How to keep your candles burning properly!

Candles are a great way of keeping a room smelling great!  The top 3 candle companies that are sure to keep your rooms filled with great scents are Yankee Candles, Tyler Candles and Circle E Candles.  Although less known than Yankee, Tyler Candle Company and Circle E Candle Company both outperform ANY other candle company that we have ever purchased.  Tyler candles and Circle E Candles burn longer, cleaner and keep their scent to the end of burning every time.  But how do you keep these 3 brands burning properly without having smoke, deep wells, or burn outs?  Well here is the “how to” to keeping your candles burning properly!

Burning Instructions:

First and foremost always remember that a lit candle is fire and any of these candles should not be burned for more than 2 hours at a time.  This actually keeps the candles burning at their optimum performance by keeping the wax melting and re-hardening at a constant even level.  When you extinguish your candles, before the wax starts to harden, ensure that the wick is upright and not touching or close to the glass jar.  Never allow the flame of a candle to touch the glass jar.  Not only can this cause the candles glass jar to become black, but it can also cause it to shatter!

Some other precautions to take when burning Yankee, Tyler candles or Circle E Candles are to keep them from burning in drafty areas.   A draft causes the flame to burn one side of a candle and not the other.  The heat is shifted to the back side of the draft while the windy side is chilled and hardened.  When this happens, you will see a deep well on one side of you candle.  The only way to fix this is to melt the entire candle down (still in its jar), reset the wicks in the center (you may have to buy another wick – make sure it is a Lead FREE) and re-harden the candle.  To melt the candle put the jar candle in a pot of water (have water at least up to level of wax) on the stove and heat on LOW until the candle is melted completely. Use tweezers to get out the wicks and replace new wicks (Candle wax is VERY HOT and can burn skin).

Lastly, of course you should know these, but NEVER leave a candle burning unattended.  Don’t let children or pets near burning candles.  Only burn the candles on heat resistant surfaces and trash the candles when there is only ¼” of wax left at the bottom (If you burn it further the glass could overheat and shatter, trust me I have seen it happen)  Remember: there is a good time to say goodbye, no matter how much you LOVE your Tyler Candle.

Proper Wick Placement:

This is really a crucial step that many of us overlook.  What’s the point of buying an expensive candle like Yankee, Tyler Candles or Circle E Candles if you’re not going to get the most out of it?  The wicks are designed to burn for a certain period of time.  If you keep your wicks trimmed and neat, they can reach their full potential.

Before lighting your candles for the first time, trim the wicks down to ¼” above the wax.  This gives you the BEST performance to begin with.  Wick trimming is such an important part of burning these candles that they ALL sell a specially designed wick clipper to help you trim your wicks more easily. 

Yankee, Tyler candles or Circle E Candles all have lead free wicks.  When you burn these candles some of the less condensed fragrance candles wicks will develop a black “fragrance mushroom”, and the more condensed fragrances will develop a silver white ash.  These mushrooms are caused by the high volume of fragrance oils (which have made these candles so popular) collecting and burning onto the tip of the wicks.  Each of these mushroom wicks MUST be removed before relighting the candles.  This will ensure the candle maximum performance.  Trimming these wicks down to around ¼” will also ensure that your candles do not produce black smoke.  The best way to trim the candles wicks is UPSIDE DOWN.  This ensures that any debris that you cut off falls out of the candle and is not left in the wax contaminating the scent of the candle with burn.  Make certain that you remove any leftover debris of any kind that has fallen into the wax.  This debris doesn’t melt; it burns, causing bad odors and smoke.  So get it out!

The right candle for the job!

For those of you who are just getting into the designer candle lines such as Yankee, Tyler Candle and Circle E Candle, you might want to know how to buy them for what you want them to do. 

Most of these candles come in different sizes.  I have broken it down by general size, so that you can have an idea of what type of fragrance spread you will get.

1)      Candles around 2 - 4 oz.

a.       These are candles created to fragrance powder rooms, small bedrooms or offices.  These candles are perfect for gifts, travel, or to set around a bath for a “spa experience”. 

b.      General burn time is around 20-36 hours (Tyler Candles & Circle E Candles burn the longest per ounce).

2)      Candles around 10 – 14 oz.

a.       These are candles created to fragrance large boudoirs, large bathrooms, sitting rooms, breakfast rooms, entryways, offices or class rooms.

b.      General burn time is around 50-130 hours (Tyler Candles & Circle E Candles burn the longest per ounce).

3)      Candles around 18 - 24 oz.

a.       These are candles created to fragrance great rooms, boudoirs, kitchens, large offices, game rooms and lofts.

b.      General burn time is around 100-150 hours.

4)      Candles around 40 oz.  (Circle E Candles are known for candles this large)

a.       These are candles created to fragrance great rooms, boudoirs, kitchens, large offices, stores, game rooms, lofts and any other large area.

b.      General burn time is around 150-300 hours.  (Circle E Candles large candle is the most popular 40 oz. candle on the market)

These candles are NOT like the cheapo glade you buy at the grocery store.  Designer line candles like Yankee, Tyler Candle and Circle E Candle have the highest grade fragrance oils you can buy.  They use high grade paraffin wax. (Not soy)  Tyler candle and Circle E Candles are ALL HAND POURED to ensure equal distribution of scent, air and wax.  These candles are designed to keep their fragrance down to the last drop.  You know the saying, “you get what you pay for”.  Well, in candles, this is definitely true!