Something different... home-made candle

It's been a while, and I've been storing recipes and blog items in my head or on my PC but not having found time to put virtual pen to paper.

For Christmas 2013, I decided to make candles and beauty products for the female contingent in my gifting circle. The idea came about because one of my friends only buys organic produce (including beauty products) and for another I thought about buying her a "candle making" set, but then realised she probably didn't have the time or would enjoy the activity as much as me. So, buying the ingredients myself and creating my own product was much better idea!

All of the base ingredients for the candle, body lotion and lipbalm were virtually the same, but required adjustments to the quantities (you don't rub candles on your skin, do you?). The consistency for the lip-balm took a few attempts (re-melting, adding more oil, leaving to cool and testing) but I got there.

I chose to use soy as my wax (with beeswax, for one) because it's environmentally friendly and produces a clear burn. Apparently it's carbon neutral, so you can't complain that your candle habit is adding to your carbon footprint! I chose to make a beeswax candle in my old honey jar because beeswax is another clear burning wax which produces a slight honey and pollen scent when burning. Beeswax should also burn brightly without a drip.

Candle

You will need (all of which I purchased from suppliers on eBay)

• Soy candle wax
• Waxed wick and wick holders (if you purchase unwaxed wick, you will need to melt some soy wax and place the wick in the melted wax for a couple of hours to soak and for the wax to soak into the wick)
• Wick bar (I drilled a small hole into an old ice-cream stick - you basically need something long enough to go across the width of the container 
• Containers (you can use old tea-cups, pretty tins, glasses, old jam jars - anything is a vessel). I used lidded metal tins for the fragrant candles and an old honey jar for my beeswax candle
• Essential oil of choice (I used cinnamon bark essential oil)
• Optional: beeswax, candle wax dye
• A bain-marie (well, a pot of boiling water with an oven-proof dish over it in which to mix the wax - I used a metal mixing bowl over a saucepan)

Method:

1. Heat the water in the bain-marie until boiling.

2. Add the wax to the oven-proof dish and place onto the saucepan. The amount you need depends upon the size of your container. As a rough guide, I used 1.5 times the amount of the size of the container (using the container as a scoop). The amount used can be 100% soy wax, or a mixture of beeswax and soy at your preferred ratio. You want the wax to melt completely but not boil.

3. As the wax is melting, add any dye you want at this point and stir until the colour is evenly distributed. Without wanting to state the obvious, the more dye you add, the more intense the colour of the candle.

4. While the wax is melting, knot at one end and feed a piece of the wick through a wick holder and cut to about 2 inches (5 cm) above the height of the container.

5. Take the wax off boil and add a few drops (no more than 5) of the essential oil to the mixture and stir.

6. Drop a small amount of wax into the container and use it to set the wick holder to the base of the container. Thread the top part of the wick through a wick bar to keep the wick in place in the centre of the container (the candle will burn best if the wick is centred). You may want to tape the wick to the wick bar to stop it moving when you're pouring the wax.

7. Pour the wax into the container, keeping the wick upright through the centre (as much as possible). The wax should not be higher than about 1/2 inch (1cm) from the top of the container, which accounts for the melting wax when you burn the candle.

8. Leave the candle to cool, preferably overnight. As it solidifies, it may shrink in volume slightly. If you have any left over wax, you may want to re-heat and top it up. [Note: you can make multi-coloured candles in this way, by building up layers of different coloured wax, leaving the wax to cool between layers, much like you would a jelly].


9. Once cooled, trim the wick to about 1/2 inch (1 cm) from the top of the candle.

10. Hey presto! Homemade candle!

For notes on the use of oils and essential oils, see my page here