Testing Fragrance Oils

[Tatiana]

How many FO did you order at the beginning of testing, and how many scents (candle variations) did you get from them?

I'm thinking of creating 4 to 5 scents and I don't know how many fragrance oils should I be ordering, more or less. Right now I have 8 but I fear I wasn't nearly as strategic with my ordering as I should have been.

Out of those 8 scents I came up with a blend that I like but I'm still not 100% convinced, then there are two that are ok but still miss something.

I know I should place another order but the question is: should I go big (and what is big?) or should I stick to a few basic scents first and see how that goes?

All help much appreciated

[JeffStandley]

I ordered around 3-4 when I started

[theladyesq]

I order about ten one ounce bottles a month. I like to mix fragrances to create something unique so lots of playing around and being creative. I start off with blotter strips before I commit to making a full blown candle.

[Tatiana]

I like to mix fragrances to create something unique so lots of playing around and being creative. I start off with blotter strips before I commit to making a full blown candle.

This is exactly what I'm trying to do. My idea is to create scents inspired by literature, so I have a somewhat specific idea in mind and therefore need to mix more than may be recommendable for someone starting off ?

I've also been working with blotter strips to get an idea of what scents I like together and to see whether or not it goes in the direction I want.

I'm aiming for 3 to 4 different scents (ideally: something floral, something woodsy, something wintery, something woody+spicy) and I'm struggling to draw the line when it comes to how many scents to order (I've already ordered about 15 but all in the smallest size possible, which isn't always that small but ok) and how many scents to mix together.

Today I made some candles and the most I mixed was three scents. Now it's curing time to see if my experiments are at least going in the right direction.

Up to how many scents have you mixed together? Do you have a rule of thumb?