How to Extend the Scent of Your Candles

This is one of my favorite little tricks that I like to do with all of my rather expensive Bath & Body Works candles. It will also work for other types of candles, like Yankee, Woodwick, etc. I am a little obsessed with having my house smell good, and my husband and I love to venture out to the mall and peruse the shelves of B&BW when they are having a sale on candles ($12 three-wick, anyone?).

Emptied B&BW 3-Wick Jar

I burn them like there's no tomorrow - especially now that they have all those yummy fall scents available. It makes me very sad when the last flame flickers out and the candle is officially done, especially when there's still a good half inch or so of heavenly scented wax left. So, to extend the life of the scent and get the most out of every candle I purchase, I follow these steps:

1. When the wick of your glass-encased candle can't be lit anymore, poor some boiling water over the wax of your candle. Watch as the wax melts and oozes to the top. Takes me back to the lava lamp days! This step is twofold: it also cleans the jar out so it can be used for something else (they make fantastic Q-tip holders, by the way). Let everything completely cool. A wax disc should be left floating at the top of the jar. Remove it, and repeat the process if there's still some wax at the bottom.

2. Save the discs of wax! I store mine in a zip-lock freezer bag.

A bag full of leftover wax.
I'm holding 'Winter', my all-time favorite!

3. Purchase yourself an oil warmer (sometimes they are called wax melters, burners, etc.). I got my latest one for a whole dollar at Dollar Tree. You will also need some tea lights, which I also purchase at Dollar Tree.

4. Whenever you have a desire to fill your home with a wonderful aroma, break off a chunk of your leftover wax, plop it on the warmer, and light the tea light. The house will smell wonderful in no time! And the scent-life of that $12 candle lives on!

Here's my cute Dollar Tree oil warmer with a
melted chunk of leftover wax in the top. 

Notes:

Make sure you don't break off too much wax to be melted in your warmer, or you'll have a huge mess on your hands.

To change the scent, let the wax re-harden in the warmer, then stick it in the freezer for about 5-8 minutes. It should pop right out, leaving the warmer ready for a new scent!

I can get about three good 'burn sessions' out of each chunk of leftover wax when I use my wax warmer. After the third go round, I toss the hardened wax, and switch scents or break off another chunk from the original wax disc. For each leftover disc from the B&BW candles, I can get over 20 hours of lovely smelling burn-time in the warmer! Love that.

There you have it! I love to squeeze as much life as I can out of the products I purchase, and this is one of my favorite tricks that helps me do just that :)