You get home after a long day at work, turn all the lights off, light some scented candles, and just forget about the stresses of the world for a while. People all over the world use scented candles to unwind, but very few people actually understand how they’re made. Don’t worry, you’ll learn everything you need to know in this guide!
Table of Contents
Preparation
Before anything else, the maker needs to prepare all the equipment. Despite all the advancements in technology in recent times, most makers still use a wooden peg to keep the wick in place when making candles. Therefore, there’s no reason why you can’t make your own scented candles at home. It doesn’t require any expensive equipment and you can choose your own scents.
Creating the Essence
When the candle jar/holder is prepared, the next step is to create the essence for the candle. In other words, what do you want the candle to smell like? Common ingredients include lavender, chamomile, orange, bergamot, ginger, cinnamon, and black cardamon. Rather than putting the raw ingredients into the candle mix, most candle-makers use essential oils and fragrances. Otherwise, you’ll have chunks of orange and ginger in the candle at the end. With fragrances and essential oils, you get the delicious smell but without affecting how the candle burns.
The reason homemade candles don’t quite have the same effect as manufactured candles is often because of the lab conditions. When candles are made in a lab and under controlled conditions, experts can keep the pure scents and ensure the highest quality of candle at the end.
These days, candle-makers such as Abeille candles in NZ, also have one eye on the environment when producing candles. With this in mind, they find the balance between quality ingredients and minimising the impact that the process causes to the environment.
What’s the secret to luxurious candles and their amazing scents? For the most part, nobody knows. If manufacturers were to tell their secrets, they would have competitors making them and adding them to their online stores within a couple of days. Either way, makers use essential oils in small doses and normally add them to the mix one droplet at a time.
Choosing a Wax
Of course, everything in this guide so far has covered the essence stage. If you want to make a scented candle from scratch, you’ll need to choose a wax. There are three main types of candle wax:
- Paraffin wax
- Beeswax
- Vegetable waxes (including rapeseed wax, palm wax, and soy wax)
Although paraffin is the cheapest wax, more and more makers are moving away from the material because it doesn’t burn for as long as other materials. Also, it’s a by-product of petroleum and many customers want to stay away from this process completely. Meanwhile, vegetable waxes burn for longer, but they aren’t quite as effective when working with dyes. Finally, beeswax is a natural material and quickly becoming the most popular option for candle-makers.
Step-by-Step Guide
- Melt your chosen wax
- Add your fragrances and essentials oils to the mould/jar
- Insert the wick and hold it in place with a wooden peg
- Pour the wax so that it mixes with the fragrances
- Allow the wax to harden and assess its condition
- Melt again and add more wax if it’s not enough or if you spot holes or cracks in the top
- Cut the wick so that around half an inch sticks out from the top
With this, you now know how experts make scented candles and you can even give it a go yourself!
