Candle Care: tips to get the most from your soy candle
All Bread & Weather essential oil soy candles are lovingly made to provide you with hours of aromatherapy cosiness. To keep them looking and working their best (and safest), here are some tips to maintain their high quality for longer.
If possible, wait for a full ‘melt pool’ each time you light your candle.
A full melt pool is when the liquid wax reaches all the way to the edge of the jar and approx. 1cm deep, all the way around.
For the first lighting this will take anything from two to five hours. Subsequent lightings will take less time. As the flame moves further down the jar, more heat is trapped inside and the wax melts faster.
Allowing your candle to reach a full melt pool will prevent ‘tunneling’. Find out more about tunneling and candle care here.
Trim the wick before re-lighting your candle
Long, or crooked wicks can create high flames, smoking, or sooting. Trimming the wick to 5mm (when the wax has set) is the easiest way to prevent this.
Don’t burn your candle for longer than three hours at a time.
As with all container candles, the wick is held in place by the solid wax underneath. Lighting the candle for longer than three hours at a time, or in a very warm environment, can cause the melt pool to become too deep and the wick may tilt to one side.
If you see the wick has tilted, first extinguish the candle. You can then push the wick back to an upright position using a skewer or other heat safe implement, while the wax is still liquid.
Wait for the candle to cool and solidify completely before relighting.
Don’t burn your candle all the way to the end.
It is best to stop using your candle when 1/2 an inch of wax remains. This will prevent possible heat damage to the surface the candle is on or the jar itself. This may seem wasteful, but stand by for a blog post about re-using the leftover wax, and the empty jar.
Bonus safety tips for all candles
Always light a candle on a flat, heat resistant surface.
Light your candle in a draft free location. Drafts can cause rapid and uneven burning and destabilise the wick.
Keep your candle out of direct sunlight and away from other heat sources such as fireplaces and other candles.
Never leave a burning candle unattended.
Do not move a burning candle, the wax will be fluid when lit.
Do not leave matches or wick trimmims in the melt pool. Debris in the wax can act as a secondary wick, encouraging your candle to burn faster or unevenly.
Never burn the wax down to the base.
Keep your candle away from anything flammable such as foliage and synthetic decorations, curtains and fabrics.
Make sure burning candles are out of reach of children and pets.
