The fire of a burning candle produces heat, so precautions should be taken when using paraffin candles:
- Do not light a candle as long as it contains elements of decorative packaging that are susceptible to ignition (various bows, artificial flowers, paper labels, etc.). All this must be removed before lighting;
- “Matches are not a toy for children” - the same applies to candles. Also keep candles away from animals;
- Do not use a candle without a stand. Place it either in a special candlestick or saucer. Using a candle without a stand can damage the expensive surface or cause a fire;
- Do not leave a lit candle unattended;
- Keep the lit candle at a safe distance from fire hazards;
- Keep lit candles at a safe distance from each other - at least 10 cm (exception - only if it is not a solid candle with several wicks).
- Do not place the candle in a draft. This will create soot, the flame will burn unevenly and create a fire hazard.
The ideal length of a candle wick is 5 mm. When burning a candle, be careful not to let the wick become too long or short.
- With a long wick the flame will become too strong and high and soot will form. In this case, simply trim the wick to the recommended length of 5-6 mm.
- If the wick is too short the flame will “choke” and there will be a very small flame. In this case, you will need to cut off a small portion of the top of the candle to expose the missing wick to the recommended 5mm.
Maximum candle burning time:
- Candle diameter up to 3 cm – no more than 1 hour at a time
- Candle diameter up to 10 cm – no more than 4 hours in a row
- Sometimes the wick can become "fouled" with ash, causing the flame to become very small, even with the correct wick length. In this case, it is enough to shake off excess carbon from the wick while the candle is burning (use a non-flammable object) to restore a bright flame. You should not do this if the candle is not burning (cooled). In this case, you will simply break the wick.
Do not leave candles in the sun or near heat sources - they may become deformed.
Store candles in a cool, dark place, out of reach of children and animals.
Surprising but true! Candles stored in the refrigerator or simply cooled before use then burn much more evenly and longer. To prevent the candle from smelling like a refrigerator, wrap it in a bag or foil.
- If you put the candlestick in the freezer for 20 minutes after use, the remaining wax in it will be easier to clean out.
- Before placing the candle in the candlestick, drop a little ordinary water into it. In this case, after the candle burns, it will be much easier to clean the wax from the bottom of the candlestick.
Precautions when using gel suppositories
Gel candles are no different in terms of safety from other types of candles; rather, they are even safer, since they are initially in a container. However, there is a feature that you need to pay attention to!
- The fact is that when a gel candle burns out, the flame can reach the bottom of the glass, heating the glass so much that it can burst. Therefore, never burn a gel candle to the very bottom, always leave at least 2 cm to the bottom (unless it is covered with decorative sand or stones)
- The continuous burning time should not exceed 4 hours.
- While the gel candle is burning, avoid moving it from its place. Also let the glass cool before moving the candle.
It is no secret that for many peoples of Europe and Asia the tea ceremony is a national tradition. Considering that proper tea drinking is not a quick process, the vessel with tea cooled down over time. And this was a problem, because the fuss with heating the teapot somewhere far from the table disrupted the idyll and regularity of the tea ceremony. Until one smart candle maker, whose name history has not remembered, came up with a flat version of a wax candle in a metal frame. But his invention began to be called, thanks to the approval of tea lovers, who were able to maintain the desired temperature of the drink right at the table, placing these candles under a stand with a teapot. Even in the current era of multifunctional electrical appliances, this option is still widely used in conservative communities of the Old and New Worlds.
Types of tea candles and subtleties of choice.
A modern tea candle is essentially a “tablet” of combustible material with a wick. This common name is due to its round, flat shape and compact size. In the classic variation, it is enclosed in an aluminum casing, which protects the candle from spreading over the surface during the combustion process. With or without a casing, a tea candle will float perfectly on the surface of the water, which significantly expands the possibilities of its use. But more on that later.
So, first of all, you should pay attention to the composition of the candle, and today there are three main materials: beeswax, soy wax and paraffin.
Let's take a closer look at each of them:
Beeswax- the most ancient and natural. This is an incredibly stable substance that can retain its properties for hundreds of years. It contains about 300 different components, while it has the cleanest, even burning with a subtle delicate aroma of honey and propolis. With all the positive qualities, the only drawback is its highest price and the same likelihood of counterfeiting.
Soy wax- a revolutionary innovation at the end of the last century. A certain Michel Richard, experimenting with hydrogenated soybean oil, using the full power of progressive chemistry, obtained a substance of natural plant origin and very close to beeswax. Soy wax turned out to be relatively inexpensive, no less naturally aromatic and with a longer burning period, without soot and soot.
Paraffin - a certain carbon compound that scientists learned to extract from oil more than two centuries ago. What is good about it is that it is the most accessible and versatile. Paraffin mixes well with dyes and flavors, incl. natural oils, which means this is the best option for variety and creative exploration. With a good degree of purification, paraffin also burns smoothly and does not smoke. If a candle produces soot and produces acrid black smoke, it is counterfeit technical paraffin and can be harmful!
There is another unique type of tea candle that performs a purely decorative function. The newest invention of human genius is an LED candle with a flickering effect. Made of plastic in the form of a base and an emulation of a light in which a diode is built. Can work on one battery for about 4 days. It’s beautiful and safe, but real live fire is a unique natural phenomenon that you can admire for hours and cannot be replaced artificially.
How long does a tea light tablet burn and what does it smell like?
We already know from what base tea candles are made, but we have not yet mentioned the burning time. Standard combustion standards require 3-4 hours of continuous fire, and such a period can be considered guaranteed for high-quality products. This is quite enough to complete most of their tasks. But there are also options that can burn for 9 hours (only have a longer burning period). We'll look at what they might be needed for very soon. But let's talk about color and smell right now.
In principle, the color of a tea candle has little practical significance, especially if the candle is in a metal shell. But when it comes to fragrances, you need to be careful. Sometimes light natural, slightly perceptible notes are better than a nasty, cloying synthetic flavor that hits the nose beyond measure. In general, a high-quality scented tea candle made with natural oils is not only pleasant, but also very useful. It will not only create a favorable atmosphere, but will improve your mood and even awaken desire. In such romantic sketches, we gradually approached how a tea candle can be used in an original and innovative way, in addition to heating tea.
Only a few possible options will be listed here, especially relevant on the eve of Valentine's Day in order to surprise your soulmate. Our goal is to give a small impetus to your boundless imagination, glowing warm feelings and inspire you to realize the most daring intriguing ideas.
What does St. Valentine offer?
Aroma lamps. If you are not sure about the smell of ready-made aroma candles, then you can create your own composition using an aroma lamp, an ordinary tea candle and natural oil that you like. This element will take its rightful place in any romantic interior.
Special night lights. Carvings and intricately shaped patterns on the walls of the vessel, illuminated by a tea candle, will create an amazing play of light and shadows, which will create a semi-intimate, relaxing atmosphere.
If you don't have a night light, it doesn't matter. Look in the sideboard for various glasses, glasses, different colors, shapes and patterns, place a tea candle inside and create incredible multi-colored shimmers on the walls and ceiling. It's very beautiful and romantic. And it will definitely not leave your loved one indifferent.
Don't forget about the classics - decorating the room with tea candles in a chaotic manner. Dozens of small lights around in a darkened room, glowing enough to see each other, but not bright enough and allowing you to maintain an intimate atmosphere, will never lose relevance. Just don't forget about fire safety!
Tea candles on water. Use this idea boldly! In a pool, bathtub, large bowl or open water, by fastening several tea lights together, you can lay out a heart, a significant date, or the name of a loved one. Yes, anything that your imagination and courage allows. It looks fantastic and will melt even the Snow Queen's heart.
Everything seems clear, but what exactly?
As it turned out, such a small object as a tea candle can provide a lot of unexpected possibilities in a wide variety of variations. To summarize, we can highlight the following points that will help make the final choice:
- The material is not so important as its quality. Good pure paraffin at the most affordable price can provide the widest range of applications
- Speaking about the metal case, we can conclude that it is necessary for all types of use in the interior, lamps and glasses, both for protection against wax spillage and for safety purposes. Only for water it can be neglected.
- High quality aromatic tea candles with natural oils are an excellent and at the same time simple solution. To avoid possible oversaturation of aromas, light only a few scented candles, and let the rest be unscented.
- consider burning time. If you plan to spend the entire night on a romantic rendezvous, then you might want to consider tea lights with a 9-hour burn time. And when the regular candles burn out, you won’t need as much light and will just need to light a couple of new ones.
The SevenMart online store honors the precepts of St. Valentine and, with love for its customers, offers to buy a wide range of tea candles at an incredibly warm and low price. For wholesale romantics there will be a truly unique offer. Hurry to surprise your loved ones before someone else does.
You quickly get used to good things! Electricity is a familiar thing for us and, as long as there is 220 volts in the sockets, it is inconspicuous. As soon as there is an accident on the line or the traffic jams burn out, life freezes and stops. Electric lighting is so commonplace that not every city apartment has candles! And yet, during the “end of the world” in the dark, you have to look for any alternative source of light. Flashlights and cell phones are used.
Don't have regular candles? Any decorative ones will do! For example, during the last large-scale power outage in the city, the entire editorial office was evacuated with the help of a gift from a reader - a decorative candle. Fortunately, it was still found in journalistic bins.
So, your lights are turned off. Nowadays, we light candles more to create a mood than to fight the darkness, which means you probably have at least some decorative or scented candle. Let's try to figure out which modern analogue of the oldest lighting device will help you while away the long winter night more comfortably and brightly.
We bought six candles - all of them can end up in your home. We lit them and tried to objectively evaluate their consumer qualities.
Twisted candle
Quantity: 4 pieces
Price: 288 tenge
Manufacturer: not specified
Package: box
Burning time: unknown
Lit: Fine
Smell: no pungent odor
Summary: after 1 hour 33 minutes the candle began to flow, after 10 minutes it cracked and, having completely melted, stopped shining after 7 minutes
Burning time: 1 hour 50 minutes
Candle "Flower"
Quantity: 4 pieces
Price: 220 tenge
Manufacturer: not specified
Package: box
Burning time: unknown
Lit: Fine
Smell: no pungent odor
Summary: The wick fell out when setting it on fire. After 15 minutes of burning, the side of the “flower” melted, the wax flowed out, and the candle went out
Burning time: 15 minutes
Household candle
Quantity: 1 piece
Price: 29 tenge
Manufacturer: Russia
Package: without packaging
Burning time: unknown
Lit: Fine
Smell: no pungent odor
Summary: There were difficulties in lighting the candle. This was only possible on the third attempt. After 45 minutes, the candle began to shoot and hiss very loudly, and spontaneously went out after a minute. For the purity of the experiment, we did not set it on fire again
Burning time: 46 minutes
Household candle Premium Quality
Quantity: 6 items
Price: 321 tenge
Manufacturer: Russia
Package: box
Burning time: 6 hours
Lit: Fine
Smell: no pungent odor
Summary: It flowed very strongly and melted quickly. The light was much less than the stated 6 hours
Burning time: 2 hours 10 minutes
Candle “Column “Pine”
Quantity: 1 piece
Price: 340 tenge
Manufacturer: Provence
Package: sealed in plastic film
Burning time: 27 hours
Lit: ok, the flame is small
Smell: without smell. Although the manufacturer indicates that the candle is scented
Summary: lit well. Burnt evenly and without paraffin drips
Burning time: the experiment was stopped after 6 hours. The candle burned out a little, it may well burn for the stated time
Household candle “The Little Mermaid”
Quantity: 6 items
Price: 321 tenge
Manufacturer: Russia
Package: box
Burning time: 6 hours
Lit: Fine
Smell: no pungent odor
Summary: burned evenly, without paraffin streaks
Burning time: 5 hours 8 minutes
How are candles made?
The most popular process is casting. Paraffin heated to 70 degrees in a water bath is poured into a pre-prepared mold with a fixed wick. Depending on the thickness, the candle hardens in 3 to 6 hours. Ready-made paraffin candles often bend during storage; to eliminate this drawback and increase the melting point, 3 to 15% stearin is added to the paraffin.
Wax candles are made using the methods of pouring, curving, drawing, dipping, rolling, casting into molds and pressing on special machines.
Decoration and flavoring
As electric lighting sources replace all others, other uses for candles are coming to the fore. Candles are widely used for decorative purposes as decorations. They are also often used to create a romantic atmosphere.
Scented candles and beeswax candles (which emit a natural scent) are also used to add scent to a room.
Are scented candles harmful?
In recent years, many have shown interest in scented candles, which are lit to create a romantic atmosphere or fill a room with a unique aroma. However, after research, experts came to disappointing conclusions. It turns out that the vapor from scented candles is no less toxic than cigarettes. Often lovers of unusual scents leave them on overnight and sleep in a smoky room. Thus, the concentration of harmful substances in the air increases the likelihood of developing diseases such as asthma, eczema, and other skin diseases. Meanwhile, it is worth noting that not all candles are equally harmful. Expensive types of scented candles made from high-quality beeswax and soy rarely cause health problems. First of all, cheap products made from paraffin pose a danger.
Story
The first candles in history were bowls filled with fat, with a wick or sliver. Historians date the appearance of such lighting to the third millennium BC. Before the spread of electric lamps, along with lamps, candles were the main source of light. The first wax candles appeared in the Middle Ages. Candles have been very expensive for a long time. To illuminate a large room, hundreds of candles were required; they smoked, blackening the ceilings and walls.
What are candles made of?
Paraffin
The product of petroleum distillation is the most popular as a material for candles. In the 19th century, stearin significantly replaced it as a candle material.
Beeswax
Natural product. Beeswax candles burn longer and brighter than paraffin candles. Due to the higher cost of wax candles, candles are often not made entirely from beeswax, but rather it is added to other materials to extend the burning time.
Stearin
It is added to paraffin so that it shrinks more when it cools, and candles cast from it are easier to remove from the mold. Stearine also prevents candles from melting. Stearin is an organic product obtained from fats.
Glycerol
Used in a mixture with gelatin and tannin. Glycerin candles are completely transparent; they can be given any color using different dyes. A variety of colored paraffin compositions can be placed inside a glycerin candle, which gives the candle extraordinary decorative properties.
Gel
Paraffin gel allows you to create candles in more varied shapes.
Types of candles
- Household candles - candles made from paraffin have a simple cylindrical shape and a translucent whitish color. The simplest, cheapest and most common type.
- Table candles - like household candles, have an elongated cylindrical shape (an even cylinder or a long cone-shaped shape). Various dyes are used in their production to give them a better aesthetic appearance. There can be classic, twisted, aromatic. Household and table candles require a candlestick, as they are unstable due to their shape. Large diameter table candles do not require a candlestick for stability. Otherwise, the characteristics are the same as table candles - they are made using dyes and can be classic, odorless, or aromatic.
- Church candles are made primarily from beeswax or paraffin.
- Tea candles – otherwise they are often called tablet candles because of their shape. They are produced cast in an aluminum case. They are used in decorative lamps, aroma lamps, and for heating teapots in appropriate devices.
- Decorative candles are candles made from different materials, the main purpose of which is to please the eye. These are multi-colored candles, carved ones, and some unusual shapes. Decorative candles are often made in the form of souvenir figurines.
- Gel candles - candles are made from a special amorphous mass that is unable to hold its shape. The gel mass is transparent and colorless. It is melted and poured, mainly, into glass containers, at the bottom of which a certain composition is created from colored sand, shells, beads, figurines, etc.
Candles are as constant a participant in New Year’s Eve as a garland, Olivier salad and the hundredth viewing of “The Irony of Fate...”. But really beautiful holiday specimens can “drag in” so much that it’s a pity to even light them up. But manufacturers of wax accessories hide one trick that will make the candles burn twice as long. And that's the minimum!
Candles in the house create a special festive coziness and mood. But all good things come to an end. In this case, very quickly. To extend the life of candles twice, or even more, use three little tricks.
Trick #1: Cold is a friend to fire
First, before you light your candles, be sure to place them in the freezer. At least for an hour and a half. Frozen wax will thicken and burn much longer. This trick alone almost doubles the life of the candle. Especially if you freeze it before each use.
Trick #2: Trim the wick
It turns out that the longer the wick, the faster the candle burns. This is such a paradox. Therefore, all lovers of high-quality candles know the golden rule: the wick should rise above the wax by no more than 1 cm. Cut off any excess without hesitation. Use nail scissors - it’s more convenient.
Trick #3: Give it time!
Another paradox: to make a candle last longer, let it burn longer. At least for the first time. And all because the top layer of wax must melt evenly. If this does not happen, a “tunnel” will form in the middle, the wick will sink and the candle will quickly lose its presentable appearance. Don't know how long to give the candle its first burn? You'll have to practice some math: in 1 hour, approximately 4 cm of the diameter burns. So a candle with a diameter of 8 cm should not be extinguished for at least 2 hours, 12 cm - 3 hours, and then according to the same formula.
Candles are as constant a participant in New Year’s Eve as a garland, Olivier salad and the hundredth viewing of “The Irony of Fate...”. But really beautiful holiday specimens can “drag in” so much that it’s a pity to even light them up. But manufacturers of wax accessories hide one trick that will make the candles burn twice as long. And that's the minimum!
Candles in the house create a special festive coziness and mood. But all good things come to an end. In this case, very quickly. To extend the life of candles twice, or even more, use three little tricks.
Trick #1: Cold is a friend to fire
First, before you light your candles, be sure to place them in the freezer. At least for an hour and a half. Frozen wax will thicken and burn much longer. This trick alone almost doubles the life of the candle. Especially if you freeze it before each use.
Trick #2: Trim the wick
It turns out that the longer the wick, the faster the candle burns. This is such a paradox. Therefore, all lovers of high-quality candles know the golden rule: the wick should rise above the wax by no more than 1 cm. Cut off any excess without hesitation. Use nail scissors - it’s more convenient.
Trick #3: Give it time!
Another paradox: to make a candle last longer, let it burn longer. At least for the first time. And all because the top layer of wax must melt evenly. If this does not happen, a “tunnel” will form in the middle, the wick will sink and the candle will quickly lose its presentable appearance. Don't know how long to give the candle its first burn? You'll have to practice some math: in 1 hour, approximately 4 cm of the diameter burns. So a candle with a diameter of 8 cm should not be extinguished for at least 2 hours, 12 cm - 3 hours, and then according to the same formula.
