The end of the month feels like a fair time to admit something: a candle that looks completely finished the day it's poured is not actually finished.
What curing actually means
Once wax cools and sets, it looks done. It isn't. Soy wax keeps forming its internal structure for days afterward, and the fragrance oil is still working its way through that structure rather than sitting on top of it. A candle burned on day one throws noticeably less scent than the same candle burned after two weeks of just sitting there, doing nothing, on a shelf.
So that's what we do. Every batch waits. It's the least photogenic part of the whole process — there's no elegant way to make "a box of candles sitting still" look interesting — but it's the difference between a candle that smells like something and one that smells like almost nothing.
The one we didn't send out
Our very first candle batch had two jars that set unevenly — visibly wonky tops, slightly sunken on one side. Nothing wrong with the fragrance, nothing wrong with the burn, just not right to look at. We held them back rather than let someone's first STILL candle be the one with the odd top. Small batches mean we get to make that call on every single jar, rather than averaging it out across a few thousand units.
That's most of what June looked like from our side: pouring, waiting, checking, occasionally holding something back. Nothing dramatic. Exactly the kind of month we're aiming for, most months.
See you in July.
— Mike & Trudy