Mar 23, 2008

But It Smells...

...so good! Have you ever bought or received as a gift a candle that smelled really good? Then you burn it and it doesn't burn down evenly. Next thing you know, you have a bunch of wax with no wick? I hate to throw those great smelling candles away when this happens. Or, what about those so-so smelling candles? What do I do?

I make new candles and firestarters!

For the candles that come in glass containers, I melt the wax by either putting it in the microwave for 2 minutes (Do not "cook" for more than 2 minute intervals AND do not leave unattended), or I place the glass container in a pan with water and let the "double boiler" effect do the job.

If the candles are the larger ones that don't come in containers, like pillars, I break them up into smaller chunks. The orange one above was a 3-wick 8" diameter pumpkin pie spice candle. It smelled sooo good! The red one was a cinnamon apple scent.


Once the wax is melted, I use a small pair of needle-nose pliers to lift the glass container out of the hot water and pour it over dryer-lint filled paper egg cartons (Recycling at it's best!), if the wax scent isn't all that great. These make great firestarters for the fireplace, or camping.
Or, I will continue to add wax to the glass container and let it melt until the container is full of melted wax. Then, I will add a wick and let it solidify. Voila! A new Pumpkin Pie Spice candle.

After melting the wax, how do I clean the glass containers if I'm not using them to make candles? I use paper towels to wipe out the residual wax. Good as new!

A few things to note: 1) Make sure the water in the pan doesn't evaporate, otherwise the glass may shatter and you'll have a mess on your hands if there was a lot of melted wax. 2) The glass container gets REALLY hot, so be careful when lifting out with the needle-nose pliers. 3) You can "mix and match" colors/scents, but I've found that the resulting color usually ends up being a "dirty" mixture of whatever was mixed together.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great idea. But I'm too lazy to go through all that work. LOL
Barb in TX

Becky K in OK said...

Like Barbara I'm too lazy also, so I use electric candle burners. They melt evenly, the fragrance lasts longer, and I don't have the candle residue in the house.

Jennifer's life and goings on said...

You are really a crafty person aren't you. You stitch, and now you make candles. Wow what else do you do? LOL

shutterbug (Elaine) said...

Meari, you need a candle warmer! I haven't lit a candle wick since I got one. You just put the candle on it and let it melt. Of course, the wick falls in so you can't use it as a regular candle anymore. The fragrence lasts almost forever too because the candle completely melts and then rehardens. I'm real good at forgetting to blow out a candle before I go to bed which is crazy dangerous. With this, you can leave it burning all night with no problem because there is no flame. The scent goes throughout my house. They are only like 3.99 at Michaels & Hobby Lobby. I think Walmart has them too.
Hugs, Elaine

Christine H said...

Great ideas, thanks

Marita said...

A fantastic idea. I've linked to it in my blog I was so impressed.

Unknown said...

In addition to the dryer lint, you can also add the thread oorts from stitching (if you save those).

Anonymous said...

Great ideas, Meari! I hate when candles don't melt evenly.