​Making your own candles at home

Candle making is a popular home activity at the moment, and our customers have told us they are busy trying out homemade candle projects for all sorts of occasions from weddings to decorating the home, and even for small business ventures.

Candles add real cosiness to any home and they smell great too, which is easy to achieve with fragrances and essential oils. But when you buy candles from a shop they can be surprisingly expensive, so it's fun and smart to try making your own. This is a project that's worth making in batches, so you will have candles for your own use, for gifting and perhaps even to sell.

Firstly though, how exactly do you make your own candles? The good news is it's surprisingly easy, and the supplies that you need are readily available.

Step 1: Stock up on your supplies
You'll need wax, which usually comes in big bags of small discs, candle wicks, and a suitable container such as candle glass jars. Candle jars are very popular as they look great, are environmentally friendly, as glass can be endlessly recycled, and can be easily decorated to gift.

You'll need to choose the type of wax that works best for your needs. Paraffin wax has been the traditional choice as it burns for a long time and holds scent very well for fragranced candles, but it isn't environmentally friendly and also emits toxins, especially lower grade waxes, which can be irritating to allergy sufferers. Soy wax is becoming a very popular alternative for its cleaner burn and generally 'friendlier' nature. Modern formulations are good at holding fragrances if you experiment and add a little more of your essential oils. You can also use beeswax, which tends to be more expensive but which has a beautiful natural honey fragrance.

When you have your materials together, place them in each reach of your work surface.

Step 2: Place the wick into your jar
Gather your glass candle jars and place the wick inside. You can also use recycled glass containers from previous candles if you're looking for a budget-friendly and doubly eco-friendly choice! Wicks tend to have a circular metal base that helps you to balance them.

Step 3: Heat your wax
Follow the instructions on your particular wax, which will usually require adding the discs to a pot over a heat source, such as a stove or a hot plate, and allowing the wax to slowly melt. This takes around ten to fifteen minutes. Once the wax has melted you can add fragrances or colours that you would like to use, or simply keep it plain.

Step 4: Pour your wax
Slowly and carefully pour your hot wax into your line of candle jars, and use skewers or lollipop sticks to keep the wick upright and in place. You can then simply let the wax cool down and then trim the wick once the candle has solidified.

Ideas for decorating your candle jars
Glass candle jars look beautiful with labels, ribbons and raffia tied around the neck. Their transparency will also show off the contents of the jar beautifully so you may want to experiment with coloured candles using food dyes, special candle dyes and even layers of glitter.

Fun recipes to try

Making candles is tremendously fun, and you can experiment with different fragrances and colours to suit the occasion or season. For example it would be easy to use coloured food dyes that match a wedding theme or event, or rose and vanilla fragrance oils that are reminiscent of spring and beautiful with a pastel-shaded candle, finished with a bright ribbon.

If you're a chocoholic, you could make a chocolate brownie candle. Gather your candle jars and add a little oil to their base before swirling it around the edge. Then sprinkle in a handful of chocolate strands so that they stick to the edges. Pour in a chocolate scented wax, or use your own fragrance oils, and simply add brown food colouring. The finished result will smell and look gorgeous. You could use multi-coloured sugar strands, pink dye and vanilla fragrance to make a birthday cake-inspired candle in the same way.

You can also make completely natural candles by adding dried lavender or rose petals, fresh vanilla, cinnamon, fresh herbs and even coffee beans! You'll be amazed at the fragrances and finishes you can achieve with some creativity. Under supervision, older children would find these projects a lot of fun too.

Stock up at Wares

We are currently updating our ranges of beautiful candle glass jars to meet demand, and you'll find a wide range of candle suitable containers to experiment with as well as decorative trims, labels, ribbons and more. For any queries please contact our friendly customer services team who will be delighted to help. We pride ourselves on our product ranges, keen prices and superb service, and we look forward to welcoming you as a customer to Wares of Knutsford!