For incense burning tips, scroll down.

With the proper care, our premium candles will give you hours of enjoyment. We can not stress enough how important it is to burn votives in a tight fitting holder, and to keep all your wicks trimmed to about ¼".  Above all, please burn all candles safely!

Use a proper holder

When burning votive candles, always use a tight fitting votive holder. We use a premium votive wax which is made to liquefy when burning, as opposed to a pillar candle which uses wax that will hold its shape. This allows our votive candles to hold a stronger concentration of scent. If you burn one of our premium votives without a proper votive holder, the wax will not hold it's shape, your burning time will be greatly reduced, and it could pose a safetly hazard. Please, always use a proper votive holder!


















Incense Burning Tips

Our hand-dipped incense is available in a wide variety of bold fragrances. Burned properly, each stick should last more than 60 minutes, and the fragrance will linger long after that.

To light your incense, place the wooden end into a heatproof holder. Light the thicker scented end with a match and allow to burn for a few seconds until the tip begins to glow. Blow the flame out and allow the incense to smolder. The incense must smolder, not burn, for you to get the great aroma and full enjoyment for an hour or more.

Please burn safely! Do not allow the ash to fall onto any flammable surface. Many decorative holders are made just for burning incense. For safety, only burn your incense in an incense holder.

The oils used in our incense may seep. We recommend keeping your incense wrapped in it's plastic bag until ready for use.

Candle & Incense Burning Tips    -    Retail Locations   -  Privacy Statement   -    Contact Us

Scents of History™, Detroit Scenic Scents™, D-Lights™, Motor City D-Lights™, Great Lakes Scents™,
Motor City Incense™, Motoromas™, Motoroma Air Bags™, Motor City Oils™ and Motor Votives™
are trademarks of Motor City Candleworks.
All rights reserved.

© 2011 Motor City Candleworks
MOTOR CITY CANDLEWORKS MAKES SCENTS BY HAND IN MICHIGAN 
  All Motor City Candleworks products are made in a historic building in downtown Detroit. Everything we make, we make by hand. Our candles are hand-poured, our incense is hand-dipped, and our Motoromas are packaged by hand.
 
  All of our fragrances are named for people and places througout Michigan. Where's your favorite part of our beautiful water winter wonderland? Whether you're partial to the thumb, or you call yourself a yooper, it's likely we've got a fragrance for you!

 Scroll down to see our products and click on the links for more information. Thanks for stopping by and thanks for supporting a Michigan-based business!
The City of Detroit
Official Flag

Home Page
 
Candles
  D-Lights
  Votives
  Chromes-To-Go
  High-Mileage Jars
 
Motor City Incense
 
 
Motoroma Air Fresheners
 


FAQs

Retail Locations

Wholesale Info

All Fragrance
 Descriptions


About Us

Contact Us

―――――――

Shipping charges are just $5 for orders under $35 that ship within the USA. Orders of $35 or more are shipped free in the USA. Sorry, we don't ship to international addresses.

We accept
Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express.


 Do you work with a non-profit organization?
Our candles make great personlized gifts that you can give to your donors. Need to raise some money first? We also can tailor a fundraising program for your organization. Email us for  more information.

 Promote Michigan to your customers with our products
Our products work great as promotional tools for your business. We can customize candles with your logo, create incense with your artwork, or make our Motoroma Air Bags with your logo on the package. Email us for more information.


To reach us
, you can always send us an email, or call (313) 254-4799.
Votive Variety - $11.99
12 premium 2 ounce, 16 hour votive candles randomly selected from our current inventory. You will get at least 10 different fragrances, and no more than two of any one frangrance.

Buy Votive Variety @ $11.99

Votive Variety is 12 randomly selected votives from our inventory. You won't know which 12 you're getting, but we don't think you'll mind. Because, what you can count on is 12-long-lasting, premium, hand-poured votives made in our studio in Detroit. You may get some of our trademark candles named for people and places around Michigan. Or you may get some candle fragrances you wont find anywhere else on our website. Sometimes, we make these just to experiment with new fragrances, and sometimes we make them for a specific event. In any case, you can be assured that they are all great scents made with the same attention to quality as are all of our candles.
For safety and efficiency, always burn your votives in a tight fitting votive holder.
Clear, heat-tempered glass.
order votive holder
Glass Votive Candle Holder
$1.99
Container candles generate a lot of heat within the container. For this reason, you should never put the container directly onto fine furniture, or any surface that could catch fire. On rare occasions, a container could crack or break. This is especially true as the wax level gets close to the bottom of the candle. Discarding your candle when there's still about ¼" of wax in the bottom of the candle will help prevent cracking. Make sure you monitor your candles at all times!

Pillar candles should only be burned when they are on a safe, burn proof holder. Ideally you want your candle to burn almost to the sides of the pillar. Many people prefer to leave this outside border alone as the candle burns down, while others "hug" the candle periodically to press the outside border into the flame thus eliminating the border. Always make sure your candle burns on a level surface and away from drafts which could cause an uneven burn.

Efficient burning

One of the most important things you can do to keep your candles burning efficiently is to trim the wick regularly. In most cases, you should trim your wick prior to each time you light it. If you burn your candle for a long time, you may notice an effect called mushrooming. If that happens, extinguish your candle, and trim the wick taking care not to spill any melted wax. When you relight it, the mushrooming should be gone.

When burning any candle, periodically make sure that the wick is staying centered. On votives and container candles make sure that the wax is melting evenly across the top of the candle. As the wax liquefies from the wick outward, this is called the melt pool. The larger the melt pool, generally, the more scent is released. Ultimately, you want you votive or container candle to create a melt pool all the way across for maximum scent release.


















Your candle often will have a "memory" based on how long you burn it the first time. In pillars, and to some extent in container candles, the size of the melt pool will grow by about 1" for each hour burned. Tunneling is the effect caused when the candle did not create a large enough melt pool at the first burn, and the candles burns in a tunnel without reaching to the edges. To reduce or eliminate tunneling, burn your candle long enough the first time to create a melt pool close to the edge of the pillar. In container candles, you may even burn so that the melt pool reaches all the way to the glass. Containers are a little more forgiving of the tunneling effect, especially as the candle burns lower into the container. Nonetheless, you still want to establish a fair-sized melt pool the first time you burn your container candle.

Some people suggest that you put the candle in the refrigerator or freezer before using to make them burn longer. While this is generally true, there are tradeoffs. First, anytime you chill a candle, you run the risk of the candle wax cracking. This may affect the way the candle burns. Second, the amount of scent a candle throws is generally affected by the size of the melt pool. A colder candle will take longer to create a melt pool, thus diminishing the scent release.

Cleaning and reusing your containers and votive holder

Some people say a drop or two of water placed in your votive holder before inserting the candle will make it easier to remove the wick tab and remaining wax when you are finished with the candle. Sometimes, the wax interacts with the water as it is heated by the flame and it will crack and sputter.

We feel the best solution is just to make sure you don't burn your candle all the way to the bottom of your votive holder. When you are done with it, put the votive holder or glass container upside down on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil. Under constant supervision, place the cookie sheet into a barely warm oven or toaster oven set to no higher than 200 degrees fahrenheit. Check the progress constantly, and when you feel the wax has melted out of the containers, remove very carefully from the oven. Using oven mitts, gloves, or something else to protect your hands from the heat, wipe the containers out very carefully with paper towel. A film of wax may remain. This can be removed by constant polishing, or by a good scrubbing in detergent. Make sure you allow the glass to cool before placing in water or the glass make shatter.

Mushrooming

Occasionally a candle will mushroom. This is when the flame grows larger than usual and soot is visible escaping from the top of the flame. All candles are susceptible to mushrooming from time to time. Heavily scented candles tend to mushroom more than lightly scented or unscented candles. Persistent mushrooming can be reduced or eliminated by keeping the wick trimmed to ¼".

Getting maximum scent throw

The fragrance that a candle emits is often referred to as "dry throw" and "wet throw." Dry throw is what you notice when a candle is unlit. Wet throw is what you smell when the candle is burning. Some candles have a mild dry throw, but a very noticeable wet throw, and vice versa. This is caused by the unique characteristics of each fragrance.

Each fragrance oil reacts differently with the wax that its in. There is a delicate balance between the amount of fragrance oil used in a candle. If too much is used, it can leech out of the candle. If too little is used, the scent is not strong enough. Also, waxes used for votives and containers are softer, and they can generally hold more fragrance oil than pillars. All of our candle formulas have been individually tested using various combinations of fragrance oil, wax and wicks to get the optimal results.

The melt pool is what we call the liquefied portion of wax surrounding the wick. The size of the melt pool will usually affect how well you can smell the scent. As your candle burns longer, and the melt pool size increases, so should the scent. Using multiple candles will usually increase the amount of scent you can smell. Try using several votives, putting them in different places around the room.

Most people prefer a variety of scents, depending on their mood and the occasion. Some scents are just naturally stronger than others. Often, lighter scents will be as pleasing as strong scents. Experiment, and find your own favorites!!


Motor City D-Lights™

You may know them as tealights, but we call them D-Lights™ because they are DEE-lightful to burn and enjoy, and they are made right here in the "D" - Detroit, Michigan.

Motor City D-Lights™
Package of 3
3 cute and delightful candles
with a burn time of 5 hours
or more each.
$1.99

Click here for more info
OUR GOOFY FRAGRANCE NAMES

Life is serious. Our fragrance names are not. But we are dead serious when we tell you that we look for and use only the best, highest grade oils in making our fragrances.

Some of our fragrance names appear below. To get descriptions of all our scents, click here

Alpena Verbena

Ann Arbor
Berry Bash

Au Sable
Au Tumn Lodge

Detroit Dragon Blood

Downriver Rat Musk

East Lansing
Leather Lush

Flint Stoned

Frankenmuth
Frankincense

Great Lakes Lavender

Grosse Pointe
Olde Moneye

Interlochen Rochen'

Mackinack Lilac

MI Factory Worker

Michigan Road
Patch Ooli

Plum Street
Nag Champa

Royal Oak Royale

Traverse City
Cheri Baby

Waterford Falls