Trimming and finishing
Updated
The last twenty minutes, and the part a customer judges first.
Trim before it ships
Every candle goes out with the wick trimmed to about 6 mm.
It is the length the candle was tested at, it is what the care card will tell the customer to do, and a long untrimmed wick on a new candle gives a large first flame on the burn that sets the melt pool memory.
Cut square, and remove the offcut rather than letting it drop into the wax where it becomes debris in the melt pool.
Cleaning the vessel
Wax on the outside, fingerprints on the glass, dust on the inside above the fill line.
Wax comes off warm with paper, or cold with a fingernail and much more effort. Do it the easy way, which means doing it on the day.
A label will not adhere over a wax film, which is the practical reason rather than the aesthetic one.
Lidding
Only once fully cool. A lid on a warm candle traps moisture and can mark the surface.
Lids also hold scent during the cure, so the sequence is cool fully, lid, cure, then label just before it goes out.
The final look
Inspect every one against a reference candle from the approved batch: surface, color, fill level, wick position, label straightness.
Frosting and wet spots are not rejects and should be explained on the care card. A crooked wick, a sinkhole or a short fill are rejects, and catching them here costs a candle rather than a customer.