The Candle Selection

At thecandleselection we aim to offer you a beautiful selection of quality candles to allow you to enhance the ambience of your home with the introduction of light, colour and fragrance. To help you choose the right candles for you, or the perfect candle gift, we have included a page of our recommendations here; our recommendations.

Our candle news pages are designed to provide you with information and news and views from thecandleselection regarding our candles and related products, including our range of accessories, lanterns and candle holders; here is a selection of some of our previous news & views articles;

• Valentine's Day Candles
• Candle Safety
• The History of Candles
• About thecandleselection.co.uk

For our current news and views try our news & views page or have a look at our related links page.

This Valentine’s Day show that special someone how much you love them with the ideal candle gift and make sure you choose the candles for your room wisely in order to set the mood and create the right ambience for a romantic evening.

Selecting the right Valentine’s Day Candles can show how much thought you have put into choosing the perfect gift, selecting the right fragrance, the right colour, even the right style says a lot about the person the gift is being given to. Make sure you take the time to get it right, for example, do they have an environmental conscience? If so, ensure you select only natural wax candles.

Setting the right mood for that romantic evening is also important on Valentine’s Day, this is when the warmth of soft, flickering candle- light can play a big part. Select from our range of unfragranced pillar candles, dinner candles or tealights, and turn the lights down low. To add to the ambience, select one candle with subtle and romantic fragrance to fill the room and bring it to life.

Whichever candles you choose, make sure you enjoy your Valentine’s Day.

PS - don’t forget to put your candles out before you go to bed.

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To help you enjoy your candle safely we have included general candle safety information below. Whichever candles you select; dinner candles, garden candles, candle lanterns, scented candles, dining taper candles, etc., please ensure you follow any specific instructions supplied with them and enjoy your candles responsibly.

	Never leave a burning candle unattended.
	Keep out of reach of children and burn well out of reach of pets.
	Leave at least 10cm between candles when burning. Do not burn any candle completely. Extinguish a candle before it burns into the holder, or in the case of a candle in a container, before it is finished, to minimise the risk of the candle overheating.
	Burn all candles in, or on, suitable non-flammable holders placing on a heat resistant surface; do not burn candles on top of a television or other warm places. Ensure there is sufficient headroom for the heat from the flame to escape and keep out of draughts, other sources of heat and direct sunlight.
	Ensure candles are upright, take care to ensure that are well away from flammable items and materials, such as curtains, soft furnishings, clothes and other decorations. If using floral or other decorative rings, remove these before lighting the candle.
	Never touch or move a candle when it is burning. Use a candle snuffer to extinguish the flame, never use water to extinguish a candle. If a candle cannot be easily extinguished, cover with a damp cloth. If a candle tends to smoke extinguish the flame and allow to cool, trim the wick to approximately 1.5cm.
	Votive/ Glass Jar Candles/ Room Scenters, etc.. Always burn these candles in a suitable glass holder, these candles are designed to liquefy when burning to increase their fragrance potential. The containers will become hot, protect the surface on which the container is placed with a non-flammable holder. Ensure that the container is in good condition, free from chips, cracks and scratches. Never let the flame come into contact with the container. Keep candles free from all foreign matter, matches, etc., as these can cause a candle to flare up.
	When using nightlights or tealights to heat or warm food, drink, fragrance tablets or oils, make sure that the burner is large enough and well ventilated so that there is at least 65mm above the flame within the holder. Do not use perfumed votive candles, use only plain unscented nightlights and tealights.

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It is understood that forms of candle have been used for thousands of years, by many cultures, to light homes and guide people on journeys in the dark.

Early forms of candle were manufactured by soaking the cores of reeds and rushes, such as bulrushes, in rendered animal fat; typically, these candles differed from today’s candles as they typically had no wick.

Other cultures independently developing candles include; the people of India, who made wax skimmed from boiling Cinnamon, the Chinese, who are believed to have made candles by forming wax around a rice paper core, and the Japanese who made wax from tree nuts. However, it is generally thought that the Ancient Romans were the first to develop candles, as we know them today, with wicks.

Moulds were first used in the manufacture of candles in the 15th Century, as until then Candlemakers, known as Chandlers, produced candles by hand dipping wicks in wax. The candles were repeatedly dipped to build up layers of wax until the desired diameter was reached. This process is still used in the manufacture of hand dipped candles today.

A further major development in candle making came about in the 19th Century when the process to extract stearic acid from animal fat was discovered. The manufacture of stearic acid led to the development of Stearin wax, a clean burning and durable wax ideal for use as a fuel for candles. Indeed, Stearin candles are very much in use today, however today stearin is generally produced from plant based materials.

The introduction of electricity, and the electric light, has seen the candle now being used primarily for decorative purposes, helping to create ambience in the home; the candle also becoming popular as a gift; candle gifts ranging from glass jar fragranced candles to boxed candle gift sets.

Even with the candle no longer being our primary source of light, the candle manufacturing industry has not stood still, at the end of the last century the industry recognised environmental concerns and started to develop natural wax candles, manufactured from palm wax and soy bean wax.

Once our primary source of light, now candles are a source of pleasure, symbolising celebration, romance and relaxation, a home décor accessory, so now what does the future hold for candles and candle making?

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At thecandleselection we aim to offer you a beautiful selection of quality candles to allow you to enhance the ambience of your home with the introduction of light, colour and fragrance. Have a look at our news page for information, news and views on our latest products.

Candles can help to complement the mood and atmosphere you are trying to create, whether it is for a romantic evening, a special occasion, a dinner party, or just to relax, as a carefully selected fragranced candle can help bring back shared memories or help set new ones; simple, unfragranced candles can create that special ambience simply with the warmth and colour their flickering candlelight provides.

Whatever your preference, be it; tapered dinner candles, garden candles, scented glass candles, rustic candles, candle lanterns, tealights, etc., we are sure that the candles you select will be ideal for your home and the ambience you are trying to create.

To help you choose the right candles for you, or the perfect candle gift, we have included a page of our recommendations here; our recommendations.

Thecandleselection stock brands from manufacturers based within the UK, including; Shearer Candles, Sophie Conran's collection for Portmeirion, St Eval Candles who hand produce candles in Cornwall, Pairfum who design and produce their products with a sustainable development ethos, and Pintail Candles based in Cumbria. There is also a wonderful range of Ashleigh & Burwood fragranced reed room diffusers, renowned for their gorgeous fragrances and beautifully boxed to make the ideal gift.

The Candle Selection also stock a range of ecologically sound candles made using materials such as; stearin, soy and other natural waxes and pure cotton wicks. Unlike paraffin wax, stearin, soy and other natural waxes are not derived from petroleum and are more favourable for environmentally conscious people as they are derived primarily from plant materials.

Should you need to contact us, please e-mail us at; sales@thecandleselection.co.uk, or call us, in the UK, on 0845 2222 035 between the hours of 9:00am and 5:00pm, Monday to Friday.

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