February Class - Candles in Waukesha

My son really likes candles. He also likes to be environmentally conscious, and was wondering how to make his own candles – in part, to reuse the containers he has been accumulating from used candles.

So, I went to his house with the few supplies I had, and we tried to make a few candles.

I just brought along what I had, and since I had been making soaps, some of the items I had were specifically for making soap. We ended up not using them.

First, we melted the candle wax in a double boiler set up. Then we added coloring and scent. The last step was to pour the wax into a container that had a wick in it.

Voila, a candle was born. Very simple, and yet, I think we need a LOT more practice to get a nice bold color. We also probably did not add enough scent.

A few of the key take away from this:

1. Do not use soap scent for candles. It said right on one of the bottles of soap scent to “keep away from flame”. We didn’t use it.

2. Use more scent than you think is needed – it is deceiving because you are smelling the concentrated scent, but it is being mixed, so gets diluted.

3. No color makes for a nice-looking candle, so if getting a good color is difficult, just stay with the white.