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Over the Easter Holidays my boyfriend and I got a bit obsessed with candle-making. What began as a bit of fun and experimenting, grew into nothing short of an obsession. We made our first batch in an array of colours and I handlettered some labels for them. We ended up with 12 little cuties that we were rather proud of, and a kitchen which smelled GREAT.
Are you interested in learning how to make candles at home?
Candle-making is cool. I promise. But it’s also tricky, so I thought I’d compile a few lessons I’ve picked up so far (although believe me I have a lottttt more to learn!)
Here are 5 things I’ve learned so far about candle-making:
- I have two words for you: SINK. HOLES. They will drive you crazy at first but fear not, they are perfectly normal and you aren’t doing anything to cause them. So, turns out as wax dries, it sinks, creating ugly sink holes. To get that smooth surface you’re after, don’t pour all of your melted wax into your container/jar/cup, keep some to one side. When the wax COMPLETELY cools, top it up with the wax you put aside. This is SO important if you’ve coloured the wax because replicating the same colour later will be tricky and if the second layer doesn’t match the first it’ll look weird.
- Using dye? If you want to colour your wax, you only need the tiniest amount! Don’t waste the stuff by chucking a whole chunk in, I promise a small pinch will do the trick. We bought out dye on Amazon and have been really happy with the results.
- Mess is inevitable. When we first started the candle-making process we didn’t really consider the amount of mess we’d be creating. Turns out spilt wax is an absolute nightmare to clean up, as soon as it dries it clings to the surface and doesn’t want to be wiped up. So before you do anything, grab some old newspapers and wax-proof your work space.
- Don’t use the equipment for anything but candle-making. Ok, this is a bit of an embarrassing one but we used a pan to melt some wax and after thoroughly cleaning it we thought it would be ok to warm up some beans for dinner. One mouthful of the stuff and suddenly we weren’t hungry! It’s a good idea to buy some utensils especially for your candle-making and never use them for anything else- unless you like waxy beans…in which case you do you.
- Buy a metal jug to melt your wax in. Candle-making was not in ANYWAY fun before we invested in a mental jug, like this one. The pan we used previously would always spill when we poured, meaning we wasted wax every time. A jug with a spout will enable stress-free wax pouring!
Have you made candles at home? If you have any tips I’d love for you to share them in the comments!