable fragrance range. |
| Cure min / recommended (hours) | How long to let the candle rest before burning. |
You can also record on hand and a unit (pounds, ounces, kilograms, grams, or by the case), a reorder at threshold for low-stock alerts, and the purchase price and package size so Ellie can work your wax cost into a recipe.
Top-off, for container waxes
Many container waxes contract as they cool and need a thin second pour to level the top. Set Needs top-off (2nd pour) to Yes for those, and record a top-off reserve (%) — the extra wax to hold back. When it's set to yes, Ellie adds a top-off step to the recipe so you don't come up short.
Your pantry copy is editable
A catalog match is a starting point, not a lock. Once a wax is on your shelf it stores its own copy of every spec — so if your soy runs a little different from the book, edit the pour window, the load, or the cure time on your copy and Ellie uses your numbers from then on. Tap a wax to see its working specs, or Edit to change them.
Tip: if you only ever pour one wax, still fill in its density and pour window. Those are the numbers Ellie turns your vessel size into a wax weight with — a wax without them leaves the wizard's weights blank.
Browse the reference specs
Not sure what a standard wax's pour window or cure time should be? Tap Browse reference specs on the Waxes shelf to open Ellie's built-in wax reference. It's a read-only guide to the common families and their typical numbers — handy when you're filling in a wax by hand.
What pairs with your wax
Wax is one of four things every candle needs. Round out the shelf so Ellie can build a full recipe: add your wicks, your fragrances, and your vessels. When you're ready to build, the candle wizard pulls from everything on your shelves.