HOW TO PREVENT ‘TUNNELLING’

MIXMY luxury scented candles have been handmade to the highest standard using a unique blend of 100% natural vegetable wax and the finest quality fragrance oils. Burned correctly, your 200g MIXMY candle should burn for at least 45 hours, but generally much longer.

One reason why some people don’t get the maximum burn life from their candle (any candle, not just MIXMY) is because of ‘tunnelling’. This is where the candle burns down the centre leaving a large amount of unused wax at the sides – hover over the image to see an example.

The most common reason for this happening is because the candle has not been burned for long enough, particularly on the very first burn.

To get a clean, even burn, you should burn your candle long enough for the surface wax to melt completely to the edges – generally between 2 and 4 hours with MIXMY candles.

This is especially important on the very first burn, because if you don’t, you’re almost guaranteed to get tunnelling.

Why?

This is because wax has ‘memory’ – so even when wax appears to have solidified, it will continue to harden over time. Wax that has melted and cooled again today, will always be softer than wax that has been left for longer.

So if you light your new candle and blow it out before the wax has melted to the edges, the next time you light it, only the softer wax in the centre will continue to melt as it requires less thermal energy than the much harder wax around the edge – resulting in tunnelling.

How to Fix It

To fix a candle that has tunnelled, wrap tin foil around the top of the candle, making sure you leave a small opening. This will trap and reflect the candle’s own heat to melt the harder wax around the edges and even out the surface. Important: in this instance, do not trim the wick too short before you light it, as the additional melted wax from the sides of the glass may submerge the short wick. Only trim the wick to 5mm once you’ve fixed the tunnelling.