Everything About a Candle’s Shelf-Life

Sadly, as with many other things, your candles cannot last forever. Although the actual candle itself may look as if it could last for eternity, the scent and quality of the burn may diminish over time. When buying a candle, you are not only purchasing something that looks presentable for your home, but something that will smell beautiful and be safe to burn during your moments of “me time”. When making candles, taking into account the safety of customers and the process in which a candle burns, is very important, and when it’s past this approximated shelf life, it may be more dangerous than necessary. Along with this, after so many years, the oils and fragrances used to scent your candle, may have naturally dissipated on their own; meaning that if you were to strike a match and light the candle, you would be met with simply burning wax and no actual scent to fill your home.

How long each candle may last is dependent upon the products used to make the wax that the candle is formed from. Paraffin wax will last much longer than other wax products on the shelf because of its use of chemicals and preservatives. Plant-based waxes, such as the soy wax that TLC uses, will degrade faster over time because it's derived from naturally based products. Although paraffin may last longer, there are considerable benefits to burning soy whether it be safety, health, or smell. You can learn more in our earlier TLC article titled “Why Natural Candles are Worth the Money”

Specifically, TLC pours their candles using soy-based wax. Each candle has a 60-70 hour burn times and approximately 2 years worth of shelf life. This means, that even after a year or two of buying your TLC candle, if you haven’t lit it for some odd reason, the candle will still hold a majority of its scent. However, it most likely will not be as potent as it would, had it been lit within a year of purchasing. To help maintain the shelf-life of your candle, storing your candles properly is the key component. For more help on how to properly store and take care of your candles, consider our TLC blog post “Five Tips on Storing your Luxury Candles”.

Overall, if you somehow happen to find yourself with a bunch of candles in storage or have the patience and persistence to wait and burn your candles – especially when they smell as wonderful as a TLC candle – keep in mind that the longer you wait to strike that first match onto the wick, the less magical and calming the first burning experience will be.

-Kenzington Baxter, Guest Writer