Fragrance load is the amount of fragrance oil in a candle, expressed as a percentage of the total wax weight. Most candle makers work somewhere between 6% and 10% — enough to scent the room without breaking the burn. It sounds like a small number, but it’s one of the most important decisions in candle production: too little and the candle barely smells, too much and it stops working as a candle at all.
What fragrance load actually means
If you pour 1 kg of wax at an 8% load, you’re adding 80 g of fragrance oil. That’s it — load is simply oil weight as a share of wax weight. It’s calculated against the wax, not the finished candle, which trips up a lot of first-timers. Getting the maths right matters because every other variable, from throw to burn quality, follows from this ratio.
The recommended range: 6–10%
As a general rule, 6% to 10% by weight covers most candles. Below about 6% you’ll often struggle to get a scent that fills a room; above 10% you start running into performance problems rather than a stronger scent. There’s a ceiling where the wax simply can’t hold more oil — past it, the extra fragrance doesn’t bind and causes more harm than good.
Load by wax type
Different waxes hold oil differently, so the right load depends on what you’re pouring:
- Soy wax — typically holds 6–8%. Natural soy has a lower oil capacity, and pushing past its limit tends to cause sweating and poor burns.
- Paraffin wax — can carry more, often up to 10–12%. Its structure binds oil well, which is part of why it throws strongly.
- Coconut and blended waxes — vary by blend; coconut and coconut-soy blends often sit comfortably in the 8–10% range. Always check the supplier’s stated maximum for the specific blend.
If you’re working with a particular wax, it’s worth confirming the right load for it rather than assuming — we can recommend a starting point for your blend.
Why more isn’t better
It’s tempting to add extra oil to get a stronger candle. It usually backfires:
- Sweating — excess oil the wax can’t bind rises to the surface as oily droplets.
- Poor or sooty burn — too much fragrance disrupts the flame and can cause smoking.
- Seizing and wick problems — overloaded wax can clog the wick and tunnel.
Past a wax’s capacity, more oil means a worse candle, not a more fragrant one. The goal is the highest load the wax can carry cleanly — not the highest load you can pour.
How to test your load
Treat load as something you test, not guess. Pour small batches at two or three loads — say 6%, 8%, and 10% — in the exact wax, wick, and vessel you’ll use in production. Let them cure fully, then burn each and judge both the scent and the burn quality. The winner is the load that gives you the strongest clean scent without sweating, sooting, or tunnelling. Keep notes; this becomes your repeatable spec.
Don’t forget the paperwork
Fragrance materials carry IFRA usage limits for candles, and if you’re selling commercially you’ll want the supporting documentation — IFRA certificates, MSDS, and DG classification for shipping. It’s worth knowing your numbers sit within those limits before you scale a batch. Our guide to the documentation you need to sell and export covers what to ask your supplier for.
The other half of the equation
Load determines how much scent is available — but how that scent actually performs, lit and unlit, is a separate question. That’s hot throw versus cold throw, and it depends on oil quality and wax as much as load.
If you’d like a fragrance load recommendation for your specific wax — and oils built to perform at it — tell us what you’re working with and we’ll send samples to test.
