Three documents dominate compliance conversations in the candle trade, and they are routinely confused with each other. A COA, a safety data sheet, an IFRA certificate and a REACH statement each answer a different question, and a supplier who can produce one of them has not automatically produced the others. This guide separates them, explains what a candle buyer in each market actually needs to collect, and lists the questions that reveal whether a supplier's paper trail is real.

Three documents, three questions

Start by attaching each document to the question it answers.

  • Safety data sheet (SDS or MSDS) answers: *is this material hazardous, and how is it handled, stored and transported?*
  • IFRA documentation answers: *is this fragrance safe to use at my concentration, in my product category?*
  • REACH information answers: *does this product placed on the EU market contain restricted or declarable substances?*
  • COA answers something different again: *what did this specific batch measure?* That one belongs with batch quality documentation, not with the compliance folder.

A candle order can legitimately need all four. They are not substitutes for one another.

Safety data sheet: hazard information, not quality

A safety data sheet is a hazard communication document. It travels with chemical products — fragrance oils, dyes, some raw materials — and describes composition, hazards, first-aid measures, handling, storage, transport classification and disposal.

Two practical points for candle buyers.

  • An SDS is not a quality document. It says how to handle the material safely; it does not report measured values for your batch. That is the COA's job.
  • An SDS is material-specific, not batch-specific. One SDS covers a product; each batch gets its own COA.

If you buy fragrance oil, ask for the SDS with the first order and keep it on file. Your staff handling concentrates are the people it protects.

IFRA: the fragrance side

IFRA is the International Fragrance Association. Its Standards set safe-use limits for fragrance ingredients, and they are updated periodically — the 51st Amendment, published in 2023, is the edition most commonly referenced in supplier documentation today, and IFRA's own standards library lists the amendments currently in force. Because amendments change limits, the version matters: an old compliance note can be out of date.

The part candle makers need most is the category. Candles and other home-fragrance products fall under IFRA Category 12 — the category they were moved into from Category 11, precisely because home fragrance behaves differently from other applications. Your maximum allowable fragrance load is set against that category for each fragrance oil.

A point that saves confusion: IFRA does not certify your candle. What you request from your fragrance supplier is documentation showing the fragrance's IFRA status at a given usage level in Category 12. The document comes from the fragrance house or the oil supplier, and it is specific to the oil and the percentage.

Ask for:

  • The IFRA documentation for the exact fragrance you are buying
  • The category it is assessed for, and the maximum recommended use level
  • The amendment version the assessment references

Then compare the maximum use level against the load you actually pour. If your formula sits above it, that is a formulation decision you want to make before production, not after.

REACH: the EU side

REACH is the European Union's chemicals regulation. For candle importers, the operative parts are the substances the EU has identified as Substances of Very High Concern and the duties that attach to them.

The key threshold is 0.1% by weight. Where an article contains an SVHC above that concentration, the supplier has a duty to communicate information down the supply chain — this is the obligation set out in REACH Article 33. For many articles, an additional SCIP notification step applies when they are placed on the EU market.

For a candle brand, the practical consequences are:

  • If you import into the EU, you are the party bringing the article to market, so you need SVHC information from your suppliers to support your own obligations.
  • Ask for a SVHC / REACH statement covering the materials you buy — wax, wicks, containers, fragrance — rather than a general claim that the supplier "complies with REACH".
  • Expect the statement to be specific. A usable statement names the substance list version it was checked against and the date. A list is revised over time, so an undated statement cannot be relied on.

Note that REACH obligations attach to the article and to the materials in it. That is why a candle is rarely a single-document question: fragrance, wick, container and wax can each contribute to the answer.

What to collect, by market

A pragmatic checklist for the two largest markets.

For the United States: batch COA per shipment, specification sheet, SDS for fragrance and dyes, IFRA documentation for each fragrance, and the finished-product fire-safety evidence. Our guide to ASTM F2417 covers that last item in detail.

For the European Union: the same set, plus an SVHC / REACH statement for the materials, with the substance list version and date identified.

In both cases the documents split naturally: the material documents come from your wax and fragrance suppliers, while finished-product testing is the brand's own responsibility.

Questions that reveal a weak paper trail

Most compliance risk is visible at the sample stage, if you ask the right questions.

  • Which batch does this COA cover, and is the batch number printed on both the document and the packaging?
  • Which IFRA amendment is this fragrance assessed against, and what is the maximum use level in Category 12?
  • Which version of the SVHC list was this REACH statement checked against, and what is its date?
  • Who is the issuing body for each certificate, and what exactly does its scope cover?
  • Will the production batch carry its own documentation, or only the sample batch?

A supplier with a real file answers these from records and sends the documents. A supplier without one answers with adjectives.

Build the file with the sample, not after the container

Compliance documents are cheapest to collect at the start of a relationship, when a sample is on its way and there is time to ask follow-up questions. Retrofitting a file under a shipping deadline is where importers pay for the time they saved earlier.

Send your destination market and product specification through our contact page — we reply within 24 hours — and we will tell you which material documents apply to your order, alongside free samples with their batch COA.