How Long do Wax Melts Last

Before anyone purchases a wax melt, one of the questions they might be asking themselves is "how long do wax melts last?" It's a reasonable question. It's one we had to think about when we started our business Teddy Eva Scents.

It's all well and good having a melt that smells nice before it's lit, but you want one with a long burn time to get the maximum value for your money. What's the burn time of wax melts? Well, let's find out!

How Long do Wax Melts Last - What's the Burn Time of Wax Melts?

Here's what we'll explain in this post

• What burn time is
• How the making process of a wax melt can affect the burn time
• How you can help get more use out of your melts
• An example of burn times

First things first, I should say what I mean when I say "burn time".

Essentially, all burn time means is the length of time - usually given in hours - that a wax melt will last before all of the fragrance oil has evaporated and the scent has disappeared.

The longer the burn time, the longer the melt will last.

Technically, the question "how long do wax melts last" is a hard one to accurately answer. And I'm no scientist here to dish out candle science. But I'll still try my best to give you a realistic answer to this question.

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But there are actually many different factors that come into play that determine the burn time of any given wax melt. Some are controllable by the person burning the wax melt, others are controllable by the person who makes them.

How the making process of a wax melt can affect the burn time

Amount of fragrance oil used

It seems obvious to say, but how the wax melt is made goes a long way in regards to how long it actually lasts. Go figure.

The biggest factor is usually how much fragrance oil is added - or what's typically known as the fragrance load.

It's not quite as simple as "the more oil added, the longer a wax melt will last". But usually, a wax melt with a fragrance load of 10% - meaning 10g of fragrance oil to 100g of wax - will last longer than one with 6% or less.

Before any candliers get on my back, I know that's not always true. If you add too much oil to certain waxes then the additional oil won't bond to the wax and the extra oil will make ZERO difference to the overall throw and burn time of the wax melt.

In other words, like with anything, there's a point of diminishing returns.

That and there are usually safety implications for going over the 10% mark.

The wax itself

Next comes the actual wax itself.

Waxes will vary from seller to seller with everyone going for different blends or versions of soy, paraffin or other types of wax. Generally speaking, the vast majority of sellers will be using soy wax these days due to concerns over paraffin.

Some may use beeswax which might last longer, but it's also more expensive.

As a buyer you'll usually be able to tell what type of wax a seller uses as they typically say somewhere on their website.

But there are a bunch of variations of soy wax with many people choosing their own blend of wax and possibly additives too.

How long the wax melt has to cure

Every wax melt needs time to cure. It's as simple as that.

In short, that means that the wax and the fragrance oil need time to meld and bind together. It's a little bit like a good stew. Everyone knows if you make a stew it's going to be better the next day. The same can be said for wax melts.

For soy wax melts, you want at least 7-10 days to pass before you consider lighting it.

For most people this isn't going to be an issue. Even if a seller makes a wax melt and sends it out the next day, by the time it arrives it would've already had a few days curing.

Then if you don't light it for several days it will cure further.

If you have bought wax melts and lit them on the same day and don't find the scent that strong, then perhaps the wax melt just didn't have enough cure time.

So give it another go at another time and then see what you think then.

The making process of the wax melts

How a wax melt is made can also effect the burn time.

Consider it like making a cup of tea. The colder the water, the harder it is to mix in the sugar. Likewise if you don't bother stirring it.

The same is somewhat true with wax melts.

The only difference being if you add the fragrance oil when it's too hot you risk burning off some of the fragrance before it's even been made.

Here are our 99p Teddy Pot samples! Which should give a burn time of 16-20 hours per pot!

At the end of the day, as a consumer you can't control any of that. But there are some things YOU can control in order to get as much burn time as possible from your wax melts.

Getting the most out of your wax melts: how to make wax melts last longer

Now it's not just how the melt is made that affects the burn time, it's also how it's used.

How you store your wax melts can affect their burn time

For a start, if you store all of your melts together and they're physically touching each other wax-on-wax then that may affect the smell as they'll inadvertently mix.

This is usually why people like buying clamshells as they're all individually packaged, and sealable, and therefore won't mix scent.

How you burn your wax melts will also help decide their burn time

Lastly, when you burn the wax melt, how you decide on burning it will decide how long it truly lasts. To put it simply, the higher the heat, the quicker the scent will be used up. Here's an example:

By burning your wax at a higher temperature, you release more fragrance oil molecules, which causes it to be used up more quickly.

Everyone likes different wax burners. Generally speaking, electric burners melt the wax at a lower temperature than tea light burners.

So burning at a lower heat is always an option if you want to expand your burn time.

This is totally down to personal preferrence. Some people like a melt as strong as possible. Others prefer a more subtle scent.

Teddy Eva Scents - The only company I can really give accurate burn times on

I hope you've managed to gain something from this post.

If not, then I'm sorry.

On the off chance that you've read this and now fancy trying something new when it comes to wax melts, then I can recommend Teddy Eva Scents.

Yep, that's us.

I guess I can give you rough burn times from us, can't I?

For example, I'll use our Extra-Large Teddy Clamshells.

So our Extra-Large Teddy Clamshells are around 100g split into 6 segments. When we burn a segment we tend to leave it in the burner for 4-6 burns.

Sometimes less as we like to mix it up and try something else, but for certain scents like Snow Fairy we'll keep it in for days! We all have our favourites after all.

We use 4-hour tea lights, meaning each burn will last four hours.

So that's a total of 16-24 hours for EACH segment of a clamshell.

Times that by 6 for each segment and you're talking at least 96 hours of burn time for a single clamshell!

That means a single clamshell if used every single night, should be able to last you for at least 24 days! At £5.49 a clamshell that means it'll basically cost you less than 22p a day to fill your room with a scent.

Thank you for reading!

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. If you like reading long-winded blog posts, then can I suggest our aimless newsletter? Or see if wax melts are better than candles? Heck, you might even want to buy some wax melts. If that's the case, then we do happen to sell them.

Catch you again!