Packing candles and jar candles with honeycomb paper

A candle order has two different things to protect. The glass jar can crack or chip, and the lid can come loose and knock against the rim. The wax itself can get scratched, dented or softened by heat, especially on pillar candles with no jar around them.

So pack candles by type. For jar candles, hold the lid on first, then wrap the jar in two or three turns of honeycomb paper and put it in a snug box with a folded pad underneath. For pillar and taper candles, wrap the wax in smooth tissue first and the honeycomb over it. In hot months, plan your shipping days, because no wrap keeps a candle cool.

We make honeycomb paper in Jaipur, and the company exports to 20+ countries. Candles are a good fit for it.

I will also tell you the two places where it needs help.

Jar candles: protect the glass and hold the lid

Many candles sold online come in jars or vessels. The wax is inside, so the job is mostly a glass job.

1. Hold the lid. Wooden, cork and metal lids can lift off in a drop. A small strip of paper tape across the lid and down the side holds it. On a glass lid or a cloche, wrap the lid on its own first.
2. Pad the base. Fold a short piece of honeycomb into a flat pad for the bottom of the box. Jar bases are thick, but the base edge takes the full force when a parcel lands upright.
3. Wrap the jar. Two or three turns around the side, with the ends folded over the base and the lid, and the last edge tucked into the cells.
4. Fit the box. The wrapped jar should go in with a gentle push and not move when you shake the closed box.

The lid is the part I would watch most closely.

A lid that lifts off in transit does two kinds of damage: it chips the rim, and the customer opens a box with dust and fragrance in the wrap.

Pillar, taper and moulded candles: protect the wax

A pillar candle has no glass around it. The wax is the surface the customer sees, and it can be soft.

Here honeycomb paper should not touch the wax directly. The paper has a pattern of open cells and a kraft texture. On a soft candle, in a warm van, that pattern can press into the surface. A dented or patterned pillar looks used, and I would not want a customer to light a candle that looks second-hand.

So the order changes.

1. Wrap the candle in smooth tissue or plain paper first, two layers if the wax is soft.
2. Wrap honeycomb around that, two turns, with the ends folded in.
3. For tapers, lay pairs side by side with tissue between them, then wrap the bundle. Thin tapers can snap if they bend, so the box must be long enough that they lie flat without flexing.
4. For moulded and sculpted candles, fill the hollows with soft crumpled tissue before the wrap, so thin parts are supported.

Candle tins, travel candles and concrete vessels

Tins are tough.

One or two turns of light honeycomb is mostly there to stop scratches and rattling. These are also the candles that can go in a honeycomb padded mailer, with the lid held on.

Concrete, stone and ceramic vessels are heavy for their size and can chip at the rim. Treat them like a mug without a handle. Our guide on packing ceramic mugs explains how to protect rims and why the inside of a vessel matters too.

Which paper and width suit candles?

These are starting points, not rules. A tall jar with thin glass needs more paper than a short jar with a thick base.

We make widths of 100, 200, 250, 380, 390, 400, 490 and 500 mm, and our paper runs from 50 to 120 GSM. When we send samples to a candle brand, I would suggest two weights side by side, so the brand can see the difference on its own jars.

Candle gift sets

Gift sets mix things: two or three candles, a match box, a snuffer, maybe a reed diffuser. Mixed weights in one box are where damage happens, because the heavy jar moves and hits the light item.

Wrap every glass item on its own. Then place the heaviest item at the bottom and the lightest on top, and fill the spaces with loose twists of honeycomb, so nothing has room to move.

A coloured wrap helps here. Customers open a gift box slowly, and a black, white or red honeycomb wrap looks deliberate. We make it in natural kraft, white, black, blue, green, red and yellow.

Pick one colour and keep it, so a repeat customer knows your parcel before reading the label.

Heat: the risk paper does not solve

I want to be clear about this.

Honeycomb paper is a cushion, not insulation. It will not keep a candle cool in a hot van, and we will never tell you otherwise.

Wax softens in heat, and softer waxes are more sensitive than firmer ones. A parcel can sit for hours in a vehicle or for days in a depot. In hot months, I would:

1. Ship early in the week, so parcels do not sit in a depot over a weekend.
2. Choose a faster service for hot routes, if the margin allows it.
3. Keep jar candles upright in the box and mark the box this way up, so softened wax stays level in the jar.
4. Use the tissue layer on every pillar candle in summer, without exception.

Humidity matters for the paper as well. Honeycomb loses some stiffness when it takes up moisture, which is why we run a moisture-controlled plant. Our guide on storage and humidity explains how to keep your own stock dry.

Test the candle pack

Pack three candles with your normal method, no extra care. Shake each closed box, then drop it from about waist height on the base, a corner and a side. Open it and check the rim, the lid and the wax surface.

Then do one more test that is easy to forget. Leave one packed parcel in a warm place for a day, like a car in the sun, and open it. You will learn whether your wax shows the wrap pattern before your customers tell you.

Worked example: 200 candle orders a day

Say a candle brand ships 200 orders a day, mostly single jar candles with wooden lids, and a few pillar candles. A sensible plan is one 380 mm roll of 80 or 90 GSM on a dispenser, a strip of paper tape on every lid, a folded base pad, and a stack of tissue sheets kept only for pillar candles.

The packer then has one wrap method for jars and one extra step for pillars. That keeps training short and the pack consistent, which I think matters more than any single packing trick.

To estimate how much paper 200 orders a day uses, our guide to honeycomb paper consumption walks through the method. Our products page has the widths, grades and colours.

Send us your jar sizes and your busiest month through the contact page. We will suggest two grades for you to test before the season starts.