This is a collaborative post.
Candlelight has provided a warm, welcoming glow to family homes long before there was the cold glare of light bulbs. Today, they’re not a necessity but an option homeowner uses to add that final touch to define their home’s personal style. With the abundance of styles, textures, sizes, and colors, the choices are limitless. But these luminaries aren’t merely visually appealing. The countless scents provide an added layer of cozy to the household, enticing guests to linger just a while longer when they visit.
Tips for Caring for Your Scented Candles
Investing in candles can prove to be a costly venture depending on brands, sizes, types, making it important to engage in proper maintenance so that you can get the most for your investment.
For those who are less involved with the concept, you might think it’s a pretty simplistic “operation” when, in fact, there are a few tricks and different steps you can take that may help you to maximize the use of your favorite pieces and prevent some unsightly mistakes that are common with burns. Here are a few ideas you can follow if you’re a “candle enthusiast.”
- First Burn: When you bring a new candle home and it’s time to light it up for the first time, make sure that you have significant time to let it burn. The idea is to allow the wax to melt across the whole surface on all sides of the container in an effort to prevent “tunneling.”
The process can take as long as three hours all total, but it ensures that the candle will last for an extended period of time because it will continue to burn evenly for its lifespan.
Tunneling is when there is a circle burning down in the center with higher mounds of wax surrounding the area that failed to burn. It will continue like this until it reaches the bottom with all that unburned wax wasted. For more Home Frangrance Products and Bath Bombs at look at Devon Wick.
- Trim the Wick: It’s vitally important in order to get the most use to keep a short wick. That means trimming before lighting each time. The wick length requirement is only 6 mm approximately in order to avoid “mushrooming.”
This can lead to undesirable levels of soot. A short wick helps you to keep better control of the flame as well, thus, extending the lifespan of your luminary. If you notice soot forming inside the container, extinguish the flame, allow cool down, wipe the area with a clean, damp towel, and then trim the wick before you relight.
Don’t allow the wick trimmings to fall into the wax. Keep the wax pool free of any type of debris including matches.
- Flame Extinguishing: When you extinguish the flame, don’t blow it out. You should always either tip the wick over into the wax and then bring it back to standing or use a snuffer. These methods prevent smoke from traveling throughout the air and keeps hot wax from splattering out of the pool.
You should always keep candles away from windy areas because drafts can create uneven burning, cause smoke, and decrease the level of scent being emitted.
- Proper Burning: You can tell you have an efficient burn if the flame is in the shape of a teardrop and standing upright. There should be no flickering, smoking, and the flame should not be rising high. If this is happening, you need to put the flame out. It’s an indication that the burn is not controlled. The wick needs to be trimmed and check to see if it’s placed near a drafty area before lighting it again.
- Maximum Scent Throw: To obtain the maximum in aroma, keep the doors and windows shut with the candle burning for up to 30 minutes before entering the space. The area will have a high concentration of scent. Check this https://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/a25656783/candles-bad-for-you/ to learn if candles are bad for health.
Candles need to be kept in a dark, dry, cool location. A “glass cloche” is the suggested storage area for scented candles, which notes to display them beautifully in preventing dust from settling on them as well.
One helpful hint most candle expert is already aware of, but those new might not be aware, you should never light a candle and leave it for the day. A candle will only produce scent for a certain period of time, upward of about three hours, and then you’re wasting wax. Dissect the variations in fragrance found in a candle here.
Try to follow the manufacturer’s suggestions for burning the specific brands you purchase.
