Wax melts can be a brilliant way to add some fragrance to your home. All you need to do is either buy or make your own product, heat them up in a warmer to let the wax melt, and then enjoy the scent while it lasts. However, a lot of buyers find that they barely get to enjoy that scent before it disappears completely. This experience can put people off from burning any wax melts again because they feel they didn’t get their money’s worth. So, what can you do to make your wax melts last longer?
Use the right oil burner.
There is the temptation to get an oil burner that heats up really quickly so you get a strong scent. However, these tend to lose their scent faster. Cooler burners that take a little longer to warm up can produce a more prolonged scent.
Extinguish the burner in time for repeated use.
Burn time also makes a difference as you don’t want to burn the wax unnecessarily when there is no more scent. Extinguish the burner when you no longer notice the scent. You could also get an electric oil warmer with a timer.
What can you do to make your homemade wax melts last a little longer?
If you like to experiment with candle making at home, you could play around with some different approaches with your wax melts and see if they make a difference. The first option is to think about the type of wax you use. Soy and beeswax have higher melting points and it can be difficult to get the best scent out of them. So, some producers add coconut oil to stick with a natural formula and improve the burn rate.
Then there is the issue of the fragrance. Fragrance oils can offer a more powerful, long-lasting scent, but essential oils are natural and better for us. Whichever you choose, you need an ideal ratio of around 10% fragrance to wax. You can increase this to handle the higher melting points of soy and beeswax.
It helps to be able to fully make the most of a scent while it is there.
A common mistake that we make is to set up our wax warmers at a really inappropriate time. There is a small window of time between the wax melting and releasing the fragrance and that scent fading. So, it helps to plan ahead and set a time for when you will burn the melt.
If you leave it as something in the background while you do chores from room to room, you aren’t going to appreciate the experience of the scent and give it due attention. But, if you make a point of lighting it during a coffee break, or while doing something relaxing in that space, it will have a deeper impact. In turn, it will feel as though it lasted a little bit longer. It is a bit of a sneaky way to trick our brain, but it can work.
On a similar note, you don’t want to set up the wax burner when you know that there will be conflicting scents that detract from the fragrance. There should just the one sensory experience to hone in on, rather than a fight for attention. If you burn a wax melt while cooking dinner, you may as well not have melted it at all for the impact it will have.
Swap out your wax melts often for a better experience.
Whichever type of wax melt you use, it helps to have a couple of options in the house. We can quickly go “nose-blind” to fragrances that we use a lot so it helps to stimulate the senses with a nice rotation of smells. Swap them out and revel in something new. It will seem like it lasts much longer this way.
Make sure to store your wax melts properly.
Finally, there is the issue of storage. This is important for both store-bought and homemade items. Heat and direct sunlight can have an impact on the way that fragrance binds to the wax, therefore weakening the intensity of the melt. Store them in a cool dry place, preferably in an air-tight container.