Using wax melts instead of traditional candles to make your home smell more peasant has become increasingly popular. Wax melts have many advantages, but they always seem not to last very long and stop producing scent quite quickly. So, in this article, I’ll go over some ways you can make your wax melts last longer.
To make your wax melt last longer, only use them when you can thoroughly enjoy them, and other smells in your home won’t mask their scent. When you heat your wax melts, warm them slowly and make sure your warmer is clean to ensure they last as long as possible and smell pleasant.
Making your wax melts last longer is quite simple once you begin to look into it, but it can seem a little daunting from the outside. You must remember to do so many small things, but it is well worth the few extra hours you will get out of your wax melts.
Over the long haul, doing a few simple things to maximize the amount of time your wax melts last could save you a significant amount of money. And who doesn’t like to save a little money, right?! So let’s just jump right into it and go over six of my favorite ways to make a wax melt last longer!
How to Make Your Wax Melt Last Longer
A wax melt only has a specified amount of wax and scent available, so there is no way to make a melt last forever, but you can do a few things to make it last longer than it would otherwise.
None of these things are magic bullets by themselves, but it can make a pretty significant difference in how long your wax melts last when you do multiple of them together. Making many small incremental adjustments to how you use and buy your wax melts can make all the difference.
You don’t have to follow all of the tips listed below to make your melts last longer, but the more you do, the more of a difference you will likely notice.
1. Heat the Wax Slowly
One of the best things you can do to make your wax melts last longer is simply heat them slowly. It’s such a simple thing, but it can make your wax melts release their fragrance for quite a bit longer than if you warmed them rather quickly.
Most good electric warmers will heat your wax melt at precisely the correct speed, but it is always good to keep this in mind and make sure yours is doing it correctly.
As for how fast is too fast for heating your wax melts, there isn’t an exact answer. Simply heat them until you can strongly smell their scent, and then slowly warm them from there. As you become more familiar with your warmer and wax melts in general, you’ll have a better sense of how fast you should heat them to make them smell nice for the longest amount of time.
It’s not an exact science because there are many variables in the type of wax melts you have and your warming setup, but just know that slowly heating your wax melts is a good idea and can dramatically improve how long they last.
2. Use Wax Melts with the Correct Type of Scented Oils
This trick for making your wax melts last longer might be a little controversial, and some people may choose not to do it. Let me explain.
When you choose which wax melts to purchase, there are generally two different options regarding the way they are scented: essential oils or fragrance oils.
Now you might be thinking, “What’s the difference, and why does this matter if I’m just trying to make my wax melts last longer?” Well, this does have quite an impact on how long your wax melts last, but there is a double-sided argument to this one.
Fragrance oils are typically synthetic compounds used in various cleaning and beauty products to make them smell nice. On the other hand, essential oils are naturally derived scents from real fruits, plants, and other natural materials. Many people will tell you to stay away from fragrance scents whenever possible because of their synthetic makeup, but they make wax melts last longer.
See where I’m going with this and why it might be controversial?!
If you genuinely wanted to get your wax melts to last as long as possible, fragrance oils would be your best option. However, many people will choose to stay with essential oils, even though they don’t help extend the life of your wax melt.
3. Only Heat the Wax When You Need It
Many people will make their wax melts seemingly last only a few hours because they heat them even when they aren’t around. It’s pretty simple, but if you only use your wax melts when you are around to enjoy them, you will get a lot more use out of them, and they will seem to last longer.
If you are going out of your house and nobody will be home, there is no sense in warming your wax melts while you’re gone. Plus, you will probably be eliminating a potential fire hazard!
Even when you are home, it’s a good idea to ask yourself, “Am I able to enjoy my wax melts right now?” If not and you are simply too busy, you could decide not to melt them and save them for when you will enjoy them more.
Just be conscious about when you are using your wax melts and how long they are running. I guarantee they will seem to last longer only because you will be using them when it matters and not just whenever you get the chance to turn it on.
4. Clean Your Warmer Regularly
To ensure your wax melt’s scent doesn’t mix with any of your previous scents and lasts as long as it possibly can, you should clean your warmer after every use. That might be taking it to a bit of an extreme, but you should definitely clean your warmer’s dish quite regularly.
Once you have finished using your warmer, there are likely bits of unused wax left or a fine layer of wax coating the bottom of your warmer dish. There are many reasons you would want to clean all of this leftover wax out, but one of the main reasons is it will impact your warmer’s efficiency the next time you use it.
To get the most out of each wax melt, your warmer must be working at maximum efficiency. It might seem to make a minimal impact, but if you don’t clean your warmer for a long time, it can significantly impact how long your wax melts last.
5. Only Use Your Melts When It Doesn’t Conflict With Other Smells
There are many instances where using a wax melt would be utterly useless because other scents in your home are more robust and would overpower it. It is pointless even to try using your wax melts in these situations because you’ll end up just wasting them and not enjoying them as much as you could’ve.
And as I’ve mentioned before, using your wax melts when you won’t fully enjoy them makes them seem to last only a short amount of time.
When you are cooking or have other strong scents in your home, simply don’t use your wax melts for a little while, and you’ll seemly make them last longer than if you did use them while your home was full of other strong smells.
6. Switch Out Scents Regularly to Avoid Natural Anosmia
If you are continually using the same scented wax melts in your house, there is a simple way to make your melts seemingly last longer just by switching it up a bit.
If you are regularly exposed to the same smell repeatedly, some people develop natural anosmia, also known as olfactory fatigue. Without going too far into it and getting way too technical, olfactory fatigue is basically when you are exposed to a scent regularly (the smell in your wax melts), and you become “blind” to it.
When you begin warming a wax melt, it will start putting off some of its most robust scent after only a little while when it begins to melt. As you continue warming it, its aroma will become weaker and weaker until you replace it with a new one.
If you have become “blind” to a familiar wax melt scent that you use in your home, you will usually only be able to smell it when it is at its strongest (when you first put your wax melt on the warmer). As the wax’s scent wanes, you won’t be able to smell it because of the natural olfactory fatigue you have developed.
By switching it up and using a new scent in your home, you’ll sidestep any “blindness” you may have developed to your usual wax melt scent. When you use a new scented wax melt, it will seem to last much longer because you will be able to enjoy it the entire time that it is putting off a pleasant smell.