FO's percentages

[Tasha]

How do you determine the percentage of fo's. I know generally it is recommened 1oz per lb. But I have been seeing %'s a lot on this board. Here is an example that I found at wholesale supplies plus today.

fo: witches brew

• Soy & Paraffin Wax (Maximum Use 6-10% - See Wax)

could someone please explain this to me.

[Flicker]

Here is an easy way to know what percent you are adding to the wax

There are 16 oz in a pound so based on a pound of wax say I want to add an oz per lb. To do this multiply 16 x .0625 (6.25%) and it comes out to 1. So 6.25% is 1 oz added to a pound of wax. Say you want to figure what 9% would be you'd take 16 x .09 = 1.44

The nice thing is this will keep things consistant for you. Always figure it using total ounces and remember that you always move your decimal two places to the left for a percentage ie; 6.25% = .0625

Hope this helps ya out

[ah-soy]

How do you determine the percentage of fo's. I know generally it is recommened 1oz per lb. But I have been seeing %'s a lot on this board. Here is an example that I found at wholesale supplies plus today.

fo: witches brew

• Soy & Paraffin Wax (Maximum Use 6-10% - See Wax)

could someone please explain this to me.

It just means that 6% is the minimum recommend amount and 10% is the max you should use.

[topofmurrayhill]

Flicker, I'm afraid your numbers are way off.

1 oz added to 1 lb wax is 1/17 = .0588 (5.88% FO)

1.44 oz added to 1 lb wax is 1.44/17.44 = .0826 or (8.26% FO)

Tasha, to answer your question, percentage formulas are a different way of doing things that you may not want to get into at this point. The translation between one method and the other isn't quite as straightforward as it looks.

To interpret the percentages you see, you can just estimate. Assume that 1 oz per pound is 6%. Therefore 1/2 oz pp = 3%, 1 1/2 oz pp = 9%, 2 oz pp = 12% etc.

[CareBear]

TOP, I totally agree with your math (adding the FO into the total weight) but have a question.

If I'm looking to add the FO at, say, 10% then I cannot simply add 0.1*16oz because then I actually end up with 9.1% FO. (1.6/(1.6+16))

How do chandlers REALLY do their calculations? Just estimate as above?

[Flicker]

Flicker, I'm afraid your numbers are way off.

1 oz added to 1 lb wax is 1/17 = .0588 (5.88% FO)

1.44 oz added to 1 lb wax is 1.44/17.44 = .0826 or (8.26% FO)

Tasha, to answer your question, percentage formulas are a different way of doing things that you may not want to get into at this point. The translation between one method and the other isn't quite as straightforward as it looks.

To interpret the percentages you see, you can just estimate. Assume that 1 oz per pound is 6%. Therefore 1/2 oz pp = 3%, 1 1/2 oz pp = 9%, 2 oz pp = 12% etc.

Actually top, we are both right. Because most people cannot comprehend the adding to create a pound like you were the typical and standard in the supply industry is to add an oz of fo TO a pound of wax, not add fo to create a pound such as you've done.

So to add an oz to a pound if you take 16 oz x .0625 = 1 oz. That would add an oz of scent to a pound of wax. The way you explained it makes it a pound...I know how to do that also however find it much more confusing to people to do.

[topofmurrayhill]

CareBear, there are two common conventions you can use.

1 - You can do a ratio relative to a pound of wax, such as ounces of FO or spoonfuls of additive per lb. This can work OK for a lot of simple applications, but it has significant limitations. For instance, 1 oz pp FO is a higher concentration of fragrance than 1 oz FO + 2 TBS stearic per lb. Your stearic has watered down your fragrance, so to speak. This method also assumes there's a predominant ingredient called wax and all the additions to it are relatively small. It isn't always the case. For instance, if you were mixing up a low-shrink container blend from scratch, there wouldn't be a good way of expressing your formulation using this method.

2 - Alternatively you can use percentage formulas, which work perfectly in all cases, from the simplest to the most complex. Simply calculate the weight of every ingredient according to its percentage of the batch size. For instance, 10% FO, 5% stearic and 85% wax. A 10 lb batch would be 1 lb FO, 1/2 lb stearic and 8 1/2 lbs wax.

One common weirdness is to use the ratio method but express all the additions as percentages of the wax weight. There's no reason to do that. It implies you're calculating the concentrations of the ingredients when you're not. In fact, 1 oz per pound is a closer approximation of 6% than 16 x .06 per pound.

[MissMary]

My head hurts.

[CareBear]

Thanks Top - I'm a mathie, so always did the calculations based on totals, especially having come from the B&B side. Then I started to realize folks over here don't do that. I think I'll go back to being precise... otherwise I get anxious that I may not be able to reproduce something (or is that accurate, I get those two mixed up).

[Stella1952]

• Soy & Paraffin Wax (Maximum Use 6-10% - See Wax)

could someone please explain this to me.

Tasha, each individual wax has a recommended amount of FO it will hold (without additives). Some waxes will hold more than others. Some additives will allow the wax to hold more FO. So the above means, as ah-soy said, that the FO manufacturer recommends using from 6% - 10%, depending on what your wax will hold. HTH

[Tereasa]

I completely understand Top's methodology... but, as some of you may know, I have argumentative tendencies.

If a wax has a range of 6-10% FO load, that means that it's 6-10% of the wax, correct? So, that would be, for example, 6% of the wax... not 6% of the total weight. Am I making myself understood correctly?

[topofmurrayhill]

I completely understand Top's methodology... but, as some of you may know, I have argumentative tendencies.

If a wax has a range of 6-10% FO load, that means that it's 6-10% of the wax, correct? So, that would be, for example, 6% of the wax... not 6% of the total weight.

It means 6% of the candle.

[Tereasa]

ok, good to know

[TxSioux]

Are you totally confused, yet, Tasha? I can diagram a sentence, but it's almost painful to see me struggle through simple math. I'll freely admit that the answers here made my head spin & I had to pull out notes to get me back on track. It's easy to use 1oz or 1.5oz fo & never know the %, but it will come in to play. I'm not going to debate math, cause I'm a self professed idiot, but I'll share the 3 equations that solve every problem I've encountered. The math whizzes may turn up their noses at my Candle Math for Dummies version, but here's what I've found to work:

To figure out the % of fo take the amount of fo & divide by the amount of wax.

Ex: 1oz fo divided by 16oz wax = 6%.

The quick chart pp wax is: 1/2oz fo = 3%, 1oz fo = 6%, 1 1/2oz fo = 9%.

Once you know the % of fo you use, you can determine the amount of fo you need for specific containers. If you want to pour an 8oz container: 8 x 9% = .72oz fo. For multiple containers, add them all up & keep the total in oz's.

If you have an odd amount of fo left in a bottle & want to know how much wax to add: take the amount of fo & divide by your fo %. Ex: .7oz fo & you work w/ a 9% fo load. So, .7 divided by 9% = 7.78oz wax.

As you can see, the math is loose & technically 'off' by a hair, but it's close enough for making a good candle. Now, if you plan on making soap or B&B products ... you have to be very accurate w/ your math.

HTH -- Susan.

[Tasha]

I am at this point with all the different variations confused now. The first reply did make since. I am not shame to say that beyond the basics math is a headache for me. I will try the them all and see what happens.