You know what’s the best? Lighting your favourite candle and enjoying those gorgeous wafting scents while it creates a gorgeous ambiance. You know what isn’t the best thing? A candle that doesn’t burn properly because you weren’t all over candle care. Well, that will never happen again because your little Lore candle fairies are here to make sure you know how to properly care for your candles.
The First Burn
This is everything! Your first burn sets the tone for how your candle will burn moving forward.
Burn to the edge
Ensure you have enough time during the first burn to allow your wax to completely liquify all the way out to the edges of the vessel. This means your wax won’t hollow on future burns. In other words, it will burn for longer so you get your money’s worth!
Get The Best Performance
Ensure that your candle performs at its best every time you burn it.
Trim your wicks
Use wick trimmers or just plain old scissors to take a tiny bit off your wick once you’ve finished burning your candle. We’re talking just the tip – that little bit of the wick that mushrooms. Trimming your wick means that your candle will burn with less black smoke next time.
Burn for 1-4 hours
Don’t burn your candle for less than an hour. But also don’t burn for longer than 4 hours! After approximately 4 hours you may as well be burning your money as the scent stops releasing and you are just burning for the sake of burning. If you want to keep burning for longer, blow out your candle, allow the wax to solidify then relight it and away you go!
Stand the wick up
Make sure that the wick doesn’t fall down and touch the side of the vessel while burning. If this happens, blow your candle out and fish the wick out with something relatively small like a skewer, tweezers, chopstick, or hair pin and hold it in the centre as the wax begins to solidify.
Don’t blow it out
When putting out your candle DON’T blow! Dip your wick gently into the wax to extinguish it. You can do this with a skewer, tweezers, anything small. Dipping your wick extinguishes the flame, coats the wick to protect it and make it easier to light next time. Plus, no smoke!
Repurpose The Vessel
So many candles come with such pretty vessels, it’s such a waste to just throw them out! Why not repurpose them and use them as cups, pots, pen holders…the possibilities are endless!
How to prepare for repurposing
Make sure that you burn your candle no further than 1cm from the base of the vessel. Once cooled, put it in the freezer and the wax will contract so that you can pop the wax out, give the vessel a rinse and viola, ready to be repurposed!
Find The Best Spot
When placing your lit candle somewhere, be sure to take into account the following:
Avoid drafts and air currents
Drafts, open windows, air conditioning units, fans will all affect the way that your wax burns. Plus, we don’t want a draft near a flame. It will either go out immediately or set your place on fire.
Be careful of the heat
The vessel can become hot so be smart with where you place it (maybe not on your fancy antique bookshelf), place something heat resistant underneath it and also be careful touching the candle while lit.
Move cautiously
Don’t recklessly move around while holding a burning candle – believe me I have learnt the hard way. Candle wax on carpet = not fun.
Keep away from pets and kids
Don’t put it anywhere that your pets, kids, and irresponsible adults can accidentally touch the flame or hot wax!
Safety Info
They may be boring but they are still very important for a safe candle experience.
Never leave unattended
Never leave a burning candle unattended! No one needs their house burning down.
Allow ventilation
Place your candle in a well-ventilated space with nothing directly above it, especially flammable fabric (e.g. curtains), because as noted above, fires aren’t cool.
Remove all packaging
Make sure that all packaging is removed from the candle before lighting it. We wish that this wasn’t something that needed to be said, but hey, when I assume I make an ass out of you and me. 😃
Check for damage and the amount of wax remaining
Don’t burn a chipped or cracked candle, or a candle that has less than 1cm of wax left at the bottom as they can explode!
