How to Make Candles with Herbs

Candles are a great way to warm up a room and add a sense of welcome your home. Candles make wonderful decorative pieces, lovely gifts and can even serve a security purpose by helping you out in a blackout. At-Home candle making has been a hobby of crafters for centuries, but with the developing technology and ready-made supplies, it’s now easier than ever to make candles at home. If you’ve mastered the art of basic candle making and are ready to add a little flavor and spunk to your hobby, here’s a recipe for making herbal candles right at home.This recipe is for a basic pillar mold candle, though you can use pretty much any kind of mold or container to make the candle of your choice.

Things You'll Need

• 1 lb. of candle wax for mold candles (like CW139 candle wax)
• 1/2 tsp Vybar 103
• 3 tbsp Stearic Acid
• 1 candle coloring chip (like Reddig-Glo)
• 1 oz. fragrance oil
• Candle wick
• Pillar candle mold (metal, various sizes according to preference, but equaling a 1 lb wax capacity)
• 1/4 C assorted herbs crushed (according to preference)
• Assorted whole dried herbs (optional, for decorating exterior of candle)
• Double boiler pan
• Small mixing bowl
• Mixing spoon
• Digital weight scale
• Candy thermometer
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Knitting needle
• Wick rod
• Candle mold sealer

Instructions

1. In a bowl using the back of a spoon or herb crusher, combine your herbs and crush them to a fine powder.

2. Melt the candle wax. In your double boiler over medium heat, melt the wax, vybar and stearic acid. Do not allow the wax to heat over 200 degrees.

3. Wick your mold. While the wax is melting, wick your mold by inserting the wick through the bottom of the candle mold. There is a place in the candle mold, which allows you to thread a wick through to the top of the mold.

4. Secure the wick. The wick rod should run perpendicular to wall of the mold and is where you’ll secure the top of the wick. Once secured to the rod, tighten the wick screw on the bottom of the mold by pulling the wick tightly. Cut the bottom tail of the wick so you have about an inch and wind this tail around the screw. Finish off by covering the wick with mold sealer.

5. Color your wax. When your candle wax has melted, you can add the color. Carefully follow the directions for your dye. Your can check the intensity of your color by testing it in water, which will closely replicate the color in wax. For herbal candles, it is recommended that you use muted and sheer color tones. Mix the color so that it is smooth and evenly distributed through the wax.

6. Add your crushed herbs. Pour the herbs into the colored wax and mix briskly, folding the herbs so that they are evenly distributed.

7. Add fragrance. If you want to scent your wax, you’ll want to do it just before you pour it into the molds. Fragrance oils disperse quickly and you’ll loose the scent if you do it too early on in the candle making process.

8. Monitor the temperature of your melted wax. Your wax should be at 190 degrees when you pour it into the molds, so make sure that you are monitoring this temperature while you are doctoring it will color, herbs and fragrance.

9. Pour your mold. Once your mold is prepared and your candle wax is melted, colored and scented you can pour it into the mold. Be careful that water droplets from the steam do not drip into the mold.

10. Reserve the leftover mold. Keep the leftover mold warm, hovering around 190 degrees so that you can use it to fill in the wells that form once your pillar begins to dry. The wax will shrink when it dries and you’ll need to fill in the gaps formed by this shrinking with extra wax.

11. Check you mold. About 30 minutes after you pour the mold, you will see a well forming in the wax. To relieve the tension, insert a knitting needle to break the skin. Refill the hole you leave with the reserved wax. Check the mold every 20 minutes to see if you need to further relieve tension throughout the entire cooling process.

12. Remove the candle from the mold. Once the mold is cold to the touch, the candle is ready to be removed. Remove the mold sealer and screw from the wick base and detach the top wick from the wick rod. Holding the mold carefully by the base, allow the candle to slide into your hand.

13. Decorate your candle. You can use your herbal candle as is, or if you’d like to decorate the outside with herbs, you can do that by using the melted leftover wax as glue. Smooth a think layer of wax on the area you want to decorate and press the herbs into the soft wax.

Tips & Warnings

• If the candle does not slide out of the mold, lightly tap the sides of the mold to help release it. If it still doesn't slide out, place it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes and try again.

• Remove seams with dull knife. Holding the knife at a right angle, slide it down the seam.

• If the candle doesn’t stand straight, square off the base with a knife or melt down the base in a hot pan.

• Make sure that the bottom of the mold, where the wick screw is, is completely covered and sealed by the mold sealer, so that the melted wax doesn’t leek when you pour the mold.

• Before you pour the wax into the mold, wipe any moisture off of the pan to prevent water droplets from entering the candle mold.

• Be careful when working with and pouring hot wax. Do not let it splash and burn your skin.