I rather over-enthusiastically blew out a candle on my mantlepiece,and the wax has splattered against the wall.Does anyone have any suggestions how I might remove it.The wall is painted with a matt emulsion paint.
Viv.

Ice and a thumbnail, hold an ice cube to the wax, which will make it brittle, then work the edge of each spot with a thumbnail, the wax spatters should pop off...There may be some spotting left behind on the paint from the petroleum content of the candles, I've had some success rubbing such spots with cornstarch to absorb the oil...on a matte finish, though, you may need to repaint the area or mount a mirror to cover the spots.

I need to add that if this is a colored wax you may need to prime before repainting The coloring will tend to bleed deep into the paint and will bleed through any new coat applied.

Good point, David, I was presuming white tapers for some reason...thanks for catching the ball I fumbled!

Have you tried products such as "Goof-Off," "Goo-Gone," or "Oops" ? They're supposed to remove, among other things, colored crayons (i.e., wax). I think the active solvent is xylene.

Might be worth first testing in a hidden area to see its effect on your paint.

After all this gooey-off gopp fails, try some felt blotter paper with a warn-hot iron...

Thanks for all your replies.
Mrs S,I never thought of ice,I was thinking more along the lines of heat,but after a similar incident involving, wax,my brand new carpet,and a hot iron,I was hoping to avoid a similar mishap!!!
It took some time as there was quite alot of wax and I have no nails (I used a plastic spatula)it worked,thank you.
Thankfully it was cream coloured candles on cream walls,but thanks for the tip David.
Professor,unfortunately we don't seem to have any of the wonderfully named products available here in the UK (though possibly they go under some boring other name!)
Frizzs,thanks,but I must refer back to my previous incident with wax and hot irons.(My husband has never worked out what that strange triangular shape is that can been seen when the light catches the carpet just so! )
Viv.

You can blow on the flame with your finger before your mouth as like you were saying 'Shhh' to the candle. This causes the wind from your breath to become turbulant on the other side of your finger make a spiral in the air instead of a constant mono-directional blast which tends to splatter wax in that genral direction.

It reduces splatters a lot.

Oh my gosh - I had the same thing happen to me this summer. A colored candle on a candle warmer exploded all over my kitchen wall. What the maintenance man told me to do was to take a terry cloth towel and wet it and wring it out. Then place it over the wax and take an iron set on steam and iron over the wax. The heat will dissolve the wax and melt it onto the towel. It worked well enough but I still ended up sanding a few areas and then spraying the wall with Kilz spray primer and painting over it. I can surely commiserate with you.

And David's trick for blowing out a candle works well. I learned that same trick on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and have been blowing out candles that way ever since! But I hold my finger toward the flame as if pointing to the flame and then blow down the length of the finger.

Goof off works great!