Scented Jar Candles

Aromatherapy practitioners judge jar candles by the length of time that the fragrance from that candle fills the air of the room in which the candle burns. In other words, the longer the scent of a burning candle lasts, the better the quality of that jar candle.

The scent emitted by jar candles comes from the wax or paraffin. That wax or paraffin also serves as each candle’s fuel. The wick carries the melted wax to the flame. The heat of the flame causes the liquid to evaporate. The flame then consumes the resulting vapors.

The creation of top-quality jar candles requires an understanding of the properties of wax and paraffin. In regard to a scent, those substances are like a sponge. They can hold only a defined quantity of scent. Expert candle makers can blend two or more waxes, in order to increase the amount of scent that can be held by their own jar candles.

Expert candle makers are familiar with oils that can amalgamate with candle wax. The candle makers seek-out pleasant smelling oils that will blend well with wax. Such oils can increase the amount of scent put into any jar candles. Such oils thus add to the quality of the same jar candles.

Expert candle makers appreciate the importance of a good wick. A quality wick must have one of two features. It should be either highly absorbent, or possessed of capillary action. Unless a wick has one of those two features, it can not perform its required function.

When judging jar candles, one should pay attention to the position of each candle’s wick. In an unburned candle, the wick should be at the candle’s center. Unfortunately, the purchaser of a candle can’t know what will happen once that candle starts to burn. A burning candle should not have a wick that goes “off-center.”

Assessment of jar candles is difficult, without information on what to expect from those candles, once they are lighted. Such information can be found on the websites of several online candle merchants. Those merchants make quality jar candles, and they provide Internet shoppers with information to support their claims of candle quality.

Top quality jar candles will burn to the edge of the candle. The candle “learns” to burn to the edge if it is burned for the proper amount of time (one hour for each one inch of diameter). The resulting pool of liquid reaches to the outside of the jar candle.