How to remove candle wax from fabrics

Have you ever spent a lovely evening with someone beloved cherishing your favorite meal surrounded with candle ambiance? If so then you must be familiar with the exotic and romantic aura surrounding these candles. The feeling is undoubtedly heavenly and blissful.

Yet, when you try to blow off these candles and the melted wax splatters down the very front of your precious evening gown, then perhaps the feeling might not be that comforting.

Worse still, when this melted candle wax drips on your mom’s table cloth and linen. Now, something very definite has to be done with these candle stains. You just cannot let them ruin your fabrics and this is precisely where we step in and we are proposing the following method.

Our alternate cold and hot remedy will remove candle wax and the accompanying stains from any fabric’s surface. Follow the directions given below and eventually you will end up with your fabric as good as new.

So that next time when you feel like throwing a candle lit dinner, wax stains will definitely not make you have second thoughts.

Things that you will require:

· Absorbent paper towels

· Ice pack/ freezer

· Butter knife/edge of a spoon/expired credit card

· Vacuum

· Brown paper bags

· Iron

· Fabric cleaner/ vinegar solution

· Clean water

Steps that you need to take:

1.   The first and foremost step while treating freshly melted wax is to hasten and place some absorbent towels over in. Do not rub it as it will only spread the stain further and get the wax deeper into the fabric fibers.

2.   However, if you were unable to get to the wax before it dried up, then you ought to give it plenty of time so that it can harden. If you happen to be in a hurry, then you can speed up this hardening process by placing the fabric inside the freezer for some time. An alternative method is to place an ice pack over it.

3.   Once the wax has hardened, you ought to scrape it off the fabric using a blunt knife/the edge of a spoon or an expired credit card.

4.   This would remove the majority of candle wax off your fabric’s surface. Now, in order to ensure that all the wax traces have been properly dealt with, you can consider using a vacuum attachment.

5.   Wax remnants can stick to the fabric fibers and refuse to come off. To take care of such stubborn wax traces, you have to go for the hot treatment. This treatment is contrary to the one elaborated above. It involves melting the wax. Although melting wax once again to get rid of it, might sound counter intuitive, yet this method has yielded immensely satisfactory results.

6.   All you have to do is place a brown paper bag or any absorbent paper towel onto the waxy stain.

7.   Take an iron and adjust it to low-medium heat setting. (Depending upon the texture of your fabric and your particular requirements). Iron this respective paper bag or paper towel. Wax will melt and get absorbed into the paper bag or towel. Consequently, it will get off the fabric fibers.

8.      Continue replacing the paper bag or towel with fresh ones until it shows no more oily residue.

9.      This will mark the end of your stain treatment procedure if you were dealing with white or color less wax.

10.   Yet if it’s a colored wax which we have here, then most likely it would have left behind a dye stain. To remove this colored stain, either you can resort to a commercial fabric cleaner or make a homemade vinegar solution yourself; as vinegar is known to be an effective cleansing agent.

11.   Mix one part vinegar in two parts of water and blot the stain with this solution. Keep blotting the stain, until it is no longer visible.

12.   Eventually, rinse it with clean water and let it air dry.

Tips and Warnings:

· Make sure that the ice pack you are using is completely sealed. A leaking ice pack can condensate the wax, making its removal all the more difficult.

· Do not let the iron stay on one spot for too long, otherwise it might scorch the fabric.

· Try not to get petroleum candles. Instead opt for a better quality of candles. This is because, the former candles drip more frequently and their colored stains are harder to remove.