With the new Happy + Home line and the newly redesigned Wizarding candles having wooden wicks, I’ve already received a few questions if there’s any different care needed. For those who aren’t familiar with them, they can seem a little bit intimidating but they’re really just as simple as cotton wicks with a couple different rules!
ALWAYS TRIM YOUR WICK. Like a cotton wick, you want to trim your wooden wick before every burn. While the advised height for cotton wicks is ¼”, wooden wicks only need to be at 1/8″ – 3/16″. The shorter height allows the wax to capillary up the wick to feed the flame properly. Test burns have already been conducted to determine the proper width and thickness of the wooden wick included in your Novelly Yours candle so all you have to do is keep that trimming maintenance up!
HOW TO TRIM A WOODEN WICK. I would personally recommend a nice pair of wick trimmers! It’s easy and neat since wick trimmers have a little spot to catch the debris that you’re trimming. If you don’t have a wick trimmer, you can easily break off the ashy part of the wooden wick with another tool. Do not attempt to trim your wick if the wick or wax is still hot. You want to wait for your candle to be cool before trimming the wick for safety reasons as well as easy maintenance if any debris falls off while trimming.
BURN FOR THE PROPER AMOUNT OF TIME. Like any soy candle, you want to make sure every burn creates a melt pool that reaches the edge of the candle. Extinguishing a candle before it creates an even pool will cause tunneling and once a candle tunnels, it can be very difficult to correct. Typical maximum burn time should be no more than four consecutive hours. If you notice the flame growing too large or too short, it may be time to extinguish the candle and wait for it to cool so you can trim the wick.
WOOD WICK TROUBLESHOOTING. Sometimes wood wicks take multiple attempts to light. This is not a result of a faulty wick or product. Think of it like lighting a campfire — sometimes it takes a while for those big logs to get lit because the fire needs to work through the wood to get a good flame going. The same is true for a wooden wick on a much smaller scale! A wooden wick has a larger surface area and the wooden wicks in the Novelly Yours 8oz tumbler jars are moderately thick so they will melt the wax all the way to the edge of the jar in the proper amount of time. You may need to hold the lighter to the wick for a good 15-20 seconds to make sure that you’re getting the wick to catch properly and kick off the burn, especially on the first light. You can also try lighting on an angle. If you’re still having issues, it may be helpful to melt just a little bit of wax next to the wick so that it can start traveling up the wooden wick to feed that flame.