Any point testing scents you hate in the bottle?

[Lisa B.]

I'm new to candle making and have been disappointed in the FOs I've ordered from CS. Some smell okay and frasier fir turned out nice in my first batch of candles. But I feel like I smell a chemical undertone in almost all of them. Three in particular--gin and cypress, pomegranate bitters, and mediterranean fig smell so fake and/or perfumey/powdery that I'm wondering if I should even waste the wax and wicks to test them. Any thoughts? 

 

Am trying some single note scents, citrus, pine and floral types, from AAA, but they haven't arrived yet. Overwhelmed by the number of suppliers out there! Finding the right one feels like throwing darts in the dark!  

 

Thanks for any advice you can offer!

[KrisS]

The unfortunate answer is "sometimes".  If a fragrance is perfect OOB, there's a very distinct chance that it may not throw well in the candle.  The flipside is that I've had FOs that were somewhat off-putting OOB that were amazing burning. Not helpful and not what you wanted to hear, I'm sure...but you really won't know unless you test.

[bfroberts]

I usually use questionable scents to make a batch of melts because even though I may not care for it, my customers may.  Many times I’ve ended up loving the scent in wax even though I didn’t care for it OOB.  An OOB sniff isn’t necessarily true to how the finished product will smell.  This seems to be especially true in complex or higher quality oils.
 

 

[TallTayl]

They can always “bloom” differently out of bottle.  If really unsure, add a couple of drops to a paper towel and see hot it smells in a day or three. 
 

or just add some to a melt, as other suggested, to see how they meld.

 

ive gotten to the point of rejecting out of bottle if I smell powder and similar notes. I know that weird plastic/chemical smell you describe, and usually reject those too.