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6 Ways to Care for your Candle

Candle Care Trouble Shooting

At Soja Fragrances our wooden wicks create a warm ambience from their gentle crackling sound and a unique flickering of a flame.
Our wood wicks are made from natural and untreated wood. As wood wicks are all unique (no tree is the same), you may find your flame looks different with every burn. This could be caused by tiny knots in the wood wick or an offset grain in the wood wick.

 

These flaws are not always visible in the wood wick itself.
You may find that wooden wicks light differently to your traditional cotton wicks if you have not used them before. So, here are some essential tips to follow so that your candle will continue to have a long smooth burn with minimal glitches.

 

    

Make your first burn count

The first burn of your candle is the most important determining how well the wick will perform for the life of the candle. 

Candle wax has a memory (better than mine sometimes), if you don’t allow a full melt pool to form on your first burn, it will create a continuous tunnelling for the life of the candle. Burning the candle until you have an even melt pool every time is the key to a long-lasting candle that is relatively problem free. Your candle will reach this full melt pool between 2-4 hours.

 

Keep your wick trimmed.

Before relighting your candle trim your wick. As your wood wick burns, a small amount of  black debris will be present on the top of the wick. An untrimmed wick makes a hotter larger smoking flame, which means your candle is burning up faster.

 Trimming your wood wick is easy. There is actually a utensil called a Wick Trimmer, yes these exists. They are great for keeping your fingers out of your candles and are easy trim the wick while holding ash debris while cutting or, you may end up using your fingers to pinch the wick - keep the wick to a length of 5-7mm

 

    

How to fix tunnelling

A candle can cause a tunnel like looking depression around the wick when it doesn’t have sufficient time to form a full melt pool on the first burn. The tunnel will eventually become too deep for fresh oxygen to flow around the wick, causing your candle too continuously extinguish. 

To reset the ‘wax memory’ give your candle a good long burn until the wax is melted to the edge of the jar. You can do this as long as your candle stays lit. This may take several hours so be patient.

 

How to fix a drowning wick

If you find your candle won’t stay lit because it is ‘drowning’ in the wax, try using a paper towel to soak up the excess wax (please blow out your candle before doing this). You may need to repeat this step a few times to soak up any excess wax in order for your wick to regain an appropriate height to continue burning and you're wooden wick can breathe again!

My wick won't stay lit

Sometimes times the time knots in the wick will cause your candle to extinguish prematurely. If this happens, it is important to keep relighting the candle until you pass this knot.

 

 Finally

The best way to light a wooden wick is to tilt the candle on an angle to let the flame draw across the length of the wick. You're wick shouldn’t produce any soot or smoke. But if it does, this means the wick needs to be trimmed, or, there is burnt debris interfering with the flame, or, a draft affecting the natural burn.

 Included with your Soja Fragrances Candle is a Candle Care Card. Please make sure you read this and follow the basic tips.

At Soja Fragrances we want you to get the best life out of your candle.