Every candle maker eventually runs into a common frustration: candles that don’t smell strong enough or don’t burn as well as expected. The good news? These issues can almost always be traced back to a few key factors. With some simple adjustments, you can turn a weak candle into a powerful fragrance experience.
Weak Scent Throw: Why Your Candle Isn’t Filling the Room
A weak scent throw can be caused by many factors, but the most common culprits include wax, fragrance oil load, wick choice, and curing time.
1. Check Your Fragrance Load
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Make sure you’re working within the recommended percentage for your wax. For example, soy wax often performs best around 6–10%, while other blends can handle more.
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Adding too much fragrance can backfire, causing poor binding or even oil seepage, which actually reduces scent throw.
2. Cure Time Matters
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For soy and natural wax blends, allow your candles to cure for at least 1–2 weeks.
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This gives the wax and fragrance oil time to bond properly, leading to a richer hot throw.
3. Wax Type and Quality
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Not all waxes hold fragrance equally. Softer waxes may have a better cold throw but weaker hot throw. Harder waxes often need higher temperatures to release scent.
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Experiment with different blends or consider adding natural additives like stearic acid to enhance performance.
4. Wick Size and Positioning
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An undersized wick may not create a large enough melt pool to release fragrance.
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Ensure the wick is centred and trimmed to 5 mm before burning for optimal performance.
Weak Burning Performance: When Your Candle Struggles to Burn
Sometimes the problem isn’t the scent - it’s the flame itself. Weak burning performance can lead to tunnelling, drowning wicks, or short burn times.
1. Melt Pool Depth
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A healthy candle should reach a full melt pool (wax melted across the surface) within 3–4 hours of burning.
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If tunnelling occurs, try increasing wick size.
2. Wick Type
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Different wicks perform differently depending on wax type and fragrance oil. For example, cotton wicks may work well with softer blends, while wood wicks provide stronger heat for harder waxes.
3. Additives and Colourants
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Heavy loads of dye, mica, or glitter can clog the wick, making it burn weakly.
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Keep these additions light to maintain flame strength.
4. Room Conditions
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Drafts, fans, or air conditioning can disturb the flame and cause uneven burning.
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Burn test in a draft-free room for best results.
Quick Fixes You Can Try Today
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Trim your wick before every burn to prevent mushrooming and soot.
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Test multiple wick sizes with the same fragrance load to see which one produces the best performance.
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Track your pour temperature - pouring too hot or too cold can affect both fragrance binding and surface finish.
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Conduct burn tests in consistent conditions and take notes for comparison.
Final Thoughts
Weak scent throw or poor burning performance doesn’t mean you’ve done something wrong, it simply means you’re still testing and refining. Candle making is as much science as it is art. With the right balance of fragrance load, wick size, wax choice, and patience, you’ll be able to create candles that look, burn, and smell exactly the way you envisioned.
