Hey candle lovers! So, you’ve bought a candle from us, you’ve enjoyed it in all its deliciousness and have now found yourself at the bottom of the wick, ready to throw it out.

Wait, hold on!

Here at The Alchemist’s Satchel, we are all about sustainability and being kind to this planet that we call our home.

If you’re done with your candle, and sending it back for 50% off the refill isn’t your game plan, we’ve got other ideas for you.

We’ve whipped up five ways to re-use your candle jars but before we start… Do you know how to clean out your jar effortlessly?

Let us show you.

Cleaning your jar

• Boil your kettle and fill the jar with the boiled water up to the level where the residue is visible.
• Leave on the side until cool.
• Your leftover wax should form a top that is easy to pop out and bin!
• Do another round if needed, et voila! Effortlessly perfectly cleaned candle jar!

First stop – have you planted your seeded business card yet?

If not, with a few rocks at the bottom for drainage, and plenty of soil, our candle jars are the perfect pot to get those flowers germinating before you pop them outside for the bees to enjoy!

If you’ve already done away with our business card, our jars are still a great place to plant any other seeds, cuttings, or succulents!

 

Get crafty

If you fancy yourself as a bit of an arts and crafts type, we thoroughly recommend occupying yourself on a rainy day with this easy macrame hanging planters. Our jars make the perfect little plant pot for those bo-ho plant vibes!

Not a green finger kind of person? Here’s some alternative ideas:

Light the way

Not a green finger kind of person? Here’s an alternative idea: use our jars to make your very own bedside table light!

Here’s what you do:

1. Paint your candle jar with glass paint or use a primer.
2. Before it gets a chance to dry, grab some journal paper, crumple it and dab it until the surface looks a little like bark.
3. When dry, pop some battery powered string fairy lights in.

There you go, a small, simple bedside night light that gives off forest-like shadows!

And if you love the idea but aren’t too arty, just fairy light in a plain jar still looks beautiful – and makes use of those battery lights we keep in the draw!

Feed the birds!

How sweet is it when you look out of your window and see birds in your garden? Well, using the macrame DIYs above, your candle jar easily becomes a bird feeder!

Here’s how to do it:

1. Find yourself a nice straight stick that can go across the top of the jar and pop it through the knots on either side, so that it sits on top of the jar, across the centre. This will allow birds to land and sit comfortably.

2. Next, fill your jar with seeds.

3. Head outside and find a high up branch that you can dangle your bird feeder from. We recommend over 60cm of rope between the branch and feeder, to avoid squirrels enjoying all the seeds!

Candle Holder

Whilst we won’t recommend that you make your own candles at home, you can still reuse our jars by putting a tealight or smaller candle within them. We love Yoplait’s idea of putting coffee beans and tea lights in their yoghurt pots.

We’ve tried it in ours, and the smell of fresh warm coffee is just lovely!

Alternatively, we recommend using sand and seashells, cinnamon sticks and pine cones or dried orange peels under your tea light for seasonal, custom scents that you’ll love.

If you wanted to show off your DIY skills a little more, here’s a DIY that requires a hot glue gun and rope, to turn your candle jar into a real stylised candleholder! We particularly like this nautical-inspired DIY by 2BeesInAPod.

So there we have it! If you decide to try one of our ideas, we’d love to showcase it on our socials! Head over to www.instagram.com/TheAlchemistsSatchel and send us an inbox, we’d love to connect with you!

Until next time, peace and light, The Alchemist’s Satchel.