Questions

Very soon. Card payments open shortly; until then the checkout runs in test mode and nothing is charged. Your bag keeps what you add to it in the meantime. For anything else, write to support@lanthorn.shop.

To the United Kingdom, the 27 countries of the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. We don’t yet send to Switzerland or Norway. Rates and times for each are on Delivery and returns.

In the UK, standard delivery (Royal Mail Tracked, 2–3 working days) is £5.95, and free when your subtotal is £75 or more after any promo code. Next working day delivery by tracked courier is £9.95. International rates, in every currency we show, are on Delivery and returns.

Orders placed before 1 pm on a working day (Monday to Friday) leave the workshop the same day. Orders placed after 1 pm, at the weekend or on a bank holiday go out on the next working day.

Safety matches are dangerous goods, and Royal Mail won’t carry them at all. So a bag that includes Long Matches, or the Lamplighter’s Box in the UK (it holds a jar of them), goes by our next-working-day courier, and Long Matches can’t be sent abroad. Outside the UK the Lamplighter’s Box is sent without its matches, for a little less.

Not on the doorstep. In the UK and the EU our prices in pounds and euros include VAT, and we pay any import VAT and duty on EU orders ourselves. For the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, prices are shown before local tax: sales tax, GST or consumption tax and any import duty are calculated at payment and collected with your order, so the courier never asks you for anything. The details are on Delivery and returns.

Email support@lanthorn.shop as soon as you can and we’ll change it if it hasn’t left the workshop. Once it has, you still have the right to cancel within 14 days of delivery, and to a refund when it comes back to us.

About 50 hours for a 220 g candle, about 80 hours for a 400 g and about 100 hours for the 900 g three-wick. The 60 g votives in the Library Set burn for about 14 hours each.

Wax remembers how far it melted last time. Let the melt pool reach the edge of the vessel on the first burn: about 2½ hours for 220 g, 3½ hours for 400 g and about 3 hours for the 900 g three-wick. A short first burn is the usual cause of tunnelling. Read more about the first burn.

Long enough for the melt pool to reach the edge, and never more than 4 hours at a time. Trim the wick to about 5 mm (¼ in) before every burn.

Almost always a wick that is too long or a draught. Put it out, let it cool, trim the wick to 5 mm, wipe the rim with a dry cloth and move the candle out of the moving air. Our guide to wick care covers the rest.

It’s called frosting, and it happens naturally to rapeseed wax and beeswax as they crystallise. It’s cosmetic and changes nothing about how the candle burns or smells.

Stop burning when about 1 cm (½ in) of wax is left, then empty and wash the vessel. The stoneware is glazed inside and makes a good pot for pens, brushes or matches. The care guide shows two ways to get the last wax out.

British rapeseed wax and Perthshire beeswax, 70/30 by weight and undyed, with a flat-braided unbleached cotton wick, in slip-cast stoneware from Stoke-on-Trent fired to 1,240 °C.

No. Every candle contains beeswax, which is 30% of our wax blend by weight.

Each scent is composed with an independent perfumer in London and blended in Edinburgh. Fragrance loads are 8.5–10% by weight, and every fragrance complies with the IFRA 51st Amendment standards for candles. The notes in each one are listed in the Fragrance Library.

Most fragrances contain some. Every product page has a safety note listing the fragrance allergens in that candle, and the same list is printed on the label. If you have a known sensitivity to any of them, please don’t burn it.

Keep every candle out of reach of children and pets, and never leave one burning unattended. Some animals, birds especially, are sensitive to scent and smoke, so burn candles in a well-aired room away from them.

Yes. A Safety Data Sheet for any of our candles is available on request from support@lanthorn.shop.

Yes. Gift wrap is £5 in pounds (your bag shows it in the currency you have chosen), and you can add it there along with a handwritten note.

Yes. Add a message of up to 200 characters at checkout and we’ll write it by hand on a card.

Yes, to any address in the UK. Just enter their name and address as the delivery address at checkout.

The Library Set holds all eight scents as 60 g votives, with a code that takes the set’s price off a full-size candle within 60 days. For someone new to candles, the Lamplighter’s Box has everything in one place. There are more ideas on our gifts page.

Try the scent quiz. It’s six questions long and suggests a candle from how you like a room to smell.

Yes. You can return anything unused and unburnt within 30 days of delivery for a refund. Email support@lanthorn.shop first so we know it’s coming.

We will always take back a faulty item and replace it or refund you, whenever you find the fault and whether or not it has been lit. We also pay the return postage.

Tell us within 7 days of delivery, with a photo of the damage and the packaging, and we’ll send a replacement or refund you. There’s no need to send broken stoneware back.

By law you can cancel an online order for any reason within 14 days of the day it arrives. Tell us within that time, send the items back within a further 14 days, and we’ll refund the goods and the standard delivery charge.

We refund within 14 days of receiving your return, to the original payment method. See Shipping and returns for everything else.

Not in person. We sell online only. Every candle is poured in our workshop at 7 Chandler’s Close, off the Canongate in Edinburgh’s Old Town, but it’s a workshop, not a shop, and it isn’t open to visitors. The atelier shows how everything is made.

Not in a shop, as we only sell online. The Library Set holds all eight scents as small votives, which is the easiest way to try them at home, and the fragrance library describes every note.

In our workshop on Chandler’s Close, by hand, in batches of forty-eight. The atelier explains how.