Soot-free candles? These are the only real choices

 
If you're aiming for a perfectly soot-free candle, you can get close, but you're never going to achieve perfection.

No matter what anyone tells you, no candle can ever be perfectly soot-free.

The cleanest-burning candles are the ones made from natural waxes - beeswax and soy wax....

Beeswax is probably out of financial reach of most people, at least for use on a regular basis.

Soy wax, of course, is completely affordable and is a good choice for anyone worried about soot production.

Make sure you know what you're getting when you buy the more heavily scented candles; too much of a scent "load" mixed in the wax can cause excessive smoking and work against your efforts to reduce the amount of soot produced.

But there are a lot of things you can do with any candle that will help reduce soot.

• Always trim the wick to 1/4 of an inch before every use. An over-long wick is the single most common cause of excessive smoking. 
• Next, and just as important, do not burn candles in a draft. Even a soy candle, which normally produces anything up to 95% less soot, will smoke if burned in a draft. Not to mention the fact that it will also burn a lot faster and be exhausted more quickly. 
• Do not allow the trimmings from the candle wick to collect on the candle. If necessary, hold unlit candles upside-down while you are trimming the wick to make sure the bits fall away freely. 
• Finally, make sure there is enough space around the candle and it can "breathe". A sure way to make a candle smoke is to deprive it of oxygen.

There you have it - choose the right candle, remember a few tricks, and you have an (almost) perfectly soot-free candle.