When lighting a wood wick candle, the best technique is to tilt it on an angle and let the flame draw across the length of the wick.
**You may need to give it a couple of tries the first time you light the candle. If the wick goes out right away, it is likely that only the wood was burning and the soy wax did not get sufficiently drawn up through the wick yet.
The first burn is the most important! Small candles usually reach an ideal melt pool within 1 1/2 – 2 hours, however large candles may need up to 4 hours to create a good melt pool (ideally all the way to the edges). **Some residual wax on the wall of the jar is normal. As the candle burns down, the wax will too.
**Break off the charred wick and discard the debris each time you relight your candle.**
Avoid drafts & burn on a stable, heat-resistant surface.
Notice that the wick did extinguish itself because it had not ignited the soy yet. It catches on the second try. **If this happens, I sometimes take a Kleenex to break off the charred wood before I attempt to relight the wick.
As long as you break off the charred end when you light the candle in the future, it should light without any difficulty.
You should have an ideal melt pool after 3 – 4 hours (with the large candle). Notice that there is very little smoke when you blow out your candle!