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.
This page contains the following solutions.
When your candle burns down to the point it's no longer safe to burn or the wick is gone, simply turn on your coffee pot's warmer plate and set the candle on it. When the wax warms up, it produces the same amount of scent as when the candle is burning.
Candles in glass jars give much better light when power goes out and are safer to use. Buy on sale and keep in designated place, so you are not searching in an emergency.
To keep a jar candle fresh when the lid is missing simply turn the (unlit) jar upside down after wax hardens.
I placed a half used scented candle in a jar on my stove for show. That evening when I was making dinner and using the oven, I had forgotten to take the candle from the stove.
Keeping large pillar decorative candles forever. When I buy a decorative pillar candle, I burn for a little bit until I can fit a tealight candle inside.
I received several candles. I don't like candles unless they come in a jar because they drip on furniture and table linens. When my jarred candle blew out, I froze it for about a half hour. The remaining wax popped out, and I put the other candle in. I now have 6 candles that I would not have been able to enjoy otherwise.
I figured out that I could use the warmer setting on my stove to get the most out of a jar candle that had burned down to the point where the wick was useless. The jar still had 1/2 inch of wax left and I thought I would put it on the warmer and give it a try.
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.
