a grouping of pure beeswax pillar candles and tree candles

The First Rule of Burning Beeswax Candles

The first rule is don’t burn all your beeswax candles the same. Each shape and size dictates the requirements of burning it properly.

Here is some quick ‘rules’ for each beeswax type that Honey Candles makes in our shop.

Candlesticks (includes Taper, Bases, Columns and Tubes)

  • Must be in a secure candleholder and fit snugly before lighting
  • The wick should be trimmed to ½ inch, no more, no less. If the wick is too short it will be prone to dripping
  • Avoid drafts or they will drip

For more details about burning candlesticks read:

How to Burn Your Beeswax Candlestick 

Pillars

  • The wick should be trimmed to a ¼ inch
  • Light at the base of the wick and let the pillar burn at least 3 hours at a time
  • Avoid drafts
  • Best way to extinguish to wick is to dunk it in the molten wax and then to straighten it

For more about burning your beeswax pillar visit this link:

10 Best Tips To Burn Your Beeswax Pillar

Tealights

  • Tealights must be burned in tealight cups as they are designed to totally liquefy
  • Normally you don’t need to trim the wick
  • If your tealight has less than half the beeswax left in a cup you may as well burn it all up. If you light it with less than half the wax left it will never get hot enough to burn up all the wax

To find out more about your beeswax tealight you might like to read:

Did You Make the Mistake of Trimming the Wick on Your Tealight

Votives

  • Require a votive cup as they are designed to fully liquefy
  • Trim the wick only if the candle is flickering and/or producing smoke

For more information on burning your beeswax votive this might be a helpful read:

Enjoy Burning Honey Candles® Pure Beeswax Candles Votives

Beeswax Tins

  • On the first burn let the wax melt to the edge of the tin (about the same as a pillar, 3 to 4 hours). This means you won’t get a hole down the center
  • If the wick creates a carbon cap extinguish the candle and trim the wick to ¼ inch
  • Burn times with the tins that have essential oils can vary as the essential oils affect how quickly or slowly they burn.

Ornamentals

  • Always place ornamentals on a pillar plate
  • The intricate nature of the ornamental beeswax candles sometimes means that petals of the Ponderosa Pine Cone or Yule Tree may flake and fall on your pillar plate. Just take the bits and feed them back slowly into the wax pool. No need to waste precious beeswax
  • For candles with varying diameters you might find it necessary to extinguish the flame when the melt pool gets too close to the edge. Allow the wax to cool and then you can light it again

For specific instructions on Fluted Spheres we have an article to read:

Tasteful Beeswax Candle Fluted Spheres

Hint: it’s worth it to go to this article to see how stunning a Fluted Sphere is when it’s burning!

It’s really important to know that not all beeswax candles want to be treated the same. There are so many sites that recommend that you trim your wick to ¼ inch and as you can see sometimes that isn’t always true.

To find where you can buy all these beeswax candles on-line go to this link.


Published By Pat Cattermole

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