I hate to waste and I love to burn scented jar candles. The candles say to only burn the wick down to a certain point, then dispose of the candle. Since these candles are not cheap, I don't want to throw away that much wax, so I ignored the directions and burned the candle all the way to the bottom.
Until the day I almost burned my house down. The jar was so hot that the glass broke, and the burning wax began to burn my coffee table. But I still don't want to throw away that much wax.
So here's a tip that I came up with. When the candle begins to get low, put the candle in an oven safe baking pan that has about 1/2 inch of water in the bottom. If the candle should break, the glass and wax will be contained within the baker and the water would immediately extinguish whatever fire may still be burning.
As a side note, if you would rather follow the directions, but still hate the thought of throwing that much wax away, take a knife and gently break up the remaining wax into small bits. Take some sort of mesh, like tulle, place the wax bits on top of the mesh and tie it up so that it looks like those wedding favors that are so popular. Or put them in closets, drawers, cabinets, etc for a lovely scent when you open the doors/drawers. Or save them to use for a wedding or baby shower or even a birthday.
By aprilcotton from Aurora, CO
These tips from Aprilcotton are dangerous!
Instead, use either a mug warmer, or even better a candle warmer ($5 at Wal Mart, may find it cheaper elsewhere) to use up the last of the wax. I don't even light my candles. I put them on a candle warmer and they last for many months. I have some on now that I've had for over a year and they still smell nice.
And so much safer than melting on the stove or using a knife to break up in the jar.
Sometimes candles can burn quite sooty. The black soot sticks to the inside of the candle jar, looking unattractive. This page contains ideas for removing soot from candle jars.
This is a page about refurbishing old candles. Old well loved or stored candles may need a bit of a face lift before their next appearance.
