How to care for a soy candle (and double its life)
Three small habits — trim the wick, burn the full pool, store cool — that turn a 50-hour candle into a 70-hour one.
Care
How to care for a soy candle (and double its life)
Three habits that take fifteen seconds each and turn a 50-hour candle into a 70-hour one.
1. Always trim the wick to ¼ inch.
This is the single most important thing. A long, untrimmed wick burns hot, throws soot, and creates a "mushroom" of carbon at the tip. Before every single light, get a small pair of scissors or a proper wick trimmer and snip the wick down to about ¼ inch (6mm).
If you forget and the wick is already lit too long? Blow it out, let it cool, trim the burned tip off, and relight. Your nose and your jar will thank you.
2. Burn it long enough the first time.
Soy wax has a memory. The very first burn will determine how the candle burns for the rest of its life. You want the entire top surface of the wax to melt into a pool, edge to edge. For a 9 oz candle that takes about 2½ to 3 hours.
If you blow it out too soon, the candle will "tunnel" — burning straight down the middle and leaving a thick collar of unused wax around the edge. Heartbreaking. Avoidable.
3. Store it cool, away from sun.
Sunlight fades fragrance. So does heat. Don't keep candles on a sunny windowsill or near a vent. A bookshelf away from direct light is perfect.
4. Stop burning at ½ inch of wax.
When you've got about half an inch of wax left in the bottom of the jar, retire it. Burning past that can crack the glass and is generally just unsafe. Send the empty jar back to us for a refill — we'll wash it, refill with your favorite scent, and ship it back for $22.
One more thing.
Don't burn for more than 4 hours at a stretch. The wax gets too hot, the throw goes weird, and the wick starts to fight you. Four hours, blow it out, let it cool an hour, relight if you want. Slow is the whole idea.
