How to Use Your Lucid Candle: Pillar, Dinner and Votive Refills

Lucid candles look like wax but burn liquid paraffin: a candle body, a wick holder on top and a reservoir you fill yourself. Fill it, light it, and refill when the fuel runs low; the candle keeps its shape and never drips. The steps below follow the instruction sheet packed with every Lucid candle.

Pillar candles

1. Remove the candle top. Lift the wick holder straight out of the pillar.
2. Fill with Lucid Liquid. Pour liquid candle fuel into the reservoir and stop below the rim so the top seats cleanly.
3. Light the wick and enjoy. Set the top back in place, give the wick a minute to draw fuel, then light it.

Dinner candles

1. Place the candle in its holder before you open it, so it stands steady while you pour.
2. Remove the candle top.
3. Fill with Lucid Liquid through the bottle's spout.
4. Light the wick and enjoy.

Votive candles

Votives work the same way but close with an O-ring top. To open one, hold the Pyrex wick holder on the candle top and pull diagonally to break the seal. Do not pull straight up.

A stuck top

A bumpy delivery can jam a top in its candle. Lay a towel over a counter and give the candle body a firm whack against it; the top comes loose. If it does not, contact us and we will send a replacement.

Care: wick height, soot and refills

A liquid candle does not burn down, and neither does its fiberglass wick, so never trim or cut it. Keep about 1/8 inch of wick showing above the holder: a taller wick gives a bigger flame, but also soot, and it drinks fuel faster. The flame should sit steady at roughly 5/8 inch.

Carbon slowly builds up on the exposed wick. Wipe it away with a clean, soft cloth, holding the wick holder so you do not pull the wick out.

Refill to about 3/4 inch below the rim, never to the top. How long a fill lasts depends on the candle's diameter: one maker's tables put a 1-inch liquid candle at about 4 to 5 hours per fill, a 2-inch candle at 12 to 26 hours and a 3-inch candle at 30 to 67 hours, and drafts from fans, air conditioning or open windows shorten that. Use clean liquid paraffin made for candles: it burns with little soot, has a high flash point, and washes out of linens.

Replacing a wick

With clean fuel a wick lasts about 1,000 burning hours. Replace it sooner if the flame grows noticeably smaller or no longer draws fuel well.

1. Let the candle top cool, then lift it off the candle body without spilling the fuel left inside.
2. Pull or unscrew the old wick out of the holder from below.
3. Feed the new wick up through the holder from underneath; the hook or wire packed with replacement wicks pulls it through.
4. Set the height so about 1/8 inch shows above the holder, seat the top, and give the dry wick two minutes to soak up fuel before lighting.

A yearly cleaning

Once a year, take the candles to the sacristy, unscrew the tops and pour the fuel into a container to reuse. Take the wicks out, wash the candle bodies with warm water and a mild cleaner, polish the brass parts, and let everything dry completely before the wicks and tops go back in. It is the natural moment to fit fresh wicks.

Keep on hand

• Paraffin Liquid Candle Fuel: clean-burning fuel for every Lucid candle, in single bottles or by the case.
• Replacement wicks: swap a tired wick in seconds.
• Advent sets: refillable Advent pillar candles and 11-inch Advent dinner candles, three purple and one rose.
• Votives: refillable votive candles, set of four.

Questions? Call or text (720) 767-2553, in English or Spanish.