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!