There is a probable chance that some of you will read the title of this post and, understandably, chuckle. To be entirely honest, I would likely have the same reaction if I wasn’t aware that candle maintenance even exists.
I watched a video via Instagram not that long ago which featured a woman blowing my mind as she discussed the concept of candle maintenance and the dos and don’ts when it comes to owning candles. I was shocked I hadn’t heard of any of the criteria she provided before, considering how old I am and how many candles I’ve gone through in my day, and because I was so taken aback with the information she shared, I thought I would share it with all of you.
Apparently, you’re supposed to trim the wick(s) of your candles EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU USE THEM, and that includes prior to the first time you ever light it.
Why, you may ask?
The woman explained that candle wicks should not exceed one inch, hence the constant trimming. The reason for keeping candle wicks at a height of one inch is because once a wick exceeds one inch in height, it begins to develop, as the woman in the video described it, mushroom heads on the end of the wicks. Basically, when a wick starts forming growths on its ends, it means the wick is in dire need of trimming, because when the mushroom heads start to form, this results in the wick having a minor explosion when you first light it and coating all surfaces in close proximity with soot.
Not so fun to clean up.
Further, when a wick is not regularly trimmed and the mushroom heads form on them, this causes a flame to burn like a mother fucker. You know when you light a candle and the wick looks like a strobe light you would see at a rave festival and it seems like it’s going to ignite the ceiling? Yeah, that’s the result.
I sincerely hope this knowledge is helpful to anyone who uses candles.
ontheedgeofeverything 