How to: Burn Test

It’s not always smooth sailing when it comes to creating the perfect candle. It requires practice, patience and a whole lotta’ testing.

A burn test is used to establish that a candle meets safety and performance standards. We always suggest only testing one variable at time. This is imperative when it comes to isolating any issues you may experience. The performance of your candle will rely on several things such as wick size, fragrance loading, type of wax and container size.

Firstly, when conducting a burn test, be sure to create a ‘burn friendly’ environment. Set up your test on a flat heat resistant surface and make you are testing away from any draughts, air-conditioning, heating, or any other variable that may affect air flow and temperature in your space. Please always ensure that no children or pets are present for a burn test.

Secondly, ensure each candle is labelled. You may be testing out 3 different candles with different wick sizes or wax. Line up the candles next to each other so that you can see any differences clearly. Make sure that all wicks are trimmed to 5mm.

Note down the time that you start conducting your test. This is important as you will need to check in on them as time progresses. We like to conduct a burn test for 3 hours. Each hour checking back on our candles to note down any details.

Every hour it is important to check for things such as a wick that isn’t flickering, mushrooming, tunnelling, soot or an over production of smoke.

Lastly, after 3 hours, allow the candle to cool and note down any details about the wax once it solidifies.

Then repeat the above until the candle is finished. It is important to do this until the candle is finished as there can be differences in the burn each time you burn it.

Happy testing!