I’m a woman who loves beautiful things, but not at an extra cost (if I can avoid it!). I have a ton of glass votives and they are all soot filled with wax, ranging from 1/4 inch -1 inch full of wax. I could be completely lazy and materialistic and toss the old and go buy myself new ones, (which I can afford to do), but I don’t feel right in my soul to waste these perfectly beautiful pieces of glass for my laziness. So I put out a call on my Sand & Sisal Facebook Page for help. I asked my wonderful readers this: “Calling all my clever, crafty, ingenious readers: I have a ton of glass votives with 1/3 inch of melted wax in them. What is the best way to remove the wax from votives so I don’t have to buy new ones? (I hate wasting!).”
Well, within about 5 minutes over 50 of you had commented! Who knew removing wax was such a hot topic?! haha! In the past 24 hours 11,000 people have seen my question and 151 of y’all have graciously given your tried and true advice and I thank you for taking the time to help me out!
Here are the 3 main methods of wax removal that you all recommended.
FREEZER – HOT WATER- OVEN
METHOD 1 – FREEZER
I tossed most of my votives in the freezer for several hours. For some reason my kids kept removing them from the freezer. I’m sure it is because they probably thought mom had lost her mind again and was doing whack-a-doo things… ha! After educating the entire family that YES, I actually WANTED the votives in the freezer, they relented and let them sit….. geesh! Who knew weird items in the freezer would cause such a ruckus? Well, the FREEZER METHOD DOES NOT WORK IF YOU HAVE A VOTIVE WITH A GLUED WICK. (Thank you sweet readers who advised me on that! You are so right! ) If your wick is glued to the bottom of the votive then this is what you get as a result… a mess. Time to move on…
The overwhelming comments were, “Stick it in the freezer!”. So for the votives I had without a glued wick, this freezing method worked like a charm! Pop! It was out! Yet there was always a bit of wax residue on the sides, so you do still have to wash them with hot water or simply place in the dishwasher.
Method 2- HOT WATER
I was worried about what this hot water method would do to my pots, but to be honest…. I’m seriously due for new pots any how! I placed the votives in the pot, in the sink, and filled it with super hot tap water.
After 5 minutes I could remove the votives from the pan and easily scoop out the wax. Finish washing out residue with soapy hot water. **NOTE** Do not use boiling water. Why? Well, 1) you risk the glass shattering under the extreme temperature, and 2) you do not want to melt the wax, just soften it enough to scoop it out. If you melt the wax to a liquid state in your boiling water and then dump it down the drain, you will end up with a clogged drain. (Thank you sweet readers for informing me of that! I’m glad you did!). 
METHOD 3 – OVEN
Line a baking sheet with foil making sure the edges of the pan is covered. Turn the votives upside down on the foil. Place the baking sheet in the oven and turn it on to 200 degrees. In about 15 minutes all the wax will be melted out. Remove each votive with a hot pad and wipe out the remaining wax with paper towel, then wash with soapy water if needed. This oven method worked fine, but I didn’t like the strong smell it left in my kitchen and I was using non-scented wax.
Now there was a 4th method that many suggested… the MICROWAVE method, which I tried…..
Let’s just say when you see flames and sparks shooting out of the microwave, your votive most likely has a metal wick in it! YIKES! Not good! I do not recommend risking blowing up your microwave just to save a little votive. 😉
Overall I must say that the freezer method comes out pretty clean (if they didn’t have a glued wick), but I had to wait for them to freeze for at least an hour and then wash them in hot water regardless. So in my opinion, I think the HOT WATER METHOD wins out! It takes the least amount of time.
Thanks everyone for sharing all your advice and helpful tips!
KIM
Linking up to: Tidy Mom
I had recently done a whole lot of them, as it was for a wedding and I was thrift store buying. I just placed them all in really cold water and removed them easily! This worked the best for me.
You are a smart cookie to head to the thrift store for the wedding votives! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for testing them all out for the good of your readers! I will definitely use the hot water method (which I had never even heard of!) the next time I need to do this! Do you think it would work on big jars as well?
Best,
Allyson @Domestic Superhero
Hi Allyson! Before my readers told be about the hot water method, I too had never heard of it. I was very skeptical and thought it would be a total mess, but I was pleasantly surprised how fast and easy it was. I think it would work on the big jars, no doubt.
When you reuse those glass votives, put a little olive oil or baking spray in there first! Your remnants will slip right out when you’re done and you can just wash them.
Great tip! Thank you! I’ll try it!
My daughter had asked me once how to remove the wax from a votive, and my natural answer was hot water. Glad it worked out to be the easiest!
I would love to see what you do with them now that they are all sparkly clean! I saw kits to make candles at Michael’s yesterday and thought of your FaceBook post, wondering how things had turned out so happy to read how things went!
Thank you Bev! I’ve been playing and experimenting with decorating the votives this week. Some turned out great, others… not so hot. Oh well, if you don’t try then you’ll never know, right? 😉
This is such great info Kim!! I have been buying the soft candles from Bath and Body Works because they scoop right out and then I just put them in the dishwasher. But now that I know about this great freezer method, I may start slipping the hard candles into the votives again. Thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you Cyndy!
How about an ounce of prevention? Once you get those votives clean, NEVER LIGHT THEM UP AGAIN WITHOUT A TEASPOON OF WATER UNDER THE CANDLE! You’ll never need to clean them again!
Great advice that I’ll be sure to take! Thanks Charmaine!
I have been cleaning votives for 20 years at my job as a floral designer – we always put about a tablespoon of water in the glass votive before putting in the candle. This will assure that the candle will come out. If you use a round votive just take a table knife and cut in the left over wax so it will pop out. I always use Dawn dishwashing liquid to clean in hot water. Must have cleaned at least 20 thousand like this.
I put the votive on the candle warmer until all the wax is melted. Carefully pour the melted wax in the trash then wipe out with a paper towel to remove the excess wax and black residue. Lastly, I throw them in the dishwasher and they come out sparkling clean.
I saw a pin about your post and love all the great ideas. We use the hot water method, only we pour the hot water into the votives. We first boil the water in our water kettle then fill the votivs about 2/3 full. The hot water will melt the wax causing it to release and rise. This creates a lava lamp type of effect. My kids love it! Once it has cooled all the wax will be at the top, you just press down on one side and out it pops! Bonus… The glue that holds the metal wick in place will release too!
Saw your post and wanted to put my two cents in. I had a bunch of the large candles w lids just waiting for me to figure out how to get that darn glued in wick to release somehow. Freezer worked for getting the wax out but, I think they used super space station glue to stick that little metal piece down. (Why don’t they sell that glue on the market?) Anyways, after trial and error, I found that my heat gun (for embossing) aimed at the bottom side of the glass (not into the jar) for a few seconds released that super-duper glue perfectly! Now, I finally have a bunch of jars w tight fitting lids to reuse and repurpose!
Yay! Thank you so much for that tip Anne! I will try it!
I’m late to the game here but I have found a great way to soften candle wax for easy removal is to just stick the containers outside, upside down on newspaper, in the sun for an hour or more, depending on how warm it is.
Well I found a good one I had one of those old coffee warmers I put my jar on that it melts it and wipe out with paper town.all wax gone
Great tip Teresa!
Great post! I have some candle holders in my freezer at the moment. I was never sure what to do with them after popping out the wax. And I love the idea of putting some water in the holder prior to putting the candle in. I like prevention best! Barring that, there are a number of usable insights here and worthy of being shared. Thanks so much.
Thanks Kate! Glad you found the post helpful! Have a great week.
~KIM
As Anne mentioned earlier, I like to use my embossing heat gun to melt the wax residue, wipe with a paper towel and then wash (usually in the dishwasher). If I don’t need to do it for a long time I forget how fast and easy this is and have rediscovered this a number of times ?.