Candle making is something that I have tried before and really enjoyed. For this last Christmas I wanted to make a bunch of homemade candles for friends and family as gifts. I had some older pillar candles from past thrift store finds that had no smell that I planned on using.
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I had also just hosted a dinner party with several different candle sticks around my living room. During the dinner party a lot of those candles had melted and created puddles of wax around the bases I saved most of the discards from this, and put it in ziplock to try and save them for later.
I had lots of mis-matched jars, and containers laying around from thrift finds, old candles I had already burned through, and even some salsa jars that I had rinsed etc. I collected those containers, the older wax and scentless (this part is important) pillar candles, and purchased very few supplies.
I LOVE the Anthropologie volcano candle smell… So I went to amazon and found a company that sold candle oil scents. They sold a volcano dupe scent that is AMAZING….They have a ton, and I am excited to try some other kinds in the future. I learned a ton making these candles. I have some tips and such below to help you be the most successful making candles you can be!
Here are the materials I used:
Materials:
- Old containers or jars that are glass, ceramic or metal. Must be able to handle hot liquid. You can buy jars for this on Amazon too.
- Wax (saved from candlesticks that are melted, or new.). Candle Wax Options Here is a list of great waxes on AMAZON.
- Wicks- I purchased them with pre-attatched metal bases on Amazon.
- Candle oil scent. Here is the link the anthropologie dupe scent I found
- A pan to melt the wax in on the stove. I got one at the thrift store for $5 with a pour spout on it. Again this WILL NOT be used for food in the future. There are options like THIS on amazon too.
- A wooden spoon that WILL NOT be used for food in the future, to stir the wax
- Paper towels for spills and cleanups
- OPTIONAL: heat gun for smoothing out the top of the candle wax after cooling
- OPTIONAL: Wick holders / clips
Step 1: Prepping the containers
I loved this part. Just going around to thrift stores and looking for potential vessels for my new candles was by far the most fun part. When looking for potential new candle homes, look for the following materials:
- Thicker glass
- Metal
- Ceramic / pottery
I found some really cute different looking glass containers that I thought would be awesome but the glass was not thick enough, or not rated for the heat that I was going to be pouring into them, and they cracked, shattered and broke… WITH hot wax inside of them. The wax spilled all over the counters, and was a pain to clean up. SO learn from my mistake, and just get containers that are ceramic/ pottery or thicker glass and metal.
Once you have the containers sourced, prepping them is also important. They need to be cleaned out. I just wiped them down with water, soap and a paper towel.
I read somewhere online that pre-heating the containers before adding in the wax helped the wax to not sink / dip in the middle once cooled. This issue was something I was trying to figure out, but I tried several different ideas trying to fix it, and I did not see a difference with heating the containers before I poured in the wax. This is just my own personal experience….
Step 2: Placing the wick
I loved the wicks I got on amazon. I have tried using lots of different kinds in the past. I like that these were pre-assembled with a metal piece on the bottom so I could just stand them in the containers, and pour the wax around them.
Some people secure them to the bottom of their vessel with glue etc. But I didn’t have any issues with them floating up or anything and didn’t see that step necessary.
I used 1-3 wicks per container depending on the size of the container. If it has a wider mouth on it, you will need a few wicks. It will help the wax burn more evenly when the wicks are dispersed evenly across the surface. Smaller containers are fine with just one wick. I placed most of my wicks after I poured the hot wax, because I am messy and the wicks just moved. Once the wicks are in the wax, they will want to slouch down into the wax and become less stiff. I used spoons, and chopsticks on top of some of the container because I didn’t have enough of the candle wick holders. They are super helpful though.
Step 3: Heating the wax.
If you are using new wax, just skip the next paragraph and read on.
For this step, it took some trial and error. I used a lot of the old wax from the melted candlesticks I had saved. To use the older pillar candles, I had to break them up to get them to fit into my pan for the stove. Once the older candles had melted down in the sauce pan, I just removed the old wicks from the hot melted wax liquid and threw them away.
*****THIS NEXT PART MIGHT BE THE MOST IMPORTANT PART*****
DO NOT GET THE WAX TOO HOT. IT SHOULD NEVER BOIL.
Full disclosure. I learned the tip above the hard way. I melted the wax, and thought that I needed to get it warmer to pour into the candle and have it be smooth/ better. When I did this, and put the wick in, it looked great at first. Then as the candle started to cool, the wax would cool first around the edges, and then cling to the wick in the middle. It sunk everywhere else. So I ended up with candles that had a sunken ring around the wick in the middle. This forced me to do double pours ( pouring a second layer on top after it cooled ) on almost every single one I poured with that batch of hot wax.
The other way I learned that wax should never get that hot… was by being careless. I put some wax on the stove to melt, and then got distracted… Like really distracted.
My ADHD almost caused a fire.
I hopped in the shower, completely forgetting I had put some wax on the stove. To my credit I had been making candles for about a week now, just melting a little wax here and there when I had time between things so try and get Christmas gifts done.
So…. putting some wax on the stove really quick while making dinner, or doing the dishes was normal.
But ya…. I remembered a couple minutes into my shower and ran downstairs to a kitchen full of THICK white smoke. After setting the pan outside while it BILLOWED smoke, I had to let the house air out for awhile..
That burnt smell lingered .. So ya… Don’t get distracted, and don’t get the wax too hot.
I didn’t use a thermometer so I don’t know the exact temp that the wax was at, (although I assume that some waxes may be different from others) but I found the perfect wax. I found that if I just stirred it and watched it melt, and pulled it off of the stove the very second all of the clumps of wax dissolved, it was perfect. I would even leave it sitting for 1-3 min after taking it off the burner before pouring it into my vessel.
EVERYTIME I PREPARED THE WAX LIKE THIS, MY CANDLES DIDN’T SINK.
It was like magic.
Step 4: Adding the scent
It is so good and so potent. I got it on amazon HERE. I had never tried adding my own candle scent other than essential oils before so I was unsure how much scent throw it would really have. This stuff is good.
It didn’t have a measurement table or anything like that with it, so I just played around until I like how strong the candle smelled. I just a little eye dropper I had at first and worked my way up from there using about a teaspoon of scent on a small / medium candle, and 2 tsp. for a larger 3 wick multi- pour candle.
I add it to the wax while it is still a liquid. I stirred it for a little bit after adding it to make sure it didn’t just sink to the bottom of the pan.
It worked great everytime and the smell when burning the candle is so good.
After the scent is added, the liquid wax can be poured into whatever container you have prepared.
Step 5: Finishing the top
This step is optional. I realized after I finished the sink wax problem around the wick and my candles were flat on top I still had other imperfections I wanted to fix.
Sometimes I dripped while pouring or sloshed while moving. Or the wax top just had a few little ripples here and there I wanted to smooth out.
This is a fun step. Just plug in your heat gun, and watch the surface turn to glass. I used it on the edges of the container, and the surface to make it really smooth. It gave professional results EVERY time.
AND thats it!
Finding cheaper wax, or recycling old candles is obviously the most cost effective way to make these volcano dupes, but there are also tons of great wax options on amazon. I love that I can choose any container I want. It makes it fun to match decor I already have, or create affordable gifts for friends.
See more of my candle making supplies all in once place on my amazon storefront.
Happy Creating-
Amanda