When a candle burns out, you can end up with wax at the bottom of the pot. You may want to re-use either the pot or the wax, but you need to remove the wax without marking the container by scraping too hard. Here are a few techniques that really work!
The Boiling Water technique
1) Boil some water.
2) Pour this water into the pot, in order to melt the wax.
3) Leave to rest for three or four hours, to allow the water to take effect and unstick the residue. (Sometimes a quarter of an hour is enough, it depends on the wax.) With the hot water, the wax will rise to the surface on its own. In addition, the hot water will separate the wick from the wax.
4) Use your hand or the back of a knife to cut the wax and remove it. Wipe the container with a sheet of kitchen paper.
5) Put the residue in a small plastic bag if you would like to re-use the wax.
Other effective techniques
Melt in a bain-marie
Using the same principle as the last technique, you melt the wax in the bain-marie and recover the wax (taking care not to burn yourself).
The freezer
If there is still a little wax in the container and if the wick isn’t still stuck inside, you can put the candle in the freezer for a few hours. The wax will contract and unstick from the edges of the container. By touching it with your finger, you will know when the wax is ready to be removed (it will move and shake a little in the pot). Turn the pot upside down, the wax should fall out. You can help it along with a knife.
In the oven
Preheat your oven to 100°C, and place your candle upside down on a baking tray covered with a sheet of tin foil. In fifteen minutes, the wax will have melted and will be spilled onto the tin foil. Wipe the container with a sheet of kitchen paper to fully remove any traces that remain.
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