Ear Candling

Ever since I was very young, I have had problems with blockage in my ear due to wax build-up. Doctors tried flushing my ears out, but that hurt sometimes, especially when there's so much pressure from the water, which is the idea, I guess. I've had my aunt, who's a nurse, use an ear scraper to clean my ear, but that hurts, too. Too much use of the cotton swabs end up pushing the wax in deeper, so that I would end up flushing out my ears anyway.

About a few months before my wedding last year, I decided to try ear candling for the first time after hearing a few testimonials from friends. At the spa I went to, the Romanian lady that helped me was a very nice and social lady and whose English still needs to be refined. When I asked her what the candles were made of, she said, "Horny bees." I gently corrected her and she repeated "honey" several times to try and get it right. As I was leaving, she called out, "It was very nice doing you!" Ummm...yeah, thanks? But, she was such a sweet person! She told me that I was a very good customer because I chatted with her instead of fall asleep as some other clients do.

It has been over a year since that first experience and I feel like I should do another cleaning, but when I called, the person on the line told me that they stopped doing ear candling services. Since I knew health stores sold these candles, I decided to do it myself. Sort of. I asked my husband if he could help me clean my ears for me since ear candling can be a little dangerous if I couldn't see what I was doing.

$7.99 at the health store in the mall. If anyone knows where I can get them for cheaper, please let me know!

There I am in my pj's. The whole thing is very relaxing and comfortable. All I hear is some crackling noise, similar to what bacon sizzling in a pan would sound like. The plate is put there for safety reasons, but mainly for holding up the candle, so neither I nor D would have to.

The candle gives off a nice honey smell, but it also burns black smoke into the air.

All done! There's a red line on the candle that marks where you should burn up to. You could cut the remainder of the candle open to see the wax, but that's just gross. The Romanian lady did it just to show me that ear candling works.