When it comes to candles, EYE AM OBSESSED, OKAY?!

Maybe it’s the Taurus in me, but there’s nothing I love more than feeling snug at home on the sofa, either with a good book or watching a movie surrounded by gorgeous, fragrant scents. It’s something incredibly comforting, and as someone with a really trash traditional memory, relying on scents really helps unlock key memories for me.

Over the years I’ve acquired quite a collection of different candles, from budget to premium scents and not only am I going to share my favourites with you, but also give you some tips and hacks I’ve learned on how you can make the most out of your candles and increase the burn time and longevity of them.

1. Don’t Burn Your Candles For More Than Four Hours

Burning your candles for more than four hours in one sitting will make the wick ‘mushroom’, meaning that the wick acquires more and more carbon on it. You don’t want this to happen. Once it mushrooms, the wick will become unstable and produce a super huge flame. It’ll also start to soot and smoke really badly. If you do want to light a candle for a few hours, put the candle out before the four hour period is up, let it cool for two hours, and then re-light them.

2. Freeze Your Empty Jar If You Want to Reuse It

Some candle jars are absolutely too stunning to throw away, so if you would like to reuse your candle, put it in the freezer for 24 hours. Once it’s solid, carefully use a knife to stab the remaining wax and it should pop right out.

3. Stop Burning Your Candle When It Reaches 1/2 an Inch

A simple reason: the hot wax will be too close to the bottom of the jar, and can cause heat damage to the surface that the candle is placed on. Believe me, you don’t want this – it’s happened to me a few times and it’s incredibly annoying as you can’t get rid of heat damage on wood!

4. Want An Even Burn? Go For a Multi Wick Candle

Lighting a multi-wick candle means that the candle will burn evenly across the top and will prevent tunnelling.

5. Burn Your Candle For At Least 3 Hours The First Time

Similar to the point above, when you first buy a candle, burn it for at least 2/3 hours to ensure an even and clean burn. The last thing you want is for the candle to ‘tunnel’ down, as that ends up wasting a LOT of wax and once it happens, it’s INCREDIBLY difficult to fix (although I have a fix that could work!)

6. Tunnelled Wax? Get Some Foil

Fold a piece of aluminium foil in half and wrap it completely around the lit candle. Fold it up over the flame like a bit of a tent (leaving a hole for oxygen) and keep the foil on for around 30 minutes. By then, all the built-up wax around the sides should begin to melt back to an even level.

The Three Kinds of Candles You Need:

Below are some of my favourite scents! For transparency, the links below are affiliated:

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