Allowing your new candle burn for the proper amount of time during the first burn will help you prevent tunneling and help you get the best use out of your beautiful candles.
In my journey of making and using candles, what frustrated me most was that after a few burns, my candles turned into a deep wax canyon (irrespective of brand and type), with a pool of molten soft wax in the center surrounded by a wall of hard wax. With each subsequent use, the wicks submerged into the soft wax, and before I could enjoy its fragrance to my satisfaction, the candle died out. I was left with a thick ring of hard wax along the edges of the container-a waste of my money and precious scented wax.
The way around it I learnt through trial and error and from(youtube ). I am now confident of sharing all I know about it.
Why does a candle tunnel?
Tunneling happens when only a small portion of wax in the middle of the candle, immediately surrounding the wick/wicks, melts while the outer rim remains hard. When you light your candle, the center portion gets lower and lower while the outer layer remains solid. The wax in the center melts faster than the outer layer because it is already soft from the first burn and will need only low heat to melt it, whereas the hard outer wax layer will need a much higher heat to melt it. This leaves a ring of hard wax, also called a memory ring, surrounding the deep soft wax in the middle. This process continues for the subsequent burns, leaving the candle like a deep wax pit, rendering it useless sooner than expected.
How can you prevent tunneling of the candle?
This is where the importance of the first burn comes in. How you burn the candle for the first time is how it will burn for the rest of its life. Yes! Your candles have memory, also known as candle wax memory. If your first burn is incomplete, the small portion of wax in the center melts faster, making it soft, while the outer layers remain frozen.
To enjoy the fragrance/contents of your candle to the fullest, the most important thing you can do is to allow your new candle to burn for 3-4 hours the first time till it reaches a complete wax melt pool on the surface. A simple rule of thumb is to keep it lit for approximately 1 hour per inch of container diameter. For example the average diameter of a Sweet U Candles container is 3 inches, the optimum first burn time is therefore 3hrs. Do not snuff out the flame too early and blow out the candle after the entire surface of the wax has melted.
Sweet U Candles are hand-poured with pure soy wax and have flat cotton wicks braided with thin paper threads. Fragrance oils that release the scents are infused with essential oils and are free of phthalates, and other additives. In addition, they adhere to the Research Institute for Fragrance Materials (RIFM) and International Fragrance Association (IFRA) standards of safety and purity.
Pssst,, don't forget to order SweetUCandles to have the pleasant experience of a full burn candle of your choice.
