To me, a candle burning on a clean kitchen bench is one of my most favourite things.
A glass of wine, cool chilled tunes, chopping up for a meal consisting of more than freezer food while chatting with the Mr, with a candle burning in the background; best evening ever!
My obsession with candles goes way back. My addiction and expensive taste for Glasshouse Candles goes back just a few years.
Beautiful candles don’t come cheap and you definitely get what you pay for. I had a lovely caterer tell me recently she finds that she can refill her Glasshouse Candles twice over before they lose their fragrance. Thrifty, interesting stuff.
I don’t refill but I have begun cleaning out the leftover jars and using them around the house.
Like these in my baby girl’s room.
After cleaning out quite a few jars, I thought I would pass on the easiest way I have found to do it. So simple and so useful.
Imagine a craft room or study with a heap of these babies lined up. Or you could save them up throughout the year and use them crafting up Christmas presents.
As you can see from the demo pics, on this occasion I was cleaning out my Christmas candle jar which I have put away with all my Christmas decorations for next year.
This how-to is for any glass candle jar (not necessarily Glasshouse) so be good to the environment and don’t waste the pretty packaging.
What you will need:
- Old tweezers (I now have specific, old, Avon tweezers for doing just this job)
- Plastic bag
- Old newspaper/paper towel/junk mail to catch the wax
How to:
- Before you blow out the candle for the last time, line a plastic bag with newspaper or paper towel. Basically, something that will allow the hot wax to soak up and not go directly onto the plastic.
- Be ready to move fast as the faster you move the easier all the wax gets out of there.
- When the candle has only about 1cm left to burn. Blow out the wicks and with some old tweezers pull them out of the wax and pop them in the lined plastic bag.
- Pour the remaining hot wax into the lined plastic bag. If the jar is quite hot, wrap a tea towel around the glass to pick it up.
- If any of the wax misses the paper just quickly pick up the bag in case it melts and place it on another piece of paper. You don’t want it to stick to your bench tops!
- Place the jar in the top shelf of your dishwasher. I put my jars through with other items, just not on a fully loaded wash. I used to be worried the fragrance would go through but it doesn’t make any of your other items smell like Montego Bay or Little Black Dress.
- After the wash goes through a normal cycle your jar will be good to go. Sometimes, if there is black around the rim of the jar you will just have to wipe that out (urgh, manual labour) but shouldn’t be too difficult.
Do you have a candle obsession? What is your favourite?
Do you keep the jars?
I have no affiliation with Glasshouse Candles.
Though Hello! That would certainly help feed my obsession.
I am completely obsessed with candles and you totally described our evening ritual except I have a G&T rather than a wine. Glasshouse Coney Island is hands down my fave. I was so happy when they brought it into their every day range! xx
I am Montego Bay. Actually it was all I bought until recently when I strayed but now it is time to go back. x
Handy to know! I bought a beautiful scented candle in a stunning pink studded glass jar and I have been burning and burning and burning that candle, not only because I love the scent and look of the candle, but also because I want to reuse the jar! Lol! Wouldn’t you know it though, its one of the longest lasting candles I have ever had!!!
You get what you pay for Ingrid. Quality burn there. I think I have seen that candle and fell in love with the jar too!
I adore a scented candle! I’m lucky enough to have a local shop where they hand make long lasting scented candles using essential oils. They have a really large range, which is great for me because I tend to like beachy scents rather than heavily floral ones.
x
I’m all for the beachy/fresh scents too. Coconut and Lime is my favourite.
I do love a candle. This is a great tip, I always think that I should recycle the candle jars, keep them for a while, do nothing then think the effort to clean them to too hard so end up chucking them out – so now I know and will absolutely do this. Thanks x
The trick is getting that hot wax out when it is all hot. 🙂
I looove candles but I never thought to save the jars before. Thanks for the tip! #TeamIBOT
No worries Rebecca. 🙂
What an awesome idea. Had never occurred to me to reuse the jars but I have some really pretty ones kicking about. Thanks!
They come in such beautiful jars and it helps me justify the price I pay for something I burn. 🙂
I admit to never having considered resuming the jars. I had no idea that you could! Thanks for sharing.
You can use them for so many things.
I don’t need any more pretty places to leave my junk, lol! The husband throws away candles as soon as they get down to a certain level so I won’t hang on to them. Boo Husband!
Boo! lol
I love candles but don’t burn them nearly as much as I could for fear of setting the house on fire. Now that I can see how good the jars look, you’ve definitely given me an incentive to get my candles on! Glasshouse ones are my fave.
Glasshouse are the best!
Oh, wow. There you go. I always wondered how people do that! Strong scents can trigger my migraines, so as much as I love the idea of candles, the reality is a bit less enjoyable.
Oh no! Yeah that’s no good on the candle front. Some can set me off too. I have some One Teaspoon ones at the moment that I bought for the jar but they’re no good on the burn.
I love candles, and burn them often. I have three Glasshouse, can’t pick a favourite. Especially in rainy weather like we are having here in Qld at the moment, I feel like it freshens the house. Or maybe that’s just another excuse! When you say refill – do Glasshouse sell refill candles? Just found your blog, lovely! Kathryn x
How great with the rain clearing today!
No, Glasshouse don’t do a refill. I believe she just refills them with regular wax and she says the fragrance still comes through (obviously not as strong) from the jar warming up.
Thanks for the tip. Why haven’t I thought of that tweezer trick in the hot wax before! Makes life easier. I love vanilla scented candles from Willows Crafts (a home based small business). Just divine. And she refills the empty’s 🙂
Nice one! Yes I love vanilla too. 🙂
Great tips! Those jars are just too pretty to not re use. I too love candles and glasshouse are awesome and affordable. I love the rio de Janeiro one. I tried making my own candles once and bought all the things. It was fun but time consuming and I lost patience. I mostly use my diffuser these days but always light a candle in the kitchen when we have guests visit. Xx
I’ve gone through so many jars from Dusk and thrown them out. Often its been hard to get the black out of the glass.