Hobby & Craft Forums

As you all already know, my candle making stuff arrived today but I'm not sure how much scent to use in my candles. I have a kilogram of wax and read somewhere that the ratio of scent to wax should be around and 'ounze of fragrance for every pound of wax'. I know this sounds like a really daft question but having never done it before I thought it'd be worthwhile asking to avoid mistakes...does the ounze of fragrance in this instance mean a fluid ounze or an ounze in weight? I ordered 30 mls but now I don't think this is going to be enough to give the recommended 5-6% ration of fragrance to wax???

urmmm really don't know as i've never made a candle before but i'm guessing if you fragrance is liquid then it's fluid ounce and vice versa...me i'd do it like i cook , chuck it in bit by bit till i think it's right ..........as #3 son the chef says " you can take it out if you add to much but you can add more if it's not enough" ...i think he is talking about ingredients and not booze,lol

Isn't that normally the other way around as in you can add more if not enough but can't take out if there's too much lol!

Too much scent can apparently adversly affect the candle's burn apparently so I need to get it right!

ooops that what i ment,lol, goes to show in this noisy house you can't even hear yourself think,lol

can't you mix up a small batch and try adding it a bit at a time to see which works best,everything has to have a trial before you do the "proper" ones..you end up with some waste ( i have a big box full of stuff waiting to be taken apart , it's my " i wonder if this will work" box..you're bound to get some waste when you try a craft new to you)

Yes, I guess so Becks, I haven't got time to do it tonight as I need to get a couple of hours sleep in before going to work tonight. I robably won't get around to doing it until Sunday or Monday so I'll see what I can find out in the meantime. There seems to be loads of stuff everywhere on the net about candle and soap making etc but no actual recipes so they're all a bit useless really lol! I'll work it out somehow...I'm now also wondering if I can convert the liquid weight a jar holds into the solid wax flakes equivelent i.e. fill the jar up to the required level with water, then measure it and weigh it and see if the equivelent amount of wax in weight will fill the jar to the same level when melted? I obviously have some experimenting to do lol!

easy enough to do a test.. get a 100ml measuring spoon.. Cheapie Asda basics will do - fill with melted wax, you can cool it quickly with water and weigh the wax when cold.. then multiply up for the volume of your container

lol....that lost me , sorry...get some sleep , i did 15 years of working permanant nights in a care home , i know you can never have enough sleep,lol
i think practice ,practice and more practice is the key...

sparkysdad wrote:easy enough to do a test.. get a 100ml measuring spoon.. Cheapie Asda basics will do - fill with melted wax, you can cool it quickly with water and weigh the wax when cold.. then multiply up for the volume of your container

the voice of reason,lol

I believe an ounce in a 'recipe' is a liquid measurement - so long since I did any candle making though!!!

This is a useful site - http://www.soywaxcandles.org/

Oh and just found this which says it is fluid ounces - 1fl oz to 16 fl oz of melted wax - http://www.soywaxcandles.org/soy_wax_&_fragrance.htm

If you're doing a Google for recipes it's worth using the USA Spelling of Soy instead of Soya...you'll get more results

Yes, that's the kind of thing I was thinking of Gord, there doesn't seem to be anything on the net that works this out for you. I guess it's a good idea for a blog and an onine calculator as it cuts down on wastage and especially if you want to make a few different ones in different colours and fragrances. God, I'm so full of ideas lately, I don't know what's come over me lol. I even have an idea for a new tool which I'm going to get Alan to knock up as a prototype and may even think about patenting lol!