Fragrance load, explained without the arguing
Search “how much fragrance oil per pound” and you will find 1 oz, 1.6 oz, 6%, 10% and a thread where people disagree about all of them. Most of that disagreement goes away once you know what each number is measuring.
What a load is
Fragrance load is the amount of fragrance oil in a candle, written as a percentage. The catch is the word of. A percentage of what?
Percent of wax is how most US suppliers write it. CandleScience, Lone Star and Candles Molds all mean: take the wax weight, multiply by the load, and that is your oil. One pound of wax (16 oz) at 10% gets 1.6 oz of oil, for 17.6 oz of candle.
Percent of the whole candle is how some calculators and many European recipes write it, including Craftybase’s. A 16 oz candle at 10% has 1.6 oz of oil and 14.4 oz of wax.
Same “10%”, different candles. The second one has 11.1% oil compared to its wax.
Does the difference matter?
At low loads, barely. At high loads, it can decide whether you are within your wax’s limit. Here is the same number read both ways:
| Load | As % of wax | As % of candle |
|---|---|---|
| 6% of wax | 6% | 5.66% |
| 10% of wax | 10% | 9.09% |
| 10% of candle | 11.11% | 10% |
| 12% of candle | 13.64% | 12% |
If your wax is rated for 10% (of wax, as suppliers mean it) and you follow a recipe that says 12% of the candle, you are actually at 13.6%. That is well over the limit, and it shows up as oil on the surface or a smoky burn.
Ounces per pound
Older recipes skip percentages entirely: “1 oz per pound” or “1.5 oz per pound.” Since a pound is 16 oz, these are just percent of wax in disguise. 1 oz per pound is 6.25%. 1.6 oz per pound is 10%.
Picking a load to test
A published maximum is a ceiling, not a recommendation. Plenty of candles smell great at 6 to 8%. More oil does not always mean more scent, because the wax can only hold and release so much, and the wick has to be big enough to make a full melt pool for the scent to travel.
Pour three jars from one batch at 6%, 8% and 10%, same wick, same jar. Cure them together and burn them on the same day. Whatever you learn applies to that oil in that wax.
What the suppliers say about your wax
Different shops publish different maximums for the same wax. Golden Brands 464 is listed at 10% by most, but 7–9% by Lone Star. Cargill’s own sheet for NatureWax C-3 says 6% or less without additives. We keep all of these side by side on the wax specs page, and the fragrance load calculator checks your number against every one of them.
Always weigh it
Fragrance oils differ in density. A fluid ounce of a thick vanilla does not weigh the same as a fluid ounce of a light citrus. Every load above is by weight, so put the cup on the scale, tare it, and pour to the number.