Thursday, February 14, 2013

Thrifty Homemade Candles

As a Thrifty Mom I save my leftover candle wax.  I keep a tote in my hall closet to store my candles, candle holders and Scentsy supplies.  Inside I also keep a plastic Ziploc bag filled with leftover candle wax or what remains in a candle after the wick completely burns down.

Once the bag is full I melt it down and make new candles out of it.  It is a simple process that allows me to use up something that otherwise would have ended up in the trash.  Plus it doesn’t cost me anything but a little time. 


To melt wax you will need some sort of a double boiler set up.  You should never melt wax over direct heat or it will catch fire.  This time I used a glass candle jar that already had some wax left in it and I dumped the rest of my wax leftovers into it.  I allowed the wax to melt over low heat and a gentle simmer in a pan of water. 

I found this 80ct box of birthday candles at the $ Store.
In the meantime I assembled a few votive cup candle holders I happened to have on hand.  All clean and dry.  Dry is important, by the way.  I also set out three birthday candles to use as wicks. 


Once the wax is completely melted I filled my votives up leaving a ¼” space from the top.  After the wax begins to cool and solidify along the bottom and edges of the votives I set my birthday candles in place, pressing the ends into the soft wax at the bottom of the votive cup and making sure they are straight and centered.  At this point if they want to lean you can prop them up by laying a pencil across the top of the votive. 


Allow the candles to solidify then top with your remaining wax for a nice even pour along the top.  You can certainly cut your birthday candles to length so they don’t stick up above the top of the votive, but since birthday candles tend to burn quickly I choose to just leave them. 

I use this same method for larger candle making and use tapers, cut to length, for my wicks.  I sometimes add a square or two of Scentsy wax to my melted candle wax to add fragrance. 

Pretty simple really and fun too.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for posting how to do this, I have saved my spent candle wax so all I am missing is the birthday candle. Perfect.

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