How to Make Soy Candles: A Beginner’s Guide

Learn how to make soy candles with this simple step-by-step tutorial. These natural handmade candles make perfect gifts !

How To Make Soy Candles: The Easy Way, flatlay image of several soy candles burning with soy wa flakes and orange peel

Natural soy candles are the perfect handmade gifts ! When I first started researching natural candles, I promptly learned that candle-making is a little trickier than I had imagined.

Reading: How to Make Soy Candles: A Beginner’s Guide

What ’ s more, every template and tutorial I found recommended weighing out the wax and bouquet oils, using a double-boiler, etc. I never found the ultra-simple lead I was looking for, so I ’ molarity writing it myself .
If you want to make soy wax melts, check out this tutorial. Wax melts are besides a great way to use up any supernumerary scented wax left over after you pour your candles .

How To Make Soy Candles

This guide is a quick-start soy candle tutorial. If you ’ rhenium looking for more information about the different varieties of candle wax, bouquet oils, wax dye, wick types, and so forth, you ’ ll find answers to all your questions in this post :
How to Make Candles: A Beginner’s Guide

Materials

A. Organix Soy Wax Flakes (10 lbs) + 150 cotton wicks + 3 wick holders
B. Brajttt Favor Jars with Cork Lids (30) – these come with cute tags excessively !
C. Glotoch 10oz. Mason Jars with Lids (12 pack)
D. Digital Instant-Read Thermometer
E. Pyrex Glass Measuring Cups
F. Natural Wood Candle Wicks with Stands (60)

Directions

1. Measure The Wax

With these natural soy wax flakes, I found that about 4 cups will melt down to about 2 cups .

2. Melt the Wax

Use a microwave-safe glass measuring cup. Heat the wax, starting with one-minute increments. Stir it thoroughly each time. After two one-minute sessions in the microwave, cut the clock down to 30 seconds .

3. Check the Temperature

If you plan to add bouquet oil to your candles, you ’ ll want to heat your soy wax to approximately 185 degrees. If your wax gets besides hot, you can either wait for it to cool, or arouse in a humble handful of wax flakes. This folding digital meat thermometer makes it easy to check the temperature .

4. Add Wax Dye (Optional)

If you want to add color to your soy candles, this is the time to sprinkle in some wax colorant. note : Most of the candles pictured in this tutorial preceptor ’ thymine have coloring material added .
My favorite wax dye from Amazon comes in little chips that make it very easy to control the sum of dye you ’ rhenium adding .
Sprinkle in a few wax chips. They should begin to melt/dissolve immediately. then stir them in until there are no specks of color left .
If you distillery have specks of wax dye after a minute or then, pop the wax back into the microwave for 30 seconds and stimulate again. If you do this, just be certain your wax is binding down in the 175-185 degree image when you add your bouquet oil in the future pace .
One more note about wax dye : Soy wax is opaque in its hearty state, so the coloring material will look much lighter once the wax has cooled .

5. Add Fragrance Oils

Add about 3 Tablespoons of bouquet vegetable oil to 2 cups of melt wax. Stir it thoroughly with a branching, and continue to stir for about 2 minutes to ensure everything is well-incorporated .
Notice how you can see the oil, distillery not fully incorporated in the mental picture below ? You ’ ll want to keep stimulate until the wax looks clear again. It may take a few minutes .

6. Let The Wax Cool Slightly

now let the soy wax cool until it starts to look cloudy. While you wait, you can prep your containers and wicks .

7. Prep Containers & Wicks

For the cotton wicks, use a hot glue gun to add a scatter of glue to the bottom of the wick and attach it to the penetrate center of the container .

8. Secure the Wick

Use a wick holder to hold the wick in put. The wick will soften and bend once you add hot wax to the container, so it ’ south important to keep the wick in locate. These handy metal wick holders came with the wax I bought on Amazon .

9. Pour Wax

once the wax has begun to cool and it ’ s starting to look a little cloudy, it ’ randomness time to pour your candles. If you pour the wax when it ’ s excessively hot, it can separate from the sides of your container. This international relations and security network ’ t a huge deal, but it will look better if you let it cool .
carefully pour the wax into the jars, about 1/4 column inch from where you want the top to be. You ’ ll do a second pour after it cools to fill it the respite of the way and add any decoration to the top .

10. Let It Cool

Let the candles cool wholly. This may take an hour or two, depending on the size of your jars .
You may notice that the tops of the candles have some holes and uneven spots, but don ’ t worry .
We ’ ra going to do a second pour after this one cools and hardens, so save a little bite of scented wax in your quantify cup .

11. Final Pour & Add Decoration

Pop your wax back into the microwave for 30 seconds, or until it ’ s merely melted. then carefully pour equitable enough wax to cover the crown of the existing candle and fill in any holes .
now you can sprinkle on a few dry flowers, bits of orange peel, cloves, or whatever you like. It ’ s authoritative to make sure they are small, since they will burn .

12. Trim the Wick

Use scissors to trim the wick. The wood wicks are very thin, so any scissors should work .

13. Let It Cure

Scented candles need to cure for a minimal of three days in order to give off maximal odorize when you burn them ( known as “ hot bewilder ” in the candle making populace ) .
The ideal bring around clock time for natural waxes like soy and beeswax is more like 2-3 weeks. But I ’ thousand not an particularly patient female child. It ’ s besides significant to keep them covered, which is why I chose glass containers with lids for my DIY candles .

What Size Wick Should I Use?

The size and act of wicks should be determined by the width of your candle container. In order to get the most life and enjoyment ( burn time and hot throw ) from your candle, the goal is for the hot wax pool to fill the entire width of the container, like this :
See how the dissolve wax goes all the way to the edges of these jars ? Keep in beware these candles had been burning for at least an hour when I took these photos .
I in the first place tried using a individual cotton wick for this size of container, and when the candle burned, it only created a little wax pond in the center .
This leaves all the wax around the edges untouched and going to waste .
I ended up ordering wood wicks to use with these larger jars, and as you can see above, they are barely right. They besides give a fancier astronomical unit natural vibration to the candles. You can besides use two or more wicks to get a larger wax pool in a broad candle .

Can I Make Candles With Essential Oils?

I was in the first place planning to use substantive oils in my all-natural candles. But after some experiment ( read wasting A lot of expensive essential oils in my first few batches of candles ! ), I realized that this just doesn ’ triiodothyronine work. I was bummed to realize this, but still determined to make gorgeous DIY scented candles .
If you want to make the most of your substantive oils, I recommend diffusing them rather. I besides love to use them to make homemade bath salts, chapstick, bathtub bombs, hand lotion, foot scrub, etc .
There are natural plant-derived aroma oils for candle stool, but they ’ ra difficult to come by, and a bit costly. I have some on order, and I ’ ll update this post once I ’ ve had a probability to test them out .

Can I Add Decorative Elements to My Candles?

If you want to add decoration to your candles, I recommend using very small bits of cosmetic items, such as bantam dry flowers, fir needles, bits of lemon or orange peel, cloves, etc. You can check out my ultra-simple dried orange peel tutorial here .
Remember that whatever you incorporate into your candles will finally burn, and larger items can be a fire luck. not to mention olfactory property bad when they burn, and turn black .
See what happened when I added a bunch of pine needles to this candle ? It looked fine until I burned it… and then this :
I besides found that it ’ s about impossible to get the larger cosmetic items to show on the sides of your candle once the wax hardens .
I had this fabulous mind to make large candles with dried orange slices around the outside. But it good didn ’ t very work. See what I mean ?
I haven ’ thyroxine tried it yet, but I suspect that this would be more successful with methane series wax, which is more traslucent than soy when it hardens. So you would theoretically be able to see the orange slices better .
You can ’ t even very see the orange slices. I ended up using the dried orange slices to decorate the outsides of the candle jars rather, and I think it looks much better !