DIY Candles: How to recycle leftover wax during the holidays

Recycle DIY candle wax? An idea for savings, but also a creative game. Let’s discover how to make candles

An article on how to recycle candles? It’s the right time of the year! After Christmas, you will surely find many wax “leftovers” at home, perfect for creating personalised and unique DIY candles! Candles are a must-have during the holiday season. Their pulsating light warms the home and hearts, making everything more magical and intimate. Light has always contained precious symbolic meanings for mankind, and in particular for Christians, who see in it the first manifestation of God’s will (“And God said: Fiat lux!, let there be light. And there was light”, Gen 1:3) and identify Jesus as the “light that brightens the world”. A round candle decorated with red berries, bows, Christmas balls, sugar sticks, natural pine cones or painted gold or silver will become a perfect centrepiece for the Christmas table. But what happens when the holidays are over? In this article, we want to suggest how to reuse the wax from candles used during the holidays to create new DIY candles.

All you have to do is collect the advanced centrepiece candles, the Advent candles that have not been completely burned, and get empty containers to use as moulds: jars, cups, glasses, and everything that imagination suggests. Here’s how to make candles at home, to start the new year with savings, recycling and creativity!

Buy Now:

Coloured Tealight glass

Coloured Tealight glass, wind-proof. Suitable for the standard Tealight 12 gr.

How to melt wax

First of all, let’s learn how to melt wax. A seemingly trivial operation, but it is better to use some tricks to avoid getting burned and ruining something. Few things are as obnoxious to remove as melted wax! For this reason, it is better not to use the stove at home to melt it, but to get an electric plate or a field stove, to avoid nasty surprises. Before melting, the candles and wax must be cut into pieces. A trick to facilitate this step and leave them in the freezer for a quarter of an hour, or twenty minutes: they will become fragile and easily reduced to flakes.

Also concerning saucepans, use old ones, intended only for this new use. Moreover, get wooden ladles to keep stirring the wax and keep it liquid. If you use different saucepans, you can dissolve the melt in different colours separately, and then mix them to create evocative effects. You can also use pans equipped with a spout, to facilitate the transfer of molten wax, and cover the inner walls with tinfoil to limit damage.

Before placing the wax, heat two fingers of water in the saucepan, bringing it to a boil. Then add the wax, which will be kept more fluid with this technique. The wax must melt completely but remain at a temperature below 175°. You can also colour the wax using colourings and add scents with essential oils or better yet with orange or lemon peels, cinnamon, cloves, star anise and so on. In addition to making the wax fragrant, homemade candles will also be decorated originally.

Buy Now:

Liquid wax colourings

Colourings for liquid wax, every single bottle of colour is sufficient to colour 1 litre wax.

While the wax melts, take the container you have chosen and glue the wick to the bottom, insert it into its metal base. You can use any type of strong glue. Attach the lanyard so that it is perpendicular to the container using a pencil, clip, or stick.

Pour the liquid wax into the container, layer after layer, to avoid irregularities or depressions on the surface. Each layer will take about 4 hours to dry, and you can make layers with different colours, or keep the same. When even the last layer is dry your candle will be ready! To speed up the drying and cooling of the wax, you can immerse the container in cold water. When the candle is dry you can easily extract it from the container you used as a mould.

DIY scented candles with essential oils

We have mentioned the possibility of creating scented candles, using what you have at home (citrus peels, spices) or scented essential oils. A DIY scented candle can be a very original gift for both Christmas parties and any other occasion. But where to buy scented oils to make scented candles? In our online store, you will find excellent ones, mostly produced in the monastery of Camaldoli, such as 100% pure True Lavender Essential Oil, made by the Ancient Pharmacy of the Camaldolese Monks with ingredients of completely organic origin and from controlled biodynamic crops. Its relaxing scent will be a cure-all for moments of calm and rest.
Aromatic Argan Oil with Soybean Oil Protein and Jojoba Oil is also produced in Camaldoli, and has a fresh and revitalising scent. If, on the other hand, you love intense, fresh and citrus aromas, Bitter Orange Essential Oil is the one for you, for DIY candles that will keep the whole atmosphere of the Holidays alive in your home.

Lavender Bio Cosmos essential Oil 10 ml Camaldoli Buy on Holyart

Aromatic Argan oil, skin oil, Camaldoli Buy on Holyart

Bitter orange Essential Oil 10 ml Camaldoli Buy on Holyart