Candle Care

Trim wick

We leave our wicks long for shipping.  Sometimes we ship to hotter regions and the temperature in the shipping containers and trucks can be extremely high.  Our candles are stable to well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, but may soften a bit in high temperature environments.  The long wick prevents it from sinking into the wax.  However, you will want to trim the wick to about 2cm before lighting it for the first time.  This will keep the flame low enough to melt the wax and will prevent the wick from burning.

Sometimes while burning a candle a “mushroom” can form at the top of the wick.  This is normal carbon residue, but if left untrimmed it will cause excess soot.  Trimming the wick before lighting the candle each time will remove the mushroom and allow for a cleaner burn.

Allow full pool to form

Always allow a pool of melted wax to form across the entire top of the candle before extinguishing.  If a candle is extinguished before a full pool forms a “tunnel” will be created where the wax near the wick will be lower than the wax around the edge of the jar.  This will prevent a full pool from forming the next time you light the candle and the “tunnel” will continue growing deeper.

To fix tunneling you can wrap aluminum foil around the edge of the top of the jar, leaving a space in the middle for fragrance to escape.  This will reflect the heat back down the sides to help create a full pool again.

Extinguish after 4 hours

After about 4 hours of burn time the wax level will have fallen to a point where the wick will be too long again.  This can cause excess soot as the wick itself will begin to burn since the wax won’t be able to wick all the way to the top.  We suggest extinguishing the candle by screwing the lid back on or dipping the wick into the wax.  This will minimize the “burnt” smell from extinguishing the candle.

Keep lid on when not in use

We suggested leaving the lid screwed onto the jar when not in use.  This will prevent fragrance from evaporating out of the wax.  We do our utmost to make candles with fragrance oils bound tightly to wax molecules, but some evaporation can’t be helped.