Wax melts or candles is not really an either-or question. A candle gives you flame, glow and scent in one object, and a wax melt gives you more scent for less money, with a burner you keep and refill. Most homes we know end up with both, used at different times of day.
Here is how we tell them apart, what each one costs to run, and when we would reach for one over the other.
A few of the links below go to Amazon. We only point you off-site for things we do not stock ourselves, and only to things we would actually use. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases — it costs you nothing.
What a wax melt actually is
A wax melt is a small block of scented wax with no wick. You set it in the dish of a burner, light a tealight underneath, and the warmth melts the wax slowly and lets the scent out. When you snuff the tealight the wax cools and sets again, and next time you simply relight it. You keep going until the scent has gone, then tip out the spent wax and start a fresh melt.
Ours come eight to a box, hand-poured from natural soy wax and individually wrapped, and one melt gives around fifteen hours of scent in a standard burner. A box, then, is roughly 120 hours of fragrance for £14.95. You do need a burner, which is a one-off from £9.95, and a supply of tealights.
What a candle gives you that a melt cannot
A flame. That sounds obvious, but it is most of the reason people light candles at all. The moving light on a wall, the low warmth on a dark evening, the ritual of striking a match: none of that comes from a burner, where the tealight is hidden away beneath the dish and does its work quietly.
A candle is also finished. It arrives ready, it looks right on a table or a mantelpiece whether or not it is lit, and it needs nothing else to work. Our soy jar candles burn for 30 to 35 hours and cost £14.95. The larger 380g botanical soy candles run for around 45 hours at £26.95. Set against a box of melts, a candle costs more per hour of scent, and that is the honest trade you make for the flame and the object.
Scent: strength and control
This is where melts win, and it is worth being plain about it. Because the whole surface of the melted wax is warmed at once, a melt tends to fill a room faster and more fully than a candle of the same fragrance, whose scent comes only from the small pool around the wick. If you want a hallway to smell of something by the time a guest arrives, a melt in a burner will get you there sooner.
Melts are also easier to change your mind about. Fancy something fresher tomorrow? Let the wax set, lift it out, and put a different melt in. With a candle you are committed to that scent until the jar is empty. And with a shelf of melts you can mix, dropping half a melt of one scent in with half of another, which is a quiet pleasure of its own.
A candle, though, is gentler. If you find scented rooms overwhelming, or you want a background note rather than a statement, a candle's slower release is the kinder choice.
Safety, and where each one lives
Both involve a flame, so neither should be left burning unattended or within reach of children, pets or curtains. A burner has an advantage here: the tealight sits inside the ceramic, largely enclosed, and the dish of wax sits above it. A candle in a jar is more exposed, and a tall one more so. We would put a burner on a bathroom shelf or a kitchen windowsill, and save the candle for the coffee table or the dining table where you are sitting with it.
Whichever you choose, trim a candle wick to about 5mm before each burn, stop burning while roughly 1cm of wax remains, and never top up a burner dish while it is hot.
If the flame itself is the worry, a candle warmer lamp melts a jar candle from above with a bulb and no flame at all. You lose the flicker and keep the scent.
When we would choose which
Melts for the everyday: the weekday evening, the bathroom, the room that needs to smell of something before people arrive. They are cheap to run, easy to change, and a burner looks handsome on a shelf even when it is cold. Candles for the occasion: supper with friends, a long bath, a Sunday afternoon with a book. The flame is the point, and the scent is the bonus.
If you have never used melts, start with a burner and a couple of boxes. If you already love candles and want more fragrance for the room without buying more candles, a burner is the sensible next step rather than a replacement.
What we would choose
To begin with melts, the Ceramic Wax Melter and Four Soy Wax Melts at £19.95 has everything in one box: a little cut-out ceramic burner and four melts to try, so there is nothing else to buy.
If you already have a burner, or want the plainest one we sell, the Classic Ceramic Oil Burner in matt black is £9.95, and a box of Seasalt and Moss Soy Wax Melts at £14.95 is where we would start on scent: clean, green and good in a bathroom.
For the candle side, the Bamboo Soy Wax Candle at £14.95 burns for 30 to 35 hours in a chunky recycled glass jar, and the Windermere Botanical Soy Candle at £26.95 is the large one, 380g and around 45 hours, for a room that needs opening up.
The full ranges are in our Wax Melts, Candles and Oil Burners and Melters collections, and UK standard delivery is free.