Quita Mal (Remove Evil) tin candle

How to Use It

Witchcraft & Folk Magick

• Limpia support: light the candle before sweeping someone with an egg, a lemon or a bundle of fresh rue and basil, and keep it burning through the cleansing.
• Mal de ojo: burn beside a glass of water for a child or adult thought to have the evil eye, then pour the water out the front door.
• After visitors: light it in the living room after a gathering where envy or conflict was in the air.

Folk Catholicism & Spiritism

• Burned before an image of Saint Michael or the Sacred Heart with a spoken Our Father or Credo asking that harm be lifted.
• Placed by the bed overnight in the tin, lid off, while a rosary is said for protection.

A Simple Working

• Gather a bundle of fresh rue, or rosemary if rue is not to hand.
• Light the candle and open a window in the room.
• Sweep the bundle over yourself from the top of the head down to the feet, saying quita mal each time.
• Brush the bundle out towards the window after each pass.
• Let the candle burn for an hour, then put the lid on to snuff it.
• Throw the used herbs away outside the house and wash your hands.

Pairs Well With

• Rue: the herb most used in limpias against mal.
• Fresh eggs: for egg cleansing done by the candle’s light.
• An evil eye charm: to wear once the cleansing is done.
• Holy water: to sprinkle in corners afterwards.

What You Receive

One scented Quita Mal candle with crystal chips, poured in a tin with a lid, 120 g, berry scented.

Origin & Lore

In Mexican and wider Latin American folk practice, mal covers a range of troubles: envy, the evil eye, bad luck that sticks, a heaviness picked up from people or places. Quita Mal products, from baths to sprays to candles, are made for the cleansing that removes it, and the candle is lit to support a limpia or burned on its own.

Quita mal is what a grandmother says while sweeping an egg or a bundle of herbs over a sick or unlucky child: take the evil away.

Mal de ojo, the evil eye, is one of the best-known folk illnesses of Mexico and Central America, and children are thought to be most at risk from an admiring or envious look. The classic response is a limpia, often with a raw egg passed over the body and then cracked into water, where bubbles, threads and clouded yolk are read for what has been removed.