5 Tips for a Sensory-Friendly Candle Experience

If you're like me, retail candles can be way too overpowering. They cause headaches, coughing, and allergies, among other issues. After all, they are made to fill an entire house with scent. I prefer to keep my candle contained to one room. Something I can keep burning for a few hours next to me without being overwhelmed by it. Instead of using a standard store-bought candle and burning it for 10 minutes at a time, there are other ways we can use to get that light burn we crave. 

How To Get a Sensory Free Burn

1. Burn a candle with a lighter fragrance load.

Most popular candle brands are competing to fill an entire house with scent with a single candle. They achieve this using the type of wick, type of wax, type of fragrance oil, and the AMOUNT of fragrance oil. Therefore, one of the easiest ways to get a lighter burn is to use a lighter fragrance load (the amount of fragrance). Most candlemakers are trying to get to the limit a wax can sustain (~12%), but if you're looking for lighter, aim for somewhere in the 6-7% range. Almost no makers do this, so specifically seeking a lightly scented candle is your best bet. 

2. Keep a well ventilated room. 

On a cold winter day, it feels nice to snuggle up with a warm candle in the room, but you're also trapping all of the fragrance in the air with you. Try to crack the door or have the central air flowing in your house if you want to prevent being overwhelmed. 

3. Use a wick dipper instead.

When you're done with the burn, blowing out a candle will release a lot of smoke in the air - especially if you're using a wooden wick or multiple wicks. This causes irritation and can alone cause headaches or sensory issues. A wick dipper is less common, but what it does is it pushes the wick under the liquid wax to extinguish the candle, leaving you with no airborne smoke after. 

4. Use a single wick

Many candles come with multiple wicks or wooden wicks. Both will burn through the wax faster (the candle's fuel) and will pump more fragrance in the air. Sticking to a single wick will allow enjoyment of the candle while keeping fragrance dispersion to a minimum. 

5. Blow the candle out after 4 hours

A good burn session should only be about 4 hours max. After that, there's already plenty of fragrance in the air, you become more nose-blind to the fragrance, and the melt pool of the candle should be full. If the candle keeps burning without regular maintenance (trimming the wick, letting it re-solidify), you will actually go through the candle faster. 

Bonus Tip: Skip the Phthalates

Most candles in the store that boast "strong fragrance", also contain phthalates in their fragrance oils. These are ingredients that help the scent travel farther and linger longer, but they also cause irritation and headaches and other side effects on their own. A sensory-friendly candle will always be phthalate-free.

Finding Your Subtle Scent

If you're looking for subtly scented single-wick candles that won't overwhelm your senses, I happen to make exactly those (shocker). They're vegan, dye-free, use a cotton wick, and the limited fragrance I add is phthalate-free. They're 100% soy and don't use any paraffin (which also causes irritation). Try one today along with these candle care tips and see if you can enjoy a candle more with a lighter burn!