Everything Seems Lovelier by Candlelight!

Candles can add warmth, style and ambiance to any room in the home.Whether grouped for drama in the living room, paired in candlesticks on the dining table, or snuggled in colored glass votives on the mantel, candles add elegance and style to homes around the world.

Consumers are increasingly purchasing candles as a focal point for their home décor, and for aromatherapy-like relaxation and stress reduction. Nine out of ten candle users say they use candles to make a room feel comfortable or cozy.

TAPER: A slender candle – typically 6 to 18 inches high and sometimes called a dinner candle – designed to be held securely upright by a candle holder.

PILLAR: A free-standing candle, usually having a diameter of 3 inches or more, and one or more wicks. Despite the name, pillars or column candles can be round, square, hexagonal, etc. Although they stand on their own, they must be burned on a heat-resistant candle holder.

CONTAINER, JAR OR FILLED CANDLE: A candle that is poured when manufactured into a glass, metal or ceramic container specifically designed to hold the wax and withstand the heat of the burning candle.

VOTIVE: A small cylindrical candle, usually about 1½ inches in diameter and 2 or 2½ inches high, designed to be placed in a "cup" or votive holder to hold the liquefied wax that results from burning. Votives were originally produced as white unscented candles for religious ceremonies; they are now available in many colors and scents.

GEL CANDLE: A transparent-type candle made primarily from gelled mineral oils or gelled synthetic hydrocarbons. “Soft” or quasi-rigid gels are poured into a container to maintain the candle’s shape. "Hard" gel candles have a consistency suitable for free-standing candles.Decorative wax items are frequently suspended within a gel candle to produce a special visual effect.

TEALIGHT: A small, cylindrical, filled candle -- usually about 1 inch in diameter and 1½ inches high -- often poured into a metal holder.

LUMINARIA: An outdoor candle made by placing a 15-hour votive in a light-diffusing container filled with sand.

SPECIALTY CANDLE: An unusually shaped or sculpted free-standing candle, often depicting a three-dimensional object or designed to be viewed primarily as decorative artwork, and sometimes called a novelty candle.

AND, OF COURSE, BIRTHDAY CANDLES!

1. Consumers are increasingly purchasing candles as a focal point for their home décor, and for aromatherapy-like relaxation and stress reduction.

2. Fragrance is by far the most important characteristic impacting candle purchases today, with three-fourths of candle buyers saying it is “extremely important" or "very important" in their selection of a candle.

3. The majority of U.S. consumers use their candles within a week of purchase.

4. Approximately three-fourths of candle users say they typically burn candles for 4 hours or less per sitting.

5. Both men and women consider candles to be an always-acceptable and highly appreciated gift for a wide variety of occasions.

6. Approximately one in five women say they use candles to decorate the yard, patio or other exterior areas, as well as the interior of their home.

7. Candle purchasers say they view candles as an appropriate gift for the holidays (76%), as a house warming gift (74%), a hostess/dinner party gift (66%), a thank you (61%) and as adult birthday gifts (58%).

8. Candle users say they most frequently burn candles in the living room (42%), followed by the kitchen (18%) and the bedroom (13%).

Kitchen Aromas: Vanilla and vanilla-based aromas have remained the most popular candle scent for almost a decade. Other favorites in this category include cinnamon, coffee, mocha, gingerbread, pumpkin, apple pie, brown sugar and hazelnut.

Fruits: Fruity fragrances generally form the second most popular scent grouping for candles. Citrus and apple scents offer an especially broad range of fragrance notes, from light and breezy to warm and comforting. Other popular fruit scents include peach, black cherry and wild berries.

Florals: Soft and light floral scents continue to be in favor, with special emphasis on lavender, lilac, rose, peony, jasmine and gardenia.

Spa/Zen: This category features scents associated with relaxation and mood enhancement. Popular candle scents in this category include ginger, mint, eucalyptus, sandalwood, green tea and ylang ylang.

Fantasy: This relatively new category includes such hard-to-describe but distinctive and increasingly popular fragrances such as ocean breeze, rain, fresh laundry, etc.

Everything seems lovelier by candlelight. Candles can add warmth, style and ambiance to any room in the home.

Here are some popular American trends for decorating with candles:

Large pillar candles placed in glass lanterns or surrounded by glass hurricanes make a bold decorating statement during the day, and cloak a room with subtle warmth and drama when lit. They can be especially dramatic when placed in pairs at the end of a mantel or as the focal point on a coffee table or end table.

Try groupings of tapers or pillars for a compact yet striking complement to any décor. Try varying shades of one color in your grouping or the same color but with varying candleholders. Taper groupings can be especially dramatic and easily changed for minimal expense. When using tapers, don't limit your thinking to the dining room....[MORE]

A Little Wax Can Be a Big Safety Cushion

Be candle-wise and practice the following safety precautions when burning candles:

Always keep a burning candle within sight. Extinguish all candles when leaving a room or before going to sleep.

Never burn a candle on or near anything that can catch fire. Keep burning candles away from furniture, drapes, bedding, carpets, books, paper, flammable decorations, etc.

Keep candles out of the reach of children and pets. Do not place lighted candles where they can be knocked over by children, pets or anyone else.

Trim candlewicks to 1/4 inch each time before burning. Long or crooked wicks cause uneven burning and dripping...[MORE]