Candle Warning Labels: What UK Makers Must Include

A candle warning label is the set of fire-safety instructions that goes on every candle you sell — keep it within sight, away from children and pets, on a heat-resistant surface, and so on. It's a separate thing from the CLP hazard label that covers the chemical classification of your fragrance, and a finished candle generally needs both.

This guide covers what a UK candle warning label must say, the standard that shapes it, and how it fits with your CLP label so you're not duplicating or missing anything.

This covers selling candles in Great Britain. This is not legal advice.

Two Labels, One Candle

It helps to be clear from the start that a sellable candle usually carries two distinct kinds of safety information:

1. The CLP hazard label — the legally required chemical classification of the fragranced product: hazard pictograms, signal word, hazard (H) and precautionary (P) statements, supplier details, and weight. This comes from the GB CLP Regulation.
2. The fire-safety warning label — the burn instructions and hazard warnings specific to using a candle safely.

They can sit on the same physical label or on separate labels, but they answer different questions. The CLP label says "this product is classified as an irritant/flammable mixture." The warning label says "here's how to burn it without starting a fire."

The Standard That Applies

UK candle fire-safety warnings are shaped by BS EN 15494, "Candles. Product safety labels". According to the gov.uk-backed Business Companion guidance, this standard "specifies the format and content of product warning labels for indoor candles" and requires that "all information supplied with a candle is presented in a clear format on the product and should be easily and non-verbally comprehensible."

BS EN 15494 is a published British/European standard, not a statute, and the full text sits behind the BSI paywall — so this guide names it and describes its scope rather than quoting specific clauses. It's a sibling of BS EN 15493, which covers candle fire-safety performance (flame height, stability, secondary ignition) rather than labelling. Conformance with these standards is voluntary in the strict legal sense, but trading standards, insurers, and marketplaces widely expect it, and meeting them is the practical way to satisfy your general product-safety duty.

Underlying everything is the General Product Safety Regulations 2005, which require every consumer product on the UK market to be safe and to carry adequate warnings and instructions for safe use.

What a Candle Warning Label Should Say

The warnings that conventionally appear on a UK candle label, in line with the safety-label standard, include:

• Never leave a burning candle unattended
• Keep away from children and pets
• Keep away from draughts and anything flammable
• Always burn on a heat-resistant, level surface
• Burn within sight
• Do not burn for more than the recommended time at a stretch (commonly four hours)
• Trim the wick before each use (commonly to around 5 mm)
• Stop using the candle when a set amount of wax remains (commonly 10 mm at the bottom)

The standard also expects a visual warning cue — a warning symbol that signals there's a hazard to be aware of — so the message is comprehensible at a glance, not only by reading the small print.

These warnings can live on the base label, a separate safety label, or a swing tag, as long as they're visible, legible, and durable. The "non-verbally comprehensible" expectation is why most makers pair the text with symbols rather than relying on words alone.

How the Warning Label Sits Alongside CLP

A common worry is whether the warning label and the CLP label conflict or repeat. They don't — they cover different ground, and you can combine them on one label:

	Warning label	CLP label
Purpose	Safe burning of the finished candle	Chemical hazard of the fragranced mixture
Driven by	BS EN 15494 + general product safety	Your product's CLP classification
Typical content	Burn-time, wick, supervision, placement warnings	Pictograms, signal word, H/P statements
Same on every candle?	Largely standard wording	Unique to each formulation

The key difference: your fire-safety warnings are broadly the same across your range, while your CLP elements change with each product's formulation. If you need to work out the CLP side, our CLP labelling guide for candle and wax melt makers walks through classification, and the free CLP Label Checker flags missing CLP elements on an existing label.

Putting It on the Label

A few practical points that trip makers up:

• Legibility wins. A correct warning shrunk to illegibility fails the "easily comprehensible" test. Don't sacrifice the warning text to fit the design.
• Durability matters. The label has to survive handling and the warmth of use. A warning that rubs off after a week isn't doing its job.
• Don't bury it. The warnings should be on or with the product at the point of use, not only on outer packaging the buyer throws away.
• Match the burn guidance to the candle. Burn-time and "stop using when X remains" figures depend on the candle's size and design — use figures appropriate to your product, not a number copied from an unrelated candle.

For the full set of obligations on UK candle sellers beyond labelling — insurance, fire-safety testing, marketplace rules, and registration — see our overview of the legal requirements for selling candles and wax melts in the UK.

FAQ

Are candle warning labels a legal requirement in the UK?

The General Product Safety Regulations 2005 require candles to be safe and to carry adequate warnings for safe use. BS EN 15494 sets out the format and content of those warnings. The standard itself is voluntary, but meeting it is the accepted way to show you've provided adequate warnings, and trading standards, insurers, and marketplaces expect it.

Is a candle warning label the same as a CLP label?

No. The warning label covers safe burning of the candle; the CLP label covers the chemical hazard classification of the fragranced product. A sellable candle generally needs both, and they can share one physical label.

What fire-safety warnings should a candle have?

Typically: never leave burning unattended, keep away from children, pets, draughts, and flammables, burn on a heat-resistant surface, burn within sight, trim the wick, don't burn beyond the recommended time, and stop when a set amount of wax remains.

Related Guides

• CLP labels: the complete UK guide for craft sellers
• CLP labels for candles
• Legal requirements for selling candles and wax melts in the UK

Sources

• Business Companion — Candles, diffusers, oil heaters, etc (UK product-safety guidance)
• The General Product Safety Regulations 2005 (legislation.gov.uk)
• HSE — The GB CLP Regulation