subject: Making Votive Candles With Soy Wax [print this page] Making Votive Candles With Soy Wax Making Votive Candles With Soy Wax
Making candles at home is not only fun and rewarding, but quite cost effective too. I began my love affair with homemade candles years ago while at summer camp in Flagstaff, Arizona. Back then, we simply melted different colors of wax, and layered them into an old milk carton. Now days, I still make my own candles, and with the variety of waxes to choose from, the options are really limitless. Each wax reacts differently, so when I set out learning how to make soy candles, I discovered that the wax is fairly soft and the best way to work with it is to make votive candles.
This is a very easy project to do at home, one that is perfect for children and the creating of holiday candles. I did this exact project with my niece and some of her friends a couple of weeks ago. The first consideration is just how many candles will you be making? We made little votive candles, each one using just about two ounces of soybean wax. So out of a one pound slab of wax, we got eight candles.
I have been making homemade candles for many years and have invested in a professional wax melter.However, I have found that the double boiler pot I used for years works just fine. It is really easy to use and is the most cost effective way to get started. When my family and I got started we would just slice up the chunk of wax into smaller pieces so that it would melt more evenly and consistently. I put a candy thermometer into the melting wax to ensure that it did not reach the flash point. This is the temperature that if reached, may cause the wax to burst into flames. For soybean wax that point is between 300 and 400 hundred degrees Fahrenheit.
We decided to make red candles, in the holiday spirit so once the wax had melted throughout we added the color. I had some essential oils I use for my own work, and the girls chose to scent their candles with peppermint. We added the scent once the color had been completed blended. We stirred the wax for a solid two minutes. This was to make certain that the dye and the fragrance had completely bound to the soybean wax.
I then lowered the temperature of the wax to about one hundred and fifty degrees so we would be ready to pour the candles. I had quite a few little rubber molds, and once I poured the candles, the girls waited until the wax had cooled a bit to insert the wicks. This is an easy step, but one the must be done relatively quickly, before the wax cools too much.
We then took a break, and the let the candles sit for about five hours. When we came back to them later on that evening, the girls gently pulled the candles right out of the molds by tugging slightly on the wicks. It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon, and in the end we all had delicious smelling soy candles to burn for the holidays.
