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The short answer is 8 to 12 hours of usable fragrance from a standard melt. That is three to five evenings for most people. But the range is wide, and knowing why helps you buy the right quantity.
What changes the number
Wax type. Soy releases fragrance more slowly and evenly, so it lasts towards the top of that range. Paraffin throws harder and faster and burns out sooner.
Fragrance load. A melt at 10% has more to give than one at 6%, and gives it for longer.
Well shape. A wide, shallow well throws more scent — and uses the fragrance up faster. A deep well is gentler and lasts longer. You are trading intensity against duration.
Heat source. An electric warmer running at a steady low temperature stretches a melt further than a tealight, which runs hotter and cycles as it burns down.
Room size and airflow. A large or draughty room does not shorten the melt's life, but it will feel weaker throughout — which often leads people to replace melts sooner than they need to.
How to tell when a melt is spent
This is where people get it wrong. Wax will keep melting indefinitely; that is not the test. The test is smell. Once the wax is fully liquid and hot and you can no longer detect the fragrance from a metre away, the oil is gone. The wax left behind is inert and can be thrown away.
How many you need
A pack of six standard melts covers roughly a month of regular evening use in one room. If you fragrance two rooms, double it — and buy a second burner rather than a bigger melt, because scent carries between rooms far less well than people expect.
Making them last longer
- Use half a melt in small rooms rather than a whole one.
- Switch off when you leave the room — fragrancing an empty house is pure waste.
- Choose a deeper well if duration matters more to you than intensity.
- Store unused melts somewhere cool and dark. Heat and sunlight degrade fragrance oil in the packet.
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