How to Make Homemade Candles
Is there anything better than sitting down with a cup of tea or coffee in the morning and lighting your favorite candle? In our opinion, candles are absolutely essential. You can use them year round to brighten your mood and add the most beautiful scents to your space. We love fresh scented candles for the spring and summer months to promote productivity and warm and cozy scents for those colder months where coziness is key.
Upside of Homemade Candle Making
Unfortunately, most quality candles are super expensive and the cheap ones we’re all tempted to buy are usually filled with all kinds of nasty ingredients, including paraffin, wax that releases carcinogens into your space. (Paraffin is a waste product from Petroleum and is not a renewable resource and is not beneficial to the earth or to our bodies.)
The good news is homemade candles are so fun and easy to make at home. You can make them on your own, but candle making is also a total blast with friends. Make a little party out of it! We love taking a trip to the thrift store to pick out our own candle vessels to make them even more sustainable and unique.
Using Natural Ingredients
Ok, let’s talk about our favorite waxes. Our personal go-to wax is beeswax, because of its lower impact on the earth and our health, and its incredible smell and color. Beeswax can be slightly pricey, but with its long burn time, it’s worth the money! Another option is soy wax. Soy wax doesn’t rank quite as high as beeswax in our books, but it’s a natural wax that comes at a cheaper price and doesn’t create the soot you’d find with paraffin wax while burning. We’d mix beeswax and soy to keep the price down and get the best of both worlds. It will also give you a much more even burn.
Instructions for How to Make Homemade Candles:
1. Measure 1 part beeswax wax to 3 parts soy wax and melt in a heat-proof container. The beeswax melts at a higher temperature ,so you can melt your beeswax then add your soy.
*(We’d recommend using a glass measuring cup, like pyrex, or a jar. They can be found super cheap at the thrift store and you’ll probably want to use something you won’t mind having wax on forever. Make it a designated wax-melting vessel for the future.
2. Right after your wax has melted, prepare your candle vessel. Dip the metal base of the wick into the melted wax or use a little craft glue to stick the wick to the bottom of your dish.. You can loop the extra wick around a pencil, or whatever you have on hand, to keep it in place while you pour your wax in.
3. Now that you’ve waited for your wax to cool a little, you can now add your chosen fragrance. Essential oils work great. Simply add as much as you want and stir into your melted wax.
4. Continue to cool till the mixture becomes slightly cloudy, then pour into your candle vessel.
5. Let your candle cool at room temp for 24 hours before burning for best results. If you have any cracks once it’s solidified, or your candle hasn’t adhered to the walls of the vessel, there’s a little hack you can try to fix that. Take a blow dryer and heat the top of the candle on its lowest setting till a shallow layer of the wax is melted. Be careful of splatter! The wax should flow into the gaps and close them, but if it needs a little help, you can give your candle a little tilt to help the flow along.
6. Now you have a natural homemade candle!
7. Enjoy your gorgeous homemade candle! Trust us, once you’ve made one you won’t wanna go back to store-bought. Looking for another project? Learn how to take care of your clothes, the right way.
How to Make Homemade Candles
- Measure 1 part beeswax wax to 3 parts soy wax and melt in a heat-proof container.
- Prepare your candle vessels. Stick the wick to the bottom of the vessel. You can do this by either dipping it in hot wax or gluing it. You can loop the extra wick around a pencil and lay it on top.
- Let the wax cool slightly. Then, add fragrance.
- Pour your wax carefully into your vessel. Let sit for at least 24 hours.
