How To Maintain Your Candle

How To Maintain Your Candle

Bijou Candle Maintenance

So you know how to burn your candle properly with our Candle Care 101 and you're a master of the Candle Care Kit with Candle Care 201. You even know what ingredients make the best quality candles with Candle Ingredients 101 and you've graduated from Fragrances 101: How to understand scent notes

Now we're delving into candle maintenance. When dealing with an open flame, it's crucial that you take care of your candle, not only for safety, but also to maximize its scent throw and total burn time. Here are our tips for maintaining and enjoying your scented candle. 

 

Discover Your Candle

To discover a new candle's scent throw during its first burn, we recommend burning it in a smaller room, like a bathroom, on a heat safe surface. Allow it to burn for 30 minutes to an hour and then enter the room to experience the full fragrance and see how strong the hot throw is. Please note: Sometimes a cold throw can be different from the hot throw, give your candle a chance to reveal its full scent profile to you by trying this method.

 

Maximize Your Candle 

The way a candle throws it scent is affected by a number of factors. In order to get the most out of your candle, we recommend burning your candle in a draft free room, with windows closed. Very large rooms or rooms with high ceilings may need more than one candle to fill the space. If you enjoy a stronger fragrance, you may enjoy burning 2-3 candles at a time to fully fill a larger space. 

Always allow your candle to burn for 2-4 hours to allow a fully liquid wax pool to form. This will prevent tunnel burning, but it also allows the candle to release its full scent spectrum. Our candles are designed with many layers of fragrance, and in order to experience all a scent has to offer, you need to give it time to release all of its scent molecules. Enjoying a candle is meant to be an activity that takes time and encourages you to relax and enjoy its scent performance. 

 

Store Your Candle

We recommend burning your candle within a year of purchase. This will ensure that your candle is at its peak quality. As your candle ages, the oils can seep out and the wax (especially natural soy) can crystallize. These candles are still safe to burn, however they may not smell as strong or burn as smoothly.

If you don't plan on burning your candle right away, we suggest storing it in a cool, dry place. If you display your candle, make sure to gently wipe away any dust that may collect on the wax with a soft cloth. Dust and debris on the wax can inhibit the burn and cause smoking, flickering, and a dull scent throw. 

 

Retire Your Candle

Once your candle has about 1/2" of wax left, it's time to retire it. Once the flame hits the bottom of the candle, this can cause the vessel to heat up and may cause it to break or overheat the surface it's sitting on. This is why it is very important to monitor your candle and make sure its placed on a heat safe surface during burning. 

Once your candle is finished, you can clean it out (check out videos on this here) and repurpose it. You can use your empty vessel for make up brushes, pens, or as a planted for a succulent or cactus. 

Tag us @bijoucandles on Instagram to show us how you use and repurpose your vessel!

 

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