A Beginner’s Guide to Making Homemade Soy Candles
I’m joining a few friends to share our ideas on homemade Mother’s Day gifts. I’ll be sharing a beginner’s guide to making homemade soy candles.
How fun would it be to have everyone make candles together? This is something older kids and adults can do together, and everyone gets to go home with a candle and memories of the day spent together. This post will give step-by-step instructions and include a list of supplies for handmade candles.
The wonderful thing about a project like this is that it’s pretty easy to do, and no experience is necessary. You could ask everyone to bring a small jar or something for their candle, or buy them beforehand.
You never know what someone will bring; it could be larger than expected. This is why I prefer to supply the candle jars or cups. You could buy something like this, or use repurposed yogurt jars like the Oui glass jars. The label comes off very easily.
You will need a few basic supplies to make homemade candles.
- A candle container
- Natural wax
- Cotton wicks
- Popsicle sticks (I used these that have a hole in the center as a wick holder)
- A candle-making pitcher or melting pot
- Essential oils
Step-by-step guide to the DIY candle-making process
- Make sure you have enough clean jars or cups for each person to make a candle, and prepare the cups/jars.
- Place a glue dot at the bottom of each cup and quickly place the silver part of the candle wick onto the glue dot. I prefer to use hot glue because it dries fast and holds securely. If you do not have a hot glue gun, they do sell wick stickers.
- Popsicle sticks with a hole acts like wick-centering devices to keep the wick in place. I discovered them while watching the television show, With Love, Meghan. I used to use pencils and wrapped the wick around the pencil, but the popsicle sticks work much better!
- Melt the wax in a candle-making pitcher. You could use the double boiler method. If using this method, ensure your bowl is heatproof, and know it will ruin the bowl.
- Once the wax is liquid, remove it from the heat and add your essential oils for fragrance.
- Pour into each cup and position the wick upright, ensuring it is in the center of the cup.
- Allow melted wax to harden at room temperature.
- Trim the wick.
- Wrap it up!
Make it a little French.
I used Duralex Picardie glasses for my candle containers. They are durable glass cups made in France and very reasonably priced. They make excellent drinking glasses for everything from water to wine, but they are also perfect for DIY candles.
How many essential oils will I need to make my candle fragrant?
Start with a small amount of a combination or a single essential oil, like lavender, and add as needed. For a 4-ounce candle, I used about 20 drops of essential oil, but how much you use is a personal preference. For these candles I used a combination of Patchouli, ginger and orange.
How much candle wax will you need to make 4-6 candles?
If you are making a 4-ounce candle, you will need about 20% less in wax for a 4-ounce cup or jar. So if you are making four 4-ounce candles, you should be okay with a one pound of wax. This is the package of soy wax flakes or beads that we used. It also comes in a five pound package.
Why natural soy candles?
Natural soy candles are considered better than paraffin wax for a few reasons. Soy burns cleaner and burns more slowly. Soy wax is made of soy beans which is natural and renewable.
Wrap up your finished candles as a gift.
To make these container candles into little gifts, I placed a round piece of cardboard on top of the container marked with the scent of the candle. I used a bit of colorful twine or ribbon to tie them up. It’s a good idea to secure the ribbon on the bottom of the cup with tape, and then tie a bow on top of the jar. You could also wrap in linen or cloth and secure it with twine. Store-bought candles always make a nice gift, but a homemade gift made with friends is so much better!
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