Soy Candle How-To

Alright guys, so I've gotten a lot of "What? You made your candles?  How do you make candles?!" since bringing out my Soy Candles for holiday (which you guys loved as much as I did since they totally sold out - yay!).  After reading a TON of information online and watching multiple how-to videos, this is how I made mine (and how you can make yours too if you like!).

First off, I rec putting waxed paper down on all of your surfaces - wax or oil will inevitably drip somewhere while you're making your candles - especially if you're doing as many at a time as I did.   

After measuring out the amount of wax you need on a food scale, melt wax (I use 100% Soy Wax) on a hot plate in a stainless steel pitcher - I stir it with a paint stirrer.

Once the wax is totally melted we need to get it to 185 degrees.

Then we can add our fragrance/essential oils.  You need about 1-1.5 oz of fragrance oil per pound of wax.  Essential oil amounts vary by scent.  Anything you use to measure your oil will get totally jacked so don't use a measuring cup you love - it's impossible to get all of the oil out.

Remove from heat and add fragrance oil.  Stir thoroughly and then we need it to cool down to 125 degrees.

While you're waiting you can hot glue/sticker your wicks (which you have to experiment with the sizes of to get the right "melt pool" in your wax) into your container.  I ended up going with hemp wicks.  If you like something more interesting than the typical short glass jar check online at flower arranging/garden sites - their containers will be water tight and more fun.

Wicks glued into the center of the hobnail glass jars.

I think you're technically supposed to glue your wicks in after you put your jars in the oven but my jars are too big for my hands to fit easily without burning them so I do the wicks first.  Back to the oven - you're supposed to warm up your containers, at a really low heat, before pouring in the wax, so the wax doesn't "shrink" away from a cold jar.

Get an electric thermometer to do your temperature readings.  Once you reach 125 degrees you can pour it out.

If you look in the lower right corner you can see the bag of wax (looks like a white plastic bag) on the floor.

To keep your wicks centered you can use popsicle sticks, pencils, etc but I grabbed some wick bars to make it easy.

I don't add any color since I'm not into any additives.

Slowly but surely the wax hardens and you can cut the wicks to 1/4 inch - I've found fingernail clippers - new ones! - to be the easiest way to do it.  If the tops are "craggy" in your wax you can remelt it with a hair dryer.  

Then if you want to decorate with some jute twine you can throw that on there :).

The Hobnail Glass Jars take one pound of wax and the Recycled Zinc Tins take a half of a pound.  

I'll let you guys know if/when I make another set of candles - I'm not going to lie - they are crazy labor intensive and NYC apartments don't tend to be set up well for them so it isn't at the top of my list but people loved them so we may have a batch of Gardenia in the spring :).