How To Clean Candle Jars

How To Guide: Clean Candle Jars

Yes. Yes I am that person that can be a little bit snobby about my candles. I flippin’ love a good candle and quite often think you do get what you pay for both in terms of long-lasting fragrance and how well they burn. We’ve got a candle in our little office from SOH Melbourne that we bought nearly two years ago, that I still haven’t lit because it fills the room with the most incredible scent just as it is.

Somehow though I’ve never quite mastered the art of cleaning out my candle jars properly despite trying to follow all the online tips I could find. From time to time I used to treat myself to Diptyque candles (yes, back in the days when I was still working fulltime and had the luxury of a disposable income) and of course, it’s de rigeur to keep the empty jars for storage purposes right?

FINALLY though, I’ve figured out how to get those bad boy candle jars sparkly clean and it’s got nothing to do with whether you pop them in the freezer or pop them in some boiling water but everything to do with what do before that point. So here are my failsafe tips on how to successfully clean your candle jars for future use:

  1. Throughout the candle’s life, make sure you only light it when it will be lit long enough to burn the entire top layer of wax completely each time. If you only light it for half an hour and then extinguish the flame, you’ll create the tunnel effect where the inside burns down but the ouside doesn’t.
  2. As the candle nears the end of its burn time, leave the wick as long as you can. I know I know – we’re always told to trim the candle wick. But if you trim it too close, when you come to light it, there won’t be enough wick left to completely melt all the wax in the jar.
  3. Once the candle goes out, or if you don’t have the patience and you can see all the wax is liquid, blow the candle out. Carefully use a pair of scissors to remove the wick base as quickly as you can. It’s much easier to do this when any remnants of wax are still warm but be careful not to burn yourself.
  4. Then use a cloth/kitchen roll/cotton wool pad to wipe out any obvious liquid wax and pop it in the bin.
  5. Fill the jar with hot water and leave for around 15 minutes, this will collect any last bits of wax left in the jar.
  6. Finally clean with hot soapy water and that should clear any soot residue from the time the candle has been burning. Voila, you should be left with perfectly sparkly clean jars that you can either use to make new candles or ya know, for Instagram purposes, store your make up brushes in

Any questions at all, just leave a comment or drop me an email and I’ll be happy to help.

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