The best smelling candles can lose their scent before you ever light them. Heat, light and damp air all work on the wax in the cupboard. With the clocks gone back, you may be stocking up for winter. A few simple storage habits keep that scent fresh until the night you strike the match.
Why the best smelling candles fade in storage
Scent lives in the fragrance oil mixed into the wax. Warmth and light slowly break that oil down, and some of it drifts out of the jar.
The National Candle Association says candles may fade or melt if they sit in bright light or heat for a long time. Its advice is to keep them somewhere cool, dark and dry. It also says to hang on to the lids, because they help protect the wax.
Damp is the other problem. An interiors expert speaking to Ideal Home warns that humidity can make fragrance oil separate from the wax.
Where should you keep candles in a UK home?
Pick a cupboard on an inside wall, away from radiators and sunny windowsills. A wardrobe shelf or a sideboard drawer works well. Avoid the airing cupboard, which is warm, and the garage or shed, which can get cold and damp.
Storing scented candles and tealights over winter
Jar candles are the easy ones. Pop the lid back on once the wax has cooled. Candles without a lid do better in an airtight box, so the scent stays in and dust stays out.
Tealights need a little more care because they are small and have no lid. Keep them in their box until you need them. Our Glow Collection advent calendar is a good example. Each of the 24 tealights sits behind its own door, so the box itself does the job.
- Keep lids on and boxes closed
- Store upright, out of direct sunlight
- Keep away from radiators and hot pipes
- Keep strong scents apart from linens and food
Keeping a candle with fragrance fresh until December
If your advent calendar arrives before 1 December, find it a cool, dark home until then. A bedroom cupboard is ideal. Our tealights have an 8% fragrance load, which means the amount of scent oil in the wax. That extra scent is worth protecting.
Strong scents can also travel. Ideal Home suggests sealing scented jars, so the smell does not soak into towels or the biscuit tin.
Quick answers
Do candles lose their scent over time?
Yes, slowly. Heat, light and damp air break down the fragrance oil in the wax. A candle kept cool, dark, dry and lidded will smell much closer to new when you light it.
Should you keep the lid on a candle?
Yes. Once the wax has cooled, put the lid back on. The National Candle Association says lids help protect the candle. They also keep out dust and stop the scent drifting into the cupboard.
Good storage costs nothing and keeps every candle smelling the way it should. If you want a ready-made countdown of scent for December, have a look at the Glow advent calendar. It holds 24 tealights in 12 Christmas fragrances, two of each.
Related reading
- A Candle Advent Calendar: 24 Nights of Scent Before Christmas: how the countdown works, one door at a time.
- Scented Tea Lights: Why Small Candles Smell So Good: why a little tealight fills a room.
- Candle Care Kit: How to Put Out a Candle the Right Way: the simple tools that help a candle last.
