A beautifully scented candle is a little luxury — and with a few simple habits, you can make every candle last significantly longer. Here are our top tips for getting the most burn time and the best scent from every candle you light.
1. Always Trim Your Wick Before Lighting
This is the single most impactful thing you can do for candle longevity. Before every burn, trim your wick to about 6 mm (¼ inch). A long or mushroomed wick creates a larger, hotter flame that burns through wax much faster — and can cause sooting. A wick trimmer makes this easy, but small scissors work just as well.
2. Allow a Full Melt Pool on the First Burn
Candles have "memory." The first time you light a new candle, let it burn long enough for the melted wax to reach the edges of the container — typically 1 hour per inch of the candle's diameter. If you extinguish it too early, the wax will tunnel down the centre on every future burn, wasting all the wax on the sides.
3. Don't Burn for More Than 4 Hours at a Time
Extended burns heat the vessel and the wax pool too much, which can cause the fragrance to burn off quickly and may affect the wick's stability. Aim for burn sessions of 2–4 hours for the best experience.
4. Keep Your Candle Away from Drafts
Burning near an open window, fan, or air vent causes the flame to flicker, which leads to uneven burning and tunnelling. Find a still, flat surface away from air currents for the cleanest, most even burn.
5. Store Candles Properly Between Uses
UV light and heat degrade fragrance oils over time. Store your candles with their lids on (if they have one) in a cool, dark spot. Avoid window ledges or areas near heat sources like radiators or sunny shelves.
6. Keep the Wax Pool Clean
Remove any wick trimmings, matches, or debris from the wax pool before lighting. Foreign material can act as a secondary wick, creating unpredictable flames and burning the wax unevenly.
7. Stop Burning at 1 cm of Wax Remaining
Once there's about 1 cm (roughly half an inch) of wax left at the bottom, it's time to retire the candle. Burning past this point can overheat the container and potentially damage the surface it's sitting on.
Bonus: Repurpose Your Jar
Once your candle is done, clean out the remaining wax with warm soapy water and repurpose the jar as a planter, pencil holder, or storage for small items. It's a lovely way to extend the life of a beautiful vessel.
Shop Coconut Soy Candles
Our candles are hand-poured with a premium coconut soy wax blend for a cleaner, longer burn right out of the box. With the tips above, you'll get every last hour of scent from them.
