Burning Your Candles: Tip #5

For safety reasons, you should not burn a candle with less than 1/2" of wax. Most candles will extinguish themselves at the point as the head of the wick pin will be at that point or lower. However, what you can do with this, or any other candle which has a lot of wax is place it on a candle warmer similar to what is shown in this photo:

They are easily available at Hobby Lobby stores for around $5; they may be available in other craft or candle stores as well. If you don't have a candle warmer, you can cheat (as I do sometimes) and use the warmer on your coffee maker (just don't pour water into the carafe first!).

Using this method, you can enjoy your candle as long as the wax continues to give a good hot throw. Depending upon the amount of wax left and your usage, you may get another week or two out of the fragrance.

You can also use this method to clean the remaining wax from any jar candle. Melt the wax then pour it into a safe receptacle, such as an old coffee or vegetable can, wipe the jar with a paper towel to remove as much leftover wax as possible, then put your jar into the dishwasher. The water in the dishwasher will be hot enough to eliminate safely any drops of remaining wax without clogging your plumbing. You can then reuse any jars for other purposes, or take them to another chandler who may refill them for you.

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