Whenever I sell a candle I often want to include a questionnaire, similar to dating. How long do you sit with a book and a candle going? Too far? Here is the thing, some candles need to be burnt for a longer time than others to not waste any wax. Hey, I get it not all of us have time to sit and let a candle burn for 3 hours.
Bees have worked hard to create this wax. You have paid good money for this purchase and you deserve for the candle to be successful. However, we need to make sure you are burning the right candle for the right occasion or depending on how long you can sit still. Beeswax is the hardest wax out there, so it takes some education to understand which candle is the best for you.
Do you just want some candlelight for dinner to try to make your poor cooking skills to look better than they are? Then once dinner is over you blow out the candle and go walk your dog or chase your children around. Taper candles are best for you. The small diameter of the candle allows you to light and blow out that flame as much as you would like without effecting the success of the candle.
Votives are designed to be burned in a votive holder, or a tightly fitted holder. You will not need to trim the wick to start, however you will have to trim it if the flame starts to flicker or smoke (this happens when the wick is too long). If it does start to flicker or smoke, you can extinguish the candle by dipping the wick into the wax pool and then lifting the wick back out. Trim your wick to ¼” before lighting again. You also do not need to burn your votive for a long period of time. Once your votive has burned completely you can clean out your glass vessel by placing it in the freezer for half of an hour. After a half an hour any left-over wax becomes hard and can easily be popped out. You can clean your votive holder and put a new votive in.
Tealights are also designed to be burned in a holder, if not they will just become a puddle. If you are burning in one of your reusable containers make sure it is snug or the candle will not burn completely. We sell our tealights as refills on our website, so if you require some holders to burn them in please mention it in your notes upon check out. Tealights are best burned all at once, however if you are not burning them all at once we recommend that you blow out the tea light with half of the wax remaining. We suggest this as it might be hard to relight the candle, or some left over beeswax will remain in your tealight holder after the wick has burn out. You won’t need to trim the wick on your tealight, however if you do need to clean out your holder pop it in the freezer for half an hour and the wax will become hard to easily pop out to be reused the next time you want to use your holder.
Pillars require a bit of care to continue to allow them to burn properly. We recommend burning your pillar on a heat resistant plate (we have some available online). Each time before you light a pillar candle make sure your wick has been trimmed to ¼”. There is a hidden rule that for every inch your candle is wide you should allow it to burn for that time. For example, if you purchase our medium pillar it is 2.5” wide, meaning each time you should allow it to burn for 2.5 hours. This is because you want the wax pool to get to the edge of the candle each time to avoid tunneling. You also want to gently fold in the edges of the candle when they have become soft to also avoid tunneling and waste of wax. When you want to extinguish your candle make sure you use a metal tool (I use a bent paper clip) to dip the wick into the wax pool and then lift the wick back out, that's right don't blow out your candle!! This is the proper way to extinguish a candle, it primes the wick for the next time you light it and it also keeps smoke to a minimum.
*Pillars I DO NOT recommend placing your pillars in large glass vessels. This does not allow the flame to get the oxygen it needs so it can properly burn.
Wooden Wick Candles. The first time you burn a wooden wick candle is the most important. You want to allow that candle to burn for 3 hours the first time. This allows the wax pool to get to the edge of the container. The wax has a memory and will always burn out to the edges if you allow the first burn to be the longest. To extinguish a wooden wick candle, it is recommended to use a candle snuffer to minimize the smoke into the air. You shouldn’t have to trim the wick, however if you do find the candle is smoking it is because the wick is too long. Extinguish your candle, allow the wax pool to harden so no wick trimmings get into the wax pool and trim the wick to ¼”.
Thank you for reading. If you have any questions feel free to contact me directly: info@ladygreen.ca or www.ladygreen.ca
- Cassandra