The Keeper's Collection: Small Tools, Longer Candles

The short answer: the Keeper's Collection is the small stuff that makes a candle last. A wick trimmer, a snuffer, a tray, and a jar of long matches. The Complete Kit is $46, the wick trimmer alone is $18, and the matches are $6. None of it is strictly necessary, and all of it makes a noticeable difference.

The unglamorous truth about candles

Most candles do not die of old age. They die of neglect, usually in one of two ways.

Either the wick never gets trimmed, so the flame runs tall and hot and smoky and burns through the wax at double speed while sooting up the vessel. Or the first burn gets cut short, the candle memorizes a narrow melt pool, and it tunnels straight down leaving a ring of wax nobody will ever use.

Both are entirely preventable. One requires a habit. The other requires about thirty seconds and a small pair of scissors.

What is in the kit

The wick trimmer. Gold-tone, angled, and the single most useful object here. You can technically use scissors, and you can technically also cut your own hair. The trimmer's angle lets you reach into a burned-down vessel and cut flat at a quarter inch, which is the length that keeps a flame calm and low-smoke. Once a candle is halfway down, scissors stop working and this stops being optional.

The snuffer. Blowing a candle out works, but it scatters ash across the wax surface and puts a plume of smoke into the room. A snuffer starves the flame instead. Cleaner wax, less smoke, and it feels good to use, which is not nothing.

The tray. A small dish to rest the tools on and catch trimmings. Its actual job is making sure the trimmer lives near the candles instead of migrating into a drawer, which is where wick trimmers go to be forgotten.

The matches

Long Reach Matches, $6. Forty-eight of them in a clear apothecary-style jar.

These solve a specific and annoying problem. Our Heirloom bowl is seven inches across and three and a half deep, and once it has burned down a bit, a regular match means putting your knuckles somewhere unpleasant. These reach the bottom without any of that.

They also look good enough to leave out on a tray or a mantle, which is the other half of why they exist.

What to get

If you own one candle and want the habit that matters most, get the wick trimmer on its own at $18.

If you own several, or you are giving this to someone who does, get the Complete Kit at $46. It is also a good add-on to a candle gift, because it makes the gift look considered rather than defaulted to.

Add the matches at $6 if there is an Heirloom or a Hearth candle in the picture.

Frequently asked questions

Do I really need a wick trimmer? Not at first. Scissors work while the candle is full. Once it burns down past a couple of inches, scissors stop reaching and the trimmer becomes genuinely useful.

How short should I trim the wick? A quarter inch, before every burn.

What is in the Complete Kit? A gold-tone wick trimmer, a wick snuffer, and a petite tray for the tools and trimmings.

How many matches come in the jar? Forty-eight, long enough to reach the bottom of our Heirloom bowl.

Keep reading

More stories: How Long Should You Burn a Candle? for the habits these tools support, The Blue and White Bowl, and The Hearth Candles, where trimming three wicks makes the trimmer earn its keep.