At Grimm and Gorly we offer the finest Bridewater Candles and Thyme candles. You probably already know that they look beautiful and smell fantastic and they freshen and warm a room like few other accessories can. But, as a recent article on the Bridgewater website illustrates, there’s a whole language surrounding the aesthetics of candles. We summarize it here to hopefully help you gain a deeper appreciation for and understanding of the many aspects of candles.
Burn Time – This describes the amount of time it takes for a wax candle to burn completely. More burn time means a longer-lasting candle.
Cold Throw and Hot Throw – Bridgewater and Thyme candles are both known for their exceptional Hot and Cold Throws. A candle’s cold throw describes the scent that an unlit candle emits. You smell this when you open the lid. When you burn a candle the scented wax dissipates through the air and this is described as its Hot Throw.
Notes – Like a fine wine a candle’s scent is made up of various fragrance “notes.” These discrete scent elements come together to create a more complex scent composition that complement each other creating an overall scent experience that is pleasant in it’s complexity.
Top Notes are the most obvious scent tones. Top notes grab your attention because they are carried by smaller molecules that reach your brain most quickly and so you notice them first.
Middle Notes are also known as “heart notes.” They are more complex and full-bodies. You notice these milliseconds after the Top Notes, but they are felt more deeply.
Base Notes anchor a fragrance and they linger the longest of all the scent notes. Bases notes often consist of wood, vanilla or amber scents. Compare them to a flavor’s aftertaste.
Wax Pool and Melt – A larger wax pool or area of melted wax surrounding a candle’s wick means that a larger surface area of melted wax is coming in contact with the air that flows over it. Thus, a larger wax pool or melt equates to a larger scent impression in a room.
Mushrooming – Build up at the top of the wick happens sometimes. If you see a little knob at the tip of your wick simply clip it off after putting out the candle and letting it cool. The perfect wick length is 1/4″.
Tunneling – Tunneling is when a candle burns unevenly, creating a tunnel straight down with un-burned wax on the edges. To avoid tunneling, burn the candle until wax pools all the way across the top the first time you burn it.
We hope you’ve learned a little more about candles and that this information will help you enjoy your Bridgewater and Thyme candles even more. Stop by and see our collection next time you’re in downtown Belleville, Illinois!
