Best Practices for Clean Burning Candles
TRIM THAT WICK
Regardless of whether your candle’s wick is cotton or wood, it needs trimming before each burn. This ensures the flame burns evenly next time and prevents sputtering. You should trim the wick to around 3-4mm, ideally using wick trimmers. However, if you don’t own a set, then scissors are also fine. Make sure you remove the trimmings from the candle before you light it
DO NOT BURN FOR TOO LONG
Burning your soy candle for too long can lead to the scent burning off before the candle is finished. Also, due to the nature of our candle pots, burning for too long can lead to discoloration. We advise burning our scented soy candles for a maximum of 3 hours at a time. This will ensure it melts properly but also provides enough scent. Scented candles continue smelling while the wax cools down.
THE FIRST BURN
Allow your candle to burn long enough for the wax at the edge to melt. For our standard candles, this takes around 2 hours. Doing this will prevent tunnelling, also known as memory rings. A memory ring means that, the next time you burn the candle, it’ll burn no further than the leftover wax. More than anything, this leads to a surprisingly large amount of the candle being wasted.
EXTINGUISH PROPERLY
While it can be tempting to just blow the candle out when you’re done, this isn’t the best way to extinguish it. It can lead to smoke and hot wax splattering everywhere. Instead, either use a snuffer, or dip the wick into the candle’s melted wax. This will put it out and ensure it’s got some fuel next time you want to light it. Be careful with the second option, though, as it’s still an open flame.
If you learn how to care for your soy candle, you can get many hours of use out of it. Following the tips below will not only help it smell great, but it’ll also keep the candle clean and safe between uses.