I Made Myself a Year's Supply of Candles

Candles are expensive, and we apparently buy a crap ton of them, so I decided to recycle all the containers by making my own candles to use for the next year.
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[@AllieOnFyre01]

I wash out my candle jars and use them for like, q tips, cotton balls, pencils and pens, sewing notions and whatever else I can think of!

[@SpringStarFangirl]

Fun fact about citrus zest: it actually contains an oil in it! The foaming was probably caused by the melted wax superheating the lemon peel oil all at once.

[@dldzioba]

For de-waxing jars I fill them with boiling water and let them cool. The wax will melt and float then turn into a disk at the top you can pull out. I use jars for storage all over my house.

[@anna46792]

I love this!! I have candles and never know what to do with them!

[@LotteQuintelier]

If you only use beeswax your candles will burn quickly. If you add something else (paraffin for example) it will last longer, but of course that is personal preference. That's also the reason why the conglomerate candles didn't have a sinkhole: the melting and cooling temperatures are different from industrial candles. Beeswax is also more liquid-y. I don't have any experience with wooden wicks though. Are they easy to re-light?

[@gettheetothestitchery]

That's all super helpful information, thank you so much! And I'm loving the wooden wicks - they relight really easily and they were super easy to use while making the candles since they stand on their own!

[@catherineliu06]

Something I found online about rosemary is that if you splay the sprigs out every time you go outside, the side shoots would start growing (from gravity) and it helps the plant get bushier. Then again, maybe it's just winter

[@gettheetothestitchery]

Oo, well winter is ending, so I am 100% trying that! Thanks for the tip!

[@SNW8191]

I'm actually planning to do this exact same thing with my empty jars. I got a candle warmer that I used to heat the near empty candles and then the wax poured out easily. This was helpful I'll probably use my warmer to heat the empty jars before I put the new wax inside.

[@emilysmith2784]

I reuse the jars for storage or the ones with pretty lids I put LED tea lights in. That way I can put the lids back on and the cats don’t fish the tea lights out and I don’t have to worry about them causing a fire when I nip to the bathroom 😂. The tea lights are rechargeable and we use a solar power light pack to charge them. Mostly because I bought it to charge my phone while camping but it took forever and doesn’t seem powerful enough to charge anything other than the little tea lights and the random cat toys we have 😂. But hey means totally environmentally friendly “fire”. 👍

[@hollybee1990]

I remelt the wax in the candle, transfer it to another container with a new wick and get some more burning time out of it. With the big candle jars I tend to get a 200ml clean jam jar and two or three tea lights to burn. then I clean up the big jar and make a new one! :) xxx

[@jessicahill1357]

I like to fill them with glass stones and use them for pen holders or makeup brush holders. They're great for storage.

[@gettheetothestitchery]

That's a fabulous idea!

[@jinglekringlemiller4058]

I turn my empties into Christmas cloches and/or use them as props when decorating for the Christmas holiday season.

[@KatiJaha]

I recommend putting the jars in the freezer for a few minutes to safely get the remaining wax out.

[@gettheetothestitchery]

That's a great tip, thank you!

[@garbtheater]

I use those nice jars to hold art/craft items and bathroom items like cotton swabs. I have a plate warmer burner on my stove that I just set to high to melt out the residue. As a trash goblin, I also mix the melted wax into warm coconut or olive oil, add a bunch of table salt and dried, spent herbal tea (that I also save), mix it up and chill in the freezer. U got a homemade scented body scrub.

[@dreamcherub7541]

The sweetest candle I enjoy smelling is twisted peppermint around christmas. Everything else is usually tree like scents or citrus

[@KaeyaAlberich30]

I know this was ages ago, but I know you have a dog so I thought I would mention just in case. Make sure you check before burning or diffusing any essential oils around animals, as some are very toxic to them. I know eucalyptus is one of those that is, and you mentioned you like that one. Also a side note, I love the idea of the conglomerate candle and will definitely be doing that myself

[@EphanyasisOwleyes]

If you put them all together that is called a Franken candle

[@HikinCatfish]

Franken-scents. 😀

[@sofiew.andersen4548]

For the weird reaction with lemon peel and wax, it is properly just the water boiling of in the hot wax, but I don’t know for sure

[@rebeccaf6048]

I use the old jars to store craft items like buttons, glue sticks and anything else I can think of 😊

[@gettheetothestitchery]

They're perfect for that!

[@KristenK78]

I have kept so many old Lush containers, for exactly this reason! They’re great for pins, in particular.

[@MagnoliaSoulangeana]

I do exactly the same for a couple of years now :D So happy to see, I'm not the only one :)

[@user-pq6wf7go4d]

Why not melt the wax drops in the candle holder "au bain marie"? It keeps your pans and your work service clean. You just have to be careful when removing the glasses from the water when the wax is melted, hot!!! Good idea to do again. Thanks.

[@denisesanchez7283]

Cotton balls, q tips, safety pins, etc

[@amandanelson8991]

Doing it pot a water until wax is melted is best than put melted wax in the jar after you put the wick in. (Which after that episode you already know).

[@anafbraz]

Love it! 😉

[@EphanyasisOwleyes]

Okay now that I watch you make lotion bars I can continue to watch this

[@KJF1617]

Once my jars are cleaned out, I donate the ones I don’t use to a resale shop. There are people looking for these jars.

[@gettheetothestitchery]

Oo I hadn't thought of that, great tip!

[@margaretkaraba8161]

What do I do with old candle jars? Depends on the size of the jar. I'm not going to melt beeswax to re-fill big containers - while it's certainly cheaper than buying new candles, I'm just not that patient (I'm old school and would use a double boiler to melt). But I most commonly recycle them (we have a dedicated glass/metal/certain plastics garbage bin and local collection for that). I sometimes keep pretty/interesting jars to burn tealights in for a while (since they're proven heat/candle safe), and when I get bored, I'll recycle.

[@snowkitsune8432]

Maybe next time use a silicon cupcake mold for the extra melted wax and make mini wax melts or candles if you prefer

[@gettheetothestitchery]

That's a great idea!

[@allisonmb8912]

Thank you for giving me a good excuse to make some of my own candles. If you add a suitable jug to your candle kit, it might reduce your spillages. Enjoy your hardwork 🙂🙂🙂

[@gettheetothestitchery]

Make all the candles! And that's a good thought - I'll have to make another Goodwill run before the next round of making candles for sure!

[@allisonmb8912]

@The Stitchery , suggest not a plastic jug in case it can't cope with the temperature of the wax. If you can find a metal jug, that should be ideal. Glass would be OK as long as you warmed it and/or cooled you wax first.

[@lucy7b]

😊😊😊display buttons.

[@CootiePootieTootie]

If the old wax was soy, then it dries different 😊

[@theresagovette4232]

I know this was ages ago but why not add the oils to the jars once you've filled them with melted wax? That way you could fill them to your preferred level each time. Bonus - no cleanup between batches! 🥳

[@bawi5883]

The advice I’ve read says to add the scent at a specific temperature, and when you add to the jars it cools a lot

[@kapowwapow]

hey love ur content

[@gettheetothestitchery]

Thank you! I do a few reels on my IG account now and then, but shortform video content isn't something I love, so I keep it at a minimum.

[@mikaelaraine3781]

Next time, pop them in the freezer and the old wax and wicks will pop right out.

[@amandaglidewell8451]

The wax will just fall out if you put it in the freezer for an hour.

[@livc1981]

😎👍💖💖💖💖💖