Life is full of compromises. I remember this during the week when we received an email from a customer asking about a wick that was burning strangely. After burning, it had formed a large mushroom shape at the tip, and the wick was now giving off black soot as the flame flickered around more than normal. What’s gone wrong he asked?

The problem he is experiencing is called mushrooming. Have you experienced it too?

The solution is to wait for the candle to cool and then snip off the “mushroom” tip, leaving as much of the undamaged wick as you can. We recommend that you trim off any deformed wick before you burn the candle each time.

The mushrooming is a result of a build-up of carbon, where the flame consumes more wax than it can burn. This can happen with Valentte candles as we use a larger wick that is normal for this size of candle. We do this to improve the scent throw of the candle. Large wicks make a hotter melt pool, which in turn heat the essential oils hotter and improves the scent throw.

It is an unfortunate compromise that there is no easy solution for.  We use soy wax to make our candles because it is a natural vegetable wax that burns clean and toxin free. The problem with soy though is that it melts at a very low temperature, combine this with essential oils that need to be heated much hotter to properly “throw” their scent, and you can see why making candles that “actually smell” is such a dark art!

So, coming back to the compromise. By using a larger wick, we risk it mushrooming and make them knowing this will most likely happen. But feel it’s a price worth paying to have natural candles, scented with essential oils that smell strongly when they burn.

I hope you agree!

It’s an easy fix, grab some small scissors and snip the mushroom tip off and you are good to go. You can greatly reduce the risk of it happening by not burning our candles for longer than two or three hours at a time.