Do Wax Melts Evaporate Like Candles?
If you typically fragrance your home with beautifully scented soy wax candles but fancy trying something new, while still ensuring that every room smells wonderful, you may be thinking about buying soy wax melts. In that case, it’s only natural to wonder whether they’ll behave like your favourite fragranced candles. For example, a question we’re often asked by customers when showcasing our luxury home fragrance range at pop-up shops and artisan craft markets is do wax melts evaporate like candles?
Warmers Shield Wax Melts from the Flame
Our scented candles and wax melts are infused with generous amounts of premium fragrance oil.
When you burn a candle, oil evaporates and fills your living space with an amazing aroma (an uplifting citrus scent if you choose our bestselling Happiness candle). As the wax turns to liquid, it’s drawn up the wick then meets the flame and also evaporates. That’s why candles gradually get smaller. But don’t worry – ours can burn for a remarkable 40 hours in total.
Wax melts release their fragrance in a slightly different way. You break off a cube from our Happiness wax melt, say, and heat it by placing it in the reservoir at the top of one of our attractive wax melt warmers, which are powered by unscented tea lights. Fragrance oil evaporates and makes your room smell gorgeous, but the melted wax remains in the warmer. Why? Because it doesn’t come into contact with the flame from the tea light below; it’s shielded by the reservoir.
After you extinguish the flame, the melted wax solidifies again. You can therefore heat up the same wax several times in your warmer, until its strong scent diminishes. Indeed, our soy wax melts have an impressive lifespan: a melt composed of six cubes can actively fragrance your home for 72 hours!
Easy Ways to Remove Wax from a Warmer
When the melted wax in your wax melt warmer has lost most of its fragrance, all you need to do is remove it before replacing it with a fresh cube. There are several ways you can do this – we’ll outline some of the most straightforward ones below. Remember that your tea light shouldn’t be lit when you remove the old wax.
1. Use Cotton Wool
Before the melted wax hardens, you can swiftly soak it up by placing a couple of cotton wool balls or cotton pads in your warmer’s reservoir. Please make sure you don’t touch the wax, as it’ll be very hot. Let the saturated balls/pads cool before disposing of them.
2. Use Ribbon
Perhaps you love sewing or crafting decorative items and, as a result, have some ribbon offcuts squirrelled away. When the melted wax is still runny, drape a length of ribbon over the reservoir. You’ll want to ensure that most of the ribbon is submerged in the wax with the remainder hanging over the side of the reservoir. After the wax has hardened, remove it by lifting the end of the ribbon.
3. Use Your Freezer
This method of removing the melted wax is suitable for a ceramic wax melt warmer with a removable reservoir dish, not a glass warmer. Let the warmer cool so you can touch it then put the dish in your freezer for half an hour. The wax will solidify and shrink a little. After taking the dish out of the freezer, press gently on one side of the wax and slide it out in one piece. (Give the dish time to go back to room temperature before using the warmer again.)
4. Use Your Hairdryer
If you want to remove solidified wax, Cosmopolitan magazine suggests softening it with a hairdryer on a low setting. Hold the hairdryer a few inches away and move it in a circular motion. You’ll start to see the top of the wax melting. Put kitchen roll over the reservoir then press down gently so the wax sticks to it and can be lifted out.
5. Use a Tea Light
This method involves warming the solid wax from below. Light the warmer’s tea light and let it burn for 30 seconds – just long enough to soften the wax right at the bottom of the reservoir a little. Extinguish the flame then press gently on one side of the wax. With the softened area acting as a lubricant, you can slide the wax out in one piece.
Scotts Lifestyle Handmade Soy Wax Melts
Our highly scented, long-lasting soy wax melts feature incredible exclusive fragrances. Handmade with great skill in our UK studio, they’re ready to delight you and your guests.
Discover the Scotts Lifestyle difference – order our truly captivating fragranced wax melts today.