Do scented candles loose their scent over time? Eventually, they won’t have the same smell and will no longer be functional.
Candles are a great way to create a relaxing atmosphere at home. However, candles can also lose their scent over time. How long do candles keep their scent?
Scented candles may be a wonderful addition to any house. Simply light your favorite candle, and the beautiful aroma will quickly spread around the room. A scented candle, on the other hand, may last a long period. After all, it isn’t always illuminated. This raises the question of whether a scented candle loses its aroma over time.
A scented candle’s aroma will fade with time. Depending on how you preserve your candle, it might take months or even years. Keep your candles out of direct sunlight and in an airtight container to avoid the aroma from quickly fading. When not in use, an airtight container will preserve the top notes of the scented candle from dissipating.
I’ll explain how scented candles lose their aroma in this post. We’ll also go through how to store and light your candles so that they don’t lose their aroma. This way, you can relax and enjoy your fragrant candles for a long time!
What Happens When Scented Candles Lose Their Scent?
Candles with scents seldom go bad or expire. A scented candle, on the other hand, might lose its aroma over time, which is frequently a warning that your candle is about to go bad in the first place. Fragrant candles are created from a variety of materials, including wax, scented oils, and a variety of other chemical and organic materials. Every component used in a scented candle has an impact on how long the aroma lasts and how quickly the candle degrades. Organic materials, for example, will disintegrate with time, and scented oils will evaporate, causing the aroma to deteriorate.
The loss of color goes hand in hand with the loss of fragrance. Most scented candles include a pigment that gives them a pleasing hue. This, too, will disappear after a time, much like the perfumed oils. This may be avoided or extended with proper storage, which we shall explain momentarily.
There are also some scented candles on the market that haven’t been properly blended. It’s critical to properly blend your scented oils with the candle wax if you want your scented candle to last longer. In order for the perfume to diffuse evenly and far, the candle wax and fragrance must be well blended.
Scented candles are distinct from regular candles in that they emit a perfume (when lit). Like a fragrance or perfume, this aroma is made up of a variety of scented oils. These perfumed oils might be either natural or synthetic. Oil may evaporate in any case, making the aroma faint over time. Most candles, like perfumes, contain top, middle, and base notes that all dissipate at various rates.
A Look At The Top, Middle, And Bottom Notes
When you unwrap a fragrant candle, the narrative starts. You’ll be met with an aroma when you open your candle, just as when you open a conventional fragrance. The top notes are typically responsible for the initial aroma you detect. You may argue that the top note of a scent is the most essential since it creates a positive or negative initial impression. Scented candles work on the same premise. The top notes of a scented candle will evaporate into the air as you open it, giving you your initial impression of the aroma. If you don’t like for the top notes, you probably won’t care for the candle, and vice versa.
You’ll get a feeling of the middle notes after the top notes have dissipated into the air. The middle notes are the fragrance’s heart and make up the majority of the perfume. These middle notes remain a little longer than the top notes and fade into the base notes gradually. The primary purpose of base notes is to keep the aroma around for a bit longer while also ensuring a seamless finish to your fragrance.
When you understand how a fragrance is composed of top, middle, and base notes, you can see how the same approach applies to scented candles.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the top notes of a fragrance or candle are often the lightest and weakest of the scented oils. They’re mostly used as a superb opener and to give a smell some lightness and freshness. The base notes, on the other hand, are the oils that linger the longest and are the most powerful. The center notes, often known as the heart notes, are in the middle of the two.
This is crucial to understand since the oils do not wait for their turn to start spreading. All notes occur at the same time; it’s only that the top notes are the most prominent in the beginning then fade away to make space for the middle and base notes.
How to Prevent Your Candles From Blowing Out
You’ve just purchased a lovely scented candle. Now you want to do all you can to preserve its aroma for as long as possible. Perhaps you don’t even want to burn the candle in order for it to last longer. I understand… But, then again, what is the point of the candle in the first place?
Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to extend the life of your candles significantly. Here are the best methods to maintain your scented candle from losing its perfume so you may enjoy its wonderful scent for as long as possible:
- Keep your candles in an airtight container (like this one from Amazon) to keep them fresh. Keep in mind that I’m not just advising you to keep the lid on or storing it in a cabinet. The fragrant oils will evaporate quicker when exposed to air and oxygen. You can protect the fragrant oils from evaporating by using an airtight container, which will help them last longer.
- Make sure your candles are stored in a cool, dry location away from direct sunlight. Sunlight will melt and loosen the wax, allowing the aroma to escape and hastening the decomposition of your scented candle. It also accelerates the evaporation of the dye as well as the fragrant oils. Because heat causes the candles to emit their smells, keeping them in a cool, dry environment will keep them from dispersing too much.
- Make sure your candle is lit properly the first time. It’s more crucial than you would think to burn your candle properly. Your initial burn should be long enough to coat the whole candle in molten wax from side to side. You’ll have a protective coating of wax between the scented oils and the air when it solidifies again. The evaporation of the fragrant oils is slowed as a result of this.
These three suggestions are a good place to start, but there are many more things you can do to extend the life of a scented candle. You may learn more by reading this post I published!
A Lit Candle vs. An Unlit Candle: What Is The Difference In Scent Dispersion?
As previously stated, leaving your candle unlit and without a seal will still enable the fragrance oils to drain into the air. This is why a candle may smell good even if it isn’t lighted. The aroma will be somewhat weaker, but it will still be detectable.
One of the primary reasons why many people choose to leave their candles unlit is because of this. There’s no need to burn it since it already has a fragrance. This, however, is not the best strategy. I mentioned previously how important your first burn is and how it protects the candle and its smell. In fact, never lighting a candle will result in a shorter lifespan.
When unlit, most scented candles only diffuse the top notes. You’ll lose out on the richness and depth of the heart and base notes if you don’t light your candle.
When you burn a candle, the aroma is more concentrated and frequently much stronger. You’ll be able to smell the perfume across the room, and you’ll enjoy the warm glow of a burning candle.
Even while there is no right or wrong way to light a candle, there are established advantages to doing it at least once. Furthermore, appropriately strengthening them will extend their lifespan. Organic materials, on the other hand, will always degrade. It will happen, even if it takes up to 5 years. As a result, make sure you utilize and care for your candle. You’ll be able to appreciate it a lot more and for a longer period of time if you do it this way.
Candles can have a specific scent for a period of time. However, after time has passed, the scent will begin to fade away. This is because candles lose their scent over time. Reference: how do candles get their scent.
Related Tags
- how to remove scent from scented candles
- do candles lose their scent on a warmer
- candle doesn’t smell when lit
- do candles expire if unopened
- do bath and body works candles expire