Upcycle this: Wax tarts from candle remainders

I love candles. I don't love how so much of a candle goes to waste. Especially those expensive candles from fancy candle stores, the candles that cost so much yet smell so good. After burning about a third of the way down, the wick inevitably refuses to light and the wax goes to waste.

I have a cabinet where I keep all my jars of candles that no longer burn but have too much yummy smelling wax in them for me to, with clear conscience, throw in the garbage.

That cabinet recently became so full I couldn't fit in yet another jar. I had to either quit buying candles — and tell my loved ones to stop buying me candles — or come up with a solution.

I chose the latter, and this is what I did: I made wax tarts from my candle remainders.

Wax_tarts_from_candle_remainders.jpg

I grabbed my big ol' roaster pan, filled it a few inches deep with water, then placed as many candle jars as would fit into the pan.

I set it on the stove, turned it on to medium, and got all those candles melting.

While they melted, I lined my muffin pans with cupcake liners and sprayed the heck out of the thing (including the liners) with baking spray.

Once the candles were all melted in their jars, I carefully — using hot mitts! — poured the wax into the liners, filling each to about half full. (Filling fuller would create tarts that, when melted in a tart burner, would likely overflow.)

homemade wax tarts

I even did it with a few mini liners I had.

mini wax tarts

Once the wax was hard as could be, I removed the liners, placed the newborn tarts into plastic bags according to scent and placed those bags of wax tarts in my now nearly empty candle cabinet.

And I lit a few around the house in my little wax tart burners. Smelled so good!

scented tarts from candle wax

I also put a few in plastic bags I'd slit here and there with a knife and placed the bags in various drawers, such as those where I keep my extra blankets and afghans.

And I even threw a tart in the bottom of my kitchen wastebasket, to sit beneath the plastic bag that lines it. (Which Jim and Brianna thought was really weird... until they realized how nice a wax tart could make even our garbage can smell.)

Such a grandma thing to do, wouldn't you say? But what the heck... Waste not, want not — especially when it comes to candle-remainders-cum-scented-wax-tarts.

Today's question:

What is your favorite candle scent?