Recycling old candles

Would you believe it if I told you this candle was made from scraps? Probably not but it is…. I love having pillar candles on my fire place and as the wax drips I’ve always just plonked another candle on top as I love the effect.

This week has begun the slow transition from autumn to winter and one of my projects was to scrape all the candle wax away from the fireplace and replace with brand new red festive ones. That’s fine but I was left with a box of gross crumbly wax.

To make new candles you will need:

  • Glass jars
  • Wickes
  • Skewers
  • Two pans
  • Candle fragrances
  • Bits and bobs (check flammability)

You begin by placing your wax in to a small pan, and adding boiling water to a larger pan. Create a Bain marie over heat and then simply leave your wax to melt down.

Whilst you wax is melting down prepare your bits and bobs – decide on your fragrances and then prepare your glass.

Here I added gold leaf, gold glitter, cinnamon sticks and a dried orange slice with matching fragrances to be added. My pre waxed wick was secured to the base of the jar and then the excess wrapped around a skewer to balance on the edges of the jar.

At this stage you can check the wax, remove any old residue from the molten wax and carefully discard this – wick stabilisers tend to be metal and easy to fish out but there can be a bit of old burnt wick and sometimes stickers too. The wax needs to be at about 65° to melt but this depends on the type of wax in the candles and if you’re using a mix of old candles then a guesstimate is fine.

Then it’s simply a case of adding fragrance in to the liquid wax and then carefully pouring your mix in to the glass jar. This is the bit where you need to act quickly as the candle wax sets rapidly when it touches a cold surface.

Candles need to be left to set in a cool place – and you will find a small dip will occur in the centre – so it’s always handy to save a little bit of leftover wax for this to top up.

Last Updated on 2 years by Lavania Oluban

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