5 Manly Candle Problems Solved

I’ve Got Ninety-Nine Problems & A Candle Aint’ One

You know what I’m talking about. Yeah, you. You with that ugly wax sink hole smack dab in the middle of your brand new manly candle. Not very manly in MY opinion. No, I digress. No one has ever properly schooled you on how to burn that beautiful ball of wax sitting on your Man Cave bar top.

Well, today is your lucky day. We are here to teach you everything you need to know about buying, burning, and getting the most bang for your buck.

It’s The Final Countdown (Candle Burning Countdown That Is)

1. John Wick & 1/2 – 1/4. People – don’t let other people burn a candle without trimming the wick. 1/8 – 1/4″ outta do it. Trimming the wick will greatly reduce the chances of you burning your house down. Rule of thumb is – the bigger the wick, the bigger the flame. Also, a bigger flame will lead to ugly black soot that will cover the inside of your glass. Not cool.
2. The Tunnel To Nowhere. Are YOU are real “Nowhere Man?”  Don’t feel bad. The best of us are…especially when it comes to burning a candle. You are probably thinking, “What the hell is she talking about? Don’t I just light the damn thing?” Of course,  you do but that is after you FIRST trim the wick and THEN make sure you burn the candle until there is a nice pool of wax forms across the entire top of the candle. This will take anywhere between 1-2 hours. This will ensure your wick doesn’t fall down the rabbit hole and reducing the life of your candle.
   

   If you want your candle to burn evenly and last as long as possible, you have to light it for about 3 to 4 hours the first time you burn it. “We say that wax has a muscle memory, and it’s going to burn in the same pattern every time,” says Heyen. “So if you light it for long enough the first time, that will ensure that your candle pools completely across all of the wax, setting it up to continue to do so with each subsequent burn.” Otherwise, tunneling, where the wick burns straight down the center of a candle without creating a full melt pool, can occur. Once your candle starts tunneling, you’re losing all that peripheral wax surface area for future burns. ~ Says Apartment Therapy and we agree. 

3. Goodness, Gracious, Great Balls Of Black Stuff. Remember that day when that weird looking tarball formed on the end of the wick?  Us here in the candle business refer to this phenomenon as “mushrooming.” If your wick has a giant ball forming on it then it is a carbon build up. This is easily fixed by simply trimming the wick to  1/8 to 1/4 inches after each successful burn.
4. Don’t Drink & Burn. Yeah, duh. I tell you this because if you leave a candle burning unattended, bad things can happen. Especially if you have animals, small children, drunk roommates, or a clumsy mate.
5. Nice Drapes, Dude.  If you want to keep them nice, don’t burn a candle by them. This can cause a fire. Now I will venture even further into this very important warning. If the windows are open and there is rain in the forecast, there will be wind. Heck, there might even be wind without a storm. Moral of this very important story, if your candle is left to burn in an area

There you have it. Now that you have been fully informed, go burn that candle! Don’t let it just sit there….burn baby, burn!