Candles are very popular home décor items and perfect gifts. But they are more than that. Candles easily transform dull ordinary room into relaxing or romantic boudoir, filling the room with enchanting glow and scent. Burning essential oil scented candles may even be beneficial for your body and soul – calming, soothing or energizing.

Making candles is fun and rewarding. Using natural wax in candle making means no harmful emission, stable long burn, great scent throw and sustainability.

Some equipment and supplies are required to make a candle. They are both available from your local candle supplier. Some props are also available from dollar and convenience stores. Please make sure if you use any equipment for candle making to never use it for food/cooking.

Equipment & raw materials

1. Wax (soy, palm or other)
2. Candle wicks
3. Candle wick holders or skewers
4. Kitchen scale
5. Glue gun (optional)
6. Candy/cooking thermometer
7. Heatproof container (jars, tins)
8. Fragrance oil or essential oil (optional)
9. Wax dyes (optional)
10. Heatproof vessel to melt wax
11. Heatproof vessel to boil water or double boiler
12. Good mood (essential)

Method

Now, when you have everything ready, you can start making your beautiful candle!

Step 1 – Wick your container (jar, tin).

Please choose heatproof container for your candle. I use professional candle glass jars and tins. Ordinary preserve jars are fine to use too.

Pick the right wick size, depending on diameter of your container. Candle wick suppliers will have a guide to wick sizes, so you don’t have to guess.

If you have a glue gun, apply a small amount of hot glue on wick tab bottom and then gently press the tab to the bottom of your container. If you don’t have a glue gun, melt a small amount of wax and use it to “glue” the wick tab to the bottom of your container.

Make sure wick is positioned in the middle of your container.

Depending on type of wax you use, you may want to put your containers into the warm oven. Warm containers provide better adhesion of the wax to the container walls.

Step 2 – Melt your wax

You can use soy, palm wax or paraffin. I like using ecosoya wax, because it is 100% natural, biodegradable, does not contain pesticides, herbicides or Genetically Modified Materials.

Take a large vessel (I use a pot), fill it with water (1/3 of halfway) and place it on the hot stove. You need the water boiling on a medium heat to use this vessel/pot as a double boiler. Otherwise, you can use actual double boiler.

Weight your wax in a small heatproof vessel. Position this vessel into the vessel/pot with boiling water to melt the wax. Be careful, you don’t want any boiling water to splash into the wax.

Step 3 – Add wax dyes (optional)

You may add wax dyes if you wish on this stage straight into the pot with melting wax. Make sure you use dyes made specifically to color the wax. I use professional candle wax dyes, which are concentrated vegetable based and are suitable for natural waxes.

Step 4. – Adding fragrances (optional)

When all wax is melted, take the vessel with wax off the stove. Fragrances may be added on this stage. Add appropriate amount of fragrance (see below) in your wax and stir well to fully incorporate. Make sure the wax is not too hot, otherwise fragrance will evaporate. Check with your fragrance supplier the temperature recommended.

Few words about fragrances.

• Fragrance oils (FO) or Essential oils (EO) may be used.
• Make sure to use FO made specifically for scenting candles.
• Check with your FO supplier the correct % of FO to be added.
• When using EO, be aware of side effects. For example, lavender EO is not recommended during pregnancy.

I like using FO – professional cosmetic grade, highly purified fragrance oils. These fragrances don’t contain any phthalates, paraffin or UV inhibitors. They provide great stable scent throw. The usage recommended by my supplier is 6%-10%.

I use EO if my goal is to create aromatherapy candle. There is a wide variety of EO, which are relaxing, soothing, refreshing, comforting, energizing and alluring. Check here to see aromatherapy properties of EO.

Generally, it is advised using roughly 1 tea spoon of EO per 500g of wax, but please make your own testing as there are EO with very strong scent.

Step 5 – Pouring the wax

If you had your containers warming up in the oven, take them out and place onto the flat surface, somewhere stable. Pour your wax slowly to avoid air bubbles. Make sure not to move your container.

While pouring, hold the wick, so it doesn’t sink. When you finish pouring, place candle wick holders or skewers to hold the wick in place.

Leave your containers on the flat surface to let wax solidify.

The candle may be used straight after wax is solid and completely cool, however for best result, leave the candle to set for 24 hours.

Step 6 – Enjoy your beautiful candle!

In 24 hours you have a beautiful scented candle, which can become a great décor item for your home or an amazing handmade present!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and I wish you best luck in candle making.

If you don`t have enough time or supplies to make candles, check out my shop for natural fragrant candles you can buy. Thanks!