How Strong?

[JennyJ]

I just need a little input regarding fragrance loads. When scenting your candles, do you scent it with the strength that you like it or the strength you preceive your customers will like it. I know this sounds like a strange question but I got mixed reviews on some tester candles recently. I like a strong candle with a strong scent throw so I made one with 1.5 oz f/o per lb and one with 1 oz per lb, My testers, females, all chose the 1 oz per lb because they do not like to buy/burn strong candles, one felt that a candle should be like "background music" you know it's there, but it's not drowning you out. I thought that was very interesting. The men who smelled the testers chose the strongest, I found that interesting too. So...what do you do?

[nayarx8]

i advertise my candles as strong, so i make them strong! 1 1/2 oz. FO pp soy wax. but, i will make them less intense if they request it.

[RobinInOR]

I'm a "background music" type of chandler, I don't do strong scents. I don't like them, so I tend to find customers with the same dislike of really strong scents.

All depends on what kind of market you want to target - die hard candle lovers who love strong thing, or other types that use candles for other purposes (decoration, light, whatever)

[7Angela7]

I like mine strong and make 'em strong, but not run you out of the house strong. On really strong FO's, I will decrease the amount I add...for instance, instead of the usual 1 oz., I might add only .5 or .6 oz. depending on the FO.

[Scented]

We tend to go for the strong also, but rarely go for the 1.5 oz pp except on really light scents.

[candlesprite7]

Generally, the 1oz. pp is what everyone likes. I have had one person ask for stronger and one for lighter.

[butterfinger]

I usually use 8% to 9% pp. Most of my customers like strong scented candles.

[Tallbabydoll]

For me it also depends on the fo, and the kind of scent. I generally go with 1oz pp on most scents. But I do like my sweet scents stronger, and my florals weaker. I have yet to come acrossed a person that liked a really strong floral. For example I was warned to start with .5oz on lavender, and did, it was way to strong for me, but I am not a fan of floral scents. So I gave the rest of these votives to my mother. She also said they were to strong, based soley on cold throw, she wouldn't even burn them. So I remelted them and added a half pound of wax, still had a great cold throw and a strong hot throw, but was burnable for a couple of hours in a large room. I now use .25 oz of this fo.

Keep in mind that thanks to candle nose, your nose is not the best judge of strength.

[sudsnwicks]

I guess I would describe mine as 'medium', as I use a little less than 1 oz (somewhere between 0.5 and 1 oz). Even so, there are already people sneezing when they walk by my booth at the craft fair. Some said they have allergies ... I guess I won't be making mine stronger.