Candle tutorials are hot right now.  Unfortunately most forget to mention the finer points of cleaning up after yourself.  This handy little article will hopefully fill in some of the gaps with that part of the process and shed a little light on why clean equipment (and fingers) are important.

There’s a sweet satisfaction in working with a clean set of tools, almost like walking into a spotless kitchen.  Everything you need is in its place and ready for use. Unfortunately, dirty tools are part of creating excellent candles, so having a strategy to clean them is essential to staying ahead.

If you ended up reading this because you’re having a freakout moment with dye all over your hands or clothes, welcome!  And don’t worry – spending a day with turquoise fingers and a light floral scent about you is a right of passage among candlemakers.  Cleaning isn’t the sexiest thing in the candle-makers playbook, but having good techniques to manage cleanliness and readiness for your equipment is a necessary chapter.  Let’s dive in.

Preventative Care

The safest bet when it comes to cleaning is to assume a mess is going to happen, and celebrate when it doesn’t.  Perhaps the best way to avoid an unwanted mess is to make it convenient and easy to clean.

Cover the Workstation

“Workstation” can mean a lot of different things.  A lot of people are pouring in their kitchens while others have a dedicated space.  No matter where you are, there is always some form of a “staging” area where wax will transfer from container to container.  Designate this space and protect it with disposable coverings:

• Wax paper
• Newspaper (who even has this anymore?)
• Table Cloth
• Paper towel (this is usually too expensive to rely on as a long-term method)

Plain old paper can work too, but do your best to use something that would otherwise be recycled or tossed (possible upcycle alert).  Table cloths are good for tables (duh), but I’m referring to a somewhat disposable tablecloth that can permanently be dirty and dedicated to a candle-making effort.  If you bust out the Thanksgiving tablecloth don’t blame me if it gets irreversibly dirty.

Stay optimistic, but make sure that whatever you lay down is thick enough that any significant spills can’t seep through onto whatever lies below.

Cover Yourself

Wax usually isn’t the worst offender – dyes and oils are.  These are difficult to get out of skin and clothes (though dyes tend to disappear naturally after awhile… look out bloodstream!).  You’ll find that experienced candle-makers are the ones well suited (literally) for the craft, often with an apron and sometimes gloves.  This is because spills and splashes happen to even the most honed among our trade.

A good apron is handy for protecting clothes – but I warn against using it as a “wiping” mechanism where possible to avoid deterioration and crud.  Stick to paper towels. If you choose to don a set of gloves, get something relatively tight to maintain your dexterity. Gloves are also helpful for increasing grip and working with hot containers if you’re moving things around during the process.

Removing Hardened Wax

Candle-making involves changing a solid into a liquid and then back again.  Naturally this gets messy – what chemistry project isn’t? While measuring yield is a recommended part of documenting your batch, science tells us using 100% of the material we put in is very unlikely – this leaves wax in the containers (or ON containers if you’re particularly excited).

Wax is not water-soluble.  Attempting to clean wax with water will result in a wet mess.  Unfortunately the laws of chemistry apply – making the water hotter won’t get you any farther.

 Wax on or inside your tools can be dealt with in two ways:

• Let wax dry solid– scrape the chunks out with anything that makes sense.  Putty knives are popular for this cleanup, but be careful not to damage the melting surface.  This isn’t inherently bad, but it can be more difficult and risks some scraping the tool.
• Melt wax back into a liquid – wax is a lot easier to manipulate in its liquid form.  If your melter is something that can be easily turned on or off again, heat it up just enough to melt the wax down again.  Alternatively, use a heat gun to melt all the spots back down. Wipe the wax out with a paper towel and scrub the surface with some rubbing alcohol.  

The most effective method I’ve seen is a combination of the two approaches – scrape off major chunks of wax and melt down what remains.  Rubbing alcohol lifts anything leftover and “sanitizes” the surface for the next batch. This applies to wax that has additives in it too (dyes and oils).

Mass cleaning is very possible with little involvement and/or scrubbing in the right scenario.  If you have a series of pots, tools, and/or old candle containers, they can be lined upside down on a baking sheet and placed in the oven on low.  Remember the melting point of wax isn’t too high, and an oven can melt down the wax and allow it to drip into a catch. I recommend lining the baking sheet with something that can be disposed of to avoid having a secondary mess on your hands.  Just be sure to practice safety and don’t place anything in the oven that doesn’t belong there!

The alternative to using an oven is to set things up on a counter or table upside down and blast it with a heat gun until everything drips out.  Good practice says that everything should be wiped down with rubbing alcohol at least once after the initial wax removal to ensure a more complete cleansing of the materials.

Removing Dyes

Getting caught red-handed isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.  Fortunately dyes can be cleaned off of skin relatively easily with mineral oil.  If that sounds scary, just remember that mineral oil is found in a lot of household skin care products, including Vaseline and Aquaphor.

Dyes are oil-soluble to allow them to absorb and mix with waxes.  This means trying to wash dyes off of clothes and skin with water will generally just spread the problem around and make things a little worse.  Mineral oil does a good job dealing with it, as does coconut oil or olive oil. 

If the stain is on a piece of fabric, Dawn dishwashing detergent or rubbing alcohol are proven cleaners.  Add some Dawn or rubbing alcohol to a paper towel and dab the spot until the dye lifts off the material and then wash per the material’s directions.

Don’t use a sponge, water, or scented wipes to clean anything.

Removing Fragrance & Essential Oils

If the scent of whatever you spilled is delightful and not overwhelming, you might not even have to clean it up.  But… that’s an unusual exception. Oils are actually handled similarly to dyes – if a spill manages to get onto a surface or fabric, lifting it with Dawn or mineral oil is the way to go.  Water will still only make it worse – avoid this. Just go for a lightly dabbed paper towel with your cleaner-of-choice and get to work.

If you’re cleaning a pouring tool, such as something you might transition the oils through before adding to the wax, these are best cleaned with a paper towel (or reusable dish rag/t-shirt) and rubbing alcohol.  Scrub it until it’s clean and free of oil and it’s ready for use once more.