Candle Care | 3 Ways to Care for Yours

It is quite common for people to light their new candle and leave it to burn, allowing the scent to envelop their home and a small, beautiful ambience to be created… But often enough, you may find that your wax isn’t burning properly or your wick is that bit too long and soot marks start to appear around the vessel.

I bring to you 3 ways that you can care for your beloved Lauren Dickinson Clarke candle, to ensure that you enjoy a maximum burn time and the best possible, most glorious scent throw!

THE FIRST BURN

BURN BABY BURN

Did you know that you needed to have a ‘first burn’ when burning your candle?

Picture this…

You have just received your gorgeous candle and you can’t wait to put her in pride of place ready to start burning. You notice the beautiful scent and hope that the candle lasts for as long as possible. So you light the candle and decide to extinguish the flame after half an hour because you’re afraid that you will burn the candle too quickly. Next time you decide to light the candle, you leave it burning for another 30 minutes and extinguish it again. Soon enough, you notice that the wax isn’t melting around the edges of the vessel, some wax is wasted, and the wick is nearly at the bottom!

This is why the first burn is so important. This bizarre wax phenomenon that you would be experiencing is called “tunnelling”.

Tunnelling occurs when the candle hasn’t been burning for long enough and the wax hasn’t had the chance to fully melt at the edges. To avoid this, you must leave your candle burning for at least 3 hours the first time you light her.

After the first burn, you can then extinguish the flame ready for the next burn. If you continue to allow the wax to melt to the edges of the vessel, you will experience the fullest scent throw and enjoy the maximum burn time, Voila!

THINK QUICK,

TRIM YOUR WICK

Another mistake that is easily made is forgetting to trim the wick!

Trimming the wick is very important because like the ‘first burn’, a trimmed wick allows you to experience your candle to the fullest. It stops pesky black soot forming around the vessel as well as preventing ‘mushrooming’. When a wick is too long, it’s unable to draw wax all the way up to the top, which leaves the wick to start burning itself and creates a smoking, mushroom effect.

You should ideally trim your wick to 5-7mm before each burn. The wax is the fuel after all! If you are trimming the wick after you have extinguished the candle, please make sure that you allow the wax to cool before doing so as the wax can be extremely hot!

NEVER, EVER... FORGET

TO RECENTER..

Recentering your wick may sound like an odd thing to do, but it is just as important as trimming the wick and carrying out the first burn.

It is important that you recenter the wick once the wick itself has cooled, but the wax is still soft… Otherwise it won’t move! If you have a wick which is off-center, this could lead to complications with your candle such as an uneven burn or black soot on the side of the vessel. Burning the candle for too long can cause the wick to become off-centre which isn’t uncommon, but make sure to recenter to get a cleaner burn next time.

Hopefully with these three Candle Care tips you will begin to enjoy the maximum burn from your beloved Muses… But even so, once the candle has finished what’s to say you can’t top her up with one of our refills?

Oops, did we mention refills? I think we did!

Stay Creative!

Yours,

Lauren x

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Candle Care | 3 Ways to Care for Yours

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