HS codes for candles: a Shopify seller's guide

Candles are the easiest category on this site to classify — and one of the easiest to get wrong anyway, because the traps aren't where sellers look. The candles themselves take one HS code. The complications live in everything around them: the wax melts, the holders, the matches, and — uniquely for this category — the country of origin.

Every candle is 3406

Heading 3406 — "candles, tapers and the like" — covers the whole product: soy, beeswax, paraffin, coconut wax blends, scented or unscented, pillar, taper, votive, tealight, or poured in a jar. At the international level the full code is simply 3406.00 — the heading has no 6-digit splits, which almost never happens in the HS. Enter 340600 in Shopify and your entire candle line is classified. Scent, size, color, and vessel variants all share it.

The one wrinkle: wax melts

Wick-less scented wax — melts, tarts, cubes for a warmer — sits on a genuine classification line. US rulings have gone both ways: some classify them with candles under 3406 ("and the like"), others as molded or worked wax articles under 9602. If melts are a couple of SKUs, pick the better-supported reading and be consistent; if they're a meaningful share of your revenue, this is a textbook case for checking a current ruling in CBP's CROSS database or asking a broker. Either way, don't assume they're automatically the same code as your candles.

Everything around the candle classifies elsewhere

A "candle brand" on Shopify is usually a three-or-four-chapter catalog once accessories are counted — the same pattern as bath and beauty, where the products on one shelf spread across headings by function.

Why origin matters extra for candles

Classification is only half of a candle's customs story. The US has maintained antidumping duties on petroleum-wax candles from China for decades, which means the combination of what the wax is and where the candle was made can change the duty picture dramatically. If you private-label candles made overseas, your country of origin field needs to reflect where they were actually manufactured — not where your brand is based — and your wax description should be accurate. This is exactly the kind of detail a broker confirms in minutes and a guess gets wrong expensively.

Check the code before you commit

The USITC's tariff search at hts.usitc.gov shows the US extension of 3406.00; the Census Bureau's Schedule B tool covers US exports; the UK Trade Tariff and EU Access2Markets cover those markets. For wax melts and gift sets (candle + matches + holder in one box), CBP's CROSS rulings database is where the real answers live.

Applying codes across a Shopify catalog

Here's the payoff of a one-code category: a 60-SKU candle line needs 340600 on every variant, and the accessories need their handful of other codes. The friction is mechanical — Shopify stores the HS code on each variant's inventory item, and nothing native lists which variants are still empty, so "one code everywhere" still means opening every product just to check. Origova turns that into one batch: scan, select every candle variant missing a code, apply 340600 once, and handle the accessories as their own small groups — reversibly, with gift cards and digital items excluded automatically.

Frequently asked questions

Related: What is an HS code? The Harmonized System, explained · Country of origin in Shopify: where it lives and how to set it in bulk · HS codes for cosmetics and skincare