Necessary amount of carrier/solvent

[pouroverguy]

Greetings all,

I have been practicing fragrance creation for about two years now and am beginning to take my first steps into making candles. I utilize both aromachemicals as well as essential oils but will refer to both items as simply "AC's" After reading a few other threads on Basenotes about candle-making, I am pondering the amount of carrier oil that must be used in a single candle. I have read that candles may typically be ~5-10% fragrance oil and ~90-95% wax, with maybe a percent or two subtracted for stabilizer and/or UV protection chemicals. My question is, will a minimum of ~5% oil be necessary if I'm using high-impact materials? Here is my basic composition using a 20% strength fragrance oil:

2.5g AC's
10g Dioctyl Adipate
237.5g (464) Natural Soy Wax

Is 10g absolutely necessary for equal dispersion of AC's?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[David Ruskin]

What do you mean by "a 20% strength fragrance oil"? Are you buying fragrance oils to use in your candles? Or are you making your own fragrances suitable for use in candles?

When making your own fragrances, there are no fixed rules governing the amount of solvent or ACs. The usual concentration of fragrance ( ACs plus solvents) for a candle is between 2.0% and 10.0%. Usually anything below 2.0% will be far too weak, anything above 10.0% will probably produce a candle that is too soft.

I never found it necessary to add extra solvent ( Dioctyl Adipate, iso Propyl Myristate, or Diethyl Phthalate) to my finished fragrance, although I did use any of these solvents when creating my fragrance.

If you are buying pre-made fragrance oils rather than creating your own, may I suggest you address your questions to the supplier of those fragrance oils.