Table of content
Your essential oil candle is brought from a store Your essential oil candle is made my yourself 1. Quality of essential oils and proper proportions: 2. Record the proportion of wax used each time: 3. Choose the right candle wick material and size: 4. Use a Thermometer Correctly: 5. Trim the wick of your essential oil candle The Key Takeaway
Are you experiencing issues with essential oil candles that have a faint scent throw? This is a common issue for both newcomers to scented candles and those attempting DIY projects. This guide outlines the reasons behind scentless essential oil candles and offers straightforward solutions. If your essential oil candle's fragrance seems to have faded, don't fret. We've gathered advice from candle manufacturers to boost your candle's scent effectively.
Your essential oil candle is brought from a store
For store-bought essential oil candles, the placement environment is key. Despite a high concentration of essential oils, a small candle in a large room might not produce a noticeable scent. Typically, 200ml candles are effective in spaces up to 10 square meters, and 100ml candles suit 5-6 square meters. Also, air conditioning can affect scent diffusion by drawing in outside air, which disperses the fragrance more quickly, even without noticeable airflow.
When selecting candles, be aware that many well-known brands use paraffin wax due to its cost-effectiveness, fragrance diffusion properties, and ease of coloring, despite its potential health risks. For those concerned about paraffin but desiring strong scent retention, consider wax blends like EYECANDLE.
Your essential oil candle is made my yourself
For homemade essential oil candles, consider the following five tips:
1. Quality of essential oils and proper proportions:
A higher ratio of essential oils to wax generally means a stronger scent. Start with adding 5% to 10% essential oil to the wax, ensuring the wax is melted at around 60 degrees Celsius before mixing. If increasing the ratio doesn't enhance fragrance diffusion, the issue might lie with the quality of your wax or oils.
How to choose essential oils suitable for soy wax? You can refer to the evaluations (Soy performance) listed by Candle Science to understand if the essential oil is suitable for use on soy wax.
Take Cedarwood (Virginian) for example, it only get 1 point af the soy performance. So you'd expect adding Cedarwood is not the first priority when making essential oil candle.
2. Record the proportion of wax used each time:
The fragrance intensity of essential oil candles is subjective. If it's homemade, it can be adjusted according to personal preferences. Different types of wax have different melting points, hardness, transparency, and fragrance retention.
From the following burning experiments, we can observe that beeswax burns the longest, followed by soy wax, and the shortest is paraffin wax. Beeswax is quite expensive, so pure beeswax is rarely found on the market. Soy wax is generally considered to have relatively poor fragrance retention, but it is the least likely to produce black smoke. If you use soy wax, you can still achieve a decent fragrance retention effect by using pure soy wax, but if you want it to burn a bit longer, you can appropriately increase the proportion of beeswax.
3. Choose the right candle wick material and size:
The wick's material influences the candle's scent as different materials burn at different rates. Cotton wicks create wider wax pools but may produce more smoke, so choose the size and material of your wick based on the candle's container and desired burn characteristics.
Most major sellers will specify the recommended wick size for the container. If you are making an essential oil candle yourself, be sure to consult the seller, as each candle wick can vary slightly in size.
4. Use a Thermometer Correctly:
When formulating essential oil-infused wax products, it is crucial to use a reliable and accurate thermometer, rather than relying on potentially inaccurate infrared "thermometer guns." Infrared devices can provide inconsistent temperature readings, which can negatively impact the proper blending and integration of the essential oils into the wax. Investing in a trustworthy thermometer is a small but vital step in making essential oil candle, as it helps guarantee the essential oils mix properly and integrate seamlessly with the wax, producing the desired scent and consistency.
5. Trim the wick of your essential oil candle
Before lighting the essential oil candle, trim the wick to about 0.5 cm to minimize smoke and ensure even scent release, aviod candle tunneling.
A too long candle wick may result in "Mushrooming" (see the left picture) while the too short candle wick may cause candle tunneling. (see the right pictures)
The Key Takeaway
If your essential oil candle is purchased from a store, make sure you choose the suitable candle according to your room size.
If you essential oil candle is made by yourself, there are five things you need to consider, quality and raio of essential oils, wax proportions, wick material and size, and thermometer. By considering these factors, you can enhance the fragrance of your essential oil candles, whether they're homemade or purchased.
