About Candles

Made With You In Mind

Our customers buy scented candles for the fragrance – that may seem obvious, but it does impact on how we make and present them.   A glass candle holder gives so many more options in terms of design and presentation, but a warm tin helps diffuse a stronger and longer lasting fragrance ... and that’s why you buy them.    So, our formula; our wick; the tins they are set in; the colours we use and the fine French perfumes we select are all designed to ensure that our customers have the best possible and longest lasting fragrances in their home.

Delivering our Promise

We believe our candles are superior to any others crafted in the UK as we only ever use the finest of ingredients and original scents created exclusively for us.  With our added special ingredients we are able to offer you candles with a burn time of approximately 50 hours, significantly longer than any candle of the same size that we have seen.   Once lit a Potters Crouch candle will fill your home with beautiful fragrances within minutes which will linger hours after the candle has been extinguished.

Hand Made

Ours is a skilled craft business, where each part of the creation of a candle is done by hand.   From cutting and setting the wick to mixing and pouring the fragrant wax; from trimming and dressing the finished candle to applying our unique watercolour labels.

We believe the result of that extra crafted care is a superior product.

Of course it also means that not every candle will look identical; sometimes there may be minor colour variations or the odd air bubble on the surface.    The very high concentration of perfume we mix throughout the candle may sometimes give a somewhat embossed appearance on the surface. Some manufacturers will pass their candles through an infared heating machine to iron out any imperfections and make sure the surface is as smooth and shiny as possible, but we choose not to do this.

None of this affects the beautiful aroma or performance of the candle, and are sure signs that this is not a mass produced factory mix, but a carefully hand crafted superior candle.

Ingredients

At its simplest a candle is a solid block of fuel with an embedded wick, which, when lit, provides light, sometimes heat, and in many cases today, fragrance.

Most candles are made from paraffin wax but they can also be made from beeswax, soy, other plant waxes, and tallow. Gel candles are made from a mixture of paraffin and plastic.

Choosing the right wax is very important as it impacts on a candle’s ability to burn cleanly and evenly, as well as how long it will burn, and crucially for scented candles, how well it will hold and disperse the fragrance.   Cheaper waxes mean that perfumed candles can be sold for as little as £2 but this will be reflected in the much shorter burning times and a less effective fragrance impact.

At Potters Crouch we have created our own secret blend of waxes, developed over 15 years, to give our average 250gm candle a burning time of approximately 50 hours.   We believe our candles are unique and represent superb value for money as we are not aware of any comparable candle that burns for that long or has such a superb fragrance impact.

Fragrances

Perfumes are created from blends of fragrant essential oils and aromatic raw materials.  Fragrance has been used since ancient times in ceremonies and rituals by many civilisations from the Pharaohs of Egypt, to the Aztecs of South America, to the Emperors of China and the Romans and the ancient Greeks.  Rich and poor have used aromatic plants for scenting their homes, clothes and person.  Fragrant herbs were scattered on the floor in an attempt to cover the strong animal aromas in homes in medieval times.  Tudor ladies and gentlemen used perfume pomades to ward off the stink of the great unwashed – baths were not common in the times of Queen Elizabeth I and King Henry VIII!

We are fortunate today that we have a vast array of scented mediums to choose from.  Capturing the glorious scents that fire imagination and enhance our sensory experience has been our mission at Potters Crouch from the beginning.  In order to achieve this lofty goal we work with some of the world’s most talented perfumers to capture the wonderful aromas and fragrances that nature gives so freely in our range of scented candles.

Our inspiration for fragrance creativity comes from around the world and from many diverse experiences…  We hope that burning our candles will make you feel that you were there with us and that you will enjoy sharing our scented sensory pleasures…

Many of our fragrances were developed exclusively by us following specific experiences.   For example, India (one of our most popular candles): “Standing on a hillside in India in 1995 inhaling the scent of the warm earth after the rains had washed through the cedar wood trees, onto exotic blooms into an air laden with the scent of spice" was the inspiration for this candle.

Fireside:  “Tramping into a cosy village pub on the Yorkshire moors after a long walk through a stunningly beautiful, wet and windswept landscape, into the scent of wood smoke and the fug of a snug" inspired the fireside fragrance.

These real life smells and experiences were the inspiration behind the creation of these candles and many more in our range.

The formulation of the perfume has also been carefully structured to blend with our waxes, thus ensuring the best possible “throw” of the scent once burning.

Tins

Why do we put our candles in tins rather than glass or no enclosure?

You purchased your scented candle in order to enjoy the fragrance throughout your home – not so much as a beautiful ornament.

When one of our candles is lit, the tin becomes warm.   The warmth of the sides and bottom of the tin is part of the process of “throwing” the fragrance – that heat surrounding the candle helps to diffuse the perfume more effectively.   That is why many customers tell us they can enjoy our fragrances all over the house when they light a Potters Crouch candle.

Top tips to get the best out of your scented candle…

The key to a successfully burning candles lies not only in how they are made but how they are burned.

Did you know that a candle has a memory?

When burning one of our candles for the first time, it's suggested that you burn it  until a pool of wax extends to the edges of the container (which may take approximately four hours), this is known as the melt pool. As a general rule of thumb you need to burn a candle for about one hour per inch in diameter, our candles are three inches in diameter.  Burning your candle in this way will help prevent your candle from forming a "crater" or tunnelling in the centre.  If you only burn your candles for very short periods at a time you are more likely to get  a tunnelling problem which can eventually lead to 'drowning the wick' and some wastage. Also the larger the melt pool, generally the more scent is released.  Burning a candle this way will also set its memory and then each time you burn the candle it will "remember" to burn to its edge.  It is very important to make sure you DO NOT burn your candle near any kind of draught; for example near a window, open door, radiator or a in a corridor which has a lot of through traffic. Any draught will affect the way the candle burns and decrease the overall burn time. If any 'mushrooming' should appear on the wick, extinguish the candle and trim the wick as necessary making sure to keep the melt pool free from any debris at all times.

Keeping a happy wick!

After burning for the first time for optimum effectiveness burn your candle for 3 to 4 hours at a time before extinguishing,  allowing it to cool, trimming the wick to a quarter inch and then re-lighting it.  The warm tin will maintain the fragrance diffusion throughout this time.  Properly maintaining your wick is one of the keys to a better burning, longer lasting candle.   Remember not to burn your candle in any type of draft, such as a fan, air vent, or near an open window.  This can affect the clean, even burning of the candle and can also be dangerous.  Following these simple guidelines will extend the life of your candle and give you hours of enjoyment.

Using Your Candle Safely

Of course a candle has an open flame and normal sensible precautions should be taken to avoid any dangers.   In addition you should remember:

• Don’t let our candles burn right to the very bottom.   We use a high concentration of perfume in our candles.  Sometimes an excess of fragrance may collect at the bottom and this could catch fire if the candle is allowed to burn right to the end.
• It’s obvious, we know, but make sure you keep naked flames out of reach of children and nowhere near curtains or other combustible materials.
• Remember, the warm tin is an important part of the process of diffusing the perfume into your room – but a hot tin might also scorch the surface it sits on, so please don’t use your candle on the priceless Queen Anne sideboard, use the lid as a stand, and don’t pick up the tin until it has cooled after use.
• And finally NEVER leave a lit candle unattended even for short periods of time.