I may not ever waste my time by dripping wax over cotton balls. If I have cotton balls and wax, then I may just put a cotton ball on top of a candle and light it.

I lit the cotton ball below by using a ferro rod. I didn't expect what happened next. The cotton behaved as a wick! The flame was huge. I could not put the flame out by blowing hard on it. So, this setup is windproof to some extent. The flame was going for about five minutes and could have gone for a lot longer. I got bored and put the flame out by dowsing the flame with water. The next step is to test this method in the wild with a smaller candle that's better for carrying.