Candles and diffusers add instant ambience and aroma to any occasion, whether it’s a cosy Monday night in by the fire, a mid-week dinner at home, or a calming self-care Sunday. Diffusers offer a constant gentle scent all day long, while candles are the perfect way to introduce fragrance at the strike of a match.

Here at Piglet in Bed, we’ve got a new collection of signature scents inspired by four traditional scenes of the British countryside: floral Country Garden, earthy Forest, smoky Campfire and refreshing Coast. To help you get the most out of these new home fragrances, we’ve pulled together some of our top care tips, including what to do the first time you burn your candle, a simple way to avoid ‘mushrooming’ wicks, and how to adjust the aroma level to suit your space.

How to Take Care of Your Candles

Left: Campfire Candle; Right: Laurel Green Check Linen Flat Sheet

Create an even burn

When you light your candle for the first time, let it burn for a good, long while. You want the wax to melt all the way to the edge of the vessel before you even think about putting it out. If you don’t, the candle will ‘tunnel’, leaving a build-up of wax around the sides that never ends up melting – what a waste!

The burn time for our glass candles is 40 hours, and our limited-edition ceramic candles burn for 45 hours. You’ll likely need to burn them for 2-3 hours to melt the entire surface. We don’t recommend burning your candle for longer than 4 hours.

Trim the wick

Before striking a match, ensure the wick is the right length. You want to keep it trimmed to about 5mm so the candle burns cleanly. If you leave the wick too long, it can ‘mushroom’, resulting in a tip that resembles a mushroom cap. This gives off more smoke when you blow out the candle and can make relighting difficult.

If the wick has gone a bit lopsided after burning, recentre it gently. You’ll want the wax to be slightly soft, but mind your fingers if it’s still hot! Wait until the wax is cool and solid before trimming the wick.

Left: Natural Check Linen Bundle; Right: Coast Candle

Pick the perfect spot  

To make sure your candle burns evenly, keep it away from draughty spaces like doorways or windows. Draughts decrease the burn time, so choosing the right spot will improve the longevity of your candle. We recommend placing candles on a coaster or other heat-resistant surface to prevent the heat from damaging any furniture.

Keep the wax clean

After you’ve burned your candle a few times, you might notice some soot or debris in the wax. Use a tissue to wipe this away and to remove any dust from the top of the candle. When trimming the wick or lighting your candle, please don’t leave any half-burnt matches or wicks in there!

Don’t burn to the bottom

You should stop using the candle before the wax gets too low, ideally leaving at least 5mm in the bottom. Any less and you risk damaging the vessel or the surface the candle is on. Our favourite method for clearing out the excess wax is to pour boiling water into the jar until the wax floats to the top. Once it cools and hardens, you can easily remove it out and throw it away.

How to Take Care of Your Diffusers

 Left: Forest Diffuser; Right: Fern Green Check Linen Flat Sheet

Set up the sticks

On first use, remove the stopper from the glass vessel and add the reed sticks. The bottom of the sticks should be immersed in the fragrance oil, ready to soak up the scent. After a few minutes, flip the reeds so the saturated ends are in the air. Spread the sticks to allow the air to circulate, which will help ‘throw’ the scent around your space.

Adjust the aroma level

Alter the number of reed sticks you use to make the scent subtler or stronger. The more reeds you add, the more intense the scent will be. For a small room, you might only need two or three reeds to provide a hint of aroma. For a larger space, you might need four or five.

Left: Oatmeal Stripe Linen Table Runner; Right: Country Garden Diffuser

Choose your position

To help your diffuser last as long as possible, avoid placing it near a heat source, such as a radiator, or in direct sunlight. This will cause the fragrance oil to evaporate more quickly. We recommend placing your diffuser on a coaster or a mat since any accidental spillages can damage surfaces, particularly if they are wooden, painted, polished or plastic.

Refresh the scent

Our diffusers have excellent fragrance throw, but you can regularly flip the reeds to keep the scent strong. This is a good step to follow if you become ‘nose blind’ to the scent or need to give the room a boost. Remove the sticks from the vessel and swap them so the saturated ends are now in the air.  On average, 200ml of diffuser oil should last up to 4 months.  

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Follow these steps, and your candles and diffusers will be working their magic, for longer! When you’ve finished with them, you can recycle the glass jars or reuse them at home. Our candle holders would work as a mini plant pot or a pencil holder, while our diffusers would be perfect as vases.

Shop our new home fragrance collection online now.