De Lotus Bleu (Original)

1. Trim the wick. Every. Single. Time.
Each time you want to burn your candle, start by trimming the wick to between 1/8 and 1/4 inches long. You can use scissors, nail clippers (that's my personal favourite), or our wick trimmer (coming soon) but no matter what you do, always trim, every single time.

Why every time? Trimmed wicks will give you a cleaner, brighter burn. Untrimmed wicks are a lot more likely to take on a strange shape that dulls and obscures the flame. Also excessively long wicks cause nasty smoky stains that end up on your glass jar candles - not a problem with our tin candles however trimming the wick keeps the flame in control.

2. Let the wax melt all the way across.
Once your candle's lit, DON'T blow it out until the top layer of wax has melted all the way across. This might take several hours so don't set out to burn a candle at all unless you've got the time to do so. This is also called candle memory. Whenever you fail to achieve full melt, you're contributing to a process called tunnelling. The wick starts to sink lower and lower, like a tunnel is forming right through the centre of the candle. Eventually, the tunnel will grow so deep that it'll be tough to light the wick at all. More importantly, all that unmelted wax on the sides represents hours of lovely fragrance and burn time you bought but won't ever get to utilise.

It takes patience, but if you melt the wax all the way across every time you burn, the surface of the candle will stay flat and the sides of the tin (or jar) will stay clean, all the way down until the candle is spent.

3. Only burn your candle for 4 hours at a time.
If you burn your candle for more than 4 hours at a time, carbon will collect on the wick, and your wick will begin to "mushroom." This can cause the wick to become unstable, the flame to get too large, your candle to smoke, and soot to be released into the air and around your candle container.