Homemade Soy Candle DIY with Hazelnut Fragrance

So here goes…

Some type of container for your candle. For this project, I am using glass tea cups that were purchased from a local thrift shop. (Make sure your container is safe for burning candles.)

Trust me when I tell you, prep all of the surfaces you will be using for this project! FRAGRANCE OIL IS DIFFICULT TO REMOVE FROM SURFACES, AND CANDLE DYE DOES STAIN! Protect your counters and work surfaces with plastic tablecloths, newspaper and cardboard, and have plenty of paper towels and/or disposable rags on hand for quick and easy cleanup. Clean any drips or spills immediately with soap and water.

Start with clean containers that have been washed with soap and water and are room temperature. Using a hot glue gun to secure wicks to container bottoms and prop the wicks in place using sticks and rubber bands (or any other technique that works for you).

So you can use any type of wax you like, but for this project I am using 464 soy wax, and any specific temperature criteria are based on this type of wax, combined with the fragrance oil (which we’ll talk about in a minute).

For this project, I used 2 full measuring cups of dry wax flakes (which equals about 1 lb 3 oz). These flakes will melt down to half, or about 18 fl. oz. (The melted wax goes a lot further than it looks!)

As with candle wax, there are quite a lot of options available for candle wicks, and which one you should use will depend on your wax and your scent. My wick type is a pre-tabbed 1400 hemp core, good for 2.5-3.5 inch diameter container (my container is 3 1/4” diameter).

For this project I used 30 ml (equals 1 fl oz) Mountain Hazelnut Cafe FO. (Always use candle safe FO’s.) This is a strong scent, so I am not exceeding 1 fl. oz. Generally speaking, you should use about 1-1.5 oz of FO (30-40 ml) for each pound of soy wax. The amount of FO you will use for our own project will depend on your wax type, amount of wax used, your candle dye, and the specific properties of your FO. This is not a cut-and-dry process, as each part depends on a combination of factors, and often requires quite a bit of trial and error to get it right. Just be careful not to add too much FO due to fire hazards.

My candle dye is Brown Nature Friendly Candle Dye from Natures Garden Candles. I actually intended to only use 3 drops, but I accidentally dropped in four or five! But the finished product came out perfect, so no harm no foul! 

Pour your dry wax flakes into your wax melting pot and place this pot right into the large pot on your stove.
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I use a second pot with cold water (with ice cubes added if necessary) to cool down the wax to a good pouring temperature (110 or below, or when it’s like slush), but don’t cool too quickly or your pouring process may not go well.

So take a deep breath and don’t be in a hurry during this step. Pour cooled wax into your containers to desired height. Pour VERY SLOWLY to prevent cave-ins and air bubbles, keeping an eye on the wicks to make sure they stay centered and don’t move. If the wax starts to set in your pouring pot, quickly dip into your pot of hot water to remelt and you can continue pouring.

It will take a couple hours for the candles to set enough to be moved, so just let them alone until you see that the candles are pretty much solid, and then you can move them somewhere out of the way to cure for up to a couple weeks before you burn them. You could try to burn them after 48 hours, but the longer you let them cure, the better they will burn.

Tip for cleanup…I highly recommend having a hair dryer or heat gun on hand. It is so much easier to clean up the wax when it is melted!

So here is my final product…I did notice an issue with adhesion with some of my glass tea cups, where some of the candle looks darker in places through the glass. This is usually because the containers weren’t quite warm enough when the wax was poured. It doesn’t effect the burn at all, but sometimes it messes up the appearance of your pretty candle due to the wax not adhering uniformly. I could use my heat gun to remelt the areas that need more adhesion, but it has been my experience that just makes the situation worse due to frosting and discoloration, so I just left the finished candles alone.

Let me know in the comments below if you have ever made your own candles. Feel free to post any tips or questions you may have about making homemade candles!
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