My mom is the original OMG mommy – always managing to make things work, getting resourceful when necessary. I find that I’m a lot like her as I get older, and the root of a lot of my OMG moments comes from something she taught me years ago. This post is exactly one of those things!

You know how you use a votive candle in a cute little glass holder, only to have wax drippings in the bottom of it that you can’t get out? Do you scrape it all out, bit by bit, or do you just throw the candle holder away and head to Dollar Tree to get another one? Well ladies, I don’t do either of those. I have this fancy little trick my mom taught me years ago to make that pesky remnant wax go away.

For this post, I actually used a candle from Bath and Body Works that had been all used up. (I’ll show you how to reuse this candle holder to store your makeup brushes in a pretty way in a future post – stay tuned.) First, you remove the label from the front of the glass container – no one wants a fire in the oven! 🙂
Then, I covered a baking pan with foil, making sure the edges were also covered.  If you don’t bring the foil up the sides of the pan, the melting wax could leak under the foil and you’re left with a pan you can’t use again.  Bummer!

I set the oven at 350 initially, but I brought it down to 325 because it seemed 350 was a little too hot for this particular container.  Place the candle holder upside down on your pan and put the whole thing in the oven.  The heat will help the wax to melt and should look something like this while it’s in process:

This process can take anywhere from 3 minutes to 30 minutes, depending on how much wax is in the container.  This one took about 25 minutes.  When you see all the wax has dripped down onto the foil, remove the pan from the oven.

Now here’s the thing.  DO NOT RINSE THE CANDLE HOLDER IMMEDIATELY AFTER REMOVING IT FROM THE OVEN.  I made that mistake once, and the candle holder shattered in my hands.  Not a good look at all.  I let it cool for about 5 minutes and then I rinsed the candle holder in lukewarm water.  This will allow you to remove all the wax residue that remains and get a shiny, clean candle holder.

So, there you have it.  This is a great tip to use as we head into the holiday season.  I would repeat this process for any metal or glass candle holder that doesn’t have any decorative accents.  You never know what kind of glue was used to adhere something fancy!  Questions?  Suggestions?  Leave them in the comments below.  And stay tuned for the fancy makeup brush holder I made out of this emptied candle!

Until next time ya’ll!

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