My house has lots of candles. The bathroom, living room, the dining room, the… Well, you get the idea. Certain candles are there for appearance while others seem to get burned quite regularly. Either way, we end up with remnants. Whether they are burned down to nothing or they are hopelessly out of style (if they ever were in style), you likely have candles looking for a new purpose. These misfits may luck out and become campfire starters. More likely, they go to a drawer waiting for future use.
If you happen to identify with this situation, never fear. The days of waiting have paid off. I am going to tell you about a great solution for your candles. Recycle them! Yes, it is simple, creative and fun, especially if you have help. From start to finish, the process takes a few hours
Materials Required
Besides your candle remnants, you will need:
- 1 sharp knife and 1 butter knife
- mason jars
- 1 large pot
- crayons
- wicks
- glue gun
- long skewers
- clothespins
- heat gun
Let’s Get Started!
Assemble your candle remnants and determine what colors you will be melting down. If necessary clean candles out of jars and chop them into smallish pieces. If you are re-using the candle jars, a heat gun melts the old wax easily. As you may guess from my materials (above), one of my batches was red. I grabbed a couple of red crayons and I was ready to get started.
Melting
Fill a large pot with enough water to cover about 3/4 of your mason jars. Put the burner on medium-low and fill your jars with wax and crayons and place them in the water. As the wax begins to melt, use the skewers to try to get everything to melt uniformly. It took me about 30 minutes to melt all of the wax. It will likely go faster the next time.
While the wax is melting, prepare your wicks and jars. I took a glue gun and fastened the clip to the bottom of the jar. Easy peasy. The jars were ready. I did find a traditional clothespin worked great to hold the wick in place while the wax hardened.
Pouring & Cooling
Once all of the wax is melted, I added essential oil into the wax. For the red, I used peppermint, and, in the green batch, I used Lavender. Next, pour the mixture slowly but steadily into the prepared jars. Ensure the wick is in the middle of the wax and secure it. The cooldown period takes 1-2 hours. As the wax cooled, I did get sinkholes in the wax. Once they are completely cooled, go over the top with a heat gun to fill in the divots and smooth over the top. Your new candles are complete!
Fan the Flames
I really enjoyed this experiment. With a minimal outlay of cash for wicks, you can enjoy an afternoon of fooling around and experimenting. Best of all, you end up with “new” custom candles to use. All this comes from items sitting unused in your house. You may be as creative as you desire. For example, you could layer colors or mold the wax into pillars and much more.
I would recommend this activity for your older
I identified two opportunities to tweak my process. First, I will use the microwave to melt the wax. It seems easier and quicker, as long as you go on lower power. Second, I have ordered sturdier wicks. The wicks from the craft store are okay, but they do not burn that great, especially the little ones. I need sturdier wicks to allow a better burn and to pull in the fragrance I added to the wax. The ones I ordered will do the trick.
Whatever direction you chose to go, give this project a try. You will learn something new and have fun at the same time. In fact, you may be inspired to go to your neighbors and grab their old candles. I am already planning for my next batch and the wicks are in the mail. Stay tuned!
