About Our Scented Candles:
Desert SonLight of New Mexico
Just For You
Fresh spring and summer flowers; the delicious baking scents of the kitchen; refreshing Spa Scents; the invigorating scents of outdoors - whether the fragrance is subtle or strong; fresh, clean, spicy or flowery - Desert Sonlight candles has the perfect candle for you. Over 50 fragrances available with more 'in the works'.
What Makes a "Good" Candle?
We all know a "bad" candle when we see one. It's usually black, covered with soot. There's a lot of dirty wax inside the jar; a lot of the wax didn't burn (tunnelling). The scent is gone or bad. Or the scent does not "throw" well - no scent. The wick has disappeared. The owner is usually somewhat unhappy with the candle. And many times you paid a lot for the candle. Disappointing.
There are many factors which make a "good" candle. A good candle is one that the scent is accurate (smells like the "real thing"); the scent is strong; the candle burns clean - minimal smoke; it burns long and all the wax burns up; The scent lasts to the bottom of the jar; it requires minimal maintenance. You can smell the scent throughout a large room to much of the house. And the candle is 'cost-effective' - that is, you receive real value for the money.
Our candles are some of the best you can buy. We are told this by our hundreds of happy customers. Read on.
Strong-scented candles
Whether the fragrance is a flower, fruit, food, spice, or an outdoor fresh-clean scent, you will find that our scents are truly accurate and memorable. Our candles smell just like they are supposed to! And the candle fragrance lasts to the bottom of the jar - strong all the way!
Now there are many so-called "triple-scented" candles on the market. 'Triple-scented' truly means very little. We add the maximum fragrance so that the candle will really scent a room.
Other factors - probably more important than the quantity of fragrance used -
are the quality and purity of the fragrance used in making the candle.
A fragrance (perfume) can be made to a higher or lower quality standard. You may have, for example, smelled a 'cheap' rose scent. A poor quality scent is thin, weak and barely resembles a rose. A high-quality scent will be strong, robust and really smell like roses! And that is what we use. (Ours smells better than many real roses!)
The fragrances we use in our candles are pure, top-quality, uncut, true fragrances direct
from the manufacturers. They are strong and accurate scents. And they perform in our candles, by filling your room with a wonderful scent.
Use of 'Candle Warmers'
Our candles work great when you burn them, filling a room (or more) with fragrance.
Also, they work great on candle warmers, or heaters. They can be safely left on a warmer for hours. The wax melts and the fragrance comes out. Many people use warmers in offices and other locations where an open flame is not permitted or not wanted.
Soy Wax
Our candles use a modern soy wax blend. We at Desert Sonlight use a "blend" of soy & paraffin waxes because a pure, 100% soy wax does not burn easily and does not "throw" or diffuse the fragrance well. The blend of soy and paraffin gives us the best of both worlds - a candle that burns easily and reliably and has an excellent scent "throw". Any candle marked as "soy" is only 51% soy wax - or mroe - as allowed by our industry standards. Only candles marked "100% Soy" are truly pure soy wax. We test every candle fragrance to be sure it burns properly and that the fragrance is strong and true. We feel this is the best wax available on the market today for a container candle.
Lead-Free Wicks
All of our wicks are zinc core or cotton core. No lead. Actually, any candle made in the U.S.A. has no lead in the wick. Wick cores are made from paper, cotton, tin or zinc. Candles made outside of the country may have a lead-containing core in the wick -
Far East is the most suspect. Again, ours contain no lead. Our Large Glass Top candles and our Medium Glass Top candles have two (2) wicks with cotton cores. The Small candles have a single wick with a zinc or cotton core. Zinc is harmless.
Essential Oil Fragrances
Many candles are advertised as having "Essential Oils" for the scent/fragrance.
This is misleading. An "Essential Oil" is extracted from the plant - typically the freshly picked flower. Many flowers have essential oils extracted; many do not. Rose and Jasmine, for example, have essential oils, but the oils are very expensive - on the order of $2000.00 per pound. (no typo - $2000.00) These are used in very limited quantities in costly perfume and skin care products. However, Lavender is very common and relatively inexpensive. Perfumers have succeeded in making perfumes that smell exactly like the real flowers, so in most all cases, essential oils are not used - just a good fragrance oil.
We use pure essential oils in a few of our candles. These are labeled with an "EO" or similar. Our EO candles are: Lavender, Sunburst (lemongrass), PepperMary (peppermint and rosemary), and Eucalyptus Spice (eucalyptus, camphor). Other than that, we use top quality fragrance oils that smell like the real thing!
These are true aromatherapy candles.
Long Burning and Smoke-Free: How to/Burn
Our three styles of candles burn long and are highly scented. Properly maintained, all the wax in the candle will burn - no tunneling, no digging, no pouring off; and the candles burn nearly smoke-free.
Maintenance is simple: trim the wick as needed - ususally 1/4 inch. Use common sense: If the candle is smoking, trim the wick. If the melt pool is over 1/2 inch deep, trim the wick. Otherwise, leave it alone. Don't let the trimmings fall into the wax pool - they could become a fire hazard when the candle burns down. Let the candle melt to the edge - this prevents tunneling. Read all the instructions that come with your candle!
Please note that if you have a candle-burning problem or question, please email us at candles (at) desertsonlight.com. (Replace the "(at)" with an "@"!)
How To Burn Our Candles
We have dropped the 'time' nomenclature from our candles - no longer "100 Hour" for example, but just "Medium". This is because of the various environments our candles find themselves in. We are at about 6000' elevation - the air is thin here compared with sea level. In winter we are cool; in summer somewhat warm to hot. These factors influence how long a candle burns and how it burns.
How you burn your candle is also a big factor in how long the candle burns. If you light it, son't trim the wicks, and let it burn continuously to the bottom (NOT Recommended!), the burn time will be relatively short. If you burn in short cycles, say 1 to 2 hours per burn, keep the wick(s) trimmed short, the candle will last much longer.
There are 2 wicks in the larger candles so that the candle will burn efficiently with smaller wicks (than one single wick). Properly trimmed (1/4 inch or less) the candle should well for a longer time. It is possible to burn using only one wick at a time. Alternate wicks to avoid tunneling. If both wicks are lit, and they are not trimmed or maintained, the burn time will be significantly shorter.
Bottom line: use common sense when burning.
Never leave a burning candle unattended.
Keep the wicks trimmed
If the candle starts to smoke, trim the wick(s)
Never pick up or move a candle containing melted wax - it is hot.
Keep the (hot) candle off of wood furniture and away from anything flamable.
Don't go to sleep with a lighted candle.
Easy to Order
Our website is set up using the PayPal shopping cart for on-line shopping. Visit a descriptive candle page to select the fragrance, choose the size and quantity you want. (The order can be changed or cancelled at any time.) When complete, you can submit your order on-line on the PayPal secure server; or you can print out your final order and mail or FAX it to us with credit information. (You don't have to be a PayPal member to use the service. We have found the service to be safe and reliable. They do take credit cards.) If you don't care to run your card across the web, print our order form and mail/FAX it to us.
You can also print out a blank order form on the Mail & Fax Order Form page, then write your order off-line at your convenience and FAX or mail it to us. We accept major credit cards, checks and money orders. Or you can place an order by phone on our toll-free number. All candles are in-stock and we ship via UPS every day. If you have a special request or a question, just email us at "candles (at) desertsonlight.com". We'll get back pronto.
Shipping
We ship using either UPS or the US Postal Service.
All orders incur a flat rate shipping charge of $8.75 per order unless the order qualifies for free shipping (see below). We normally ship within a day or two of when the order is placed; many times we ship the same day. Post Office shipments are smaller orders and go by Priority Mail. UPS shipments are by UPS Ground and take up to 5 business days to arrive. UPS will email you shipping and tracking information so you can track your package from your computer. Shipments to AK and HI are all via Priority Mail and generally incur some extra shipping charges.
Free Shipping Offer
All orders placed with a total order value of $70.00 (USD) or more, will be shipped free (via UPS or Postal Service) to addresses in the continental United States including APO boxes. Shipments to AK and HI (via Post Office priority mail) will also be "free" but may require a surcharge to offset extra shipping costs. We will email you about that. If you need it in a hurry, we can ship UPS 3 Day Select or 2nd Day Air.
We can ship to Canada and other countries using either UPS or Priority Mail. But extra shipping charges and possibly duties may apply. Check USPS.com for approximate rates and shipping methods. (Slow boat/surface mail is not as expensive, but takes a (very!) long time - like forever.)
Made in the U.S.A.
Everything (really!) is made by us in the Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, area, (Rio Rancho) from ingredients which are made in the USA. No imports!
Scent Descriptions
Our main ORDER form lists all currently available fragrances and sizes with links to the individual candle pages. (Also discontinued scents when there are a few units available.) For a description of the individual scents, visit the descriptive pages:
outdoor/fresh
delicious (foods)
flowers
spices.
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