13/08/2026
Did you know that sometimes using less fragrance oil can actually give you a better result? ๐
Itโs really easy to assume that if a product isnโt smelling strong enough, the answer is to add more fragrance oil. But that isnโt always the case.
For example, you might normally use 10% fragrance in your wax melts or candles, but find that a particular scent actually performs better at 8%.
Why?
Because every fragrance oil is made up differently. Some contain much stronger, more powerful materials than others, so the same percentage doesn't always produce the same result from one oil to the next.
A fragrance that is naturally very strong may already perform beautifully at a lower percentage, while pushing it higher can sometimes create problems rather than improve the scent.
Using too much fragrance oil can affect things like:
โจ Hot throw and cold throw
โจ How well the wax holds the oil
โจ Sweating or oil seepage
โจ Wick performance
โจ Burn quality
โจ Texture and appearance
โจ Cure behaviour
โจ Overall stability of the finished product
And importantly, more oil does not always equal more scent.
Once you reach a certain point, adding extra fragrance oil may make very little noticeable difference. In some formulations, it can even make performance worse. This is why testing different percentages can be so useful.
If you normally work at 10%, try testing the same fragrance oil at 8%, 9% and 10% under the same conditions. Keep everything else the same - same wax, same wick if itโs a candle, same cure time, same vessel or mould and the same testing method.
You may be surprised at which one performs best.
It can also save you money.
If a fragrance performs just as well - or even better - at 8% than it does at 10%, there is little benefit in using that extra 2% in every batch.
Across larger production runs, that can add up to a considerable amount of fragrance oil.
There's another important point to consider too - your chosen percentage must always remain within the maximum permitted level for that fragrance and product category, and within the limits recommended for your chosen wax or base.
So, if IFRA allows a fragrance at 15%, that doesnโt mean 15% is the percentage you should use.
Likewise, just because your wax can hold up to 10% or 12% fragrance does not mean every fragrance needs to be pushed to that maximum. Those figures are limits - not targets.
The sweet spot is the percentage that gives you the best overall finished product after proper testing. For one fragrance oil, that might be 10%. For another, it might be 8%. Another might perform brilliantly at 6%.
There really isnโt one universal fragrance percentage that works perfectly for every oil.
Sometimes less genuinely is more - better performance, fewer formulation problems, and a lower cost per product too ๐ฉท โจ
Shout out to Kaz for this Q&A suggestion ๐ซถ
