You've just lit your brand new candle, it smells absolutely incredible, and you're tempted to just leave it burning all day. But hold on — a little candle know-how goes a long way. Here's how to get the most burn time, the best scent, and the longest life from your candle.

The First Burn is the Most Important

This is the golden rule of candle care: always allow your candle to burn long enough for the entire top layer of wax to melt on the first use. This is called achieving a full melt pool.

If you extinguish it too early, the candle will "tunnel" — burning straight down the middle and leaving a ring of unused wax around the edges. Once tunnelling starts, it's very hard to fix. For our 250g candles, expect the first burn to take around 2–3 hours.

How Long Should Each Burn Be?

As a general rule:

• Minimum: Burn long enough to achieve a full melt pool (usually 1 hour per inch of candle diameter)
• Maximum: No more than 4 hours at a time. Beyond this, the wick can become too long, the wax too hot, and the scent can actually diminish.

Our Smells Funny candles are designed for a 45–60 hour total burn time — so pace yourself and enjoy them!

Trim Your Wick

Before every burn, trim your wick to around 5mm. A long wick causes a larger, flickering flame that burns through wax faster, produces more soot, and can cause the glass to overheat. A quick trim makes a big difference.

Keep It Away from Draughts

Draughts cause uneven burning, excessive flickering, and soot. Keep your candle away from open windows, fans, and air vents for the cleanest, most even burn.

Store It Right

When you're not using your candle, pop the lid back on (our candles come with a cork lid for a reason!). This keeps dust out and helps preserve the fragrance for longer.

Know When to Stop

Stop burning your candle when there's around 1cm of wax remaining at the bottom. Burning below this level can cause the glass to overheat. Then give the jar a clean and repurpose it — they make brilliant little storage pots, plant pots, or drinking glasses!

The Smells Funny Promise

Every Smells Funny candle is hand-poured with care using 100% soy wax and cotton wicks — designed to burn cleanly, evenly, and beautifully. Follow these simple tips and your candle will reward you with hours of gorgeous scent. 🕯️

Reed Diffuser Tips

If you notice your diffuser oil evaporating more quickly than expected, simply remove one of the reeds. Diffuser oil will naturally evaporate faster in smaller rooms, warmer environments, or when placed in direct sunlight.

The lifespan of your reed diffuser will vary depending on its location and the number of reeds used:

• 5 reeds – lasts approximately up to 8 weeks
• 4 reeds – lasts approximately up to 12 weeks

For the best performance and longevity, place your diffuser in a larger room away from direct sunlight, radiators, and other heat sources. Turn the reeds every 1–2 weeks to refresh the fragrance and maintain scent throw.

Flipping more often will:

• Increase the fragrance strength temporarily.
• Make the diffuser evaporate faster.
• Shorten the overall lifespan.

When you first set up a reed diffuser, the reeds are completely dry, so they absorb a fair amount of liquid as they become fully saturated. This can make the level seem to drop quite quickly during the first few days.

Once the reeds are saturated:

• The rapid absorption slows down.
• The diffuser settles into a more consistent rate of evaporation.
• The liquid level should decrease more gradually over the following weeks.

With our  100ml diffuser and ultra-thick fibre reeds, it’s particularly noticeable because thicker reeds hold more oil than standard reeds.

A good rule of thumb:

• Days 1–7: Faster drop as reeds soak up the liquid.
• After Week 1: More steady, predictable usage.
• 4 reeds: Generally longer lifespan than 5 reeds, while still providing good scent throw. We use 5 as we love that punchy scent throw. But we do use 4 reeds in smaller rooms. 

So if you’ve only had it set up for a few days and noticed the level dropping, that’s usually perfectly normal.