Everything you ever wanted to know about Flash Points from the chemist and perfumers who make the fragrances. The relationship between flash points and fragrance performance is not clear-cut. “Performance” is a quantified and measured evaluation criteria. So is flash-point – but those two values are not connected. While flash point can be a useful indicator of relevant physical and olfactory characteristics, lower (more volatile) isn’t necessarily better – which of course, means that higher (less volatile) isn’t necessarily worse. Some highly volatile materials are comparatively weak while others are strong – and the same is true for those that are relatively non-volatile. Of course, the lower the flash point the more quickly the product evaporates. If it is too low, then it has no “staying “power. If it is too high, it may last a long time but have no “throw.” If the FP is low you will have a lot of fragrance evaporate when added to hot product and mixed, how much depends on how hot the product is and how long the mixing. The fragrance that is left will not smell exactly like the oil (because the lighter components have evaporated more quickly). This will also produce different result from a fragrance when doing a cold process soap and a hot process soap. The structure and type of scent ( fruity, floral, musky etc… ) determines the overall volatility of a fragrance. That is why we always ask for the customer base, and time to test. Every case is different, and that is why Agilex and Fragrance West “custom make” each fragrance to suit our customer base of candle and soap makers. In a carrier such as wax, the fragrance needs to be built/balanced in such a way that, at room temperature, the customer perceives enough fragrance, and yet does not “flash off” too quickly when the wick is lit. As we all know, certain fragrance types are inherently easier to make “perform” well in candles whereas others can be quite challenging. Ultimately, comparing the flash points of similar fragrance types as a means of determining which will perform better is very unlikely to yield valuable results. While lighter, low flash point materials can contribute to generally perceived, “stronger” cold throw, they can also travel up the wick faster and contribute to unwanted burn characteristics. As any good candle maker knows, the choice of wick can make a huge difference in performance – especially when the flash points of fragrances vary considerably.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 18:53:41 +0000
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