Candles, Favourites & Maintenance

General Discussion
1

I absolutely LOVE these textured candles for all magickal work: Bolsius Long Burn Rustic Pillar Church Wedding Candle.

I get mine off eBay, they do a black candle (“anthracite”) that’s stunning:

They seem to burn really well, and no leaks provided you perform basic maintenance - that first “memory burn” is the most important for pillar candles:

“When you first light your candle, ensure it burns long enough to ensure the top layer of wax completely melts. This will be roughly 1-2 hours and will help your wax to burn evenly for the rest of its ‘life’ - if you don’t burn it to the edge of the glass then the wax ‘remembers’ how far it has burned to and will never burn beyond this distance. If you’ve ever had candles that ‘tunnel’ and only burn a little of the wax, creating a massive rim of unused candle, then this is why. If you ensure your first burn is perfect then not only will you minimise wax wastage, but keep your candle looking pretty until the very end.” Source

I found you can still get a decent burn by gently pushing the rim inwards if you get a candle that tunnels, but I didn’t even know that stuff until Xmas when my sweetie bought me some pillar candles and I wanted to look up the best way to maintain them, so I thought I’d share it here in case it’s helpful.

Does anyone on here have any favourite types, or tips to share? :slight_smile:

1 Like
2

That “Memory Burn” tip is great. Seems obvious now that you point it out, but it never occurred to me. My candles tunnel all the time so I will have to give this a try.

Typically I save all wax from my black candles. Once the “Tunneling” has become an obstacle I take the candle and place it top down in a special cast iron pan set aside for ritual work and melt the offending wax away. This restores the top to an even level surface.

I have simple candle molds and when enough wax has been saved I pour this, along with other powdered ritual ingredients into a new candle. The wick can be tricky and temperamental at times I confess. It can be a messy business as well.

But for me seeing the candle in use in my rituals is worth it in the end.

1 Like