For the last 6 years our wood wick, Welsh slate capped candles have grown in popularity and can now be found in many stores across the UK.
In that time we have worked continuously to make sure that they are the best that they can be; tweaking packaging designs, testing fragrance percentages and new wicks, and continuing to expand our range of fragrances. We even made a complete change in our soy wax that we use, to improve the burn and scent throw of the candles!
After working so hard on perfecting the wood wick candles, we thought that it was about time that we brought out a brand new candle. Something completely unlike any candle we have created before.
The idea
Over the last 4 months we have been hard at work designing and testing a new type of candle to add to our home fragrance collection.
Due to frequent requests from our loyal customers, we decided to create a smaller 6 oz tin candle that would be the perfect mid-range product between our current candles and wax melts, but wanted to produce something a little different to what is currently available.
We knew that we wanted to create another soy wax candle but with a new cotton wick, as the smaller melt pool didn’t call for a flame as large as what you would get from a wooden wick.
The design
The first major part of the process was designing the new packaging. Although we wanted to create something completely new, we wanted to continue celebrating the Welsh background and theme of the company (whilst avoiding novelty sheep and dragon designs).
Another project that we have been working on recently involves our very own Welsh tapestry designs created by a member of our Swansea team and we knew that incorporating these patterns into the candle designs was the obvious solution. (We will be hoping to announce more about this other new project in the next few weeks so keep your eyes peeled for updates!)
The fragrances
Designing a candle that looks good on the shelf was only a small part of this project; we also needed the new candles to live up to the reputation of our current candles, with regards to the fragrance and burn of the candle, which is the tricky bit.
Firstly, you need to find the perfect wick. We tested a range of different wicks to find the perfect one to suit the particular diameter container that we had chosen. We had to make sure that it burns well with our soy wax, without any black smoke and achieves a full melt pool in between 3-4 hours of the candle being lit. As we’d never worked with cotton wicks, it was a trial-and-error process until we found our wick.
Then comes the most important part: testing and choosing the various fragrances.
We started off with 50 different fragrances which all smelt great in a bottle, yet we know from experience that this doesn’t always mean it will make a good smelling candle. We started adding fragrances to test candles in different percentages, and then test burn each one for 4 hours in an enclosed area.
There are many things that can affect what fragrances we choose to add to our candle collection. Some fragrances may smell lovely but give off black smoke when burnt, others will not reach a full melt pool and some either smell too weak or give off an unpleasant hot scent throw. All of these issues may require an increase or decrease of the fragrance percentage depending on the flash point (combustibility) of the fragrance. Even after several tests with many of the fragrances they never achieved all of the qualities that make a good candle.
The result- Slate House’s Tapestry Tin Candles
After weeks of testing (and our workshop smelling amazing!) we had chosen our range of 13 fragrances. Six of the fragrances are our best sellers from the current selection, including Welsh Cake, Cariad and Spiced Apple, but there are 7 brand new fragrances, including Seren, Amaretto, Black Orchid, Magnolia Cherry, Cuban Cognac, Cranberry Gin and Raspberry Trifle.
You can find our new Tapestry Tin Candles in store so pop in and smell our new fragrances, or order online at www.slate-house.co.uk/home-fragrance/
