Fuel smell with some FO, want to play along?

[TallTayl]

It’s well known that some scents, like orange, pine, etc, can throw a fuel smell when burning.  Common advice is to add a little vanilla to curb it. 

 

For the last last few days I have been doing a final burn test on a peppermint FO that smelled perfect in the original candle.  This one, though, smells fuely. 

 

Likewise, a few orange scents, sweet pea and fir smelled fuelly to a close candle making friend while they smelled fine in my own. 

 

The difference was wicks. Original tin had csn12. This new one has cd12. Light bulb moment. CSN burn ever so slightly cooler than cd in this particular wax blend. 

 

Or those who found success adding vanilla, When adding vanilla it changes the burn of most every candle wax. In essence the flame burns lightly cooler as the wick is forced to work harder to burn the fuel. The heavy scent like vanilla will cause a wick to usually burn a bit cooler, thereby relieving the fuel smell. This same phenomenon of a “fixed” fuel smell happens with patchouli (known by all to be really hard to burn). Any of my delicate fragrances and essential oils with a tiny amount of patchouli will change by up to 4 wick sizes. 

 

my test, should you want to play along, is to wick that peppermint fuel scent a little cooler. The first and simplest test for me today is to wick from a cd12 back to a csn12  through a wickectomy in this already made and cured tin. 

 

The next test (once my summer Faire is over) will be to mix a small percentage of either vanilla or patchouli to this peppermint to see if the cd wick magically improves.