Yes, my thinking exactly, Little Hawk, but when I tried it with a plastic soda bottle and put a small hole in the side of the bottle the inside of the bottle ended up covered in a fine layer of candle wax. Scary. There was also no brown wax left in the candle.

When I used a small rolled tube of cardboard sealed onto the end of the candle and sealed at the bottom (with duct tape of course!) then I ended up with hardly anything in the tube and the usual brown wax in the candle end.

I could try it again with the rolled tube and just put a small hole in the tube and see what happens.

I can afford to make the experiments because I make my own ear candles so they are a lot cheaper than the store bought ones.

Helen