Clean candles and remove candle wax from furniture.

Candles are used more for decorative, esthetic and theraputic scent relaxation purposes than for utility now.

In days gone by candles were mainly a utility item used to produce light. They usually didn't last long enough to get dirty or if they did get dirty it didn't really matter, because it wouldn't be long until they were burned up anyway.

In our modern day and age clean candles are very improtant and an ocassional boo boo will require that we remove candle wax from furniture. (More below)

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Candle Color

Candles were generally dipped tapers in the days of yore and were the same color all the way through. Modern day candles may have the same color all the way through or they might be white or some other color on the inside and a coating of a different color on the outside. They're quite often multicolored.

Soiled Candles

Decorative or scented candles will usually sit for extended periods of time without being burned, so they can get to appearing soiled or just plain grungy.

Candle wax will grab onto just about any particle floating near enough in the air and over a period of time can lose their pretty appearance to a coating that needs to be removed.

The coating of dust and other particles from the air can hold the scent in on scented candles.

Clean Candles

A quick and simple way to clean candles is to dampen a cotton ball with alcohol and rub gently. Any alcohol will do, rubbing alcohol, vodka or gin out of the bathtub.

The alcohol will dissolve the offensive coating and just a minute amount of the wax on the outer surface of the candle exposing nice new fresh wax underneath.

Over time and lots of candle cleaning a different color outer coating will become pretty thin and expose the color underneath, so don't clean your candles too vigorously or too frequently if they don't really need cleaning.

Candles Can Cause Problems

Candles should never be left burning undattended, as they can easily burn down or fall over and cause a pretty serious fire.

Some times a large candle is set on a small candle holder and the candle burns a little more quickly than we realize it's going to and we end up with a puddle of wax on a nice furniture finish.

Remove Candle Wax From Furniture

It's not too difficult to remove candle wax from furniture. Just proceed slowly and carefully and a few minutes later the candle wax is gone.

Remove Excess Candle Wax First

Use a plastic scraper with rounded corners, a nylon spatula or an old credit card. Remove the excess candle wax from the outer edges first. Don't try to get the whole glob in one gob or you could run into some scratching problems. Scrape very carefully around the edges of the pile of candle wax removing a little at a time, then when the larger amount is removed give a final scraping to get as much scraped up as possible.

Commercial Products Best For Final Wax Removal Cleaning

You'll probably end up with a very shiny spot where the wax was. That's just the left over wax doing what thin coats of wax will do on furniture, shine.

You can probably find lots of homemade recipes to remove the last vestiges of candle wax, but commercial products will generally do the job a lot quicker, easier and more efficiently.

Prelude Furniture Cleaner
Furniture Cleaner is our strongest heavy duty cleaner with a mineral spirits base and is designed for serious cleaning applications...

Prelude Furniture Cleaner

is designed to remove old wax and residue from furniture finishes.

After you clean up the candle wax you'll probably have to use the cleaner on the whole top surface, so it'll all look the same. Rewax or polish and the surface may look so much better that you'll be thankful for the candle wax requiring a bit of extra work so you'll have a nicer looking furniture finish.

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