Figuring Candle Burn Time and How Much Scent is Needed

Figuring how much scent is needed for your wax.

First of all let me clear some things up and possibly ruin some secrets of candle makers.

12 OUNCES EQUALS

DOUBLE SCENTED!

TRIPLE SCENTED!

These are marketing terms created to help sell candles.

They are in fact not true. Most candle waxes hold 1 ounce of scent per pound of wax. That's it, No more. That would be like putting 16 ounces into a 12-ounce container but with scent and wax it doesn't overflow.

So what happens if I put three times as much scent as the wax can hold?

The excess scent can seep through the bottom and sides of the candle. This can cause major problems due to the fact that most scents are so highly concentrated that they can burn or irritate your skin. We don't want that to happen.

The scent will chemically bond with the wax, you can't force more atoms of the scent to bond to the wax. At least not with the tools that we are using.

So here is the formula that I stick with. You can experiment on your own but you have been warned.

Let's try a simple example. I have one pound of wax. Well then I only need one ounce of scent. That's easy enough but what if I have a candle that uses 1 pound 5 ounces of wax? That's where it gets fun.

I need to convert that 5 ounces into a fraction. It is really 5 parts of a total of 16 due to the fact that there are 16 ounces in a pound.

So that would give us a fraction of 5/16

Now I have something I can work with. I take that fraction and turn it into a whole number by dividing the bottom number 16 into the top number 5. This gives us .3125. I will say .3

So now we know the 5 ounces equals .3, so we can say we have 1.3 pounds of wax. Now using the formula one-ounce per pound we get 1.3 ounces of scent!

How to Figure A Candle's Burn Time

Figuring out how long your candle will burn is a relatively easy task. You will need to do some simple tests. First, weigh your candle. Note the weight.

Next light it and let it burn for an hour. When the hour is up, weigh it again. This will tell you how much wax was used in that hour.

For instance if we have a candle that weighs five ounces before burning, we then light the candle and let it burn for one hour. The candle now weighs 4 ounces. So we have used one ounce of that candle in one hour. If it burns one ounce per hour and there are 5 ounces in the candle, then the candle would last about 5 hours.

Figuring Candle Burn Time and How Much Scent is Needed

12 OUNCES EQUALS