It’s important to know when to add fragrance to soy candles. You can’t just melt the soy wax and dump the fragrance oil in. So many people watch a quick Youtube video on making soy candles, or any candle making for that matter, and the video doesn’t go into any detail on the proper way to do things. Then you have people just throwing candles together and thinking it’s good enough because they don’t know any better. With soy wax, it’s especially important to get the right fragrance oils and to know when to add the fragrance to the soy wax. Soy wax tends to have a harder time with fragrance throw when burning. You have to test your soy candles to find out which fragrance oils are best, how much to use and make sure you add them at the right temperature.

What Temperature Should You Add Fragrance to Soy Candle Wax?

Adding fragrance to your soy candle wax depends on what kind of wax you are using and what brand. Usually with 100% soy wax you want to melt your soy candle wax to 185 degrees and then add your fragrance oil at 175-185. This ensures that the oil mixes well with the wax. If you add it too cool, it will not incorporate with the wax very well. Heating your soy wax too hot can cause it to discolor which is not good if you are using no dye. It could also cause the soy candle not burn well.

With soy votive, soy pillar and soy tart wax blends, you want to melt your wax to 195-200 degrees and then let it cool down to 180-185 to add your fragrance oil. Then you will usually pour the soy wax into the molds at around 160-175 F. Soy votive/pillar/tart wax has natural additives that make the wax harder so they can stand on their own, like pillar candles do. This is why you need to melt the wax at a hotter temperature.

Type of Soy Wax Determines When to Add Fragrance Oil

Different soy wax manufacturers may have different instructions, so follow those first if they differ from what I’ve told you. If that doesn’t work well, then try the above temps to add your fragrance oil. There are many different types of soy wax and they also may have different temperatures to heat them up to so make sure to follow those instructions.

Knowing when to add fragrance to soy candles is an important step in the process of candle making.

Questions? Feel free to ask!

CLICK HERE to get The Soy Candle Making Book Now

Here is a question I was emailed recently about scent throw in soy wax melts. She has been trying to make good tarts since last October but hasn’t been able to figure out what’s wrong. We emailed back and forth and I was finally able to give her a solution after ruling out some possibilities as to why her soy melts/tarts were not giving any scent throw.

Question:

I use soy golden blend 444- I ordered a lot so I am trying to make it work for me-I add FO at 185 – started out using 1 oz then 1 1/2 oz. then 2 oz FO. I have allot of different FO scents that I try-some come from Natures Garden-Peak-LoneStar. Anyway I am not getting much scent throw-I make Melts not candles and I have tried everything I have read about..

I want this to work for me but I am thinking about giving up-It has been over a year now trying different things-I even have added paraffin to it, etc..I use a double boiler to melt my wax and I get the temp. correct..What could I be doing wrong? Any suggestions as to what I should do differently? I have spent allot of money and need to get some return if possible-I want a good product to sell and want people to want it for the scent throw, I can’t sell something I don’t feel is really great myself…

Anyway wanted to ask you what Could be the problem with the scent throw..I need to stand right over it to smell it..Oh and I use electric plug ins as a melter along with a ceramic burner that uses a tealight candle as a source of heat to melt the melts, So by using two different things to melt them in for testing I feel as if I have that covered ..I am in hopes you read this and say you know exactly what I need to do to fix this. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated..Thank you..

So we emailed back and forth, me asking what fragrances she was using in order to determine if the fragrances might be the problem since some fragrances just don’t give off much hot scent throw, and some don’t do well in soy wax. Although, with melts this is not usually as much as a problem as with wick candles because the melts or tarts melt down all the way releasing the fragrance more freely. So from what she told me, she was heating the wax and cooling it just fine, pouring at the right temp, stirring completely and all that.

At first I was a little stumped because a couple of the fragrances she mentioned were ones that I have had great scent throw with, but I did not buy mine from the same fragrance suppliers that she had listed above. In fact the only one of those suppliers I’ve bought fragrance oils from is Natures Garden and I think I only have 2 fragrances from them. So after much thought and then finding that I did have one fragrance oil on hand that she had listed, I made my own test batch of soy wax melts using votive wax and also another using container wax. I tested the Muscadine Grape and after letting them sit for 24 hours, I test melted one in two different burners. Sure enough, no scent throw!

I have never really had a problem with scent throw in my soy wax melts, so I couldn’t figure out what was wrong until I tested that fragrance. Then I thought it had to be the scents that she had bought. Fragrance oils can vary greatly from one company to the next, so it’s good to buy from companies that have oils specifically for use in soy. Also, like I said above, some fragrances just aren’t very strong and aren’t going to throw well no matter what you do.

So anyway, I decided to send her a 2oz sample of my Crushed Strawberry and Rhubarb from Candle Cocoon since that one has a very strong throw and you just can’t go wrong with it!

So this is the email I got back from her after she received her sample and made some tarts with it:

Hey, Well I sent a package to my daughter-n-law to try..Smells up her whole house! I was looking at the place where you buy from, It is like 30.00 for 16 oz..But It would be worth it to get a good scent throw..You have made me very happy, I can make a melt that smells good, I was ready to give up, now I am excited thanks to you…..Anyway wanted to update you, I am So thankful you did this for me, Thank you…

I was so happy to be able to help her out with this! It made my day! This is why I started this website, because I love helping people. If you have a question or problem with your soy candles, please don’t hesitate to ask. I am here to help, or at least try. I’ve made successful soy candles for several years and I remember what it was like when I first started out and had to dig and dig for answers.