* WW: Wish Candles - Budget Friendly Alternative!

Personal thoughts & experiences with wish candles..

Over the years I've seen the prices of candles.. I've made my own.. I have bought second hand, clearance, full price, imported etc etc and all of that isn't exactly cheap..!   Then one day I was in a pinch and I remembered some birthday candles I got for my kid sisters birthday cake (Or wish candles as I like to call them) and I've never had a spell work so well..!  And now I more or less just use them!

🕯 So here's my thoughts!

First of all.. Birthday candles / Wish candles are rather powerful in my head..  And what I mean by that is, when we think of wishes they are powerful..  It's as they say "you should always be careful what you wish for!" and yet every year to celebrate the aging of one year we stick some on top of a cake and a wish is made before the candles are blown out!! I'm sure this is an international occurrence that everyone does.. or at least knows about?! ..and for most of them people they believe..!  Even as far as to say they can't tell you what they wished for because then it might not come true!!  This, in my opinion, is some very strong beliefs and for me a lot of my practice is founded on "it will work because I believe in it" and doubts cause the negative energies and that's when spells, wishes, rituals, prayer etc go ary.  So that's some powerful stuff right there, I'm my opinion!

So as said for me wish candles tick all the boxes they might be small but doesn't mean they're less!!  Unless you're referring to the cost..!! I pick up mine on ebay and sometimes I even wait for sales on already cheap candles (images below of some of what ebay.co.uk has to offer..) You can even get the solid black.  You can also get them with glitter - perfect for fairy / fae type magicks.  Multi coloured..  Neon..  Zigzag..  Spots..  Stripes.. Straight... Twisted..  Shapes..  China now do emoji candles so if you were working with emotions that might be something to look into..  Letters..  Numbers..  and more..!

[They're all round a perfect size for my travel altar as well!!  (that said my travel altar is just all round perfect size everything just fits perfectly lol - but that's a show and tell for another time, maybe!).

Sneak Peak ;)

I digress, as said they're inexpensive and available in a whole array of colours, shapes, scents, burn times etc. Additional benefits of wish candles are they don't last long which is great if you're (like me) disabled and need things to be done a bit quicker, they can be safer such as most are non drip, you can still anoint them, engrave..  Sounds pretty good! Well for me it is..

Did I mention they're easy to store too? Just all round love them!  Brilliant!

So I absolutely would recommend...  And I'd love to know your thoughts...  Do you use them?  Will You use them now?  Was this some food for thought?  Are you dead set against the idea?  Let me know in the comments below..

🕯 Tealight Candles!

On another note if you live in the UK then Wilkos do a big bag of plain white tealights: 100 of them for £2 unscented - white will work for all if not almost all of the time in place of any coloured candle, in fact I've come across practitioners before that only use white and black candles..  Which can be used alone or dressed with oils, herbs, stones etc..  Fantastic..  They seem to last me forever too (I have a jar full of them, which I found the jar for 99p in a charity shop, and another bag and a half in storage!!)  I use them as working candles, offerings, in spells and ritual, in my oil burners and much more..  Can't really go wrong each one lasts upto 3.5 hours.. Apparently!  So why not?  Wilkos also sell a 30 pack for £4 but they last upto 8 hours each though I'm more happy with me 100 for £2 also available online to UK buyers at www.wilko.com

🕯 Hanukkah / Chanukah candles!

Another type of candle are Hanukkah candles which tend to be fairly inexpensive in January also known as Chanukah currently priced at a box of 44 for about £5 typically these are white, blue, off red, off yellow, yellow, off orange, orange and/or green in my experience. But they're about twice the size of birthday candles but work under the same principles and used for festive celebration.

🕯 Spell candles & Chime candles.

I rarely buy spell candles but when I can find them on sale cheap enough or if I find a bundle that is reasonably priced and includes herbs and incense and trinkets and things then I snap them up!!  Chime candles are only a lil smaller than spell candles or seems that way.  I struggle to find them here in the UK but around Christmas I sometimes find off white ones and try and pick them up in the January sales.

Example of Wish, Hanukkah and Spell Candles  

Example of Wish, Hanukkah and Chime Candles  

🕯 Other candles!

Wilkos and Poundland do seem to stock pillar and votives and even dinner candles..  But the colour selections seem limited and prices are a lil high in my opinion (maybe I watch too many US and Canada witchy hauls..!)

As mentioned now and then I buy spell candles and rarely I get handmade beeswax which I don't want to start a debate on varying kinds and quality and toxins of waxes but rarely do I ever find beeswax candles super cheap!! (And my disability/medical stuff and limited income means a real tight budget!)

All I need to do now is find dirt cheap hurricane / 7 day tall thin glass candles super cheap (or even at all!) hehe..

And for most other things I make my own.. Such as skull candles, heart, flower, cat, votive etc..

🖤 Imogen xo

Ps. The only downside, in my opinion, with these smaller candles ie Birthday and Hanukkah candles is finding holders that aren't the plastic stick in cake or the £25+ sterling silver keepsakes!! To combat this I've been been filling a small dish up with sand or salt and sticking them in that (but I have plans to glues some lil wood slices together and drilled a hole in them!!  (That's if I ever find my chuck key for my drill!!) - I also have difficulties finding chime or spell candle sized holders here in the UK so use the same sand or salt holder idea. So might also make some holders for them too..

Anyways hope you find this useful.  BB.