I was wondering to myself what the difference is between the kind of candles that you buy in the store and the kind that say they are hand poured.
I went out and bought a jar candle, a 5" pillar candle and some assorted votives from Wal Mart, and also purchased some hand poured candles of the same variety from a local crafter.
I lit all the candles from Wal Mart and although they burned just like candles...there wasn't very good smell coming from them. I mean there was some scent but not much.
I let them burn for 3 hours until the warm wax reached the outer edges. I then blew them out and tried to hug the edges in. The wax just cracked and fell off instead of folding in! Cheap!!
Then I lit the handmade candles. What a difference in the smell! These candles were made of straight paraffin wax and had scent in them also. They smelled soooo good, and I could smell then throughout my whole house after the three hour comparison time went by. What a difference in the smell quality.
After three hours and the wax was evenly melted to the edges, I blew them out and tried to hug them in. The wax folded right over just like it is supposed to.
In comparison, I much prefer the candles that were hand poured. They were easier to take care of, smelled better and were competitively priced considering the quality comparison.
I recommend hand poured candles over the cheap, mass produced ones any day!
