Wick Length: Too Long, Too Short

Wick length is the cheapest control you have. Too long: tall flame, mushroom, soot, a hot jar, cooked fragrance. Too short: weak flame, drowning, a tunnel, a candle you decide “doesn’t work”. About 5mm above the wax is the working length for the cotton wicks in our soy-coconut jars.

How to read the flame

• Spike, smoke, mushroom — too long. Put it out, wait, trim.
• Fat, lazy, drowning, wax closing over — too short, or debris. Clear the pool. You cannot un-trim; you wait for a bit of wick to appear as the pool deepens, or you accept that burn is a write-off.
• Teardrop, quiet, pool spreading — leave it alone.

Wood wicks want a thin clean edge, not a height in millimetres. Snap the char. We use cotton. Wood vs cotton if you are deciding.

Do this every burn, not once when you remember. It is the whole of care in one habit.