Putting out a candle is an important part of your candle burning experience. But you want to make sure you’re putting it out in a way that doesn’t create smoke so the fragrance in your room doesn’t become altered. What are the best ways to put out a candle, though?
You have several options for putting out a candle without the worry of black smoke stinking up your home. You can snuff it out, use a wick dipper, smother it with the candle’s lid, or use your fingers to extinguish the flame.
Either of these methods will create little to no black smoke, leaving your room smelling like the fragrance you want.
While these are great ways to extinguish your candle, there are also methods you should avoid as they create smoke and may leave ash in your candle wax.
4 Ways to Put Out a Candle
Maybe you’re a candle lover or maybe you’re just someone looking for odor control. Either way, if you choose to burn a candle you’re going to have to figure out how to put it out when you’re finished burning it. When you do put it out, you’re not going to want to have to smell the smoke that comes up from the smoldering wick. That smell can mix with the original fragrance your candle put out and put a damper on the smell.
In this section, I’ll tell you four different ways to extinguish your candle and prevent the wick from releasing smoke into the room. By using these methods, you will be able to burn your candle knowing your fragrance will remain lovely and your candle will remain clean.
1. Snuffing it Out
One of the best ways to put out your candle is to use a candle snuffer. A snuffer looks like a long thin stick with a bell shaped instrument on the end. This tool can either be sold by itself or come in a pack of candle tools that will all be helpful in your candle burning experience. Some people even buy these to display by their candles instead of using them to extinguish their candles.
If you’re going to use this to extinguish your candle, you’re going to place the bell shaped part of the tool over the flame and leave it there for about 15 minutes. The snuffer will cut the flame off from any new oxygen and the flame will extinguish once it has used up the oxygen left under the snuffer. By leaving it sit there, you’re making sure no smoke will be released into the open air and altering the fragrance your candle originally threw.
Once you remove the snuffer from the wick, there will be no smoke and your room will still smell like the fragrance you want. This is a great way to extinguish candles while still keeping them clean and free of ash from the burnt wick.
2. Using a Wick Dipper
A wick dipper is another tool that you’ll find either sold alone or in a candle tool kit. This instrument looks like a long stick that is wide at the bottom and narrows out as it comes to the top. At the top of the instrument, the tip curves out. While this may look sort of intimidating if you’re new to the candle scene, it’s an easy instrument to use.
If you’re choosing to use this method to put your candle out, you’ll start by using it to put the candle’s wick into the melted wax. The melted wax will extinguish the flame without releasing any smoke. Once the flame is put out, use the dipper to bring the wick back up and position it back to how it was.
With this method, you need to be careful that you position the wick straight enough so you don’t need to worry about it falling and getting buried under the wax as it hardens. This method can also help prevent the black sooty buildup that collects on the sides of your glass jars. Because you’re extinguishing it in the wax, no soot it released so you won’t experience that buildup.
3. Using the Candle’s Lid
This method is definitely convenient if you don’t have a candle snuffer or wick dipper. Also, if you have a candle that doesn’t have a lid, you can always use the lid from a different candle as long as it completely stops all oxygen from entering the candle.
You don’t even have to secure the lid onto the candle. All you have to do is place the lid on top of the jar and let science do the rest. The flame on the wick will use up all the remaining oxygen and will put itself out. Because the lid is already on the candle, you can just let the jar cool and then store it wherever you’d like. If the lid is from a different candle, wait about fifteen minutes before taking the lid off and storing your candle.
With the lid being on it, you also don’t experience the smoky smell that comes from a candle’s wick after you blow it out. The next time you open your candle, just trim the wicks and you’ll be set to light it. You won’t have any smoky fragrance lingering and your candle will smell as amazing as it did when you first bought it.
4. Using Your Fingers
This method is kind of a party trick and, while it extinguishes your candle without producing smoke and soot, you may want to proceed with caution when doing this. The trick is simple, get your pointer finger and thumb wet, either by licking them or dipping them in water, and pinch the flame. The water on your fingers will evaporate and the flame will be extinguished. Don’t hold onto the wick for too long though as it will still be hot.
This method made the list because it puts out your candle without producing smoke and soot but it’s at the bottom because I feel that the three options before this are your best options. Use this method as an if-all-else-fails option. After extinguishing the wick, trim the wick and store your candle until you decide to use it next.
How Not to Put Out Your Candle
I’ve given you four ways to properly extinguish your candle. These aren’t the only ways that a candle wick can be put out though. They’re the best ways, but they aren’t the only ones. There are two methods that many people use to extinguish candles that should be avoided whenever possible. This is because they produce smoke and soot as the flame is being put out.
Blowing Out Your Candle
Blowing out candles is great when you’re blowing out candles on a cake. But extinguishing your scented candles is a whole different story. You should definitely avoid doing this with your scented candles because it can cause smoke and soot to form.
The smoke can alter the fragrance your candle has already thrown, making your room smell smoky. The soot created can also get mixed into your candle, which can in turn clog the wick, and it can stain the sides of your glass jars.
Another downfall of blowing out your candles is that your wick can become buried under the wax once it hardens. This makes it harder to use your candle from then on. You’ll have to dig through the wax to find the wick, which can cause your candle to burn unevenly and the wick may not even stay lit long.
If your wick does become buried under the wax, you can always use a candle warmer to use your candle. This will give you the same fragrance effect but you won’t have the ambiance from the lit wicks.
Cutting the Lit Wick
This is another method that seems kind of like a party trick. To do this, you take a wick trimmer and cut the wick while it’s still lit. By cutting off the lit part of the wick, the candle is no longer lit and the part of the wick you’ve cut that is on fire is quickly extinguished. There are also a few downfalls with this method too.
By cutting the wick, you’re allowing the wick to release smoke and soot, which, again, can alter the smell of the fragrance in the room and leave soot in the wax and on the jar. You also create the risk of cutting your wick too far, which will stop the candle from burning properly the next time you light it.
If you do cut the wick too far, you can use a candle warmer just like you would if your wick becomes buried under the wax.
Final Thoughts
Putting out a candle is an important part of candle care. The best ways to put your candle out is to either put the lid on the jar, use a candle snuffer or a wick dipper, or use your fingers. When putting your candle out, you should definitely avoid blowing it out with your breath or cutting the wick while it’s still lit.
The proper methods for putting your candle out will give you little to no smoke and no soot so your room will still smell amazing and your candle will look and burn great too. By using these methods, you’re avoiding an unhealthy burn in your candle and you’re allowing your room to continue to smell amazing.