According to National Candle Association, the candle scent is the most important factor to consider when customers make their purchases. A perfectly scented candle will help us calm down and relax. But when come to the candle making project, it’s really complicated to calculate how much fragrance oil to add to your handmade candles.
Though most of the candle making kits have everything to make candles, say, candle wax, fragrance oil, candle tins, wicks, candle making equipment, and more, they don’t tell you how much fragrance oil you need for a batch of candles.
The most common answer to this question is 1oz of fragrance oil per 1 pound of wax. This is right, but doesn’t work with all people. For example, how about those people who want a stronger or lighter candle scent?
Don’t worry. We will show you a formula to calculate the fragrance amount to meet your personal preference.
Before that, let’s take a look at some definitions.
Fragrance Load
The fragrance load is the maximum amount of fragrance that a particular wax can hold. This ratio is recommended by the manufacturers when the wax is produced. For example, if the fragrance load of a certain wax is 10%, it means that you can add 10% of the wax amount as oil at most.
Please note this ratio is based on weight, not volume.
Convert All the Measurements to Grams
An ounce could be a unit of mass, and also volume. Besides, fragrance oil has different ingredients, thus different densities. These factors may cause miscalculations and you may end up adding too much or too little fragrance.
In order to make our calculation results more accurate, we need to convert the amount of wax and fragrance oil into the same unit, i.e. the weight.
What Happens if You Put too much Fragrance Oil in a Candle?
Adding too much fragrance oil doesn’t always mean a stronger candle scent. Too much fragrance may cause your wick to clog and consequently extinguish by itself or weak scent throw.
How much Fragrance Oil to Add to Candle Wax?
Now, let’s get started to calculate how much fragrance oil to add to candle wax.
Step 1: Figure out how many candles you’re going to make.
You need to know the capacity of your container and the number of candles you want to make in a batch. You can refer to the capacity label on the container, such as 8oz, 5 oz, etc. However, it’s not very accurate because some manufacturers may label it by fluid amount, and others by weight. What’s more, you have no idea how close to the top of the container did the manufacturers filled.
So, you’re suggested to fill your container with water (leave some space to the top), and then pour the water into a measuring cup. Now, multiply the number by 0.84 to know how much wax you’ll need.
Step 2: Decide how much fragrance load you want.
If you want a stronger candle scent, you can choose a 10% fragrance load, just for an example.
If not, 5% to 6% will be a safe range.
Bear in mind that you’d better not exceed the fragrance load recommended by the manufacturers.
Step 3: Calculate the weight of fragrance oil.
Now, it’s so easy to know how much fragrance oil you’ll need for your candles. Just do the math problem using this formula.
Fragrance oil weight (g) = wax weight (g) * fragrance load (%)
For example, we want to make 3 of 8oz candles, with an 8% fragrance load.
Wax weight (g)=8*28.35*3=680.40
Fragrance oil weight (g)=680.40*0.08=54.43
That is, we need 680.40g wax and 54.43g fragrance oil. Then, we will have 3 candles, each weighing 8oz, 8% fragrance load.
Conclusion
After calculating how much fragrance to add, you can go on to choose the right wick size for your handmade candles.
DIY candle making can be very easy and complicated at the same time. With all the candle making supplies by hand, you need to do math problems and tests everywhere to make your candles burn the perfect way. That’s also the charm of handcraft.
