Started making candles a few months back and the #1 complaint I got from friends testing early batches: "it burned a hole down the middle and the sides never melted."

That's tunneling, and it's almost always one of three things:

1. Wrong wick size for the jar diameter. Too thin and it can't throw enough heat to melt the full wax pool. This is the most common issue with mass-market candles — they undersize wicks to make candles burn "longer," which actually wastes half the wax.

1. Skipping the first burn. The first time you light any candle, it "remembers" that wax pool depth for the rest of its life. If you blow it out after 20 minutes on burn one, it'll tunnel forever after. First burn should go until melted wax reaches the jar edge — for a 3" jar that's usually 1.5-2 hours.

1. Drafty rooms. Airflow makes the flame lean and burn unevenly, which throws off the melt pool symmetry.

Spent a while testing wick sizes with a cotton wick + soy blend to get an even burn without soot — that testing became the base of what I'm now selling as Nūr. Not trying to pitch here, just wanted to share what I learned in case it saves someone else's candle stash.