I've been making candles for a while as its a sort of easy way to raise the fabrication skill, although a bit boring. I needed wax, from the soy plants so I planted a few and use the beans as fishing bait as well as food. The candles need bits & pieces unless you have a mod by LittleMissSam (HigherSkillFasterCandleMaking. Find in Random Small Mods) This removes the need for bits and pieces and speeds the process up a bit. I have no idea why anyone would need old bits of recycled rubbish to make candles but the programmers added this nonsense anyway. I thought that the bees wax would make better candles, maybe from excellent to impeccable or something but so far it's exactly the same and the bees have lots of their own problems. If you go dumpster diving and have Jungle Adventure, take the bottled water to clean up regularly or the deodorising cream from the herbal skill (Outdoor Retreat) will also work for a while.
The best profit from candle making is to list them on Plopsy, the profit is much more than selling from the inventory. Or become a freelancer, 4 carved candles (Normal) can bring in around 2k.