Curing

The step that costs nothing, requires no equipment, and is skipped more than any other.

The wait nobody wants

After pouring, the wax continues to crystallize and the fragrance continues to bind into it. The candle is finished as an object long before it is finished as a product.

A candle burned the day after pouring throws noticeably less than the same candle two weeks later.

How long

One to two weeks for soy and natural blends. Paraffin needs less, often a few days.

The supplier will state a figure. Treat it as a minimum rather than an average.

Some makers find throw still improving at three or four weeks with particular oils, which is worth knowing before you conclude a fragrance is weak.

Where

Somewhere stable: even temperature, out of sunlight, lids on if you use them.

Lids on matters. An uncovered curing candle loses top notes into the room for two weeks, which is the opposite of what you are waiting for.

And it needs space. Two weeks of production sitting uncured is a real storage requirement and one that surprises people scaling up.

Judging before it has cured

This is the expensive mistake. A maker pours, smells it the next day, concludes the load is too low, and raises it.

Now the candle is over-loaded: it sweats, it burns badly, and it needs a new wick. All from judging a candle that had not finished becoming itself.

Burn tests included. Test a cured candle, cured for the same length of time you will cure production, or the test describes a product you are not selling.

References