Recycle the Old.... In with the Wax Melts

I recycled an old bath and Body Works candle into a wax melt. If you're like me, you have a stash of candles that still have quite a bit of wax left but the wicks have burned out.

My first idea was to use a mason jar and some wicks I have at the house and make a new, smaller candle. Once re-melting the wax I realized this was not enough to make an entire new candle.

Then I went to my one of many candle drawers and noticed I had saved plastic wax melt containers. I guess it pays to be a hoarder.... I decided I can attempt to just pour the re-melted wax into this.

So voilà, wax Melts!

How did I remove the wax?

First, I stole my Fiance's heat gun. I honestly have never used this before but I thought it was better than throwing the glass candle into the boiling pot??? This worked for the most part but it took so long!!!! I would heat up the wax, pour the wax into a bowl, and then repeat until most of the wax was out of the candle and into my bowl.

I still had a bit of candle wax left. Because the heat gun took so long, I decided to just put the actual glass candle into the saucepan and use the double boiler method that way.

What Is the Double Boiler Method:

The double boiler method is: Using a large saucepan to boil water, then uses a slightly smaller bowl to put over the boiling water. The bowl will just float on top of the boiling water. The bowl will then heat up from the boiling water underneath and melt the wax or whatever you put in the bowl.

When using the heat gun I poured the wax from the old candle into a bowl used for the Boiler method. When using the candle I just took the bowl out and just laid the candle in the middle of the boiling water....

I was a bit nervous about this but it worked great.

My only hesitation is that small pieces of the bunt wick were floating around in the wax. Although, when I poured the wax both from the bowl and the candle, the burnt wick seemed to have stuck to the bottom of the bowl or candle anyway.

Wax Melts

Once the wax was melted in both the bowl and the glass candle container I used my thermometer to make sure to not overheat the wax past 180-200 degrees Fahrenheit range. Because we are not adding fragrance or color to the wax because it was already added by Bath and Bodyworks at one point I'm not sure this part was really needed.

I was worried if I didn't heat the wax to this range I would have odd drying wax melts.

Once the wax was hot and in this temperature range I left the bowl over the hot water but turned the heat off on the stove. When cooling candles problems seem to happen if you pour when the candle cools too quickly. To avoid this, I let the bowl and candle slowly cool to 120-140 degrees Fahrenheit.

While waiting for my wax to cool I cleaned an old plastic wax melt container and prepared it for my new wax. :) I was a bit hesitant to pour hot wax into plastic but it worked fine. You can also buy metal wax melt molds, but I don't have one.

Once the wax was cooled I grabbed an oven mitt and slowly poured my wax melts until they looked quite full.

Now I just let them sit until they were dry or hardened. I recommend waiting two weeks before burning the wax melts, just to make sure you give the wax enough time to harden all throughout. I learned this the hard way when making candles from scratch.

Watch the process of my wax melt creation:

I hope you enjoy reusing your candle wax. This is a great way to repurpose some great smells while also saving money!

I am also saving the glass candle containers to use for my own candle making. If you guys have any interesting ways of repurposing your candles or candle wax, I'm excited to hear them!

Supplies Used:

• Old Candle

• Old Wax Melt Container

• Bowl

• Saucepan

• Thermometer

• Heat Gun