For all things candle and home fragrance making!
How To Make Scented Candles
Knowing how to make scented candles can seem like a daunting craft to get your head around, but with a little understanding and practice you’ll be making top-smelling candles with a hot throw that is as good as it is cold in no time.
The Process Of Adding Scent To Your Candle
Adding fragrance to your candle isn't as complicated as you may think! To start, simply get your wax melting! Once your wax has fully melted, remove it from the heat and use your thermometer to measure your wax's temperature. Whilst waiting for your wax to cool, grab your chosen fragrance and some measuring scales and weigh out your desired amount of fragrance, see below for our guide on oil to wax ratios! When your wax reaches around 65°C add your fragrance and stir gently and thoroughly for a couple of minutes to ensure the wax and fragrance have binded!
What Oils To Use With Which Wax
All of our oils are suitable to use with any of our waxes, apart from Gel Wax. Our Gel Wax will hold up to 6% fragrance oil, however, not all fragrance oils are suitable for use with this type of wax.
The scents recommended for this wax are called 'Non-polar' and have a flashpoint in excess of 77°C.
Using the incorrect type of fragrance for gel wax can be hazardous. Since unscented Gel wax has a burn pool temperature of 130°C, this is well below the general flashpoint of 227°C. However, adding fragrance lowers the flashpoint of the wax, potentially low enough to cause the wax to ignite, therefore it is recommended to avoid these fragrances.
Click here to find out which of our fragrances and essential oils are suitable for Gel Wax.
Oil To Wax Ratio
The amount of fragrance oil you should add to your candle depends on 3 factors:
- The type of wax you use
- The flashpoint of the fragrance oil
- The strength of the scent
Before you start calculating how much fragrance oil to add to your wax you need to decide how strong you want your scent throw (Keeping in mind how strong your chosen fragrance is). Most waxes will hold no more than 12% of fragrance oil however to assure the candle stability is not compromised we advise using 10% fragrance oil for optimal scent throw. This means if your candle is 100g in total- 90g should be wax and 10g would be your fragrance oil.
If you only want a subtle scent throw, we recommend using 6%+ of fragrance oil.
How Do You Make Your Candles Have Lots Of Fragrance?
The main way to give your candles lots of fragrance is to use your waxes' highest fragrance load. If your wax can hold up to 12% oil, then try it out! The only way to find out is through experimentation! If you want to push your fragrance load even more, you can try using an additive. We stock Vybar 3451, which is a polymer that is used as an opacifier and hardener. Vybar 3451 is the most popular type of additive for candle making as it is designed to help retain oils to minimize the sweating of oils in your candle. Vybar is often added to improve the scent throw of candles and wax melts as more oil can be retained, making it the perfect additive for extra strong fragrant candles and melts.
What Happens If I Put Too Much Or Not Enough Oil In My Candle?
If you add too much fragrance oil to your candle, it’s likely that you’ll get ‘sweating’. Selecting the correct temperature and % of fragrance oil will help your wax and oil bind better. If you find that your fragrance does not bind properly, the fragrance will start to separate from the wax and rise to the surface of the candle, hence the sweating look.
If you don’t add enough fragrance to your candle, you won’t get a hot or cold throw! Adding more fragrance oil, but not too much that your candle can’t handle, will give off a much better scent when lit. It's also important that you cure your candles and wax melts for at least two weeks before lighting or melting. This gives your fragrance time to mature and bond with your wax for a better throw when melted.
Do I Need Different Levels Of Oil Based On The Type Of Wax I’m Using?
Yes, you do! Each wax that we stock holds different levels of fragrance oil, usually between 5 and 12%. The type of wax you use can also impact how much fragrance you can use, you’ll often find that Paraffin Waxes are able to cope with higher levels of fragrance compared to Soy or Vegetable Waxes!
To make sure you’re using the right amount of fragrance oil in your wax, you can take a look at our Wax Comparison Chart, this shows you details about the levels of oil each of our waxes hold as well as other factors such as appearance, melt point and suggested pouring temperature!
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