Making New Candles Out of Old Candles

I am a sucker for a three wick scented candle. If I pass a Bath and Body Works and they have their sign out saying that candles are on sale, I will run in there so fast I’ll leave a person-shaped smoke outline like the Road Runner.

Roadrunner Meepmeep GIF from Roadrunner GIFs

I discovered a while ago that my generous supply of three-wick candles could not only keep my house smelling delightful, but could also have a second life as medium sized clear glass storage jars. Not as exciting as discovering Radium, but a lot less risky. 

How to Make New Candles Out of Old Candles

Step 1: Burn the candle. Ahhhh. When the wicks extinguish themselves on the metal wick stands because the wax is lower than the metal, you're ready to make a new candle.

Step 2: Remove the wax. You can try different methods to get this wax out. You pretty much always wind up scraping some of the wax out with a spoon or hard plastic spatula. Some people put the candle in the fridge and try to pop out the wax, but I always think I’ll crack the glass trying to get leverage on the wax. Maybe they just do that for small remnants of wax, not a fully coated jar. In any case, I prefer to put the candles on a coffee-cup warmer. The standard three wick candles are almost exactly the same size as the warming tray, so they overlap the plastic a little bit at the edge. I make sure to keep an eye on my candles just so that the plastic around the melting the warming tray doesn’t start to warp from the hot glass.

Here’s my whole setup:

I have a few candles to melt here. One of them is already on the warming tray and two are on deck. I also have a couple of small votive holders and one taller single wick candle that I can reuse for new candles. The amount of wax left in a typical three wick candle is enough to make a nice new votive. If the scents are similar, I will layer them in a bigger candle like the tall single wick jar here. This looks especially pretty if the wax happens to be different colors.

I got the wick set from Amazon. These wicks are about twice as long as they need to be for my votives, so I cut and save the wick to use in another candle. I like these metal stands because they aren’t clamped super hard. I can press them back open with a pair of pliers to take out a used wick and thread in a new one. It also came with that very professional-looking metal wick centering device that you see over the votive in the picture. It’s holding the wick in the center of the candle so that it doesn’t flop over to the side and become totally useless.

This candle is melted and ready to pour into the votive. They don't usually have so much old, charred wick but c'est la vie. 

Step 3: Pour the wax into the votive. I usually pour it and place the three wick back on the warming tray for a few seconds, then pour out anything else that will come out. 

The wax here is white, so it's hard to see, but you can see the last remnants of wax and the adhesive wax that's holding the wick stands in place in this jar. The wax is going from the bottom to the top of the glass on the right:

This is how my new old candle looks artistically displayed against a sunset! 

Cleaning the jars:

Once I melt the wax and pour it out, there is always some wax left behind. I scrape out what I can with a plastic knife and throw those scrapings into the votive. I throw away the original metal wick stands. (Can you recycle them? I think they would get caught in the machinery.) Then, I put it on the warmer again and just wipe the last little bit of wax away with a paper towel. Don't pour the wax down the sink - it just hardens into a wax coating inside the pipes. I wash the jars and remove the labels so I have a clean glass jar to reuse.

These little guys had a wrap-around print with an extra label on the front. I removed the small label by peeling it off and taking off the residue with Goo Gone, and now I have cute marble-look glass jars.

What do I do with the empty candle jars? They can store just about anything. I have these ones holding makeup brushes and wrangling small cosmetics jars. I put them on a dish towel for their fancy photo shoot. Behold the beauty:

I also keep the lids. You can use these jars with the lids for Q-tips and cotton balls to keep them clean. I also keep the lids around and set other candles on top of them so they don't damage the furniture. I had a tiny candle leave a scorch mark on my TV cabinet once. 

Both the cabinet and I learned to have a healthy respect for decorative candles that day.