When finding the perfect fragrances for each room, a scented candle is one of the best choices. They are just one of the 10 ways how to make your home smell amazing.
The alternative to scented candles is finding the best air fresheners for your home but when you are feeling crafty, making your own is the way to go. There are several methods possible, as you will notice from a quick online search.
How To Make Scented Candles in 8 Easy Steps
Don’t feel intimidated by the instructions but rather think of it as a chance to experiment with different fragrance profiles. This is your opportunity to make your home smell exactly like how you want.
Read on to learn how you can make a scented candle from scratch.
What You’ll Need to Make Your Candles
For the candle itself you will need:
- Candle wax flakes
- Candle dye
- Fragrance oils
- Wick and stabilizer
- Mold or jar to shape the candle
Other tools that you need:
- Double boiler
- Pencil
- Glue gun
- Wick holder
- Kitchen scale
Step 1: Weigh Your Wax & Calculate the Ratio
This is the most important step because this is the aspect that decides how successful the candle is. You need to know the weight to calculate the best ratio of fragrance oil to wax.
Place the amount of wax that you need to fill the mold or jar on the kitchen scale. 6% – 10% of this weight should be the fragrance oil that you add later.
Stay on the lower end for more powerful scents like peppermint and get closer to the 10% for more subtle fragrances like jasmine. Never go above 10% because this affects the consistency of the candle.
Step 2: Prepare the Wick
Take the mold or jar that you are using as the shape of the candle. Mark its center on the bottom – this is where you need to attach your wick to. Take the wick stabilizer and fix it unto the right spot using the glue gun.
While the glue is hardening, make sure that the wick stays upright by using a wick holder. Alternatively, you can wrap the wick around a pencil and balance the pencil on the rim so that it doesn’t come loose and fall down.
Step 3: Melt the Wax
The easiest way to melt wax is to use a double boiler. If you don’t have one then you can apply the Bain Marie method, like with melting chocolate.
Be very careful during this step because melting wax gets extremely hot. Don’t touch the wax with your hands and avoid stirring since the wax will attach to the spoon once it cools.
Step 4: Add the Candle Dye*
Candle dye does not affect the fragrance but having a color that matches the scent does enhance it. For example, purple is a classic color for lavender scented candles.
*Technically, this is a step that you can skip. If you prefer a white candle then you don’t need to add any dye and just continue on to the next step.
Step 5: Add the Fragrance Oil
While the wax is still melted (and after you’ve added the dye) you can add the fragrance oil. Remember that this should be 6% – 10% of the candle volume.
Swirl around the pot that you melted the wax in so that the fragrance oil spreads properly.
Step 6: Pour into the Mold
While the wax is still liquid, pour it into the candle mold or jar. Make sure that you are still keeping the wick in place and upright with the wick holder or pencil.
Make sure to leave some space at the top and save some of the melted wax because you will likely need it later. Let the wax rest and harden a little. Do you notice a depression in the center after the wax cools down?
Step 7: Fill Up the Depression
The small hole in the middle is common for homemade candles and they are an easy fix. Reheat the leftover wax and pour it into the little hole.
This is the part where you want to take things slow because you don’t want to fill up beyond the hole. If the wax does spill over then 2 things can happen; the sides might get stuck to the mold or the shape is less strong.
Step 8: Let Set for 24 Hours
After you have made the top of the candle level, you can leave to rest and harden. This takes about 24 hours.
That’s it, making your own scented candle is not that complicated. Once you get the hang of it you can combine different fragrance oils to make your own custom profile or try different candle shapes.
