Make the most of one of life’s little indulgences.
Contrary to common belief, there’s a lot more to candles than just lighting them and blowing out the wick. They’re one of life’s little luxuries so ensure you’re maximising quality, life length and enjoyment from your favourites with these tips for caring for your candles.
1. Ensure you burn your candle until the wax melts across the entire jar:
It’s key you always burn your candle long enough that the wax pool reaches the edge of the candle. Luxury candle brands often make their candles from natural soy wax (local favourite Ecoya uses soy wax exclusively), meaning that they retain a memory when burnt. If you only burn the candle for a short period of time, it will create a small wax pool and every burn thereafter will only burn to that pool size. This can cause tunnelling in your candle and wastes a significant amount of wax. The candle’s fragrance is also emitted from the wax pool, so the larger the wax pool, the more scent you achieve.
2. Always trim your wick:
Trim your candle’s wick before the very first light and then every single burn thereafter. If you don’t trim the candle wick it can “mushroom”, which essentially creates a bigger flame and therefore burns through the wax faster. A tell-tale sign of the wick not being trimmed enough is if soot or black marks appear on the inside of the candle’s glass.
3. Snuff your candle out with a candle snuffer:
To reduce the amount of black smoke residue make sure you have a candle snuffer handy to extinguish the flame. If you don’t have a snuffer don’t worry another sufficient form of extinguishing is to blow out the candle and then place the candle jar lid on. Most importantly, always ensure your candle is fully extinguished.
4. Burn more than one candle consecutively:
Introduce different scents and experiment with fragrance layering in your home or workspace. Fragrance layering is an ancient ritual and there are no rights or wrongs when burning fragrances together. It’s a personal preference, so have a bit of fun with it!
5. Repurpose empty candle jars:
Use warm, soapy water to lift out the remaining wax in your candle jar and give a new lease on life to your empty vessels. Just take care not to scratch the inside while cleaning. Once empty, repurpose them as cosmetic organisers or for floral arrangements.
This article was brought to you by Ecoya.
