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How many of you have candles that look like this?
I have an entire shelf of them hidden behind picture frames!
So in an effort to declutter and get a little things organized before we decorate for the holidays I decided to take these ugly things and make brand new layered candles.
This was such an easy project to do. I can’t believe I never did this before.
All I needed to get were these wicks from Michael’s and one new glass container. I decided to get a new glass container because it was only $1 and I needed something clean to pour the first candle in. Then you can start cleaning out the old ones and reusing those glass jars.
Step 1: Melt your first candle down completely. I put mine in a pot of boiling water. It only took about 5 minutes for the candle to turn to liquid.
Step 2: Place the new candle wick in your clean jar. I wrapped it around a popsicle stick so it wouldn’t fall over.
Step 3: Pour melted wax into new jar. Let cool completely.
Step 4: Once the first layer of wax was completely hard, I melted the next candle down on the stove and poured it over the first layer. Repeat with one more layer or until your glass container is full.
Step 5: Cut the wick. Burn and enjoy your new candle!!
I tried to combined scents that complimented each other. One candle has a layer of sparkling vanilla, apple spice and toasted cinnamon spice. The other one combined my summer scents: caribbean salsa, strawberry shortcake ad island colada.
Now I’m off to steal I mean collect old candles from my neighbors so I can make more!!
Did I mention how nice your house will smell from melting the wax on the stove? I hope you have fun creating your own upcycled, layered candles.
Duh!!! What a great idea!!!! thnak you
I did this last week and used the same wicks she shows and it burned down into the candle. Guess I’ll have to re-melt and try with bigger wicks. 🙁
I don’t know if someone mentioned this but I line a cupcake pan with paper cup cake liners and the poor the melted leftover wax in those and cool. I turn all my jar candles in the little tart warmers that way. Just don’t over fill the paper cups.
pour the melted wax into ice cube trays. Pop out and place in freezer bag, and freeze. Take out whatever you want to use on tart warmers.
That is such a cool idea! How do you melt the candles in boiling water though? do you put them in a different container and then the container in the water? and do you just scrape old candles out or their jars??
This is a great idea, I will definitely use this for the fragrances I buy frequently. As for the others, I have two candle warmers that we use, it evaporates them so we get use of the entire candle. Now if you can just come up with an idea on what to do with all the jars. That’s my biggest problem. I can’t get rid of them.
Take off the plastic cover and place the wax in a tin can. Put the can in the water bath.
Oh, I LOVE this idea!!! Thanks!
Do you have a link or recipe for how to make the scented essential oil bath salts? Sounds like a great (and inexpensive) thing to send to my daughter’s teachers as gifts!
Love the pinecone/twig as firestarters idea! Thanks for sharing!
Can’t wait to try 🙂
i have done this before and it saves alot of money. recycle everything you can.
I have been wondering what to do with all the left over, half used Holidays candle jars….this is a great idea. Thank you so much for sharing.
great tutorial. May I add one suggestion? Make sure that the glass container you use is “tempered” glass because if not, when you heat it up, it may shatter. That happened to me once and it is NOT a fun thing to clean up and it is also dangerous.
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I tried something similar to this. Melting down candles on the stove.
Stove caught fire….kitchen caught fire….and I caught fire. 3rd degree burns on my leg and foot. 2nd degree burns on my hand.
JUST GO BUY NEW CANDLES!!!!!!!!
For a look at my burns and what happened to me after melting wax down on the stove:
http://mikkalotta.blogspot.com/2011/09/burns-burns-burns.html
That’s a nice idea but I simply cut out the bottom half-inch that doesn’t melt and use the bits and pieces in a YC (or other brand) tart burner.
Weak-fragranced/weakly scented YCs burn even stronger in the tart burner. So any YC Housewarmer jar that throws a weak fragrance in comparison to the way it smells in candle form, I just dig out and burn as a tart. Seems to salvage my fragranced candle experience 🙂
I don’t know why it is but I find that large YC HW jars lose a lot of their smell at the bottom 1/3-1/4 of the jar and finishing them off as tarts works for me.
If you don’t use or repurpose your candle jars, be sure to put them into glass recycling if nothing else.
If you put the entire jar in the freezer, it’ll pop right out of the glass in about 5-10 minutes.
I’m new to your blog via Pinterest, & am now following the LF. This is a great idea. I always keep the cute little jars that candles come in & use those for everything from buttons, etc. in my craft room, to sugar scrubs or even as a cloche to display something. I like flame-type candles, burner type & even the battery-operated ones. I love these especially for places I would not be able to have a lit candle — bookshelves or 12 feet up on a display shelf. I have some battery-operated ones that have a built-in timer for some areas in my home that are only reachable by ladder. Candles of all-types are such a wonderful accent item. As others have said, caution is always key. Thanks for sharing this great idea.
CAS