Candle Vessels 101: A Kiwi Candle Maker's Guide to Jars and Tins
The vessel is half the candle
A candle is a system: wax, wick, fragrance and vessel all have to work together, and the vessel is where the performance happens. Choose it well and you get an even melt pool, a clean burn, and a container customers keep after the candle is finished.
Glass jar or aluminium tin?
Glass jars show off the wax, feel substantial, and take a label well. Our 100ml and 120ml jars suit votive-to-medium candles; the 250ml amber jar with an aluminium lid makes a full-sized statement candle.
Aluminium tins are the practical choice for travel candles: light to post, sturdy in transit, and the lid protects the wax between burns. Our tins run from 10ml/gm samples to 250ml/gm, in silver and black, and suit market stalls where shipping weight and price point both matter.
Many NZ candle brands run both — glass for the signature range, tins for travel sizes, samplers and gift sets.
Safety first: the non-negotiables
Candles are the one product where packaging is genuinely a safety component:
- Test every vessel with your exact wax, wick and fragrance combination before selling it. A jar that performs well with one wick can overheat with another. There is no substitute for full burn testing, in real conditions, repeated.
- Watch vessel temperature. If the glass becomes too hot to touch at full melt pool, the wick is too large for the diameter. Size down and re-test.
- Leave headroom below the rim when filling, and include wick-trimming guidance in your care instructions.
- Label for safety. Standard warnings: never leave a burning candle unattended; keep away from children, pets and draughts; burn on a heat-resistant surface; stop use when a small depth of wax remains. A warning sticker on the base is industry standard practice.
- General product safety law applies. New Zealand has no mandatory candle-specific standard, but consumer law requires products to be safe — which is what documented burn testing demonstrates. Keep your test records.
Getting the burn right
- Match wick to diameter, not volume. Wick manufacturers publish sizing guides by vessel diameter; start there and refine through testing.
- Respect the wax's fragrance load. Every wax has a manufacturer-stated maximum fragrance percentage — commonly in the 6–10% range for container waxes. Exceeding it causes sweating, poor burns and safety problems, not more scent.
- Cure before judging. Most container waxes need a cure period (often one to two weeks for soy blends) before scent throw settles. Test after curing.
- Record everything: vessel, wax batch, wick, fragrance and percentage, pour temperature, cure time, burn results. Those notes are how you reproduce a bestseller.
Presentation
- Amber glass with a kraft label reads artisan; clear glass with minimal type reads modern; a black tin with foil detail suits the gift market. Decide which shelf you want to sit on and design backwards from it.
- Lids are part of the product: they keep dust off the wax, hold scent between burns, and provide a second labelling surface.
- Plan sizes as a family. A 250ml hero, a 100–120ml standard and a tin sampler create a clear price ladder and straightforward gift-box combinations.
Buying as you grow
Jars are sold by the tray and tins by the carton, which suits a growing candle business: a half tray for testing and markets, full trays as stockists come on board, and bulk pricing on request for orders over 1,000 units. Prices exclude GST, and all stock ships from our Tauranga warehouse.
Choosing your vessels
Browse our candle and home fragrance packaging, glass jars and aluminium tins — or call 07 262 1073 and tell us what you're pouring. We're happy to talk through jar, lid and tray options for your range.