Test Burning for Dragon's Blood. How a New Candle Scent Came into Being.

Dragon's Blood is a wonderful incense smell that I want in my candles

I am going to add a Dragon's Blood scent to my line because it is one of my most asked for scents.  I have smelled it a few times in passing at the local New Age store and to be honest it was not a first time favorite with me. Unfortunately the test burning of the first 12 samples has reinforced this feeling.

I felt that I was missing something so did some research and found that there are a few different plant resins that are called Dragon's Blood but the most sought after is the one that comes from the Dracaena draco plant.  Luckily Mimosa  (New Age Store on State Street in Madison Wisconsin) had some of the resin.  And with the help of Kelly I was able to get the Dragon's Blood resin that is supposed to be the best.   Kelly was so kind and helpful!  Thank you Kelly!  Especially since I had only about 10 minutes before I had to plug the meter!  I digress.

At home I have tried to light the charcoal disk.

The directions say not to hold it in your had and to light the side when starting.  I can see why!  It doesn't seem like anything is happening but then there are tiny little sparks igniting throughout the disk.  I am still waiting for the disk to glow.  I do not like the smell of the charcoal.  I do not like the smell of the resin in the bag.

It has been about 20 minutes and most of the disk is ash colored but not glowing. 

When I put my hand near the top I feel heat but it seems cooler then when it first started.  I hope it didn't go out!  Glow darn you (30 minutes).  I have also read from "The Traditional Witch" Blog to burn only tiny amounts of the resin or I will get a room full of smoke.  40 minutes and counting.  I think I am going to add a tiny piece of resin and see what happens.  Plumes of smoke.

Update on testing 12/8/12-Three more testers have been added to the mix. I always blind test by mixing the testers around and putting them in different rooms to burn. I usually have 4-6 going at a time. I smell them about every hour. I write down what I smell along with how I feel about the scent. It doesn't matter if I smell all the parts of a scent, if it doesn't blend well or become overall pleasing that it is back to the drawing board. Generally I start to narrow down the different versions after burning the entire votive. This usually takes about 3-7 days of test burning. The scent(s) that have some redeeming qualities will get a second chance as a revamped version. I keep doing this until I find the perfect scent. After this pass through I am just not overly impressed with any of the candidates. All of them will need to be made stronger before I can really even start to evaluate. There is one that I do really like the blend but it is too weak. We will see how it does in the next revisions!

Update 10/16/19-After testing for many more months we did finally add our Dragon's Blood to our line back in 2014 I believe.  Or maybe 2015.  I know that we didn't get it until were were in the store on Monroe Street and that started in 2013. Want to check out our Dragon's Blood?  Or any of our other candle making scents?  Come on over!