A hand-poured soy candle rewards a little patience. Here's how to get the longest, cleanest burn out of yours.
Trim the wick to about a quarter inch before every burn. A too-long wick burns hotter, smokier, and faster than it should — and it's the single easiest thing to get wrong.
On the first burn especially, let the candle stay lit until the melted wax reaches all the way to the edges of the vessel. Soy wax has "memory" — if you blow it out early, it will keep burning in that same narrow tunnel for the rest of its life.
That's roughly how long it takes most of our candles to reach a full melt pool without overheating the vessel. Longer than that doesn't add fragrance — it just adds heat.
Treat it well, and a single candle can give you dozens of hours of an evenly scented, clean burn.