Welcome to Candle Questions, where I answer anything and everything that you guys have on your minds about candles! Each week, I’ll be taking questions that customers and candle-admirers have submitted through the contact page that they’d like to see answered! Submit your questions and I’ll pack them into a blog post for a fun Q&A-type session!
CANDLE QUESTIONS FEBRUARY 26, 2017
- What candles you would recommend for people who like fruity, floral, and more feminine scents? (from Adalyn)
- Fruity: The first thing that comes to mind for me when I think fruity is Scarlet! It was inspired by Marissa Meyer’s series The Lunar Chronicles. When I thought of Scarlet, I thought of Benoit Farms and how it must smell so I chose fruity and clean outdoors scents. The citrus fruits, apple, and strawberry combined with rain and meadow scents remind me of summer! Winter, also inspired by The Lunar Chronicles, is a combination of a fruity and floral scent with MacIntosh apple and also a wintery candy apple which has some strong floral notes, topped of with a little bit of sweetness!
- Floral: The first floral scent I think of is Lily Bloom’s, inspired by It Ends With Us, which is entirely made up of floral scents like rose, jasmine, and honeysuckle. If you like jasmine, you might also want to try Jasmine’s Garden and Night Triumphant (which is also strongly citrusy).
- Feminine: My favorite feminine scents are Cress (also from The Lunar Chronicles!) which smells delightfully of vanilla, sugar, and a touch of florals to so as not to overwhelm with flowers but add that touch of femininity, and The Wraith (inspired by Inej from Six of Crows) which has a lovely aroma of gardenia, apple blossom, and fresh air and outdoors.
What is the best way to maintain wicks? (Best time to trim, what happens if the wick breaks, etc.) (from Mary)
- The standard wick maintenance advice you’ll see from a lot of candle companies is true! You do want to keep your wick trimmed to about 1/8″ – 1/4″ for the best possible burn. It’s helpful to trim your wick right before each use so you start your burn with an even flame and you won’t have to extinguish your candle mid-burn to fix a wick! If you do happen to notice that a flame really starts to dance and flicker a lot, that’s when you need to blow out the candle and do a little wick maintenance. You can wait until the wick has cooled a bit before you trim it but as long as you are CAREFUL, it’s best not to let the wax fully cool if you haven’t allowed it to pool all the way to the sides because that will cause tunneling. (Seriously, please be careful. The wax will still be very hot in its liquid form and although soy wax is very easy to clean, if you’re a butterfingers like me, you’ll probably drop your scissors/wick trimmer on the candle and I don’t want your candle and wax flying everywhere!) Wick trimmers are great, especially if you have candles in jars that are just too hard to reach with scissors, and they have an area that should catch your trimming when you cut so it doesn’t fly back into your candle wax! If wicks are left untrimmed, you’ll start to see a lot of huge flames that start to give off a lot of soot, and that ends up coating the inside of your candle tin/jar as well as becoming dangerous with that out of control flame!
- If a wick breaks or gets buried in the wax (which hopefully it won’t if you keep up with trimming it properly!), there are some things you can try to save it (although warning: they aren’t very fancy). If your wax is still in liquid form and your wick has just sort of keeled over into it, you can try to pick it up with tweezers or needle nose pliers. If the wick has completely broken off and it’s super short, there’s always the “home remedy” of pouring off a layer of wax. I know, I know, no one wants to waste the wax but there’s not much else you can do to save a short wick. I’ve tried to research some other ways but they don’t seem very safe (i.e. sticking other things next to the wick to burn until the wick is visible again. I wouldn’t recommend that). BUT you’ll save the rest of your candle by sacrificing a little bit of wax and if you have a melter, you can always pour off that wax into an old ice cube tray or a small container and make yourself a little wax melt. You won’t be able to pour it back into your candle because it’ll just drown the wick again. If you do end up pouring out a layer of wax, always do it over the sink or an area that won’t be damaged if you spill. It’s probably easier to pour more controlled out of a jar but take it from someone who’s tried to pour out of tins…. the wax gets everywhere, including the side of the tin. This may also ruin your label, so be warned! If you don’t want to pour, you can attempt to remove enough wax with a dropper. I would advise glass if you have it but a plastic dropper (smaller than a baster) should also work as long as your flame is extinguished. This takes a lot longer than just pouring but it’s a lot more controlled. If your wax has already cooled, you can use a heat gun or a hairdryer (on LOW — high setting will start splattering the wax everywhere) to melt the top layer. I prefer not to do this because the high heat from a hairdryer will start to burn off the fragrances and the wax settles with an flawed finish, a lot of frosting, or makes the wax crack (which isn’t a big deal if you’re just going to burn it again but FYI). A heat gun will give you more control if you have one.
Will Morozova’s Herd be coming back? (from several people)
- Wow, I had no idea this candle was so popular! It had been around for a while with not as much interest and I guess once it was time for retirement, no one wanted to say goodbye!! Morozova’s Herd isn’t on sale at the moment but you guys asked for it… Of course I’ll bring it back! It might be a couple weeks yet so I can get back on my feet with all the new orders but I promise it’ll be my first restock of an old candle.
Will you be doing the jars in all of the scents from the shop? (from several people)
- You guys will be the ones to determine that! Since I’ve never sold anything in (larger) jars before, I selected the biggest sellers and candles that people had said they wanted more of! If those are good sellers, I’ll add more scents to be available in the 12oz jars. The preparation for the jars as far as packaging goes takes much more preparation so I want to make sure they’re movers before I add even more variations!
Will you be making X candle? (from several people)
- I am constantly thinking of new ideas for candles. It’s a blessing and a curse, really! I absolutely love coming up with new candles but my shop is soooooo fulllllll right now that it’s really hard to add any more to the shop! I try to keep adding new things but it’s also SO HARD to say goodbye to candles. I have such a hard time saying no that I never want to deprive anyone of candles so I have a really hard time retiring scents. I love hearing new ideas but I can’t promise that I’ll be making it as a candle. I also have to take into consideration what will be popular and a good seller. I’d love to make every idea out there but I have to think of it from a business side too. If you ever want a specific candle that I don’t make, feel free to request it as a custom order! I don’t currently have a listing for customs but I will as soon as I catch up with the re-opening rush!
- I do have some new scents coming out on March 1st! There will be the two new Candles of the Month (My Precious and Rainbow of Velaris) and here’s your first sneak peek at what they will be!!!! I won’t tell you the names and scents yet — we’ll leave that reveal for Tuesday — but I will tell you that there will be one inspired by The Princess Bride, one by Mistborn, and another generally bookish set! I’m excited about all of them but I am way, way excited for one of these bookish candles and I think you guys are going to have a fun time with it too! Only a couple more days!