Unless you
are lucky enough to have your home heated permanently to tropical temperatures
throughout the winter, you may well be struggling to get your Yankee Candle
large (and medium) jars to burn properly in the colder months.
What do I
mean by burn properly? As per the recommended guidelines for getting the best
scent and value from your candle, ensuring that on each burn, you let the
candle wax melt and pool to the edge of the jar. This prevents ridges at the
side or a circular indent, known by fans as tunnelling.
This is what you DON'T want...
I know I’m
not the only one to have difficulties in this regard throughout the winter
months. Oh for those heady days of summer when candles would easily pool across
within a few hours!
This summer pic of mine shows what a full pool should look like..
Anyway, here
are 3 tips to ensure that you get your candles to pool properly.
And you may
need to engage all 3 tips at once to ensure full success and be happy that when
you eventually put your candle away, it has a nice flat top and that you will
get your 150 hours of burning (from a large jar).
Now if you
are very lucky and your house is warm enough your candle may pool to the edge
without issue, but I’ve found that probably 75% of my candle burns since
November have needed a little help!
TIP 1 – Use an
Illuma Lid
Illuma Lids
as well as having a practical purpose, can make an attractive addition to your
candle when in use. Illuma Lids can help with quite a few things ;
-
They keep the flame of the candle steady helping
you get an even burn
-
Because the flame is steady this should assist
with soot prevention
-
They ensure that extra heat is trapped inside
the jar assisting with burning and heating the outer ring of wax. This is the
main thing to ensure you get a full wax pool.
My jar of Macintosh Spice with an illuma lid
TIP 2 – Use kitchen
foil
If an illuma
lid on its own isn’t working and your wax is still very cold at the outer edges
or the wax pool appears to tunnel downwards then use some ordinary kitchen foil
to help. Simply cut off a piece or two (enough to more than wrap around the
jar) and ensure that you cover the sides of the jar where to are trying to melt
the wax.
Important do
not cover the top of the jar! Just the sides.
TIP 3 –
Cutting/Pressing in
This needs
the most care, but unfortunately sometimes you need all 3 tips at once to ensure
you get that even burn across. Sometimes this gives that little bit of help to
bring the wick and flame to life or it smooths out any higher sides to fix your
yankee candle.
So being
VERY CAREFUL –
Wait to see
if your candle is pooling properly and if not or if you have high sides of wax,
then after and hour or two when the wax is softer –
-
Remove the illuma lid and foil
-
Gently bring the wax down and in towards the wax
pool with a knife (not a sharp one!)
-
Do not cut or hack at the wax. The soft wax
should come away from the side of the jar and you should be able to carefully press
it inwards and downwards with the knife.
-
Be careful not to flood your wick with too much
wax, you may need several goes over time to do your whole candle
-
When roughly you have the side wax at the same
level or a mm or two above the wax pool, replace your illuma lid and foil and
leave for as long as it needs for the wax to pool to the edge.
-
Do not worry if it looks bumpy or serrated from
the knife patterns. Providing it is roughly at the same height, your candle
should now pool.
-
Remember BE CAREFUL – be gentle or the wax could
splash up if you dig too hard. You only need to GENTLY flatten it downwards.
By employing
1,2 or all 3 of these processes you should be able to fix even the most
stubborn Yankee Candle jar in cold weather. This has sorted even my most
difficult burners (I’m looking at you Blissful Autumn!)
Good luck
and happy burning!