Best Burn Practices

When it comes to candle care, learning the proper burning practices will help you get the most out of your candle every time. Here are all of our tried and true methods for caring for your Ambush candle.

Avoid Tunneling

The first time you burn your new Ambush candle is the most important! Did you know that during the first burn you need to let the wax pool melt all the way to the sides of your vessel? Usually this takes between two to three hours to accomplish, so don’t light that new candle until you have a few hours to enjoy it! This is such an important step because if the wax pool isn’t reaching across the entire surface when you blow it out, tunneling will occur. Tunneling is what happens when the sides of your candle aren’t melting, and the wick continues to burn down in the center, creating a tunnel in the wax. If this happens, you are losing out on precious hours of burn time with those amazing scents! We especially love our 8oz can vessels because they have a lip around the top edge that makes tunneling almost impossible. But, if tunneling ever does happen to you, there is an easy trick to fix it! You’ll simply need some aluminum foil. Trim your aluminum foil to the circumference of your candle and wrap it around the vessel, creating an extra wall around the top. You’ll want to slightly fold it down in the center (be careful not to let it touch the wick), creating a lip around the candle. It should look something like this!

Yep, it’s not cute. But that’s why we let it create a full melt pool the first time! Luckily this will do the trick.

The lip of aluminum foil will distribute heat to the outer ring of still-solid wax to create a full melt pool. When you see the entire surface of your candle has melted you’re set to remove the foil.

Now that you’re creating a full melt pool each time you burn your candle, you can get every last minute out of it. The next important thing to check is the wick.

Wick Trimming

We love our wooden wicks because they create less work for you. They are self trimming and also burn cleaner, meaning you won’t see much of that black soot cotton wicks produce while they’re lit. So for the most part, you shouldn’t need to worry about trimming a wooden wick. It really only becomes something to check if you can’t get your candle to light after the initial burn. Sometimes the tip of the wick has burnt to ash but its still sitting on top and doesn’t want to light. My trick is to simply pinch the burnt tip with your fingers and remove it (only when your candle is cooled!). Usually this fixes the issue right away and the candle is able to light. The other time you may need to trim your wick is if your candle has been lit for over four hours. Again, the wooden wicks are designed to self trim as they burn, but if you do notice the flame is getting too large it is probably a good time to snuff your flame out and then trim the wick once its cooled. Please don’t ever touch the wick or pick up the vessel while it is still hot.

The 4-Hour Rule

The four hour rule is a good safety practice for candle lovers to never let their candle burn for too long. Candles obviously have flames and can become hot after burning for an extended period of time, so we always recommend you only let your Ambush candle burn for four hours maximum. This helps to ensure that the flame never gets too large and the vessel never overheats.

Getting un-lit

There is weirdly a lot of debate in the candle-making-sphere about the best way to put out your candle. Some swear that snuffing is the only way to go, or dipping the wick into the wax, blowing it out, or even extinguishing the flame by putting a lid on. My take is that whatever is easiest for you is the best way to go. I personally don’t like to put out my candles with the lid because I’ve noticed it traps smoke inside the vessel and causes my candles to smell smokey the next time I burn them! But this might just be because I’m picky about the scent. So do whatever works for you as long as it’s putting the flame out completely. I do think snuffing is a great way to go and wick snuffers are reasonably inexpensive. You can even find kits with wick trimmers included. Again, the most important thing is to always make sure your flame is completely out.

Are any of these tips new to you? We hope these burn practices help you to always get the best and most out of your Ambush candles!