Candle Safety

It might all be common sense, but it bears repeating nevertheless!  The golden rules of candle safety are…

• First things first – never, ever leave a burning candle unattended!

• Secondly, check your candle carefully before first lighting;  something as tiny as a hairline crack in a glass container can cause it to break once it heats up.

• Do light your candle using long matches or a candle lighter.  Don’t tip it up to light it with a cigarette lighter or on a gas hob – you’ll probably burn your fingers, and will definitely create soot on the glass and cause it to get extra hot. Ouch!

• Be sure to burn your candle on an even, heat resistant surface, away from any draughts.

• Always burn your candle in a safe place, away from flammable fabrics and out of reach of children and pets.

• Allow at least a 3cm gap between burning candles.

• Take care when handling lit candles – the containers will heat up when lit, and will still be hot even after extinguishing your candle.

Candle Care

To get the longest burn time out of your new candle, so you can enjoy it for as long as possible, you should…

• First, ensure the wick is trimmed to 5mm (¼”) in length before lighting or relighting your candle, using a wick-trimmer or scissors.  This will help you to get the longest and cleanest burn.

• On the first burn – don’t extinguish your candle until you have an even pool of melted wax across the whole surface of the candle (anything from 1-3 hours on average, dependent on size of candle).  This will stop your candle being spoiled by ‘tunnelling’ – that annoying waste when the wax only melts in the middle of the candle, leaving lots of beautifully scented but unused wax around around the sides! If you don’t do this right on the first burn, your candle’s lifespan will be considerably shorter.

• Don’t burn candles for longer than 3-4 hours at a time.

• Extinguish your candle preferably using a candle snuffer or spoon, to avoid smoke & debris;  if you have to blow it out, do so very gently and beware burning debris or hot wax scatter.

• Recentre the wick while the wax is still soft after extinguishing, to ensure an even burn next time.

• Remove any debris or pieces of charred wick from the wax after extinguishing, to ensure a clean burn next time.  Debris or charred pieces of wick can cause the candle to overheat, smoke, burn unevenly or combust across the whole surface, and cause your candle to burn much faster.

• Discontinue use of your candle when only 1cm/½” of wax remains – burning candles any lower than this can cause the container to overheat, and if made of glass it may shatter.