When I'm burning at home I always keep the wicks trimmed. When I test burn, I always do it both ways so I can see what the worst thing that could happen is..... A blowout is when you develop a hole in the side of your pillar while burning it and wax spills out. Hugging is just what you think it is. Again, when test burning I always do things correctly (buring one hour for the number of inches of the diameter) AND I do it wrong too... this is only when I'm pretty sure I have the wick I want, when I'm figuring out the initial wicks I only do it correctly. I call burning things wrong "idiot burning" which I do for those folks that won't follow directions!