I really love candles, and could stand and smell those little testers in the shop all day. I'd limit myself to one or two to take home, but I can't resist saying 'oh, and this one', 'just one more'…
I found burning them in a little container makes it easier to contain the hot wax once it melts, and should the structural wall of the softer wax burst it's banks, the hot wax doesn't then spill all over the table / floor / hands…
You'll find if you burn multiple candles in one of these containers, or one candle in a larger jar, that after a few weeks or months of burning, that the wicks obviously run out before the wax does, and you're left with an amount of wax that seems no good. Wrong! It's very simple to melt down this wax to create a brand new candle! This is not the most difficult 'tutorial' to follow, but I hope it helps, and you can enjoy your favourite smell again, or even a menagerie of smells!
Firstly, you'll need to have a collection of melted and hardened wax.
I like to burn my candles in these desert pots that we collect. They're a good shape and ensure little candles don't fall over onto things they shouldn't.
Five or six of these candles will fill one desert pot. These are just some of the smells I like at the minute. My favourites though are Egyptian Musk and Winter Glow, as well as ones like Snow In Love and Turquoise Sky.
It took me about 4 months to burn 6 of these candles in this jar, but obviously it depends on how often you burn your candles.
Once you have a full jar like this, or a burnt out bigger container, you need to preheat your oven to around 100 - 120°c. I actually set mine to 75°c, or the lowest your oven can go for the first 10 minutes or so. This is important so the glass does not expand too quickly and crack. I gradually turned the temperature up every 15 minutes or so, until all of the wax melted. It took about an hour to melt the entire pot.
Remember to put the actual pot onto a baking tray, or on the shelf below. This catches any wax that may over spill, and helps take the pot out of the oven when it's done. Even as full as mine was, no wax over spilt in the oven.
The next step is HOT. Please use oven gloves or a tea towel to lift the pot out of the oven. Please also be aware that hot wax can burn, and so be careful when lifting the pot out of the oven, so as no hot wax jumps out. Wax feels a lot less viscous than water when it's melted, so it's a lot easier to spill it.
After about an hour, and out of the oven, it looked like this. I had at least 3 white candles, a blue, green and red too, and this is the colour it turned out. A very dark, inky blue colour, however it was a greeny colour when hardened. I left the pot to cool for about 10 minutes on the side, before transferring it somewhere cooler (outside!) on a baking tray.
If you're decanting this hot wax into another container, do it before you transfer it somewhere to cool. However, before you do so, attach the wick to the bottom of the new container.
I picked 10 of these wicks up from Amazon for £2 inc. delivery, but you can also find them in craft shops like Hobbycraft.
With one of these wicks, dab the metal end into the hot wax and then immediately plant it onto the bottom of the container. This should stick the wick to the container, so that when pouring the wax into the new container, the wick does not move.
However, if you're using the same container, transfer the pot outside so that the top layer cools rapidly to hold the wick in place. Simply straighten the wick and dip it into the wax until it reaches the bottom. Hold the wick in place until the top layer hardens enough to hold the wick in place.
It could take around 30 minutes for the wax to harden fully, taking longer for larger volumes.
Trim the wick to around 2cm above the wax and there you have it! Your new candle!
This candle contains a few different smells, and although I like all of the smells individually, together it smells slightly strange. Some smells are overpowering, whereas the subtler smells get lost. The wide rim of the glass allows a bigger pool of wax to melt, which gives off more of a smell.
Enjoy your new candle!
Jordanavia :)
I found burning them in a little container makes it easier to contain the hot wax once it melts, and should the structural wall of the softer wax burst it's banks, the hot wax doesn't then spill all over the table / floor / hands…
You'll find if you burn multiple candles in one of these containers, or one candle in a larger jar, that after a few weeks or months of burning, that the wicks obviously run out before the wax does, and you're left with an amount of wax that seems no good. Wrong! It's very simple to melt down this wax to create a brand new candle! This is not the most difficult 'tutorial' to follow, but I hope it helps, and you can enjoy your favourite smell again, or even a menagerie of smells!
Firstly, you'll need to have a collection of melted and hardened wax.
I like to burn my candles in these desert pots that we collect. They're a good shape and ensure little candles don't fall over onto things they shouldn't.
Five or six of these candles will fill one desert pot. These are just some of the smells I like at the minute. My favourites though are Egyptian Musk and Winter Glow, as well as ones like Snow In Love and Turquoise Sky.
It took me about 4 months to burn 6 of these candles in this jar, but obviously it depends on how often you burn your candles.
Once you have a full jar like this, or a burnt out bigger container, you need to preheat your oven to around 100 - 120°c. I actually set mine to 75°c, or the lowest your oven can go for the first 10 minutes or so. This is important so the glass does not expand too quickly and crack. I gradually turned the temperature up every 15 minutes or so, until all of the wax melted. It took about an hour to melt the entire pot.
Remember to put the actual pot onto a baking tray, or on the shelf below. This catches any wax that may over spill, and helps take the pot out of the oven when it's done. Even as full as mine was, no wax over spilt in the oven.
The next step is HOT. Please use oven gloves or a tea towel to lift the pot out of the oven. Please also be aware that hot wax can burn, and so be careful when lifting the pot out of the oven, so as no hot wax jumps out. Wax feels a lot less viscous than water when it's melted, so it's a lot easier to spill it.
After about an hour, and out of the oven, it looked like this. I had at least 3 white candles, a blue, green and red too, and this is the colour it turned out. A very dark, inky blue colour, however it was a greeny colour when hardened. I left the pot to cool for about 10 minutes on the side, before transferring it somewhere cooler (outside!) on a baking tray.
If you're decanting this hot wax into another container, do it before you transfer it somewhere to cool. However, before you do so, attach the wick to the bottom of the new container.
I picked 10 of these wicks up from Amazon for £2 inc. delivery, but you can also find them in craft shops like Hobbycraft.
With one of these wicks, dab the metal end into the hot wax and then immediately plant it onto the bottom of the container. This should stick the wick to the container, so that when pouring the wax into the new container, the wick does not move.
However, if you're using the same container, transfer the pot outside so that the top layer cools rapidly to hold the wick in place. Simply straighten the wick and dip it into the wax until it reaches the bottom. Hold the wick in place until the top layer hardens enough to hold the wick in place.
It could take around 30 minutes for the wax to harden fully, taking longer for larger volumes.
Trim the wick to around 2cm above the wax and there you have it! Your new candle!
This candle contains a few different smells, and although I like all of the smells individually, together it smells slightly strange. Some smells are overpowering, whereas the subtler smells get lost. The wide rim of the glass allows a bigger pool of wax to melt, which gives off more of a smell.
Enjoy your new candle!
Jordanavia :)
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