I love candles, but sometimes I hate to use them, because once you use them, they are no longer beautiful. Candles in glass jars are particularly tricky: I much dislike the way the glass gets all smokey, and the way that the wax can cling to the sides. And the way the wick gets all carbon-y or whatever and flakes into the wax. I just want them to be gorgeous pillars of potential flame.

Case in point: look how pretty! It took me weeks to even take my Marie Reynolds London Lush Locks Hair Treatment Candle in Satin out of its box! Once I finally brought myself to untie that sweet ribbon, I put the candle on my desk, and I’d look at it, like I’d look at someone on death row, with a mixture of pity and dismay. Well, her days were always numbered, and I recently decided to give this thing a go.

It wasn’t just the whole ‘destroy the beautiful candle’ thing that was holding me back. Hot wax? On my hair? Culled from a burning candle? Really? I had run a Q&A with Marie Reynolds herself here, and she advised using a wooden spatula — I suppose like a thing from the dentist? — if you didn’t want to extinguish the flame. Having nothing the like to hand, I grabbed a tablespoon, blew out the flame, and scooped some out.

Here are a few Pro Tips™:
1} If you don’t have a wooden spatula and opt for a spoon — a spoon that will officially be designated as The Lush Locks Spoon — you needn’t reach for tablespoon. A tea spoon is sufficient, because:
2} OMG, you can use almost none of this to great effect. As you may know, my hair is long, and now is full of layers. The first scoop I took was the only one, as it was too generous, and I actually didn’t need as much as I thought I would, for the lengths and ends.
3} Do this over a sink. Don’t do it at your desk. Because when you use too much and it drips between your fingers, it will get all over your lap, and justtttt miss your keyboard.

The wax is made of soya, which = natural, and the scent is glorious, a combo of Moroccan Argan Oil and champ flowers*, among other delicious things. I didn’t wrap my hair in a warm towel, only because I forgot that part. I cannot wait to try that. You can warm up your towel in the microwave. Is awesomeness.

By the time the wax gets from the spoon to the fingers, it is comfortably warm, the perfect temperature, and yes, MRL Candles are also superb for sexytime massaging — or anytime, really. The wax gave excellent coverage, and as I said, I needed little more than a teaspoon to cover The Hair, like this:

I had fear that it would turn into hard gunk, the way wax does when it drips on a tabletop; while it didn’t stay malleable, it didn’t dry up and crack, either; it felt like a serum. I left it on for thirty minutes, washed The Hair, dried it, and styled it.

The locks, they are lush, indeed.

This is technically second day hair. I had a lie-in yesterday and didn’t mosey out into the world until whenever o’clock, so there wasn’t that much environmental wear ‘n’ tear on The Hair. I did the bind-it-up-in-a-topknot thing for sleeping, and this morning gave it a spin with the BaByLiss Big Hair, my new fave thing now that I know how to use it correctly.

The candle is 135gs — how many teaspoons is that? 135gs  = 25 burning hours, so I reckon I’ve got at least 24 more treats in store!

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Buy your Lush Locks at mrlcandles.com; The Satin 135g candle retails for £24.74 + postage.

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*Googled champ flowers, to no avail. Anyone?

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