Social Moms
|

What to Do With Leftover Candle Wax!

When you shop through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. This educational content is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice.

June 5, 2021

No one likes to see a candle burn out, but it’s always hard to see the leftover wax sitting at the bottom of the candle unused and untouched. There is still fragrance in the unburned portion, your candle wick just can’t seem to reach far enough down to burn the candle completely. What do you do? Do you throw out the candle and pop open a new one, or do you re-purpose and reuse that perfectly good candle wax?

Reusing candle wax is incredibly easy. Here’s what to do with leftover candle wax!

Make a New Candle

This is the most intuitive use for old candle wax and is actually quite easy. Simply save your old candle jars and purchase a roll of candle wick from your local hobby shop. Candle wick rolls are inexpensive and will last a long time. You can melt the wax easily by placing the old candle on a stove burner on the lowest heat setting possible. Let all the wax melt and then pour it into a separate container. You can continue to add new colors or old remnants into the same container. Once your container is full, or to the level you desire, place it on the stove burner and melt again. When the wax is melted you will simply insert the candle wick, let the wax harden, and you have a brand new candle!

Easy Tea lights

Another simple what to do with leftover candle wax is to turn them into small tea lights. If you have tea lights that have burned down, simply save the containers in a drawer. Following the steps above, you can melt the leftover wax, pour it into your empty tea light container, and add a small piece of wick. There is typically enough wax left in the bottom of a larger candle to make a whole tea light. So having the tea light containers on hand will make it easy to reuse the old wax.

Fire Starters

This is one of my absolute favorite uses of leftover candle wax. If you have a wood burning fireplace or stove in your house, you can repurpose old wax into amazing fire starters. There are two different ways to make these fire starters:
fire starter

Using Store-Bought Cotton Rounds

  • Purchase a bag of basic cotton rounds. The cotton pads used to clean your face are perfect.
  • Melt the wax over low heat on your stove and then gently dip the cotton pads into the wax. Leave a portion (about 1/4) of the pad free of wax. I just hold the end of the pad and dip, leaving the area I am holding free of wax.
  • Let them dry and you now have a fire starter.
  • To use just light the cotton end not covered in wax and let it go. The wax keeps the cotton from burning fast so you will have a flame that lasts and lasts.

Using Stuff Around the House

This second way is the most frugal and greenest way possible.

  • Take an old egg carton (these need to be the cardboard type, not the plastic/foam type) and fill each place in the carton with dryer lint.  Just compact your dryer lint into little balls and press them into the crate.
  • Melt your wax and pour a thin layer of wax over each lint ball. Just enough wax to cover the top of the lint.
  • To use these fire starters you will cut out each carton cup into an individual starter. So a dozen egg carton will give you 12 starters. Light the egg carton portion of the starter and you are set. If you do not have a cardboard egg carton you can use anything round to top lint with wax. Then just light the lint on fire and the wax will keep it burning.

Decorative Glasses

You can use old wax to decorate glass items. Glass vases, candle jars, bowls, and glass bottles can look incredibly chic with a little wax melted on the outside. Use multiple colors of wax to create a rainbow effect or choose wax colors that compliment your decor.

Wax Melts

Many people have Scentsy warmers or similar warmers at home. You can use your old candles to create your own wax cubes to be used in these devices. Here is a great tutorial from A Day in My Life with a simple way to turn old candles into wax melt squares. Please note that if you do use a Scentsy warmer and melt any product other than a Scentsy bar in the warmer it can void your warranty. However, I have used this method with great success in my Scentsy warmer with plenty of support from my Scentsy consultant.

Do you have your favorite answers for what to do with leftover candle wax? If so, what is your favorite re-purposing method?

Sharing is caring!

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *