Cotton Wick

Functional, Actives & Additives

Natural Cotton, Gossypium hirsutum

The wick is arguably the most important single component in a candle, more than the wax, more than the fragrance, the wick determines how a candle burns. A correctly sized cotton wick burns cleanly and evenly, produces minimal soot, and allows the fragrance to diffuse properly throughout the burn. An incorrectly sized wick, too large or too small, can cause tunneling, mushrooming, excessive soot, or poor fragrance throw regardless of the quality of every other component.

At Le Silo Bleu, we use natural cotton wicks, lead-free, zinc-free, and specifically selected for their performance with soy wax and our fragrance load. Wick selection is one of the most technical aspects of candle making, requiring careful testing for each combination of wax, vessel, and fragrance to ensure a safe, clean, consistent burn.

How It Works

A cotton wick works by capillary action, drawing liquid wax up through its fibers by surface tension to feed the flame. The wick must be sized precisely to the diameter of the candle vessel: a wick that is too small will drown in its own wax pool, while a wick that is too large will produce excessive flame height, soot, and heat. Our wicks are tested with every fragrance and vessel combination we use to ensure the optimal burn performance,a process that requires patience, precision, and a lot of test candles.

Candle Care

Trim your wick to approximately 6mm before each burn. Allow the candle to burn until the entire surface has melted on the first use to prevent tunneling. Never burn for more than 4 hours at a time.