I'm a scented candle junkie. If I had to choose between my home looking nice and smelling nice, I'd pick the latter.
Depending on where you buy them, some of these candles are quite expensive. I love the ones from Yankee Candle, which I only buy when I have coupons. The scents are strong and there are so many to choose from.
I ended up with tons and tons of "used" candles, each at the end of its burning days, but with lots of scented wax leftover. I went to a craft store to see what I could get to recycle my wax, and I did find a candle-making kit, but it was expensive.
I kept looking and it turned out I only had to spend a few bucks on two things: 1. "Tacky wax" and 2. wicks.
My first attempt was pretty darn good. It's really quite easy.
The first thing is to scrape the leftover wax out of the jars and to remove any residue, old wicks, etc. - basically you gotta clean off your wax.
The second thing is to thoroughly clean the leftover glass jars or tins and dry them.
You attach the wick to the bottom center of your jar or tin with a little bit of tacky wax.
Then, use a double boiler to melt the wax.
Unless you happen to have a LOT of the same kind of left over wax, you won't fill the container. I quickly figured out that if I worked with two containers at once, I could layer the scents. I'd melt one batch and pour it into the first container. The next batch of melted wax would go in the second container. By the time I've melted the third batch, the first container's wax is hardened enough to pour another layer on.
I've only done two so far, but they worked out beautifully and they burned much more efficiently than the original candles. I literally had NOTHING left in the first one I burned. It was the most efficient candle I'd ever used.
I think the tacky wax was $1.99 and it cost about the same for a package of 20 wicks.
Depending on where you buy them, some of these candles are quite expensive. I love the ones from Yankee Candle, which I only buy when I have coupons. The scents are strong and there are so many to choose from.
I ended up with tons and tons of "used" candles, each at the end of its burning days, but with lots of scented wax leftover. I went to a craft store to see what I could get to recycle my wax, and I did find a candle-making kit, but it was expensive.
I kept looking and it turned out I only had to spend a few bucks on two things: 1. "Tacky wax" and 2. wicks.
My first attempt was pretty darn good. It's really quite easy.
The first thing is to scrape the leftover wax out of the jars and to remove any residue, old wicks, etc. - basically you gotta clean off your wax.
The second thing is to thoroughly clean the leftover glass jars or tins and dry them.
You attach the wick to the bottom center of your jar or tin with a little bit of tacky wax.
Then, use a double boiler to melt the wax.
Unless you happen to have a LOT of the same kind of left over wax, you won't fill the container. I quickly figured out that if I worked with two containers at once, I could layer the scents. I'd melt one batch and pour it into the first container. The next batch of melted wax would go in the second container. By the time I've melted the third batch, the first container's wax is hardened enough to pour another layer on.
I've only done two so far, but they worked out beautifully and they burned much more efficiently than the original candles. I literally had NOTHING left in the first one I burned. It was the most efficient candle I'd ever used.
I think the tacky wax was $1.99 and it cost about the same for a package of 20 wicks.

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