Making your own beeswax candles at home is not only a fun project, but they make great diy gifts. This step by step tutorial will show you how to make beeswax candles quick and easy!
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While store bought candles may have strong luxurious scents, they are typically full of harmful synthetic fragrances. These beeswax candles are so easy to make at home and much healthier for you and your family. This tutorial on how to make beeswax candles will have you whipping them up in no time.
This is a great project to make with kids too. They get to see how something is made and get to help make something useful for the home.
This diy also makes a great gift around the holidays. If you have someone who loves all things natural and healthy, this is for them.
What is in the beeswax candles?
- 1 pound beeswax (bars or pellets)
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 1/2 cup cocoa butter (optional)
- Essential oil (optional)
Besides these ingredients, you will need a double boiler (or makeshift one),hot glue gun, glass jar and candle wicks. But that’s it! And once you have these ingredients, you can make a ton of candles!
Why make your own candles?
Besides it being a fun project, beeswax candles are much healthier than most heavily fragranced store bought candles. Many popular brands are known to have carcinogens and chemicals such as formaldehyde.
Even though there are safer and healthier options on the market today, you could actually save money making your own candles. I have had the same bag of beeswax for two years. Granted, I haven’t used it very often, but it has lasted me through candle making and hand salves.
Not to mention, you get to choose what glass vessel you will be putting it in. You can save old jars from things like store bought sauces or even get really creative and find pretty bowls and tea cups in thrift shops.
What sort of beeswax is best?
The first time I made candles, I used beeswax from my parent’s bees. While I loved the idea of using something so natural and close to home, I didn’t love the amount of time it took for the beeswax to melt.
This is where beeswax pellets are better. They melt much faster. There are many different brands and varieties. If you want organic, you can definitely find that online.
There are also beeswax bars that you can buy. In some cases these can be cheaper, but just know that you will want to chop them up a bit before melting.
Why coconut oil and cocoa butter?
The coconut oil helps the candles to not burn too hot. Beeswax burns very quickly, the coconut oil helps to slow it down giving your homemade candle a longer life.
The cocoa butter is completely optional and is just for more scent. Truthfully, it didn’t add a strong scent to my candles, but it may be because I had older cocoa butter.
I will also say that if you choose to add essential oils to your candle, don’t expect a strong scent. You would have to add a ton of essential oils and essential oils don’t hold up well to heat. However, the natural beeswax smells like honey and that is enough for me.
How to make beeswax candles:
- Warm your glue gun and glue your wick to the center of the bottom of your jar.
- Tie and wrap your wick with a popsicle stick, pencil, chopstick, etc. so that it doesn’t move. You’ll be resting the popsicle stick on top of the jar to keep the wick in place. I used mechanical pencils because that’s what I had. I taped them to the edge of the jars to keep them from moving and thus moving the wick.
- Start by weighing out 1 pound of beeswax with a kitchen scale. Next measure half a cup of coconut oil. If using, measure out your cocoa butter.
- Place your ingredients in a double boiler or, like I did, in a metal bowl sitting over a small boiler pot. The pot should have at least 1″ of water in the bottom of it. Turn the heat to medium-low.
- Slowly melt the ingredients together. Once completely melted, you are ready to pour into your jars. It can take up to 30 minutes for the pellets to melt. At this point you can add in the essential oils if you are using. But let the melted beeswax cool for about 15 seconds before adding.
- Carefully pour the melted beeswax mixture into your jars, being careful not to pour over your wick or to move your wick too much.
- Let your candles cool overnight before burning. There you have it! You’ve made your own homemade beeswax candles!
Besides giving these candles as a gift, they are great to have on hand if the power goes out or you just want to make the room feel more cozy.
I hope you enjoy this tutorial and let me know how it goes in the comments below! If you would like to read more about making things from scratch, check out this article here on making your own vinegar at home!
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.
Beeswax Pellets: https://amzn.to/40mcwja
Cocoa Butter: https://amzn.to/48pHPeW
Candle Wicks: https://amzn.to/4e8EGS6
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