How to Compare Hot Throw Between Two Fragrance Oils
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What load should I test two oils at? The highest load that both oil pages and the wax page allow. Fresh Strawberries states 6–9% and Sandalwood states up to 10% for soy, so on CSI 464 (10%) the band is 6–9% and the test load is 9%. Testing each oil at its own maximum compares doses, not oils.
How many candles do I need for a hot throw comparison? Three per oil is the honest minimum, two per oil the practical floor. Six 200 g jars at 9% cost ₹1,106.89 in wax, oil and wicks with this pair; four cost ₹737.92. One jar per oil cannot tell a real difference from a bad jar.
Can I burn both candles in the same room to compare them? No — that is the single commonest way this test lies. Two scents in one room blend, mask each other and destroy both readings. Burn one oil per room per evening, air the room for at least two hours afterwards, and alternate which oil goes first across rounds.
Why most two-oil comparisons produce a result that does not repeat
A hot throw comparison has to survive one question: if you ran it again next month, would it give the same answer? Most do not, and they fail in a small number of identifiable ways.
They compare two doses instead of two oils. If one oil goes in at its page maximum of 10% and the other at its page maximum of 9%, the first jar has 11% more fragrance in it. On a 200 g jar that is 2 g, worth ₹10.05 with Sandalwood at 1 kg pricing — small money, but it is now the difference you measured.
They burn both oils in one room. Two scents in the same air blend into a third, each masks parts of the other, and the one closer to the door wins on nothing but geometry. Nothing about that reading transfers to a customer burning one candle at home.
They use one jar per oil. Candles vary. A wick sitting slightly off centre, a jar that cooled near a window, a pour that trapped a void — any of these can move a single jar more than the difference between two good oils. With one jar each you cannot tell a scent difference from a manufacturing difference.
They are not blind. If you know jar A cost ₹197.86 and jar B cost ₹171.10, you will find the expensive one better. This is not a character flaw; it is how noses and expectations work, and it is why the codes go on the base.
They judge too early. Several CSI oil pages state a cure of 48–72 hours before burn testing, and that is a fair earliest point at which a candle can be lit. But soy keeps developing: the Luxury Soy Wax Chunks page asks for at least 48 hours and ideally one to two weeks, and 14 to 21 days by fragrance family is standard soy practice. Two oils do not develop at the same speed, so a day-three verdict can reverse itself by day fourteen — which is exactly the reversal you do not want to discover after you have bought a kilogram.
They test one nose on one evening. Adaptation, a head cold, a neighbour's cooking, the fan setting, the weather — each moves a single reading further than a real oil difference. Repetition is the only cure, and it is cheap: the jars are already made.
Step one: find the load both oils are allowed to run at
The rule across this series is that a wax grade's stated maximum and an oil page's stated range both apply and the lower one governs. In a two-oil test there are three published figures — oil A's range, oil B's range and the wax ceiling — and you need the band where all three overlap. Test at the top of that band, because that is where differences in throw are easiest to see, and note it on the sheet.
| Oil A (page range) | Oil B (page range) | Wax and its ceiling | Band all three allow | Test at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fresh Strawberries · 6–9% | Sandalwood · soy up to 10% | CSI 464 · 10% | 6–9% | 9% |
| British Rose · soy up to 10% | Cinnamon Vanilla · up to 13% | CSI 464 · 10% | up to 10% | 10% |
| Japanese Cherry Blossom · 6–13% | Cinnamon Vanilla · up to 13% | Luxury Soy Wax Chunks · 13% | 6–13% | 13% |
| Coffee Vanilla Tobacco · 7–9% in soy | Mahogany Teakwood · 7–9% in soy | CSI 464 · 10% | 7–9% | 9% |
| Wild Berries · 8–10% | Apple Cinnamon · soy 6–10% | CSI 464 · 10% | 8–10% | 10% |
| Any oil whose page states no range | Any oil | Any grade | Not published | Ask on WhatsApp, or test at 8% |
The last row is common and worth saying plainly. Of CSI's 92 live fragrance oil pages, 72 state a candle usage range; the rest publish none. Where a page publishes nothing, do not estimate one — ask on WhatsApp for the supplier figure, or run the comparison at a conservative 8% and label the sheet accordingly, so that nobody later mistakes your working assumption for a published specification.
One more case worth flagging: if a comparison involves a high-load page such as Cinnamon Vanilla at 13%, remember the wax has to permit it too. On CSI 464 you are capped at 10%; 13% needs Luxury Soy Wax Chunks or CSI 468. Changing the wax to reach the load changes a second variable, so decide the wax first and let it set the ceiling for the whole test.
The rig: six jars, one variable, and what it costs
Use the jar you actually sell, because pool diameter is the biggest single influence on hot throw and a test in a different vessel does not transfer. The jar cost is identical on both sides of the comparison, so it cancels out of the arithmetic below and is left out.
| Item | Per jar | Oil A · 3 jars | Oil B · 3 jars |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464, 200 g | ₹101.48 | ₹304.44 | ₹304.44 |
| Fragrance oil, 18 g at 9% (1 kg pricing) | ₹63.72 / ₹90.48 | ₹191.16 | ₹271.45 |
| Eco Candle Wick Thin (C1) | ₹5.90 | ₹17.70 | ₹17.70 |
| Materials | ₹171.10 / ₹197.86 | ₹513.30 | ₹593.59 |
| Six-jar rig | ₹1,106.89 | ||
| Four-jar version (two per oil) | ₹737.92 |
What you actually put in the basket is a different question from what the jars cost. Three jars need 54 g of each oil, so the sensible purchase is a 100 gm pack of each: ₹880.28 together, with 46 g of the winner left over for a first production batch. If you are running the four-jar version, 36 g each fits a 50 gm pack — ₹483.80 — but it leaves you nothing to pour afterwards, which is usually a false economy.
Is the test worth it? In this pair the two oils differ by ₹26.76 per 200 g candle at 9%. Across a fifty-jar batch that is ₹1,338.12; across five hundred candles a year, ₹13,381.20. The six-jar rig costs ₹1,106.89 and answers, once, whether the more expensive oil is actually earning that difference in the customer's living room. If it is not, the test pays for itself before the second batch.
The fourteen things that must be identical
| Variable | How to lock it | If you let it move |
|---|---|---|
| Wax grade and batch | One bag, one grade, all six jars | Different melt behaviour and ceiling on each side |
| Wax weight | Weigh 200 g into every jar | You compare jar sizes, not oils |
| Load | The band both pages allow — here 9%, 18 g | You compare doses |
| Oil weighing | Weigh in grams, never by spoon or volume | Density differs between oils; volume lies |
| Container | Same model, same measured diameter | Pool area changes, and pool area is most of throw |
| Wick | Same type and size — C1 in all six | Burn rate and pool width change |
| Wick centring and trim | Same device, trimmed to 5–6 mm before every burn | Off-centre wicks tunnel and shrink the pool |
| Melt and add temperature | Same thermometer, add at 80–90°C | Binding and top-note retention change |
| Stir time | Slow, two full minutes, same tool | Under-stirred jars carry an uneven load |
| Pour temperature | Same reading on every jar | Surface finish, adhesion and wet spots differ |
| Cure | Same shelf, same day, 14 days, lids on | Two oils develop at different speeds anyway |
| Room and airflow | Same room, door shut, fan and AC identical | The biggest single swing in any throw reading |
| Time of day and session length | Same start time, three-hour sessions | Evening noses and evening rooms differ from morning |
| Scorer and method | Same person, from outside, same sheet | Two noses are not one instrument |
Colour is worth a line of its own. If you dye one side and not the other, you have added a variable that is visible during scoring and therefore not blind — and dye is not free of effect on burn behaviour at high loadings. For a comparison, pour both sides undyed. Save the dye decision for after the oil decision.
Discolouration is the exception you cannot lock, and you should not try. If one oil's page states vanillin — Cinnamon Vanilla publishes 2.5%, Gardenia Tuberose 0.2%, British Rose 0% — the jars will look different by day 14. That is real product information, it is cosmetic rather than a fault, and it belongs on the sheet as a separate column. It does mean the scorer must not see the jars: score by nose from outside the room, with the jar out of sight.
The burn schedule: one oil per room per evening
Compressing the schedule costs you reliability in a predictable order. Dropping to two jars per oil saves four evenings and is acceptable. Dropping round two halves your evidence and is the first thing you will regret when the answer is close. Dropping the cure to three days makes the result about how quickly each oil binds rather than how well it throws, which is a different and much less useful question.
If a festive deadline is squeezing you, work backwards rather than cutting the cure. Diwali 2026 falls on 8 November 2026, so a range that has to ship with a 14 to 21 day cure needs pouring by about mid-October — which means the comparison itself has to be poured in early September to finish in time. Testing and production cannot share the same three weeks.
The scoring sheet, and what counts as a win
Two numbers per reading. The first is objective enough to be useful: standing outside the closed room, open the door, walk towards the jar and note the distance in metres at which you first clearly notice the scent. Mark the floor at one-metre intervals with tape before you start so you are not estimating. The second is a conventional intensity score from 0 to 5, taken the moment you reach the middle of the room.
| Field | How to record it | Why it is there |
|---|---|---|
| Jar code | A1 … B3, read off the base afterwards | Keeps the session blind |
| Cure day | Days since pour | Two oils develop at different speeds |
| Room state | Door, windows, fan speed, AC set point | The largest uncontrolled swing |
| Notice distance at 60 / 120 / 180 min | Metres from the jar, to the nearest metre | The closest thing to an objective reading |
| Intensity at 60 / 120 / 180 min | 0 = nothing, 5 = would be too much | Captures strength the distance misses |
| Character note | Three words, free text | Catches a scent that is strong but wrong |
| Pool diameter at 180 min | Millimetres, measured | Proves the two sides burned alike |
| Flame and wick | Steady, flickering, mushroomed, sooting | Flags a jar that should be discarded |
| Colour of the wax | Unchanged, warm, yellowed | Vanillin from the page showing up on the shelf |
The pool-diameter column is the quality control on the whole test. If oil A's jars are making a 6.5 cm pool and oil B's are making 5.5 cm, the two sides are not burning alike and you are partly measuring wick behaviour — 33.18 cm² against 23.76 cm², a 28% difference in the surface that produces throw. Either the wick suits one oil better, which is itself a finding worth a line in your notes, or a jar is faulty and should be dropped.
The win rule
Average each oil's readings at each time point across all its jars and both rounds. Then apply a single rule, chosen to be strict enough that you will not chase noise:
An oil wins only if it leads by at least 1.0 point of intensity and at least 1 metre of notice distance, at two of the three time points, in both rounds. A lead in one round that disappears in the other is not a result. A lead on intensity with no lead on distance usually means one scent is sharper rather than stronger. Anything short of the rule is a tie.
A tie is a useful outcome, not a failed test, and it is the outcome you should expect most often between two competent oils at the same load. It hands the decision to everything else on the sheet: price per gram, pack availability, whether the page states vanillin, cold throw in the jar, and which one your customers actually ask for. In this pair a tie means you buy the cheaper one and keep ₹26.76 a candle.
Reading the result: wins, ties and reversals
| What the sheet shows | What it means | What to do next |
|---|---|---|
| One oil clears the rule in both rounds | A real difference at this load, in this jar, in this room | Buy the winner in the pack size your volume justifies; keep one loser jar as a reference |
| Leads in round one, reverses in round two | Noise, an order effect, or a room that was not aired | Re-run round two only, with a second scorer and a full two-hour airing |
| Within 1 point and 1 metre throughout | A genuine tie at this load | Choose on price, stock, vanillin and cold throw — here the cheaper oil saves ₹26.76 a candle |
| Both weak, pools short of the wall | A wick problem, not an oil problem | Ladder the wick one size up on both sides and re-run; see the live wick guide |
| One oil's jars disagree with each other | A pour or wick fault inside one set | Discard the outlier jar, re-pour one replacement, re-run that oil only |
| Strong at 60 min, gone by 180 min on one side | A top-heavy composition, not a weak one | Note it; for long-burn rooms prefer the side still reading at 180 minutes |
That fifth row deserves a moment. If the three jars of one oil disagree with each other by more than the two oils disagree, your process variation is larger than your signal and no amount of scoring will fix it. The honest response is to tighten the pour — same temperature, same stir, same centring — before running any comparison at all, because every future test you run will be limited by the same variation.
It is also worth saying what this test does not settle. It tells you which of two oils throws harder at one load, in one jar, in one room. It does not tell you which one sells better, which one suits a gift box, which one survives a Nagpur summer in a courier van, or which one your customers will describe as expensive. Those are different questions with different tests, and a hot throw win is only one input to a listing decision.
Finally, record the result somewhere that outlives the evening. Pour date, wax batch, load, jar, wick, cure days, room, scorer, both rounds of numbers, and the verdict in one sentence. A year later, when the same question comes round with a new oil, that sheet is the reason you only have to run one side of the comparison.
When the test is not worth running
When the two oils are not competing for the same slot. Comparing a fresh aquatic against a heavy gourmand does not produce a decision; it produces a preference. If both will end up in your range for different customers, buy 50 gm of each and spend the evenings on wick testing instead.
When the price gap is small and your volume is low. At ₹26.76 a candle, a maker pouring forty jars a year is deciding about roughly ₹1,070.50 over twelve months. The rig costs ₹1,106.89. Buy the one whose page suits your wax and move on.
When one page already disqualifies itself. If you sell white and pastel candles and one oil's page states significant vanillin while the other states 0%, the discolouration answer may decide it before any burn test does. The live guide to oils least likely to discolour white wax covers that side, and it is cosmetic rather than a safety matter.
When the real problem is the candle, not the oil. If neither jar reaches the wall at three hours, or you are judging at day three, or the room has a fan on, the comparison cannot mean anything yet. Fix the test before you run it — that costs nothing and rescues more comparisons than any scoring refinement.
And when you do run it, run it on the two oils you are genuinely about to commit money to, at the load you will genuinely sell at. A comparison at 9% does not tell you what happens at 6%, and a comparison in a 200 g jar does not tell you what happens in a 70 g votive. The narrower the question, the more the answer is worth.
CANDLEMAKINGSUPPLIESINDIA sells fragrance oil, so a page recommending that you pour six test candles is not a disinterested recommendation. This one therefore ends with the cases where you should not: when two oils serve different customers, when the price gap is small against your volume, when a published vanillin figure already decides it, and when the candle itself is not ready to be tested. It also says plainly that a tie is the most likely honest result between two good oils at the same load — in which case buy the cheaper one.
Every price is from live CSI stock in September 2026 and the linked product pages are authoritative. Load ranges are quoted from the oil pages — Fresh Strawberries 6–9% of total wax weight, Sandalwood up to 10% for soy with a flashpoint of 203°C and 0% vanillin, Coffee Vanilla Tobacco and Mahogany Teakwood 7–9% in soy, Wild Berries 8–10%, Apple Cinnamon soy 6–10%, Japanese Cherry Blossom 6–13%, Cinnamon Vanilla up to 13% with 2.5% vanillin, British Rose up to 10% for soy with 0% vanillin, Gardenia Tuberose 0.2% vanillin — and wax ceilings from the wax pages: Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464 up to 10%, Luxury Soy Wax Chunks and Premium Coconut Soy CSI 468 up to 13%. Of 92 live oil pages, 72 state a candle usage range; where a page states none we say so rather than estimate. The scoring scale, the distance measure, the win rule and the fourteen-item locked list are CSI worksheet design, not laboratory data, and no result is claimed for the worked pair.
WhatsApp +91 7397976926 for bulk pricing, GST invoicing, MSDS and IFRA documentation, a usage range that a page does not publish, or to send your completed score sheet and pool readings for a second opinion before you commit to a kilogram.
Frequently asked questions
- How to Compare Two Fragrance Oils Using a Controlled Burn Test
- How to Test Hot Throw Before Launching a Candle Fragrance
- Why Is My Candle's Fragrance Throw Weak? Complete Diagnosis & Fix Guide
- Best Temperature for Adding Fragrance Oil to Soy Wax
- Why Does a Candle Need a 14-Day Cure? Complete Science-Backed Guide to Candle Curing for Indian Candle Makers - Powered by CandleMakingSuppliesIndia (CSI) Luxury Soy Wax and IFRA Certified Fragrance Oils
- Best Wick for Candle Making: Complete Guide by Diameter
- How Cure Time Changes the Smell of Different Fragrance Families
- Which Candle Fragrances Are Least Likely to Discolour White Wax?
- Amber vs Vanilla: Which Fragrance Gives Better Hot Throw?
- Best Fragrance Oils for Candle Making in India | Top 10 Tested
Customer reviews: The six reviews at the top of this page are genuine, published Judge.me reviews left by CSI customers on their product pages. Names, star ratings, dates and products are as recorded by Judge.me. One longer review is shortened with an ellipsis; wording is otherwise unedited. One is below five stars and two are not recorded as a verified purchase — shown as recorded. Not recorded by Judge.me as a verified purchase, so shown without a verified-buyer badge: Niharika S, Ashwini. No location is shown against any review because Judge.me does not store one.
Figures verified September 2026 (CSI live pricing). Series costing unit: percentage loads are of total wax weight as CSI's pages state them; the worked rig is 200 g of wax + 18 g of oil at 9% per jar, jars excluded because they are identical on both sides. Wax: Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464 1 kg ₹507.40, 500 g ₹260.00, page states up to 10% load (₹101.48 per 200 g, ₹608.88 for six jars); Luxury Soy Wax Chunks 1 kg ₹599.00, page states up to 13%, fragrance at 80–90°C, stir 2 minutes, cure 48 hours minimum and ideally 1–2 weeks; Premium Coconut Soy CSI 468 page states up to 13%. Oils: Fresh Strawberries 1 kg ₹3,540.00 (₹3.54/g), 100 gm ₹377.60, 50 gm ₹212.40, page states 6–9% of total wax weight and IFRA certification; Sandalwood 1 kg ₹5,026.80 (₹5.03/g), 100 gm ₹502.68, 50 gm ₹271.40, page states soy up to 10%, paraffin up to 6%, flashpoint 203°C, 0% vanillin; Coffee Vanilla Tobacco 1 kg ₹8,599.00 and Mahogany Teakwood 1 kg ₹8,800.00, both pages state 7–9% in soy (18 g = ₹154.78 and ₹158.40); British Rose page states soy up to 10%, 0% vanillin; Cinnamon Vanilla page states up to 13% and 2.5% vanillin; Japanese Cherry Blossom page states 6–13%; Wild Berries 8–10%; Apple Cinnamon soy 6–10%; Gardenia Tuberose 0.2% vanillin. Wicks: Eco Candle Wicks Thin (C1) ₹5.90 each (100-pack ₹590.00), Thick (C2) ₹9.44 each (100-pack ₹944.00), step between them ₹3.54; Cotton Braided Wicks Ready Made ₹12.00 each, page covers candles exceeding 8 cm. Pen Thermometer ₹354.00. Computed: 18 g of oil is ₹63.72 (Fresh Strawberries) and ₹90.48 (Sandalwood); 20 g of Sandalwood at 10% is ₹100.54, a ₹10.05 unmatched-load gap; one jar ₹171.10 and ₹197.86; six-jar rig ₹1,106.89; four-jar rig ₹737.92; two 100 gm packs ₹880.28; two 50 gm packs ₹483.80; per-candle gap ₹26.76, ₹1,338.12 per fifty and ₹13,381.20 per five hundred. Pool areas from π × radius²: 6.5 cm = 33.18 cm², 5.5 cm = 23.76 cm². The scoring scale, the 1 point and 1 metre win rule, the fourteen-item locked list and the six-evening rounds are CSI worksheet design and illustrative, not laboratory data; no throw result is claimed for the worked pair. Diwali 2026 is 8 November 2026. Prices and availability change — the linked product pages are always authoritative.