BURNING GUIDELINES
How to look after your Cherry Wick candle
When burnt correctly, our candles will fill the room with its scent and will crackle beautifully like an open fire. It will also burn to the edge of the glass, burning cleanly with no waste around the edges, also known as tunnelling. In order to achieve this, we advise you to read over the care instructions below before lighting the candle.
Before you light your candle, make sure that you place it in an area free from draughts and fans, and on a heat resistant surface. It also needs to be well away from any other flammable items/materials, children and pets. Never leave a burning candle unattended.
When you first light your candle, ensure that you leave it lit for between 1 and 2 hours, to make sure that the melt pool reaches the edges of the container. Candles have a memory so if the melt pool didn’t reach the edge on the first burn, it won’t on any further burns. This will cause tunnelling to occur and will result in a much shorter burn time. During the first hour or so of the first burn, the flame may be a little more erratic than usual, please do not be concerned as this will start to calm down and become more consistent. On the other end of the spectrum, we would advise a maximum burn time of around 4 hours at any one time. Any longer and the wick will get too long, causing a higher flame and soot to develop around the top of the glass. Also, ensure that you burn the candle in an area free from draughts.
Candles from The Cherry Wick Candle Company are used slightly different to the usual cotton wick candles. Where cotton wicks are usually trimmed to ¼ inch before each burn, we would advise wooden wicks are trimmed between ¼ and 1/8 inch. This can either be done with a wick trimmer, a pair of nail clippers, or you can just use your fingers to snap off the excess black wick. This should be done before each light. Please ensure that you only trim the wick once the candle has cooled and there is no melted wax around the wick. The candle will not burn efficiently when there are charred pieces of wood in the melt pool. You should also light the candles where the wax meets the wick as opposed to the top of the wick ensuring you light all the way across, not just at one end.
If you do notice that the candle has a high flame and is either giving off soot or has a soot residue developing at the top of the glass, blow the candle out gently. Once the candle is completely cooled, wipe around the top of the candle to remove any residue and trim the wick down to 1/8 inch again. Make sure that you remove any loose bits of wick from the top of the candle before lighting again. When you do light the candle again, you may notice that it doesn’t crackle as much as before, don’t worry. You will find that the flame will grow back to a regular size within an hour and the crackle will become more prominent than when first lit.
Never move or handle the candle once lit. This is dangerous and can cause the wick to extinguish, affecting further burns and the overall burn time. Pouring or removing the liquid wax could cause the wick to either extinguish or, if the wax hasn’t reached the edge of the container, will cause tunnelling, again, reducing the burn time and quality of the candle.
As the candle starts to burn down towards the end, you may start to notice some discoloration of the wax. This is caused by the natural elements of the wax constantly warming and cooling with every light of the candle. This does not affect the performance of the candle in any way.
You should stop burning your candle once you start to see the metal sustainer that holds the wooden wick appear through the wax.
There may be instances (especially if your candle has been externally delivered) where air pockets or bubbles appear against the glass. We always ensure that candles leave us without these air pockets, they are visually more appealing this way, but due to temperature fluctuations during postage, and the sensitivity of the wax, it can retract slightly. This is unfortunate but does not negatively impact on the candle or the way that it burns.