I’ll never forget my eighth birthday, when I had a slumber party and all my friends crowded around me while I blew out the candles on my cake. Imagine my surprise when, after making a wish and blowing out the candles…they re-lit like magic!

Of course, now that I’m adult, I realize that it’s really science behind those magical birthday candles.

“Normal” birthday candles have burning embers in the wicks that cause a ribbon of paraffin smoke to rise from the wicks (the embers are hot enough to vaporize paraffin but not hot enough to ignite the paraffin vapor). Re-lighting candles, on the other hand, have an extra something added to the wicks that the embers are hot enough to ignite, which means the embers ignite this substance, which in turn ignite the paraffin vapors.

The most common substance used for this purpose is magnesium, a metal that burns rapidly at an ignition temperature as low as 800 degrees F. Magnesium is located inside the burning wick, where it is shielded from oxygen and cooled by liquid paraffin. When the flame is blown out, magnesium dust is ignited by the ember, casting sparks, one of whch will produce the heat necessary to re-light the paraffin vapor, thus “magically” relighting the candle. 

Want to get your own trick birthday candles? Shop here.

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