How to Make Homemade Soy Candles

You will learn how to make your own soy candles in the comfort of your home.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Follow the directions step by step:

1. The first thing you will need to do is decide how many soy candles you want to make. Each soy votive will take 2 oz of soy wax. To make 8 votive candles which will require 1 lb of phytowax 100% pure soy wax flakes. Measure the wax carefully using a reliable digital scale.
2. You will need something to melt your soy wax in. You can go out and buy an expensive wax melter or you can do what I did and went to Walmart and bought a Presto kitchen kettle for about $20.00 - I melt my soy wax directly in the kitchen kettle. Or you can use the double boiler method. The double boiler is the safest way to melt was, but its also the slowest. Never leave melting wax unattended!!
3. One thing I will warn you is to never leave wax, including soy wax on your stove unless you are using the double boiler method. Never melt any wax that does not have some form of temperature control because wax does have a flash point and will burst into flames without warning once it reaches that point. The flash point may be between 290-380 degrees.

Tips & Warnings

• As your soy wax begins to melt this is a good time to clip your thermometer onto the side of the pot so that you can regulate your temperature accurately. Once your soy wax is melted and your temperature is between 170-180 degrees you can add your dye. When you are using an apple strudel fragrance in your candles you would color the wax a nice red color. This will only take 12 drops of Cajun's red candle dye. Be sure to shake your dye bottle vigorously before adding the dye to the soy wax. Now you will stir the soy wax so that the dye you just added will bind properly with the soy wax. For stirring, I recommend using a flat bottomed wire whisk, this does a superior job of binding the ingredients and the additives with the soy wax. If your candles will be subject to UV-light, such as florescent lighting or sunlight you may want to add U-V-inhibor to your soy wax. Only use a dye formulated for the purpose of coloring candle wax. Do not use crayons, paint, etc. the pigments in those products will clog your wick and the flame will keep extinguishing itself. Do not use food coloring or soap making dye in your candles. It's time to add your fragrance oil--you will also want to keep an eye on the soy wax temperature and regulate it accordingly, it needs to be around 175 degrees. Soy wax will hold fragrance oil better than paraffin wax so we can use 1.5 oz of fragrance oil per lb of wax for a stronger scented candle. Stir the fragrance oil for about 2 minutes, use the wire whisk it will help bind your fragrance oil so that it will be evenly distributed--when you add the fragrance oil your temperature should not be lower than 170 degrees and not higher than 185 degrees-because if the wax is too cool, the fragrance oil will not bind with the wax. If the wax is too hot, you will burn off most of the fragrance and your candle will not be very strong. Soy wax can scorch if the temperature gets too high. Always keep the temperature under 200 degrees. You are now ready to pour your soy candles--this is the most important step to ensure your soy candle will be a success. Reduce the temperature of the wax to between 150-155 degrees--use a reliable thermometer to check the proper temperature. You will want to pour into a slightly high than room temperature mold-if you pour into a cold mod you will see drag lines along the sides of your candles once they are finished. The best way to warm your molds is to put them in your oven to keep them warm for at lea
• Never leave soy wax unattended