How Candle Refilling Services are Shaping the Industry

How Candle Refilling Services are Shaping the Industry

Refillable candles and refillables are big news.

Refillable products and refilling services are rapidly growing in availability and popularity. From local refill shops, offering food and household products by weight, to retail giants like Selfridges pledging to make 45% of sales circular by 2030 - including refillable and reusable products. 

Looking back only a matter of decades, refilling household products was common practice and even now, if you’re up early enough, you might catch sight of a milkman delivering milk in refillable glass bottles. But, generally, it’s become the norm to throw away or recycle packaging, even beautiful packaging like candle pots. 

I recycle my candle pots, isn’t that the most sustainable choice?

Recycling is good, refilling is better. While recycling is of course a great choice for the planet, the energy used to process waste into new, reusable materials is significant. Much better, and much easier, is refilling. 

Candle pots made of materials like ceramics or glass are infinitely refillable. As long as they are kept in good condition, so they are watertight and heat safe, a new candle can be poured into them again and again.  

With our candle refill service, we can refill any candle pot. Whether it’s glass or ceramic, old or new, if it’s watertight and heat safe, we can pour a brand new scented candle into it. 

If you have a pot you’d like refilling, you can find out more about our service and complete an order form here.

How will candle refill services change things for candle-lovers and the candle industry?

At the moment, candle refilling services are few and far between, with a handful of forward-thinking small businesses offering this sustainable service and a few high street retailers following suit. But, as with all great ideas, as more and more people use the service, the more companies will offer it, and it won’t be long before mainstream brands will offer candle refilling services too. 

And just to be crystal clear, in this article, we’re talking about refill services, where brands refill empty candle pots and send them back to you. We do this with our Poured Refills. The other way to refill your candle pot is to order one of Pillar Refills, compatible with our own pots only, you can find out more about those here.

Heal Refillable Candle

Here in the UK, we are a nation of candle-lovers. So, how will refillable candle services change the candle industry?

With candle refilling services, a candle is for life.

As a nation, we love candles. Although you can buy a scented candle for a fiver from the supermarket, often a candle is a luxury item, they are carefully chosen finishing touches in a home or an investment in self-care. And while candles are chosen for their scent, and the quality of the ingredients, the design and quality of the pot often plays a huge part in the choosing. It’s a huge shame to throw away a beautiful pot that’s been so lovingly chosen. 

Candle refilling services mean these treasured pots can be kept and used again and again. 

Candle refill services make luxury candles more affordable.

While part of the luxury of a scented candle is the pot - a beautiful object in itself - a lot of what makes a luxury candle is in the candle itself. The quality and provenance of the wax and oils, as well as the sustainability of things like the wick and wax itself. And not only the ingredients, the skill and expertise that goes into carefully blending the scents and pouring the candles all makes for a luxury product. 

With a refilling service, a luxury candle can be bought for a fraction of the price of the original candle. As with each refill, the pot is effectively free, a luxury candle can be bought again and again for much less than buying the whole candle, pot and all, again and again. 

Candle refilling services - create a uniquely personal gift.

Candle refilling services aren’t just limited to candle pots! Keepsakes like vintage teacups, planters or even ceramic tumblers and kitchenware can be turned into candles with refilling services. Treasured knick-knacks could find a whole new lease of life as a scented candle. A meaningful memento could be turned into a beautifully scented candle for a thoughtful gift on an anniversary or birthday. 

Refilling a candle

Explore a wide variety of scents.

A luxury candle can feel like a bit of a commitment. Thanks to the affordability of candle refill services, you can afford to be a bit more experimental. While you might usually choose scents you know you love, or play it safe with classic, popular scents, with a candle refill service, you can try out new scents that you may not have tried before, or maybe scents you’re not so familiar with. 

In fact, for this very reason, we created our Scented Tealight packs. These each contain a different selection of our scents, so you can try them out and discover which scents you really love and might want to try in a full size candle. 

Refill services support craftsmanship.

As candle refilling services become more widely available and more popular, candle pots will be bought to last much longer. As candle pots become less throwaway, they can be designed to last a lifetime. More time, effort, and skill can be invested in the design and making of the pots. 

This not only means better quality pots - with materials like ceramic already becoming popular - but it also means an opportunity for great design. If a candle pot is designed to be kept forever, it makes sense to make it beautiful. 

We work with artisans across the country to produce our candle pots. It’s a privilege to be able to work so closely with the people that make our pots and to know that our candles are supporting heritage UK crafts. 

It’s a win-win situation - a more sustainable industry will make for a more beautiful product and the chance for great design, as well as great craftsmanship, to flourish. 

Refill services make for a more transparent industry.

Like most things, buying a candle is usually fairly transactional. You place an order online; you receive a candle. With a candle refill service there is, by necessity, more interaction between you and the people that make your candle. This makes for a much more personal experience where you can make sure you’re getting the exact candle, and the exact scent you want. 

With candle refills, you also know exactly where and when your candle is being made, which makes for a much more transparent service. 

Abbie refilling candles

Great House Farm Stores candle refill service.

Here at Great House Farm Stores, all our candles and candle refills are poured right here on our Welsh farm. We source our ingredients from UK suppliers and blend our Original Scent Recipes ourselves. We are passionate about scent and are very happy to chat to you about your choice of scent for your candle refill. 

So, if you’ve got a box at the bottom of your wardrobe full of beautiful but empty candle pots you can’t bear to part with, you now know just what to do with them. 

All our candle refill orders are bespoke - we check the size and suitability of your pot and quote prices based on weight of the candle. So, if you have a pot you’d like to refill, or if you have any questions about our scents, or advice on what scent you’d like to try, then just complete our order form and we’ll get back to you within a couple of days. 

From the day we launched Great House Farm Stores, we knew we wanted our candles to be refillable, so we developed our range of pioneering pillar refills, which make it easy for GHFS customers to refill their candles. 

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