DIY
Making Beautifully Scented Candles at Home Is So Much Easier (and Cheaper!) Than You Think
A fun winter DIY project.
You can’t beat lighting a beautifully scented candle to wind down as part of your self-care routine or during winter time. But if you’re someone who buys candles quite frequently, you’ll know they don’t always come cheap.
Making your own candles is fun, can help cut your regular candle costs and is a great way to create something completely personal to you. Believe it or not, making your own candles isn’t actually as hard as you may think. Here’s a great step-by-step guide from Supplies for Candles on how to do it…
How to Make Your Own Candles at Home
To make a seven ounce candle you will need:
- Candle wax
- Wicks
- Candle glasses
- Container to melt the wax in (such as a double boiler or a smaller pan inside of a large pan)
- Pouring Jug
- Utensil to stir the wax (wooden spatula or lollipop stick)
- Thermometer
Optional:
- Fragrance oils
- Candle dyes
- Wick centering tool
Method
- Prepare your candle making space. Dealing with wax can be quite messy, so make sure you have a clean flat surface to work on (we suggest putting some newspaper down too) and move anything you don’t want to get wax on.
- Weigh and measure how much wax you need. For this example, use 5.6 ounces to fill a seven ounce glass.
If you’re not sure how much wax you need, simply fill your container with water and pour into a measuring jug, then measure the amount of water the container holds in cups. Minus 20 percent off this amount, this leaves you with roughly the amount of wax your container holds in grams.
- Empty your measured wax into your heating pot. Heat it to 158 degrees Fahrenheit and stir gently. It will roughly take 10 to 15 minutes for the wax to melt and make sure it doesn’t exceed 176 degrees Fahrenheit.
- While the wax is melting, prepare your glasses. Wash them in hot water, dry and then place your wick in the center of the wax. If you want to attach your wick with some wax, simply dip the end into your pot of wax and then pop it into your jar, holding it in place until the wax dries and it stands on its own.
- One your wax has reached 158 degrees Fahrenheit, take it off the heat and let it cool until it reaches 149 degrees Fahrenheit. Pour your wax from the pot into your jug and then pour into your candle glasses. Make sure you pour your wax gently to avoid air bubbles, leaving a one centimeter gap at the top.
- Take your wick centring tool and rest this on top of your candle jar with the wick pointing through the hole to keep it in place. If you don’t have one, grab two pencils and lay them across the glass jar with one either side of your wick to hold it in place.
- Leave your candle to harden overnight at room temperature.
- Trim the wick and your candle is ready to light!
How to Make Your Own Scented Candles
If you want to make your candles scented or to even have some color, here’s what you need to do:
- After step four and when your wax has reached 158 degrees Fahrenheit, open your bag of candle dye into the wax and stir gently until all the color has dissolved and spread evenly. If you’re liquid candle dye, just use a few drops at a time until you get your desired color.
- If you then want to then add fragrance to your candle, continue with step five and take your wax off the heat and let it cool to 149 degrees Fahrenheit. Once it has cooled to this temperature, pour in your fragrance and gently mix. Then continue to pour your wax into your jug.
This article originally appeared on our sister site, Yours.
