Top off a romantic evening with candles

Candles are widely known as mood setters, but when used uniquely candles can transfer an amazing evening into an enchanting evening that will never be forgotten. If you have romance on your mind and want to create the perfect evening, you may want to take a page from one guy’s romantic book in which he created an evening that not only charmed his girlfriend, but won her heart forever.

Ted knew that his girlfriend missed her home state of Hawaii widely, but due to the high prices of airfare she was not able to visit for several years. So instead, he decided to create a widely creative date in which he would bring Hawaii to her by transforming his backyard patio into the beach side.

Ted purchased a large amount of sand to place around his hot tub in a heart shape and then placed shells in a heart shape around the tub. Inside of each shell he placed tealight candles that he told her represented the energy and spirit of the seashore that she missed from home. He also told her that each flame was meant to symbolize the flickering waves that washed up on the shoreline.

He filled the hot tub with 365 red floating candles and stated they represented the days she would have to spend with him before she could go home. Then he asked her to slowly blow out each candle to symbolize how quickly the days would pass as long as they shared them together. When only one candle was left, he pulled out a ring box and stepped down on his knee in hot tub and told her that on the last day of the year, she would head home with him because they would be married along the shoreline of her home if she would have him. Needless to say, she quickly blew out the last candle, said yes, and jumped into his arms.

Now every year on their anniversary they light a candle for each year they have spent together and let them burn the entire night to symbolize their everlasting love.

Creating wax for soy candles

The use of soy candles is fairly new within the candle industry because not only is the material quite useful, but the use of soy offers a new way to craft candles that are all-natural and eco-friendly. The use of soy in candles became a theory in the middle of the 90’s when researchers started experimenting to narrow down the perfect balance between liquid and solid soy states in order to create a candle that will burn effectively.

The process was complicated because at room temperature soil oil is a liquid which of course does not work for candles. However, scientists found that if hydrogen was added to soy oil then the element will solidify making it possible to create candles out of the oil.

As you may or may not know, soil is a natural element that is made out of beans and due to fact that soy beans are a renewable resource they are a much better sustainable choice for the environment. As the push for greener products in the marketplace has occurred soy candles were met with a warm reception in the marketplace and sales of the product have continued to increase steadily over time.

Today soy candles are a staple in the market, but there is still a lot of work to be done as most soy candle wax is still not hard enough to be used for pillar candles or taper candles unless a great deal of additives are placed into the wax. On the other hand, container candles such as tealight candles can easily be made out of soy oil candle wax and fragrances can even be placed in these types of candles.

As a bonus, the soy wax is extremely good for the earth and burns much cleaner than traditional paraffin. An extra bonus for those who like to create their own candles is that soy wax can be popped into the microwave to melt and mold making it very easy to work with if you like to create your own unique decorative designs.

Why does a candle burn?

Most people do not wonder about the scientific theory behind a candle burning because it seems to be a simple concept. After all, all it takes to lit a candle is to put a fire near the wick and let it burn down through the wax. However, it is a little more complicated although there are only two factors that come into play in terms of explaining why a candle burns. In order to burn, a candle needs some type of fuel, which is the wax, and needs a wick which is usually made out of absorbent twine.

Focusing on the wick first, in order to actually burn it needs to pass two tests. First the wick must be made out of some type of absorbent fiber and has to have natural capillary action. Capillary action is the scientific principle that liquid will move against gravity upwards when placed in a thin tube or a material that is very porous such as glass fiber wick (generally used for oil lamps). Given capillary action is a little more expensive to create; most wicks are made out of absorbent fibers. In fact, if you touched a wick before it was waxed you would realize the material is actually quite soft.

Once the wick is lit, in order for any candle to stay lit regardless of it if is a standard candle, floating candle, or tealight candle it needs some type of fuel. In the case of a candle, the fuel is wax which is placed near where the wick is. The wax absorbs the wick into it and the heat from the flame starts to vaporize the wax which burns. This is why when a candle is first blown out a white smoke starts to float through the air which is not smoke at all, but actually the wax vapor condensing.

Throughout the process the candle does not catch on fire the wax does not reach a temperature high enough to ignite in the air. The only place that a candle is hot enough to reach this point is at the base of the flame but the wax is slowly burned at the flame base and only a small amount of wax turns to vapor. This is the exact reason that a candle burns down so gradually.