You know the look. A deep hole burned straight down the middle, a thick ring of untouched wax stuck to the sides, and a flame that sinks lower every evening until it drowns. That is tunnelling, and it is the single most common way a good candle dies early. It is also almost entirely preventable.

Here is what actually happens. Wax has memory. The very first time you light a candle, it melts outward in a circle, and wherever that melt pool stops is the boundary it will return to for the rest of its life. Stop the first burn early and you have permanently told the candle that its edges are off limits.

The first burn rule

Light it and leave it until the melted wax reaches the full edge of the mould or jar. In a tea light that takes around thirty minutes. In a ceramic jar it can take two to three hours. It feels wasteful, and it is the most useful thing you will ever do for that candle.

If you only have twenty minutes, do not light it. A short first burn costs you more wax than the twenty minutes were worth.

With a shaped candle, a rose or a laddu or a diya, the rule bends slightly. Sculpted pieces are designed to burn from the top down and hold their shape, so let the top surface pool fully and then let it be.

Trim the wick, every single time

Before each light, take the wick down to roughly 5 mm. A long wick makes a tall, unstable flame that smokes, and that black mark on your wall is not the wax being bad. It is a wick nobody trimmed. If a mushroom of carbon forms on the tip, pinch it off cold and bin it.

Watch the draught, not the flame

A fan overhead, an open window, a doorway with traffic. Moving air pushes the flame sideways, the melt pool goes uneven, and one side of the candle collapses. Put the candle somewhere still, on a flat heat-safe surface, away from anything that catches.

Know when to put it out

Four hours is the sensible ceiling for any candle. Past that, the wax overheats, the fragrance burns off rather than lifting, and the container gets hotter than it should. Snuff it out rather than blowing, which sends soot and a smoke plume across the room.

Storing it between burns

Soy is soft and Indian summers are not gentle. Keep candles out of direct sunlight and away from a hot window sill, or the shape will sag before the wick is ever lit. A cupboard shelf is perfect. Sealed jars keep their scent for a year or more.

• First burn: melt to the full edge, always.
• Trim to 5 mm before every light.
• No draughts, no fans directly overhead.
• Four hours maximum in one sitting.
• Snuff, do not blow.
• Store cool, dark, and upright.

Do those six things and a White Lily candle will give you every hour it was built for, burning flat, edge to edge, right down to the base.

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Almost every candle sold in India is one of two things: paraffin, a by-product of refining crude oil, or soy, a wax pressed from soybean oil. They look identical on a shelf. They behave nothing alike once you light them.

We only sell soy, so read this knowing where we stand. But the case for it is not sentimental, it is mechanical, and the differences are easy to see for yourself.

Burn time

Soy melts at a lower temperature than paraffin, roughly 50 degrees Celsius against 60 or higher. A cooler melt pool means the wax is consumed more slowly, so gram for gram a soy candle simply lasts longer. The same wax gives you more evenings.

Soot

This is the one people notice first. Paraffin burns with a heavier, sootier flame, and over months that shows up as grey shadows above a candle shelf and a black film inside the jar. Natural soy with a cotton wick burns far cleaner. It is not literally zero, no flame is, but the difference on a white wall after a season is obvious.

If a candle blackens its own jar in the first week, the wax is telling you what it is made of.

Scent throw

Here paraffin has a genuine advantage, and it is worth being honest about. The hotter melt pool pushes fragrance out faster and harder. That is why a cheap paraffin candle can fill a room in ten minutes, and also why it can give you a headache in thirty.

Soy releases fragrance more slowly and evenly. It takes longer to reach the corners of a room, but it stays pleasant for hours instead of shouting once and burning off. If you want a scent that is still there at the end of the evening, this is the trade you want.

Price

Soy costs more per kilo. Every honest soy brand pays that, and there are only two ways to hide it: quietly blend in paraffin, or charge properly. We chose to keep the batches small and the prices printed rather than dilute the wax. Our ₹30 laddu candle is the same soy as our ₹299 bouquet.

How to check what you are actually buying

• Look for a blend. Labels saying "soy blend" often mean mostly paraffin with a little soy for the marketing.
• Feel the surface. Soy is softer and slightly matte. Paraffin is harder and glossier.
• Check the jar after a week. Heavy black residue is your answer.
• Ask the seller directly. Anyone pouring their own wax will answer in one message.

None of this means paraffin is evil. It means you should know which one you are holding, and pay accordingly. If a candle is going to sit next to someone you love for three hours an evening, we think that is worth the extra rupees a kilo.

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Gifting goes wrong in a predictable way. Flowers are safe but they are gone by Thursday. Anything expensive carries a message you may not have meant to send. What most people actually want is something in between: personal, kept for a while, and clearly chosen rather than grabbed.

Candles land in that gap, but only if you pick the right one. Here is how we would choose, sorted by the thing that actually decides it: how well you know them.

You barely know them

A colleague, a client, a friend's parent. Go for shape and craft, not scent. Fragrance is personal and a strong one on someone you do not know is a small gamble. A set of tea lights at ₹120 or a box of laddu candles at ₹120 reads as thoughtful and asks nothing of them.

You know them well

Now you can pick a scent, and this is where a candle stops being generic. Think about their actual home rather than what you like. A bouquet candle at ₹299 works because it is a flower arrangement that does not die, and it photographs beautifully the moment they open the box.

The best candle gift is the one that matches their house, not your taste.

You love them

Go for the one that gets kept. Ceramic jars and trays outlive the wax entirely, and that pot on their shelf becomes a small daily reminder for years. Message tea lights spelled into a word do the same job with more nerve.

By occasion

• Anniversary or proposal: Soy Wax Bouquet Candle, ₹299. Nothing else in the range gets photographed as often.
• Diwali: Diya pack of 6 at ₹120, or the laddu gift box. Both work for family and for the office.
• Wedding favours: Heart candles at ₹49 or daisy bouquets at ₹80. Order in bulk and we quote lower.
• Housewarming: Ceramic candles. The pot stays in the house long after the day.
• Just because: Tea light set of 4. Small enough that nobody feels they owe you.

Three mistakes worth avoiding

First, do not buy a heavy scent for a small flat. Second, do not gift one candle to a family of six; a box of small pieces travels around the house far better. Third, do not leave it to the last two days. Handmade candles need to be poured and cured, and the good moulds sell out first around Diwali.

If you are still stuck, tell us the occasion and your budget on WhatsApp. We will send two or three options with real photos, usually within the hour, and we will happily tell you if the cheaper one is the better gift.

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