DIY Makeup Brush Holder

I've set up a makeup desk out of a tea cart (which I will be styling and sharing with y'all next week!) in our master bedroom with all of my makeup, perfume, and my everyday jewelry.  I've been keeping my makeup brushes in a small cosmetic case, but I've wanted a container to hold them and make the cart look prettier. After looking at a bunch of different options (fancy water cups in the bath section of Target, Marshall's, and Home Goods), I decided to make my own makeup brush holder using an item I already had: a used candle.

Mr. 3's mother-in-law gave me a nice Tocca candle which I really enjoyed burning (it has a cucumber grapefruit fragrance that is wonderful) and the candle was in a pretty, opaque white glass container that I knew could be reused, but just needed a bit of cleaning up.  This project is super simple and easy to do with any old glass candle containers.

Tocca Cleopatra Candle
$38
Image Source: Amazon (also available here and here)

Here's what I started with:

The candle had a bit of soot around the top portion of the container that needed to be cleaned.  I first tried spraying Method kitchen cleaner on a paper towel, but that just smeared it around mostly and didn't really get a whole lot of the soot off.  So I then grabbed a Scrubbing Bubbles wipe that I usually use for bathroom cleaning and it came off much easier.   Here's how it looked after:

The remaining black residue is stuck to melted wax and would need to be scrapped off.  Since I was just putting makeup brushes in it anyways and the container it likely to get a good coating of makeup dust anyways, I didn't bother trying to remove it.  I then popped the candle in the freezer (setting a timer for 30 minutes so I wouldn't forget about it) to remove the wax and little bit of wick remaining in the bottom.

After 30 minutes had past, I took the container out and ran a knife around the edge to loosen the wax and it popped out cleanly.  Here's how it looked after I put my makeup brushes in:

Pretty cute, right?  Best part about this project is that it was (1) free! and (2) fast.  It's nice to sit down to put on makeup with such a pretty container and the candle still lingers a bit so I'm still getting to enjoy the fragrance.

Anyone else have any fun uses for candle containers?  I think they are a great way to keep something from going to the landfill and prettying up a space!