Candles Off Main Blog

2011 Holiday Gift Guide

2011-11-23T08:12:00.001-05:00

Best No-Brainer Gift: Nest Holiday Candle
The quintessential holiday fragrance with a blend of mandarine orange, cinnamon, pine and eucalyptus. The Nest Holiday candle is a staple on our gift list. This fragrance best encapsulates the holidays. It's not overly tree or fruity and it's not sweet or gourmand. It's fresh, festive and brings back memories from years gone by. Be sure to buy more than one! If you buy one as a gift, you won't want to give it up. The 3-wick size is gorgeous and can be re-used as a flower vase when the candle is done.
Classic, 8 oz, 50 hours $32
Votive, 2.3 oz, 15 hours $14
Mini votive 6-pack, 2-3 hours each $32
Diffuser, 5.9 oz, approx 4 months, $34

Best Hostess Gift: Voluspa 2-wick Metallo Candles
The 2-wick metallo candles by Voluspa are our #1 best-selling hostess gift. Customers go crazy over these beautiful tins. Voluspa candles offer clean burning coconut wax and 100% cotton wick. At just $16 each for approx 50 hours of burn time, these adorable tins can't be beat. Our favorite fragrance? The new Coeur de Cassis fragrance in the Maison D'or Collection.

Best Mission Impossible Gift: Lampe Berger Lamp
Looking for something for the person that has everything? The lamp only needs to be lit for 2 minutes, then provides luxurious fragrance while removing odors (think kitchen and pets) without any soot or smoke. Starting at just $43, there is a lamp for every decor and price range.

Best Stocking Stuffer: Antica Petite Diffusers
The petite diffusers by Antica make great stocking stuffers! At just 100ml each, they are also great for air travel to make any stale hotel room smell like home. Our favorite fragrance for the winter months? Sandalwood Amber with rich notes of sandalwood, soft amber, musk and vanilla bean.

Best Office Gift: Nest 6-Votive Gift Set
The new Nest 6-votive gift set is an instant charmer! We fell in love at first site. Featuring the six best-selling Nest Fragrances (Bamboo, Wasabi Pear, Moroccan Amber, Orange Blossom, Moss & Mint and Grapefruit), this attractive gift set is perfect for your co-worker or Mom. Well priced at $40.

Best Luxury Gift: Hervé Gambs Candle
It isn't often we're floored by a candle line, but Herve Gambs had us at first sniff. Every fragrance is divine and unique. Our favorite? Noir de Cassis with delicious notes of blackcurrant seeds infused with vanilla and amber santal.

Most Charming Gift: Simpatico Hobnail Candles
These oversized, vintage, hobnail candles will charm any gift recipient. Filled with 100% vegetable wax, these candles last approximately 100 hours and can be easily washed out with soap and water and reused as a flower vase, makeup holder or pen/pencil holder. If you have a tea lover, the #2 Tea fragrance is warming and relaxing with notes of camellia leaf, and oils of bergamot, orange, and myrrh.

Best Gift to Impress: Lafco Candles
Weighing in at well over a pound, these extra large candles are sure to impress. Each candle is poured in a 4” x 4” hand-blown glass vessel that will become a keepsake for generations to come. Each vessel is unique and offers a mesmerizing glow when it’s burning. Our favorite this time of year? Foyer (Amber Vanilla) with notes of black vanilla and warm amber and patchouli.

Best Tool: Wick Snuffer/Tweezer
The only way we extinguish candles at home is with a candle tweezer/snuffer. Simple pinch the wick dipper to extinguish the flame with out any smoke or soot. At just $3.75, they make a great stocking stuffer for any candle-lover.

Most Thoughtful Gift: Bayberry Tapers
"A bayberry candle, burned to the socket, puts luck in the home, food in the larder, and gold in the pocket." Our favorite holiday gift is true bayberry tapers. It's an old New England tradition to burn bayberry tapers to the nub on Christmas Eve or New Years Eve for health and prosperity in the year to come. Everyone loves this thoughtful, scent free gift.

How to Use a Lampe Berger Lamp

2009-03-16T22:06:00.004-04:00

Lampe Berger is a fantastic product for removing odors (cooking, cigar/cigarette, pet, musty house, paint fumes....) while scenting the air and killing airborne bacteria. Lampe Berger was created over 100 years ago by a French pharmacist to remove odors and purify the air in hospitals. It has evolved over the years into a residential product with many different lamp styles and fragrances. Some lamps become collectors items and are worth thousands of dollars.

Lampe Berger fragrance oils can be blended to create your own special recipe. I'll add a separate blog post later for Lampe Berger fragrance combinations. If you have a recipe you'd like to share, please post a comment below.

To Use a Lampe Berger, follow these easy steps:

Place your Lampe Berger lamp on a stable surface.
Fill lamp approximately 3/4 full with fragrance oil of your choice. We recommend using Neutral to soften any fragrance you find too strong.
Insert the Lampe Berger wick into the lamp completely. When using for the first time, let the wick soak for 20 minutes before using.
Light the wick. After 2 minutes blow out the flame.
Put the vented cover back on the Lampe Berger. Your Lampe Berger is now working to remove odors, purify and fragrance the air. While the lamp is working, there is no smoke or flame, just a little heat coming off the top of the lamp.
Once your Lampe Berger has removed odors (after about 10-15 minutes) and added enough fragrance for you (usually about 20 minutes), carefully remove the vented cover and place the solid cap back on the Lampe Berger. The quicker you put the solid cap on your Lampe Berger, the longer your fragrance oil will last.

That's it! If you have any questions or comments, please post a comment below. We'd love to hear from you.

How to set up & use a reed diffuser

2009-03-06T14:41:00.007-05:00

Reed diffusers provide a constant fragrance. The reeds work like a wick to draw the fragrance up and into the air as the fragrance oil evaporates over time. Fragrance oil diffusers are particularly helpful in areas where you always want it to smell nice but can't always keep an eye on a candle, such as a foyer or a powder room.

If you find the fragrance of your reed diffuser is too subtle, flip the reeds to freshen the scent. You can flip a few reeds every few days or all the reeds every day depending on the size of your space and how strong you like your fragrance. The more reeds you flip, and the more often you flip them, will cause the oil to evaporate quicker. Be sure to keep your diffuser away from windows, which can also speed up evaporation.

If you purchase a reed diffuser where the oil is separate from the vase, you may not want to fill the vase completely with the oil. Leave some room at the top so that when you insert the reeds there is room for the oil to rise. The oil level will quickly drop as it is soaked up by the reeds. When there is enough room you can add the remaining oil. If your diffuser is packaged with the oil already in the vase, use caution when inserting the reeds to avoid overflow. It's good practice to add just one reed at a time making sure that the oil level doesn't get too high after each addition.

Initially reed diffusers can be quite strong in scent when you first set them up until they settle after about a week. If you find that your fragrance diffuser is still too strong for your space, simply remove some of the reeds and store them in a zip lock bag for later use. Less reeds will produce less fragrance.

If you're not a fan of the vase that came with your diffuser, you can use any glass vase or bottle you may have at home. Look for a glass decanter with a small opening to avoid too much dust and debris clouding the oil. Some fragrance diffuser companies sell just the refill oil and reeds separately so you can create your own, custom diffuser at home. k. hall is an excellent line for purchasing refill oil and reeds.

As always, feel free to email us with any questions you may have at info@candlesoffmain.com. We welcome your comments below.

Smoke signals

2009-03-05T21:28:00.008-05:00

A candle with a nice, tight, steady flame will burn cleanly without soot or smoke. Every time before you light your candles, be sure to trim the wick to 1/4". If you candle ever smokes, flickers or creates soot, simply extinguish the candle (we use wick dippers to extinguish a candle without any smoke), trim the wick a little more, and relight. Some candle lines are more finicky than others and need to be trimmed just right. You may have to re-trim these candles after they've been burning for a few minutes (to get the wick the right height) or a few hours (if the wick gets too long or creates a fragrance bloom while burning).

Wick trimmers are a handy tool to trim wicks. The base of the wick trimmer is 1/4" thick to automatically measure the height of the wick for you. Simply rest the base of the wick trimmer on the top of the wax and the wick is trimmed at the correct length without guesswork. Wick trimmers also have a "tray" at the bottom to collect the wick debris and lift it out of the candle. We've found that the Wickman Wick Trimmer works the best on any wick since it has a sharp edge to cut even new wicks.

Any candle that is disturbed enough with flicker, smoke and drip. For that reason, be sure to keep your candles out of drafts from ceiling fans, air vents and windows.

Trim, light, enjoy!

Grand Opening of our Cyber Store!

2009-02-03T10:39:00.000-05:00

Our Cyber Store is now open! While our shop in historic downtown Annapolis, Maryland is open, we will stream live onto our website. We can show you products, answer questions and help in any way. Click here to go to our live page.

Audio is mute during our broadcast for privacy and security. Call us at 866-786-1043 for assistance.

As always, please post any comments below or email us at Info@CandlesOffMain.com.

Thank you!
Dave & Sue Adams

Wood You?

2009-01-09T20:11:00.008-05:00

A customer called today to say she was concerned about burning the DayNa Decker candle she received as a gift because the flame was described as dancing and flickering and that made her worry that the flame would “jump across the room”. When I first heard about how the woodwick “crackles” as it burns, it made me think of how a fireplace sparks and sends burning embers shooting through the air. That made me nervous that it would light the rug on fire, so I have to agree, I was a little reluctant as well at first.

Since we’ve had the pleasure of trying these candles, they quickly became one of our favorites. They have a clean, crisp fragrance and provide instant impact in the room in their “multisensory” way through sight, sound and smell. I video taped one of the Botanika candles burning so you can see the beautiful wide flame and hear the sound effect of the wood wick. Don’t fear – they are fantastic and well worth the indulgence. The small size chandel makes a fantastic and unique hostess gift. Our favorite fragrance is Zelia with lotus, cypress, incense, oakmoss and cedarwood (I love woody scents, particularly in the winter). Leila is our best seller with grapefruit, bergamot, dewberry, lemon flower and amber musk. Manzanita and Bardou are their two new fragrances. Be sure to try one yourself and let us know what you think!

Lights Out

2009-01-05T21:43:00.009-05:00

Use a wick dipper to extinguish a candle without any smoke or soot so you don't lose the beautiful fragrance you worked so hard to achieve. Using the end of the wickdipper, push the burning wick into the pool of melted wax to drown out the flame. Then use the curved end of the dipper to pull the wick back up out of the melted wax and bring it upright so that when the candle re-solidifies, the wick is straight up and coated with wax, priming it for easy re-lighting. This extends the life and the quality of the wick.

Wick dippers can also be used to recenter a wick. If you notice that the wick is getting close to the side of the jar, extinguish the candle and use the wick dipper to push the wick back to the center of the glass. When the wax re-solidifies, the wick will start in the center. Warning: A wick burning too close to the side of the glass can cause the glass jar to crack! Be sure to extinguish the candle and move the wick to the center of the jar before that happens.

Check out our video on how to use a wick dipper:

(Bear with us! This is our first video:)

'Tis the Season

2008-12-13T22:12:00.007-05:00

All day long frazzled shoppers enter our store not knowing where to begin to find the right gift. With so many scents and candle lines to choose from, the selection process can be overwhelming. Given a price range and a one sentence description of the gift recipient or a preferred fragrance, we can generally find a gift in less than 5 minutes in the shop. (You're welcome to send us an email and we can help you find a gift on our website!) Since many of you will, unfortunately, not be able to make it to our candle shop in Annapolis, Maryland, we created a list of our top 5 gifts for under $50. Click here for complete details.

If you're fortunate enough to be able to splurge on something over $50, my favorite picks would be either the Le Cherche Midi CT01 Balsam Candle or the classic Rigaud Cypres Demi candle. Both are absolutely stunning and well worth the indulgence.

At the end of the day, be sure to take some time to slow down and enjoy the fragrance of your favorite holiday candle.

Happy Holidays from all of us at Candles Off Main!

In the Spotlight

2008-12-05T20:11:00.004-05:00

Check out Traci Arntsen from Voluspa on Good Day LA as she shows how fantastic the new Seasons Collection can compliment your holiday home.

Mood Swings

2008-12-01T21:20:00.004-05:00

It's been a rough day. One of those days when you can't wait for it to end. As soon as I return home, I gravitate towards my Lighten Up candle by Aromatherapy Interventions. It assures me that somebody, somewhere is has it far crappier than me. According to their fragrance blend, essences of winter mint and crisp woodland pine counteract obsessing on the unimportant. This is all from their box, but I need to see for myself, so I give it a whirl. It burns beautifully, and the sheer color and ambient flame are enough to improve my day. For me, aromatherapy is more about what fragrances mean to each of us individually. I like amber and vanilla scents when I need comforting and relaxing. Woody fragrances are grounding to me if I need to de-stress and settle. When I need something energizing and invigorating I turn to citrus scents. Right now I'm trying to concoct a spa-like fragrance using my eucalyptus and lavender fragrances by Lampe Berger. There's nothing like the scent at a spa to instantly sooth. What does aromatherapy mean to you? Do scents change your mood? My day is already smelling better.

Forest for the Trees

2008-10-30T19:58:00.006-04:00

It's a cool fall night and I'm sitting by the fire surrounded with tree-fragrance candles. I don't know if it's that the earthy scent grounds me or if it reminds me of the woods in New England where I grew up, but tree fragrances sooth and comfort me, and I need a little of that right now. (Are you seeing a pattern?) I love to layer tree fragrances to be able to distinguish the differences. Tonight it's Le Cherche Midi's Balsam (a new favorite!), Voluspa's Sawara Cypress and red flower's Himalayan larch. They are each unique and completely fantastic. Le Cherche Midi's Balsam candle is a clean, watery-like balsam. Very honest and fresh. A little subtle in scent but definitely gorgeous! I give this a 2-3 on the flower scale. Voluspa's Sawara Cypress stands it's ground. "I am Cypress, here me roar" type scent. Very distinct, no muss about it. For me it's moderately fragrant (a 3-4 on the flower scale). I can definitely smell it but it's not overwhelming. red flower's Himalayan larch is the most soft. red flower candles are beautiful because they liquefy when they are burning to highlight the color of the natural wax. The small size is misleading since even the little ones last 15 hours! I like this scent but it's best in a small room or in a place where their isn't any competition for your nose. A mere 1-2 on the flower scale. This is a delicate and delightful scent. I love all of these tree-fragrance candles because they are all clearly woodsy and not at all Christmas-y.

Help Blogs with Great Content but No Readers

2008-10-23T14:39:00.003-04:00

Thanks to Chris Brogan from Twitter for helping us join Chuck Westerbrook's mission to help websites with great content but few readers. We're hoping to increase the number of readers for our blog. If you'd like to join the mission to help under-appreciated blogs receive more attention, please click the link above.

Candle for Health and Prosperity

2008-10-20T21:51:00.007-04:00

Back in the early days, candles were rendered from animal fat (tallow). The candles produced a foul odor and did not burn cleanly. In Colonial times, bayberry wax was discovered by boiling the berries from the bayberry bushes in New England. These candles were clean burning and had a pleasant, sweet smell. Since it takes 1 1/2 quarts of berries to make one taper candle, bayberry candles became a precious luxury saved for special gatherings. Thus began the New England tradition of burning bayberry candles on Christmas and New Years Eve for heath and prosperity in the year to come.

"A bayberry candle, burned to the socket, puts luck in the home, food in the larder, and gold in the pocket." - a New England tradition

We burn bayberry candles regularly, especially on special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries. Bayberry candles are our favorite hostess gift any time of year since they are thoughtful and natural in color and scent. When you shop for bayberry candles, be sure to look for bayberry candles that are made from true bayberry wax, not artificially scented bayberry candles made from generic wax. Most bayberry candles are blended with a touch of beeswax for added strength.

I don't know anyone who couldn't use a little prosperity right now!

American in Paris

2008-10-16T06:30:00.008-04:00

Le Cherche Midi arrived today! The candles are absolutely gorgeous - beautiful wax (like Rigaud and Slatkin), incredible packaging and we love all of the fragrances. My favorite is the Limited Edition CT 01 candle. It has an amazing fresh balsam fragrance - perfect for the fall/holiday season. Now to get the candles online...

2008 Best Off Main Awards

2008-10-10T22:17:00.005-04:00

I finally finished something I've wanted to do since we started - create "awards" for the Best Fragrance, the Best Candle Line... Hopefully it will grow and refine into a really fun and successful event to celebrate the best in home fragrance. Please vote now! We really appreciate your input and participation and we hope you have fun.

October 25, 2008: Click here to see the winners of the 2008 Best Off Main Awards!

Frozen in Time

2008-10-03T21:06:00.009-04:00

It seems like everyone is frozen right now. Too afraid to do anything. Afraid the ceiling is going to fall in. It's not a fun time right now, especially in retail. It's times like these when value is King. At the risk of sounding like a Voluspa blog, I'm hesitant to say that value is one of the reasons why Voluspa is one of my favorite candle lines and the candle we burn most at home. The quality is outstanding, the fragrances are gorgeous, the packaging is beautiful and they last so long! And all at a great price. A staple in our shop is the 3-wick tin that lasts 80 hours for just $18! The new Seasons Collection has new nickel-plate jars that are so sophisticated and last 85 hours (same as the candlepot in the Creme & Black Collections). You can't beat it! And the scents are stellar - not too strong, not too subtle and very unique. My favorite fragrance is Makassar Ebony & Peach. Is so grounding and delicious. The other thing I love about Voluspa is that everything is hand-poured and made in the US. Including all the packaging. Go Voluspa!

The Count of Monte Cristo

2008-09-26T20:41:00.007-04:00

It's a rainy, fall night. The type of night when you just want to curl up in a blanket, sack out on the couch and watch a movie. It's nights like these when I love, comforting, cozy fragrances like Voluspa's Baltic Amber. I also like their new French Bourbon fragrance. Still soothing but more delicate than Baltic Amber. Heavier fragrances work for me on days like these. I like the rain when it's rare. It's nice to slow down, light a candle and take time to relax. My favorite movie? Definitely The Count of Monte Cristo!

Back to School

2008-09-20T17:36:00.009-04:00

My kids recently returned to school, so no surprise, the whole house is sick. I returned home from work today and instead of lighting a candle to relax and unwind, I decided to use our Lampe Berger lamp to kill the germs in the air. I wish I had the Eucalyptus scent, as I think that would be a perfect fragrance to clear our lungs. Instead I have the new Absinth fragrance at home. It's a great scent with star anise, rosemary, absinth, freesia, Virginia cedar, Tonka bean and white musk. To me it smells unisex, herby and neutral in scent. I feel better knowing it's cleaning the air. I usually use my Lampe Berger lamp to remove our cooking odors, but it definitely gets a lot of use in our house when we are sick. I'll be sure to have the Eucalyptus scent on hand next time!

A Glorious Day

2008-09-12T20:32:00.022-04:00

Today is the first day of my blog. I'm new to this, so please bear with me. I've rarely read a blog, no nothing about blogs, but nonetheless, feel the need to blog. So here I am... It's been a long day ending with screaming kids. Not the best way to end the day, so after I tuck the little ones in bed, I resort to one of my favorite scents - Anthousa's Cypress candle. For some reason, and I know this sounds strange, but this fragrance just makes me happy. I don't know why it does, but I love that it does, and I need a little happy right now. I've surrounded myself in this wonderful fragrance, with 4 candles instead of my typical lone candle. They are beautiful to look at, gorgeous to smell, the scent has erased my day and I've finally created the blog that has taken me 2 years to get to! At the end of it all, it's been a glorious day.