Vicks is very effective at relieving the symptoms of coughs, sore throats, stuffy noses, and all the other symptoms that come with colds.
One of the best ways to use Vicks is to breathe in the vapor, typically rubbed on your chest or a cloth you can place near your nose to inhale.
With wax warmers being one of the easiest ways to fill a room with a scent, the question – can I put Vicks in my wax warmer? Often comes up.
The short answer is, NO.
It’s a bad idea for a number of reasons and I will explain in more detail:
Contents
3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Use Vicks in Your Wax Warmer
Heat Reduces the Effectiveness of Vicks
Vicks advise against using heat with their product in any way. Vicks contains some oils that are volatile and the structure of the oils will change when warmed up.
This means you will get little if any of the decongestion effect from breathing in the Vicks. So there is really no point using it in a wax warmer.
It’s Difficult to Clean off Your Wax Warmer
Something we take for granted with wax melts designed to be used in wax warmers is that they are also designed to be easily cleaned off the warmer.
Vicks isn’t. I used some in my Scentsy warmer (I don’t recommend doing this) for the purpose of testing what I’m writing about and it was incredibly difficult to clean out.
You’ll Probably Void the Warranty on Your Wax Warmer
Most wax warmers, if not all of them come with a warning that using anything other than melts designed to be used with the warmer will void your warranty.
If you’ve forked out for a decent warmer like a Scentsy or been lucky enough to be gifted one, the last thing you want is a fault and not being able to send it back under warranty because you tried Vicks in it.
What’s the Correct Way to Use Vicks?
There are a few different Vicks products on the market. The most common is the VapoRub, with this, you simply rub it into your chest so you can breathe in the vapor as you sleep.
Or you can put it on your pillow or a cloth nearby if you don’t want it on your skin. As long as it’s close enough to breathe in the vapors you’ll get the benefits.
Final Thoughts
There you have it, 3 good reasons why you should not be putting Vicks in your wax warmer. The same goes for fragrance oils, Olbas Oil, or anything other than wax melts designed to be used with your warmer.
If you want a good alternative I recommend using essential oils and a diffuser. Essential oils have healing and wellness properties and there are some that are great for relieving the symptoms of a cold.
You can use eucalyptus, peppermint, or thyme oils which are all effective for relieving the same symptoms as Vicks.
Or, check out some powerful blends offered by some essential oil companies such as doTERRA’s On Guard.
Diffusers operate with a few drops of your chosen oil and some water. They then diffuse the oil into the air at the optimal temperature so they retain all the healing properties. Unlike a wax warmer that harms the oil because it gets too hot.
If you want to learn more you can check out my review of the Radha Beauty Diffuser, the best essential oils to get started with, and some of the reasons why diffusers are awesome.
I’m a MA, (CMT) Certified Massage Therapist, Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT), and Reiki Master — I’m a licensed massage therapist with over 10 years of experience in the industry.
Vicks Vapor products are used with heat. Body heat is used with Vapor rub, boiling water is used in a vaporizer with vapo steam, heat is used with vapo pads in the wall plug ins, as well as in the slots on a vaporizer, and the small medicine bowl on top of vaporizers where you can put a couple different Vapor products also uses heat.