Candle-making is a creative craft that allows you to infuse your living spaces with your favorite scents and styles. Whether you're a seasoned artisan or a beginner looking to explore the world of candle making, this step-by-step guide will help you create beautiful, handcrafted candles. Let's dive in!
Section 1: Picking the Wax
Choosing the right wax is the first step in creating your handmade candles. There are several types of wax to consider, but here are a few to get started with:
- Soy Wax: Known for its “clean” and slow burn, soy wax has become increasingly popular in recent years, despite the little evidence to support its “clean burning” claims. Soy wax can be very hit or miss. Some fragrance oils will work great with pure soy, while others just won’t work at all. This coupled with the long cure times can make for an incredibly frustrating experience for first-time candle makers.
- Paraffin Wax: This wax is readily available and budget-friendly. It’s known for having exceptional hot throw but can have other undesirable issues such as shrinking of the wax and sinkholes making it difficult to work with for first-timers.
- Beeswax: Beeswax is another “natural” option with a lovely honey-like scent. It can be a bit more challenging to work with due to its higher melting point and can be a little more difficult to find compared to its soy and paraffin counterparts. Usually a good choice for making pillar or votive candles.
From my experience working with a wax blend will produce the best results and in turn, makes for a much smoother candle-making time for beginners. For first-timers, I’d recommend something like Problend 600 which is a single-pour paraffin soy wax blend. If you’re looking to avoid paraffin wax for whatever reason, you can investigate coconut soy blends such as C-6 or Golden Brands 454.
Section 2: Picking Your Vessel
Your choice of vessel determines the amount of wax, wick, and possibly even the amount of fragrance oil you’ll use. It’s important that early on in your candle-making journey you pick a vessel and stick with that vessel. If you’re constantly changing vessels, then you’ll have to purchase more wicks to accommodate the difference in vessel sizes and test them all for safety and performance which can become quite expensive and frustrating. There are a ton of different vessels or ways to make candles, but here are just a few to get you started:
- Glass Jars: Mason jars or decorative glass containers are popular choices for candle making. They allow you to see the wax and create a cozy ambiance.
- Tin Containers: Tin containers are great for travel candles and have a rustic charm.
- Teacups or Vintage Dishes: Repurposing teacups or vintage dishes can add a touch of nostalgia to your candles.
- Silicone Molds: These are perfect for making shaped or novelty candles.
Section 3: Picking Your Wick
Selecting the right wick is crucial for a safe and performant candle and will be the part of the candle-making process that takes the longest to get right. I can’t tell you exactly which wick to use, the wax and vessel sizes as well as the fragrance oil will determine that. But you don’t have to start completely in the dark.
Pretty much every candle-making supplier will have wick guides on their websites to aid you in finding the right wicks with your wax and vessel size. Wherever you’re purchasing your wax from look for their guide. If they don’t have one, then I’d suggest getting in contact with someone via email from the website or store who can supply you with the necessary information. Whatever wicks they suggest, it’s always a good idea to purchase a size up and down from the suggested wick sizes. For instance, if a guide suggests a CD-12 then buy some CD-10s and CD-14 wicks. This will give you a great starting point in finding the perfect wicks.
Section 4: Picking Fragrance Oil and Fragrance Oil Load
Adding fragrance to your candles allows you to personalize your creations, but there are a few things to keep in mind with fragrance oils:
- Selecting Fragrance Oils: Choose high-quality fragrance oils that suit your preferences. There's a wide range available, from floral to fruity, and everything in between. Essential oils aren’t usually made for candles and typically the ones that are don’t work as well as normal fragrance oils. It’s imperative that you always check to make sure that the oils you are purchasing are made specifically for candles. Using anything else could be a potential fire hazard.
- Calculate Fragrance Load: To ensure that you are making safe candles the fragrance oil load needs to be calculated as a percentage of the weight of the wax used. Typically, a 6-10% fragrance load is recommended, but check the specific guidelines for your chosen fragrance oil and wax. Here is the formula I use when making candles, it ensures that there is no waste:
Total Weight:7 ounces
8% Fragrance Load:7 ÷ 1.08 = 6.48 ounces of wax
7oz - 6.48oz = 0.52 ounces of fragrance oil
That concludes Part 1 of Getting Started With Handmade Candles. Check out Part 2 where we discuss the process of how to put all of these ingredients together to make the perfect candle!