Using up leftover scented candles.

[TrickyD]

We have the remnants of various candles with Christmas scents, gingerbread etc. They are in glass jars but have burnt down leaving quite a lot of wax up the sides.

Rather than waste this, is there an easy, and safe, way of melting the wax down and making one candle, albeit with rather random flavours?

Just buy a new wick - tie the top end to a stick and rest it on a jar so it’s straight

Meant the wax and repour into the new jar

It’s easy

I just take out the wax and use them as wax melts with plain t lights.

Melt in a pan of water and pour the wax into paper cake cases and leave to set, you can then use them in a wax burner

DH gets wax and wicks online and melts down the remnants of candles. We use the glass jars the originals were in, or we save jam jars etc too.

CandyCaneLane0, that seems the safest way, but I thought the water system would take ages to melt the candles and would have to be very hot.

I'd pick the largest candle jar and start by melting down the wax in that one by placing jar in a pan of boiling water. Once melted pour out the wax into a ramekin. Fix new wick (s) to bottom of jar and pour the melted wax back in. Leave to set. Once set, melt the next and pour on top. If you leave to set then you will get Christmassy layers of scents rather than a weird mush.

Look at the woodwick trilogy candles to see what I mean.

Oh and don't trim your new wick until you've finished pouring all of them. Keep the wick upright by winding the top around a straw and balancing the straw in the top of the jar. (After glueing the wick base down obviously)

Boiling water will melt the wax in minutes

I melt mine down In a pan and make new ones, just bought a pack of wicks online. It’s very easy but start of making smaller ones, maybe jam jar size. Use a slotted spoon to fish out any wicks or debris. I use a slither of sellotape to stick the new wick to the base and ikea sandwich bag clips or pegs balanced across the jar to hold the wick up while the candle sets.

Tunnelling in candles usually happens when there are aren’t enough wicks or it isn’t burnt for long enough first of all. If refilling a bigger candle use more wicks than were originally in it.

I never tend to notice the smell is weird, but I would say I avoid doing this with any coloured wax candles, and it always seems to manage to get everywhere and stain.

I poured not-quite-boiling water into the candle (be careful incase the glass cracks but this has never happened to be)which melted the wax and it rises to the top. When everything cools there is a lid of solid wax that you can just lift off. I honestly thought it sounded too easy or too good to be true but it really was that simple. If you have the same type of candle you can pierce a wee hole in this wax where the wick would be and set it on top of the new candle to add to it or melt it in a burner.

Thanks very much for all your help, everyone.
Amazon seems good and cheap for wicks, any tips on the best ones to buy? I will only need half a dozen at most.