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fufarawI can't do it now because if there's more than one wick lit at a time, OH will whinge and expire from the dread heat, but when he used to work third shift, in the evenings the living room resembled a Shaolin temple (as portrayed by Kung Fu reruns), or perhaps a Police video. We used to make pilgrimmage to the candle factory outlet thrice a year (after Christmas, late spring, and late fall) to stock up--tapers, pillars of all heights and diameters, votives--10hr 10 cents, 14 hour 15 cents per candle, but you had to choose carefully because most of them were scented. You could find packages of 50 unscented tealights for a dollar--that's 2 cents a candle. After the outlet closed, I'd find bags of 50 tealights at the dollar store for a dollar or two.
I learned that changing empty tealight cups for full ones inside votive holders was much easier than removing wax from said votive holders, and though I have a huge stock of votives, I almost exclusively use tealights, any more. Also, if I pop off the aluminum tealight cup and substitute one of the clear plastic ones I saved from used-up tealights, the candlelight through the glass candleholder isn't obscured by the aluminum cup, so that's what I've been doing. Freezing the plastic cup to pop out leftover wax, and popping in a new tealight before using again.
Lately tealights have been made out of whipped parafin, they have a styrofoamy texture, burn down the center in about a half hour, and often have wired wicks, which give off toxic fumes and flash into a larger flame at random, which is dangerous. I've looked everywhere for better quality--even Ikea--without success. I was down to about five tealights, though, and charged OH with bringing home a new bag, which he did.
Reader, they're smooth and solid poured parafin, with a pure cotton (no wires) wick--and they come in clear plastic cups! Pricey, but worth it. We're a hop-skip from the Canadian border, and these are made in Canada, where apparently, they do things right! So I sent His Nibs back to the store today to buy more--he said the display was half-gone since yesterday, and he brought me three more bags. Now, how long do you reckon 200 tealights is going to hold me?
I will retain a handful of the aluminum cups--in a metal candleholder, the plastic can get hot enough to melt, so in those cases I'll use the metal.
I learned that changing empty tealight cups for full ones inside votive holders was much easier than removing wax from said votive holders, and though I have a huge stock of votives, I almost exclusively use tealights, any more. Also, if I pop off the aluminum tealight cup and substitute one of the clear plastic ones I saved from used-up tealights, the candlelight through the glass candleholder isn't obscured by the aluminum cup, so that's what I've been doing. Freezing the plastic cup to pop out leftover wax, and popping in a new tealight before using again.
Lately tealights have been made out of whipped parafin, they have a styrofoamy texture, burn down the center in about a half hour, and often have wired wicks, which give off toxic fumes and flash into a larger flame at random, which is dangerous. I've looked everywhere for better quality--even Ikea--without success. I was down to about five tealights, though, and charged OH with bringing home a new bag, which he did.
Reader, they're smooth and solid poured parafin, with a pure cotton (no wires) wick--and they come in clear plastic cups! Pricey, but worth it. We're a hop-skip from the Canadian border, and these are made in Canada, where apparently, they do things right! So I sent His Nibs back to the store today to buy more--he said the display was half-gone since yesterday, and he brought me three more bags. Now, how long do you reckon 200 tealights is going to hold me?
I will retain a handful of the aluminum cups--in a metal candleholder, the plastic can get hot enough to melt, so in those cases I'll use the metal.
