How to Make Natural Candles With Essential Oils
Making your own natural candles can add beauty to your home, and the candles make wonderful holiday gifts. Natural, hand-dipped candles can be created easily using simple methods that are the same today as they were hundreds of years ago. Plus, when you add essential oils to your handmade candles, it will allow them to spread aromas in your home throughout the year.
Things You'll Need
- 4 lbs. beeswax pellets
- 18-inch candle wicks
- 1 large, empty coffee can
- Double boiler
- 1 wooden spoon
- Water
- 1 wooden paint stick
- 2 clay bricks
- 20 drops of essential oil
Instructions
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Heat the beeswax. Pour 4 lbs. of beeswax pellets into an empty, clean coffee can. Place the coffee can into the top part of a double boiler, then fill the bottom part halfway up with water. Heat the double boiler on a stove top over medium-high heat until the beeswax melts completely. Remove the wax from the heat. Pour in the essential oils after the wax has been removed from the heat. Lavender and rose essential oils combine especially well with the scent of the beeswax. Stir the mixture well using a wooden spoon.
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2
Using an 18-inch piece of candle wick, dip each end of the wick into the wax 6 to 9 inches down, depending on how long you want the candle to be. Be very careful not to let the end of the wick ends touch together, or they could glue themselves to each other with the hot wax. Dip the ends in for only a couple seconds, then remove. Any longer and the wax will melt off of the candle again. After each dipping, allow it to cool for around 10 seconds. Re-dip the wicks until they are the thickness you desire.
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Hang the candles to cool. Place two bricks vertically on a flat surface, 8 to 10 inches apart. Lay a wooden paint stirrer in between the bricks, and hang the candles on top of the wooden stirrer, allowing the middle part of the wick to lay across the stirrer. The candles should cool here until they are no longer warm, and then store them in a cool, dark room until use. This will prevent the candles from softening or melting from exposure to sunlight or heat.
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Use a candle holder or a candlestick when you use your hand-dipped candles to avoid catching things on fire.
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Tips & Warnings
Always keep matches, candles, flames and lighters out of the reach of children.
