Tips & tricks: How to easily remove leftover wax from your reusable cups

If you have purchased one of our tealight holders with reusable cups or are using your own, you might have found removing leftover wax from tealight refills a little tricky at times.

I’ve tested a few ways of doing this more easily and have found two methods that work every time:

The first is the freezer method. After being left with wax at the bottom of your reusable cup, put the cup in the freezer until the wax is frozen, I usually leave it overnight, but a couple of hours should be fine too. What this method does is shrink the wax which then results in the wax coming slightly away from the edges. Once frozen, gently push the wax with your finger against the edges of the cup, and just keep making your way like that all around the cup. At some point, you should hear a click which means that the wax has come loose. You can now start tapping the wax out of the cup by holding it upside down. If the wax doesn’t fall out, try popping it out with a rounded knife (like a butter knife) by carefully placing the top of the blade between the wax and the edge and pushing it up. This method works particularly well when you have a slightly thicker layer of wax left at the bottom. When the leftover wax is very thin the second method will work better.

Method two is using hot water to soften the wax. For this, you’ll need a little bowl/cup, a sheet of paper towel, a pair of tongs and a wooden spoon or butter knife. Boil some water and leave it to stand for a few minutes (if using metal cups, do not pour boiling water directly on the cups as this can discolour the metal. Instead, leave the kettle after boiling to stand for a little while so the water is still hot but not at boiling temperature). Put your cup with wax upside down in your bowl and gently pour the hot water on top of it until the cup is submerged. Leave to stand for a few minutes and remove the cup with the tongs from the water. The wax should be soft and easily removable by either wiping it out with a sheet of paper towel or by scraping it out with the butter knife or back part of the wooden spoon. Afterwards, you can wash your cup with warm soapy water to get it all clean again. If you are using a glass cup, make sure it’s at room temperature. When the glass cup is cold, it might crack when pouring hot water on top of it.

Both ways work for metal and glass cups, and the freezing method also works well for removing spilled wax from any candle holder.

I hope you found these tips useful and if something isn’t completely clear, you can watch the videos below showing both methods in action or get in touch 🙂

Read our post on ‘How to reuse your leftover wax’ here