Candle Making Fragrance: Smelling Good With Scents

If you are making candles to sell to the public, you already know that most buyers want a luxurious scent to go along with a candle that has quality burn characteristics. Most of the products advertised on the internet, in magazines, or on television laud the fact that they smell nice.Candle making fragrance and essential oils are the primary products used to create scented candles.

What is an essential oil?  One authoritative definition describes it as a concentrated, hydrophobic liquid that has volatile aroma compounds, and it is derived from plants.  An essential oil is also known as volatile or ethereal oil.  That makes it sound more like something to keep away from than something to put in a candle.

Realistically, essential oils are called that because they carry an essence or distinctive scent of the plant they are derived from.  Essential oils are extracted from the plants of origin and used in perfumes, soaps, cosmetics, incense, food flavorings, and household cleaners.  One of the more popular uses, other than candles, is in aromatherapy.

Some of the plants used for these oils are lavender, peppermint, eucalyptus, and citrus plants.  Essential oils are very strong, but do not work well with paraffin wax candles.  They show better characteristics in soy wax.

Fragrance oils are synthetically blended oils, sometimes called aroma or flavor oils.  Fragrance oils can contain diluted essential oils, vegetable oils, and mineral oils.  They are sometimes used in perfumes, but are considered less desirable than the essential oils in this particular application.

In candles, fragrance oils work better than the essential oils.  This is true in paraffin wax candles because the fragrance mixes better with the wax.  In soy wax, some candle makers believe the essential oils are better.

Another way to add fragrance to candles is through scent sticks.  These are made from fragrance oils.  It generally takes more of the solid than it does of the liquid to get similar results in the aroma.  Some candle makers do not use scent sticks because they believe they are inferior.

 There are three ways to scent candles.  The recommended way is to add it into the wax while it is a liquid.  If it is adequately mixed into the wax, the fragrance will be distributed throughout the candle.

 Soaking the wick in fragrance or essential oil before the wax is poured around it is another way that some candle makers do their scenting.  Some even pour the candle without a wick and bore a hole after it sets to push the scented wick into.

 If you have an existing candle with no scent, you may choose to drill small holes parallel with the wick and pour in the fragrance oil.  Three or four holes equally spaced around and equally spaced from the wick should be enough. After the liquid fills the holes, push wax over the hole to seal it up until the candle is lit.

 Candle making fragrance takes the most mundane candle and gives it aromatic life.  There is an endless variety of scents available in essential and fragrance oils, and those can be mixed and blended to achieve many more variations of aromatic fragrance.