Candle Care

Burn Method

If you follow our simple burning guidelines on this page, your candle should burn clean, straight down the sides of the glass jar with little or no wastage. Once the wax is within half an inch of the bottom of the jar, stop using it, this is for safety to prevent the glass jar from cracking.

• On the first burn always burn for 3-4 hours to ensure an even burn pool. This is important, natural wax has a ‘memory’ so this ensures that the candle burns evenly and does not tunnel.
• Burning your candles for a minimum of 2 – 3 hours at a time will ensure that the melted wax pool has reached the sides of the glass jar optimising your burn time.
• Never leave a candle burning continuously for more than 4 hours.
• Wooden wick candles take longer to light than cotton wicks, we recommend holding your flame close to the wick for approx. 15 seconds to ensure an even burn.
• It is also important to keep the wick trimmed to 1/8th of an inch by either snapping off the excess wood wick with your fingers when the candle is cold and the wax is solid or using the wick trimmer. Do make sure that you discard all parts of the wick that you have broken off and do not leave small pieces of it on the top of the wax.
• Never place your candles on anything that could catch fire and always place them on a protected heat resistant dry surface. Allow the candle to cool completely before relighting or handling.
• Never leave a burning candle unattended.
• If you burn your candles for shorter periods of time it is likely that the wax pool will burrow down the centre of the candle rather than burn evenly across the width of the candle jar. Once this effect has started it is then very difficult to use all of the wax and it is possible that the wax will ‘drown’ the wick.
• This is typical of nearly all candles in containers. Once this pattern has been established it is difficult to rectify and your candle will burn for less than the normal amount of hours. In time, the flame will be starved of oxygen, burn slower and eventually extinguish itself.

What to do if your candle is smoking

• Do not place your candles in a draughty area such as a hallway, near a window or by a fireplace. There are normally only two possible reasons why a candle is smoking, the candle may be in a draught or the wick is too long. Simply move the candle out of the draught or, extinguish the flame, let the candle cool down and the wax become solid and trim the wick back to about 1/8th of an inch removing the excess wick fully from the candle jar.
• We recommend burning your candle for 3 - 4 hours per use. This is to ensure the wick does not get too long which is when it will start to smoke. Samantha Ashton candles are made from 100% sustainable non-toxi coconut & soy wax blend which produces a much cleaner burn than paraffin wax and under normal burning conditions our candles are virtually smoke free.
• Sometimes you may notice air bubbles in your candles between the sides of the glass jar and the wax. Natural wax is more sensitive to temperature change than other types of wax and will sometimes shrink resulting in air bubbles. This is not considered a fault and will not affect the way the candle burns.
• When your candle has finished you can reuse the glass jar and lid as a vase or storage jar.

The following guidelines apply to the burning of all candles

• Never leave a burning candle unattended.
• Keep burning candles away from flammable materials, children and pets.
• Do not place candles on or near other heat sources.
• Burn the candles on heat resistant surfaces
• Extinguish candles with great care ensuring that hot wax does not splatter.
• Keep the wick trimmed to no more than 1/8th of an inch.
• Keep the hot wax pool free of wick trimmings, matches or any other flammable materials and ensure that the wick is always in the centre of the candle.
• Do not allow anything to drop into the hot wax pool such as parts of the wick or a match as in very rare occasions this can cause a candle to explode.