I love candles, but candles are expensive. The good news is that you can still have all of your favorite scented candles at a price much lower than what they charge online, and cheaper than anything you can find at the mall. You just need to learn how to make your own lavender candles at home.
Let’s take a look at how to make lavender candles.
How To Make Lavender Candles
Making your own candles is not as complicated as it may seem at first glance, let’s take a look at the step by step process required to make your own candles.
1. Setup your equipment and gather materials
Gather your equipment and materials in preparation to make your candles. You will need a double boiler, candle containers, wicks, wick bars, wick stickers, wax, dye, and fragrance oil.
2. Calculate ingredients
If you know how many candles you want to make and how many ounces your containers are, you can easily calculate the weight of the required ingredients with our spreadsheet calculator. The exact formula is to multiply the number of candles by the amount of wax needed per candle, then divide that number by 20.
Click here to be taken to our page that has the calculator.
3. Measure your wax
As you can see, the measurement corresponds to the amount of wax the calculator said to use based on our containers. It does not have to be exact, this is not rocket science, it’s candle science. Moreover, being off a few grams one way or the other is not going to ruin your candles.
4. Measure your fragrance oil
Again, you can see that the number is not exact, generally when making candles close enough is good enough. I would not stress myself out over the measurements unless I was making a big batch of candles that I was planning on selling to paying customers.
In addition, take care when pouring fragrance oil from a new bottle because it is easy to spill, you do not want to end up with oil all over your table as I did. My house smelled like fragrance oil for hours.
5. Bring wax to temperature
I took the wax off of the heat at around 195ºF, and as you can see it quickly begin to cool down. That is why it is a good idea to have all of your ingredients measured out and standing by.
6. Add fragrance oil
At this point I added my fragrance oil to my wax. I prefer to let the wax cool down slightly before adding my fragrance oil because it helps save your fragrance oil. Upon adding fragrance oil to hot wax, the room immediately smells like the fragrance, that is because the oil begins to evaporate.
The longer your fragrance oil is at a temperature of 150ºF+, the more of it will evaporate before you even pour your candles. For that reason, I like to let my wax cool to around 175ºF before adding my fragrance oil.
7. Pour your candles
Once the wax reaches a temperature of about 140ºF-145ºF you are ready to pour your candles. Do not worry if the color does not look how you imagined it at this point, the wax will look totally different once it has cooled.
You may want to consider preheating your containers before pouring your wax to help avoid any dips in the middle or wet spots. However, I did not preheat them because it was already rather warm in my house.
8. Allow them to cool and trim the wicks
Let the candles completely cool before removing the wick bars and trimming the wicks, if you do not wait, you might create an ugly spot around the wick where it pushes on the still warm wax. Not a good look.
It can take anywhere between 2 and 4 hours for the wax to completely cool, depending on the candle size.
Congratulations, you’ve just made your own homemade lavender candles.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use a Pyrex measuring cup in my double boiler?
You can use a Pyrex measuring cup in your double boiler. As long as your measuring cup is safe to use at temperatures of around 212ºF, then it will be safe to use in a double boiler for melting wax.
What types of glass containers are safe for candle making?
Glass for candle making should be thick, which will make it less likely to crack at high temperatures. Shot glasses, beer mugs, mason jars, and salsa jars all make great candle containers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, making candles is probably a lot easier than you thought it was. It is a great way to express yourself, make gifts for your friends and family or just save money on your expensive scented candle habit. In addition, it can make for a rewarding side hustle or business if you are trying to make extra money.
I am constantly making candles for my own use and to give to my friends, candles we wouldn’t otherwise be using due to the exorbitant cost of buying them at the mall or the local boutique.
It is never too late for you to get started!
