How to Use a Lampe Berger Lamp

Lampe Berger is a fantastic product for removing odors (cooking, cigar/cigarette, pet, musty house, paint fumes....) while scenting the air and killing airborne bacteria. Lampe Berger was created over 100 years ago by a French pharmacist to remove odors and purify the air in hospitals. It has evolved over the years into a residential product with many different lamp styles and fragrances. Some lamps become collectors items and are worth thousands of dollars.

Lampe Berger fragrance oils can be blended to create your own special recipe. I'll add a separate blog post later for Lampe Berger fragrance combinations. If you have a recipe you'd like to share, please post a comment below.

To Use a Lampe Berger, follow these easy steps:

1. Place your Lampe Berger lamp on a stable surface.
2. Fill lamp approximately 3/4 full with fragrance oil of your choice. We recommend using Neutral to soften any fragrance you find too strong.
3. Insert the Lampe Berger wick into the lamp completely. When using for the first time, let the wick soak for 20 minutes before using.
4. Light the wick. After 2 minutes blow out the flame.
5. Put the vented cover back on the Lampe Berger. Your Lampe Berger is now working to remove odors, purify and fragrance the air. While the lamp is working, there is no smoke or flame, just a little heat coming off the top of the lamp.
6. Once your Lampe Berger has removed odors (after about 10-15 minutes) and added enough fragrance for you (usually about 20 minutes), carefully remove the vented cover and place the solid cap back on the Lampe Berger. The quicker you put the solid cap on your Lampe Berger, the longer your fragrance oil will last.

That's it! If you have any questions or comments, please post a comment below. We'd love to hear from you.

How to set up & use a reed diffuser

Reed diffusers provide a constant fragrance. The reeds work like a wick to draw the fragrance up and into the air as the fragrance oil evaporates over time. Fragrance oil diffusers are particularly helpful in areas where you always want it to smell nice but can't always keep an eye on a candle, such as a foyer or a powder room.

If you find the fragrance of your reed diffuser is too subtle, flip the reeds to freshen the scent. You can flip a few reeds every few days or all the reeds every day depending on the size of your space and how strong you like your fragrance. The more reeds you flip, and the more often you flip them, will cause the oil to evaporate quicker. Be sure to keep your diffuser away from windows, which can also speed up evaporation.

If you purchase a reed diffuser where the oil is separate from the vase, you may not want to fill the vase completely with the oil. Leave some room at the top so that when you insert the reeds there is room for the oil to rise. The oil level will quickly drop as it is soaked up by the reeds. When there is enough room you can add the remaining oil. If your diffuser is packaged with the oil already in the vase, use caution when inserting the reeds to avoid overflow. It's good practice to add just one reed at a time making sure that the oil level doesn't get too high after each addition.

Initially reed diffusers can be quite strong in scent when you first set them up until they settle after about a week. If you find that your fragrance diffuser is still too strong for your space, simply remove some of the reeds and store them in a zip lock bag for later use. Less reeds will produce less fragrance.

If you're not a fan of the vase that came with your diffuser, you can use any glass vase or bottle you may have at home. Look for a glass decanter with a small opening to avoid too much dust and debris clouding the oil. Some fragrance diffuser companies sell just the refill oil and reeds separately so you can create your own, custom diffuser at home. k. hall is an excellent line for purchasing refill oil and reeds.

As always, feel free to email us with any questions you may have at info@candlesoffmain.com. We welcome your comments below.

Smoke signals

A candle with a nice, tight, steady flame will burn cleanly without soot or smoke. Every time before you light your candles, be sure to trim the wick to 1/4". If you candle ever smokes, flickers or creates soot, simply extinguish the candle (we use wick dippers to extinguish a candle without any smoke), trim the wick a little more, and relight. Some candle lines are more finicky than others and need to be trimmed just right. You may have to re-trim these candles after they've been burning for a few minutes (to get the wick the right height) or a few hours (if the wick gets too long or creates a fragrance bloom while burning).

Wick trimmers are a handy tool to trim wicks. The base of the wick trimmer is 1/4" thick to automatically measure the height of the wick for you. Simply rest the base of the wick trimmer on the top of the wax and the wick is trimmed at the correct length without guesswork. Wick trimmers also have a "tray" at the bottom to collect the wick debris and lift it out of the candle. We've found that the Wickman Wick Trimmer works the best on any wick since it has a sharp edge to cut even new wicks.

Any candle that is disturbed enough with flicker, smoke and drip. For that reason, be sure to keep your candles out of drafts from ceiling fans, air vents and windows.

Trim, light, enjoy!

Grand Opening of our Cyber Store!

Our Cyber Store is now open! While our shop in historic downtown Annapolis, Maryland is open, we will stream live onto our website. We can show you products, answer questions and help in any way. Click here to go to our live page.

Audio is mute during our broadcast for privacy and security. Call us at 866-786-1043 for assistance.

As always, please post any comments below or email us at Info@CandlesOffMain.com.

Thank you!
Dave & Sue Adams

Wood You?

A customer called today to say she was concerned about burning the DayNa Decker candle she received as a gift because the flame was described as dancing and flickering and that made her worry that the flame would “jump across the room”. When I first heard about how the woodwick “crackles” as it burns, it made me think of how a fireplace sparks and sends burning embers shooting through the air. That made me nervous that it would light the rug on fire, so I have to agree, I was a little reluctant as well at first.

Since we’ve had the pleasure of trying these candles, they quickly became one of our favorites. They have a clean, crisp fragrance and provide instant impact in the room in their “multisensory” way through sight, sound and smell. I video taped one of the Botanika candles burning so you can see the beautiful wide flame and hear the sound effect of the wood wick. Don’t fear – they are fantastic and well worth the indulgence. The small size chandel makes a fantastic and unique hostess gift. Our favorite fragrance is Zelia with lotus, cypress, incense, oakmoss and cedarwood (I love woody scents, particularly in the winter). Leila is our best seller with grapefruit, bergamot, dewberry, lemon flower and amber musk. Manzanita and Bardou are their two new fragrances. Be sure to try one yourself and let us know what you think!

Lights Out

Use a wick dipper to extinguish a candle without any smoke or soot so you don't lose the beautiful fragrance you worked so hard to achieve. Using the end of the wickdipper, push the burning wick into the pool of melted wax to drown out the flame. Then use the curved end of the dipper to pull the wick back up out of the melted wax and bring it upright so that when the candle re-solidifies, the wick is straight up and coated with wax, priming it for easy re-lighting. This extends the life and the quality of the wick.

Wick dippers can also be used to recenter a wick. If you notice that the wick is getting close to the side of the jar, extinguish the candle and use the wick dipper to push the wick back to the center of the glass. When the wax re-solidifies, the wick will start in the center. Warning: A wick burning too close to the side of the glass can cause the glass jar to crack! Be sure to extinguish the candle and move the wick to the center of the jar before that happens.


Check out our video on how to use a wick dipper:

(Bear with us! This is our first video:)