Are you a Candle user, or wax melts?
I conducted a little survey over on the Whist Instagram account last week. It was prompted by an order I had received from a customer, for 7 boxes of wax melts. No candles at all, just all wax melts. This is quite unusual for my brand, there is almost always a candle ordered in most orders, so it left me curious as to people's preferences.
In the survey, I asked people to vote from the following three options - Are they users of candles, wax melts, or dabbled in both. What do you think the option with the highest votes was???
It was both, with candles coming in second, then wax melts.
But, what surprised me even more, was the amount of comments I had from people stating that they wasn't sure what a wax melt was. That is bad on me, as I wrongly assumed that everyone know what wax melts were, and how to use them.
So, I thought I would write a short blog post on the main differences using scented candles, or wax melts to scent your home.
What is a wax melt?
A wax melt is simply a scented wax disc, (or a shape of various forms). It has no wick, and is not lit. The scented wax disc is put into the dish of a wax melt warmer, of which is then heated via a tea light or electric (if it is electric lamp). You can not use a wax melt, without a wax melt warmer.
As the wax melts into a pool of wax, it releases the scent. Some people love wax melts as they can fill a room with fragrance very quickly. The reason for this quickness, is because the entire melt will go to liquid within about 10 minutes. In the same way that a candle releases it's scent as it melts, the same is true for a wax melt. So, because the melt goes totally to liquid very soon after applying heat, the scent is released very quickly.
Are you still with me? I hope I am making sense.....
So how does a wax melt work?
The bit that can often confuse people, is that the wax melt does not melt away, unlike a candle. What you will find, is that the scent released from the melt will lessen over time. When you find that you are not noticing the scent from the melt anymore, then it is time to change the melt for a new one.
An amusing story - one of my very good friends, told me that she could not believe how long her wax melts were lasting. As I had gifted them to her quite some time ago, I was surprised that she was still on the same box. It was only after chatting for a little while about them, that she told me she was still using the first one, thinking it would melt away to nothing. There was no scent left, but she thought she had to keep going with it until it disappeared. It really tickled me. Bless her, she would have been there years!
To give you some idea of time scale - each Whist essential oil botanical wax melt will provide you with around 8 hours of fragrance per melt. Our maple leaf melts will provide you with around 10 hours of fragrance per melt.
I feel it is because of their cost effectiveness, that this is where their popularity has grown. A box of botanical melts will provide around 40 hours of fragrance, so it is a pretty reasonable price to pay to fill your home with wellbeing, essential oil fragrance. Plus, as they work so quickly, they are great for popping on when you get short notice that visitors are on their way.....
In Conclusion...
I myself, will always be wearing the Team Candle T-Shirt. I find the flicker of candle light very soothing and a great atmosphere provider. However, like a lot of the people in the comments on my survey, I do tend to use wax melts in my kitchen. They are great at quickly eradicating cooking smells, and I love them for that. I also love that I can chop and change my scent, depending on my mood. I simply pop out the wax melt, and put a new one in. The wax melt I have taken out, if it still has scent left in it, can be kept for another day.
Some tips for using wax melts
- Only ever use a standard, 4 hour tea light with all of the Whist wax melt warmers. The large, 8 hour tea light's get far too hot and will make your scent disperse much quicker.
- Wax melt warmers with a removable, washable dish are so much easier to use. Just a quick wash in warm water will clean it ready for a new melt
- Electric wax melt warmers are great, but some do not get hot enough to turn a wax melt into a full melt pool. Ensure that they are wax melt warmers, not oil warmers
- Only ever use a wax melt warmer that has a minimum height of 8cm from tea light to the wax melt dish. Any smaller gap than this and it will get too hot
- Just like with a candle, never try to move the wax melt warmer when it is lit, or when the wax disc is fully melted/liquid
I hope this has helped clear any confusion about wax melts. Now, all that is left to ask is, are you Team candle or Team wax melt?