Hi everyone. I've been lurking here for a few years now since I became extremely interested in making candles. I have some basic general questions I can't seem to find the answers to so I finally signed up to communicate with others and learn more about all of this. I hope someone can help with these.
1. Generally, would you say the smell out of a fragrance bottle is as strong as it can possibly get when properly mixed with the strongest throwing wax? I've bought fragrance oils from Candle Science and The Flaming Candle and I want to say a good number of them seeem very light when smelling them right out of the bottle.
2. I see people saying they "can get away with higher fragrance load". This to me sounds like the higher the fragrance load, the more potential of a better throw but I could be misinterpreting statements like that. Some people have said "that wax shouldn't need more than 6% FO"...so does that mean it's going to smell lighter than waxes that can take 12%?
3. Immediately after wax hardens, let's say a few hours later, is it normal for the cold throw to be VERY minimal, practically nonexistent? Just unsure if full cure time is needed for the cold throw to really be noticeable.
I've tried 4 different waxes: I've had terrible results both with CT and HT using a Coco/Soy blend I got from Virginia Candle Supply and IGI 6006 (both made on their own). And so far barely any cold throw out of IGI 4630 and a 50/50 blend of IGI 4630/GB 464 but I made just a few yesterday afternoon so too early to tell on those. I follow manufacturer instructions perfectly so I'm trying to figure out where the problem starts exactly in my case. I can tell you I am very meticulous when it comes to process...I'm just unsure of my ingredients and recipe and how/when to tell if those are fine. Overall, I'm leaning towards the fragrance load that I use being the main culprit of my problems (I used 10% yesterday in the 4630 and the 50/50 blend of 4630/464) because some scents ARE very strong right out of the bottle but when blended in the wax, the CT and HT are still practically non existent.
I'm aware that the wick is important too. But the CT being at basically 0 is my first obstacle that I want to overcome.