I have a growing list of things I'd like to try to make homemade, or as homemade as possible. I keep reading more and more information on how bad standard candles are for your environment. I guess the smoke releases cancer causing agents. awesome. So, I've been wanting to "phase out" all of my standard candles (I have quite a few) and bring in soy and beeswax candles that are scented with essential oils (the safer candle). I bought a soy wax/essential oil candle at the grocery store, and while it cost a little more than standard, it seems to burn slower as well. So far, so good.
I also decided it would be fun to try to make my own soy candle. I made my way to Michaels for this first experiment. I probably won't by more supplies from there--they are much cheaper elsewhere on the internet. Anyway, I bought candle making supplies and headed home to my kitchen to make my first candle since I was a kid at Camp Kern. In my ongoing effort to be more green, I plan to order bulk quantities of soy wax and essential oils and being making all my candles at home. They only problem is, the wax I bought at Michaels burns really quickly, so hopefully I can find a kind that burns a bit slower.
The process is easy and can be done in your kitchen:
Supplies: Soy Wax, color dye cubes, essential oil scent, thermometer, candle jar, wick, and chopstick to hold wick in place.
Step one: Pour 6oz of soy wax into microwavable bowl and microwave for 1-3 minutes watching carefully to make sure the wax does not burn. (use oven mits when taking the bowl out of the microwave, the wax heats to nearly 170 degrees).
Step two: wrap the end of the wick around the chopstick and place into the candle jar like the above below.
Step three: after the wax is melted at flakes of color to color your candle (wax will be clear when fully melted).
Step four: add the essential oil. I used a vanilla pomegranate oil and love the scent. I put in half the bottle. Step five: allow the wax to cool to about 140 degrees.
Step six: pour the wax into the jar keeping the wick centered.
Step seven: allow to cool for 4-6 hours. Then trip wick to a 1/4".
This candle was very fun to make and the whole process minus cooling time took less than 20 mintues. I think I'll make another one very soon!
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