Be honest: Have you ever owned a candle that was so pretty and expensive that you didn’t want to burn it? You might tell yourself you’re waiting for a special occasion or a stressful day when you need a little boost, but really you’re just avoiding the inevitable. The truth is, candles are meant to be melted — but that doesn’t mean you don’t want that process to take as long as possible.

To make sure that happens, you need to take precautions with the first burn. When you light your candle on that fateful day, make sure you don’t blow it out until the pool of liquid wax covers the entire surface of your candle. This will make sure your candle will melt layer by layer, instead of “tunneling” around the wick (as seen in the picture above), which shortens a candles lifetime.

But make sure you set aside enough time for this process: It should take around an hour to melt every inch per diameter. (So if your candle is two inches wide, you can assume it’ll take two hours to melt.) Then, the next time you light the wick your candle should burn evenly … and you can relax knowing your fancy candle isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.