How To Clean Bath And Body Works Candles

Bath and Body Works is a popular place to find reasonably priced home fragrance candles. BBW says their candles will burn for about 45 hours. Once your Bath and Body Works candle is finished, the glass tumbler can have another life. Read on for a few quick tips to recycle and re-use your BBW glass candle tumbler.

Get Your Bath and Body Works Candle Jar Ready to Re-use

Use up all of the candle. Bath and Body Works candles will put themselves out when there's about a half an inch of wax left in the candle jar.
Let the wax completely cool to room temperature.
Use scissors to cut the Bath and Body Works wrapper. You can peel the wrapper off or cut it off. If the label is paper or a sticker, you may want to wait to remove the label until are the wax is removed.
Remove the lid and place the candle jar with the remaining wax in the freezer for several hours. Overnight in the freezer is best.
Wear eye and hand protection to remove the frozen wax from the candle.
Using a dull butter knife or another dull tool, pry the wax away from the walls of the glass container.
You may have to break up the wax to get it to come out of the candle jar.
Let the candle jar come to room temperature.
Use warm soap and water to wash out any remaining wax from the candle tumbler.
Wash the lid and the silicone gasket in the lid with warm soapy water to remove lingering candle fragrance from the lid.
Allow the candle jar, the jar lid, and the silicone ring to completely dry.
Use the candle jar for a new purpose! Check out a few ideas below!

How to Remove the Wax From a Candle Tumbler

Removing the leftover wax from a Bath and Body Works candle jar is not too difficult. To recycle the glass, you will first need to remove the wax. The easiest way to remove the wax from a candle container is to freeze the container overnight or at least for several hours. During the freezing process, the wax hardens and often shrinks. Due to these changes the wax pulls away from the sides of the glass candle container.

Use a dull but thin tool (a butter knife will work or a thin off-set spatula) to insert in the space between the wax and at the wall of the candle container. In the video below, you will see that this gentle action was all that was needed to loosen the wax. Since the wax was hardened and solidified, it all popped loose in one big piece.

The freezing process will also freeze the glue that may be used to adhere the wicks to the bottom of the candle container. In my experience, the wicks pop out with the rest of the wax.

If you have resistance and the wax doesn't come out easily in once piece, you may need to very gently break the wax into chunks to remove it. This is where I would recommend wearing eye protection and gloves in case you accidentally break the glass container. Using the dull tool, you might need to use a little bit of force to break up the wax if it will not loosen in one piece.

If the wax doesn't pop out easily or you're having a hard time getting the wax off of the container, it might not be worth it. I mean you need to think about the value of your time. It might be easier to give up on a container when the wax doesn't come out easily.

How to Remove Wax Residue and Soot from the Candle Jar

Even when the wax pops our easily from a candle container, there may still be wax and soot residue on the sides of the candle container. If you are going to place the glass in municipal recycling, you probably do not need to remove the remaining wax and soot. If you are going to reuse the glass candle container for a storage object or another craft project, you will want to get it very clean.

I was able to get the glass Bath and Body Works candle container perfectly clean by using hot water and Dawn dish soap. Allow the hot water to melt the wax and the waxy soot. Then use a damp paper towel and some dish soap to wash the glass until it is clean. This process was easier that I thought it would be!

You will also want to wash the metal lid of the Bath and Body Works candle container. The lids have a silicone gasket that is glued into the lid and it is hard to wash. As a candle pro, you'll know that a lot of the fragrance can accumulate on the lid of the candle. For this reason, it may be hard to wash away all of the fragrance from the lid. The silicone gasket on the lid may also hold the fragrance. For this reason, you may want to consider what you're going to do with the container when it's clean. I think it would be a good item to store toiletries and desk items or office supplies. The candle jar may not be a good container for food because it could make the food smell like the candle.

How to Remove the Sticker Label from a Bath and Body Works Candle Jar

The Bath and Body Works candles have a sticker label on the bottom of the candle jar. You will probably want to remove the sticker. The sticker was easy to remove using hot water, some dish soap, and some scrubbing action. As the sticker paper comes off you will want to catch it before it goes down the drain. If the sticker paper goes down the drain, it could cause a clog in the sink.

Dry the Candle Jar Before Using It

Now that your candle jar is completely clean, you will want to dry it thoroughly. I recommend just using a soft dish towel or some paper towels to dry it off. The gasket in the candle lid is hard to dry but try to get all of the water wiped away. Leave the candle out overnight to air dry to be sure it is totally dry before you put anything in the container. Once the container is completely dry, it is ready to use for a new purpose!

Turn Your Bath and Body Works Candle Glass Holder into a Floral Arrangement

Check out this helpful video where I take you step by step to prepare to re-use your Bath and Body Works candle tumbler. I quickly turn it into a container for a beautiful flower arrangement!

Ideas and Ways to Re-Use Your Bath and Body Works Candle Container

Use it to hold toiletry items in the bathroom like Q-tips or cotton balls
Use it to hold hair bands or other hair accessories
Use it to organize items under the bathroom sink
Use it to organize craft items like thread, buttons, or other craft items
Use it to hold pens, paper clips, or other office items at home or at work
Use it as a desk organizer
Use it to hold and display decorative collections of found objects like beach glass, acorns, moss, or other interesting objects
Use it to hold computer or cell phone cords
Use it to hold loose coins and change
Use it to store a collection of small objects
Use it to make a votive holder for a smaller candle and use decorative glass bead or other filler in the container

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