How to Use a Smelling Candle

Glass Jar Candles

• 1

  Remove all decorative packaging from your candle, including any ribbons around the glass.

• 2

  Trim the wick to 5 mm in length. Leaving the wick much longer encourages it to smoke, smelling bad and blackening the glass as it burns down.

• 3

  Light your candle and leave it on a heat-proof surface to burn until the top layer of wax is completely melted and liquefied. This may take up to 3 hours but is important at the start of use because it means the candle will burn down evenly in the future, and thereby last longer.

• 4

  Blow or snuff out the flame. Placing a heat-proof lid or snuffer over the wick helps to stop smoke from escaping.

• 5

  Leave the candle to cool for only a couple of minutes; then, recenter the wick, by nudging it gently into place. This also ensures regular burning but can only be done a few minutes after blowing the flame out when the wax is starting to solidify but not yet hard.

• 6

  Cool your candle fully before removing it from the heat-proof surface. Then, cut off the burned and blackened pieces of the wick, trimming it to the correct size for the next time.

Simple Candle

• 7

  Place your candle in a suitable candle-holder and on a heat-proof surface.

• 8

  Trim the wick to 5 mm in length and light.

• 9

  Burn your candle for an hour at a time. This releases fragrances to a whole room while making the candle last longer. It also helps candles without glasses to burn more evenly.

• 10

  Blow out the candle, or leave a snuffer over it.

• 11

  Trim the cooled wick down to 4 mm again, taking off the charred top.