CANDLE CARE

Once you have bought one of my candles, I want you to enjoy it from the first moment you light it. Over the years learning how to make candles has also taught me how to get the best out of one, hopefully I can share some of that knowledge with you.

 

One of the most annoying things I see in candles is called tunnelling. This is where the wax sticks to one side of the glass and as you don't have a full melt pool, it stays that way all the way down to the bottom of the glass.  This means you can end up with half your wax never melting and all that lovely fragrance being thrown away. There is a lot as candle makers we can do to prevent this, using the correct sized wick, not over loading the wax with fragrance. But ultimately if you don't burn your brand new candle, the first time, for an average of 3-4 hours, or until your wax has pooled to the edges of the glass, tunnelling will occur as wax has a memory, making that first burn really important. Likewise lighting your candle in a draft will cause the same effect. 

 

Mushrooming is the other issue candles face. This is where you get a mushroom shaped residue on the end of your wick. This will cause your wick to soot and smoke and the flame to dance around as carbon builds up on the end of the wick. Again as candle makers we work to eliminate this as much as possible, by using the correct sized wick and fragrance load. But you must trim your wick to around 1/4 inch before each time you light it.  This will stop all those horrible black soot marks you see on candle containers. 

 

All our candles are tested vigourously by me, in our home, so I can be sure when you take a Greatwood Candle back to your home, it will burn not only beautifully and safely, but also smell amazing!

 

Ultimately if a candle has been made correctly, with the correct sized wick and fragrance load and you follow the guidelines above, you should get fabulous fragrance  from the first moment you light it until the last! Enjoy!

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