I’ve been a candle lover ever since I was young, mostly due to my mom’s candle business and love for the wondrous smells. As I got older, candles became an important part of my self care regimen! Nothing better than creating a mood, or ambience in your own home with one simple product. Even better for you, this blog post will teach you how to make a homemade candle of your own.
It is both simple and affordable to create this beautiful candle. So whether you are just a lover of self care products or want to gift a family member or friend a hand-crafted candle made with care, then this is the perfect DIY recipe for you.
Gathering your equipment and ingredients is the first step. This is such a good recipe to double batch, if you want to make a ton of homemade candles with different scents and colors. Let’s get into it!
Equipment & Ingredients
To make this homemade candle you will need these ingredients:
- Beeswax Pellets
- Coconut Oil
- Essential Oils (scent of choice)
- Food Dye (color of choice)
As for the equipment, you will just need:
- Double Boiler
- Candle Container
- 3 wicks
- Dried Flowers/Herbs (optional)
Melting the Wax
To start, get a double boiler. Place some water in the bottom half of the pot and then cover with the steamer. Place the bowl inside with the beeswax pellets and coconut oil. Sit over medium=high heat. Everything will melt pretty slowly at first, but be sure to stir every 5 minutes or so to help the process along.
An alternative if you don’t have a double boiler is to just use a smaller pot and keep a low level of water boiling, then placing the bowl on top. The melting is less distributed this way, but works quite well with the same results.
Once this completely melts (about 10-15 minutes) remove from the heat, but keep the bowl inside the double boiler.
Now comes my favorite part; adding the preferred scents and colors. Because this homemade candle has a beeswax base, the color will already be a light yellow. So when I added the food gel color pink it created this beautiful orange color.
When adding dye, you can only use a food gel or paste, no liquids. This is because the candle is a wax products and the liquid would not mix well with the oily base.
Once the color is all mixed in, go ahead and add your drops of essential oil. You can choose one scent or mix multiple. Here I added 30 drops of lavender and 30 of cherry blossom. I loved the scent of the cherry blossom oil and it matched well with the design we will be creating on the top later with the dried flowers.
Along with that, both cherry blossom and lavender have such great benefits when inhaled. This is another reason I loved this recipe. This homemade candle becomes both a visual mood setter and a therapeutic item due to the essential oils within them.
Benefits of Cherry Blossom Essential Oil
Cherry blossoms have been a huge symbol of many things across cultures. When it comes to aromatherapy, this essential oil includes benefits such as:
- Reducing Stress
- Curing Insomnia
- Pain Relief
- Calming
- Revitalizing
If symbolism is important to you, then this essential oil has many more benefits and good omens as well. The cherry blossom exemplifies femininity, elegance, and authenticity. A symbol of beauty, strength and power. They are often used during ceremonies because it is seen as an omen for good fortune and symbol of love and affection. Knowing these benefits and symbols, made the cherry blossom essential oil one of my first choices in making this homemade candle. That along with…of course it smelling AMAZING.
Benefits of Lavender Essential Oil
Lavender is an even more popular essential oil because it honestly has 2 times more of the physical and mental benefits than the cherry blossom oil. To me the addition of lavender is more for the benefits than the scent. When adding this to the homemade candle, it was much more of a subtle smell than the cherry blossom and that was more than okay with me. The benefits of this oil are:
- One of the best essentials for headaches
- Anti-inflammatory
- Antioxidant protection (the lavender oil acts as an air purifier)
- Reducing stress and fear
- Improves Sleep
- Relieves Pain
- Reducing fatigue
- Healing Properties (a study done on post open-heart surgery patients and cardiac ICU patients showed a reduction in their blood pressure and heart rates after inhaling lavender essential oil)
- Supports Brain Function
Creating the Homemade Candle
Now that the essential oils and colors have been added the the melted wax, it is time to prepare the candle. Take your 3 wicks and place them evenly apart from each other in your candle container. In this wide and shallow bowl, three are used, but if the container were thin and taller, one would be just fine.
Once the wicks are placed, pour only enough wax to cover the bottoms of the wicks. Let this cool for about 15 minutes, to hold the wicks in place before continuing.
Then pour in the rest of the wax on top of the hardened bottom. Pour slowly so the layer is created evenly on top and the warm wax doesn’t break through what has just dried. That is simply it to creating this homemade candle. Let it cool and harden for 2 hours before clipping the wicks. I personally add an extra touch with the dried flowers, but that is optional.
To add the dried flowers to the top, use a butane torch to heat the top layer of the candle. Then place the dried pieces where desired so they stick into the candle.
To finish this homemade candle, clip the wicks with scissors to match the height of the candle container being used. Wait at least 24 hours before actually lighting this candle for an even burn.
And that is how you make a beautiful DIY homemade candle in less than 30 minutes. You can add your own unique touch with different add-ons to the top of the candle, such as crystals or doing layers of different color if making in a clear container.
Set the Mood and Light Your Candle!
Once you have waited the 24 hours, it is time to test and light the candle! Just look at the difference in the mood this homemade candle creates when its lit in a dark space. Super beautiful and anyone who walks into your home will definitely be asking “WHERE DID YOU GET THAT CANDLE!?”
Please share this recipe with family and friends if you enjoyed or leave a comment on how this candle making project came out for you. I would love to hear about your personal alterations too! 🙂
DIY Homemade Candle
Difficulty: Easy1
servings20
minutes2
minutesA simple and therapeutic easy homemade candle you can make at home with only a few ingredients. Perfect for a gift or to burn for yourself!
Ingredients
1/2 lb. beeswax
1/4 cup coconut oil
60 drops of essential oil (I used 30 cherry blossom and 30 lavender)
Food Dye (optional)
3 candle wicks
Directions
- Place a double boiler over medium heat on the stove.
- Use a heat proof bowl or glass and place on the double boiler. Pour in the beeswax and coconut oil, stirring every few minutes, until it has completely melted.
- Remove from the heat and add some food and mix to the color you would like. Then add the drops of lavender and rose oil to create the aromatic scent.
- Prep your candle container by placing the bowl over the double boiler just to warm up the container slightly.
- Then place the 3 wicks into the bowl, equally spaced apart in a triangle. Pour the wax mixture into the prepared candle container just covered the bottom of the wicks. Let sit for 5-10 minutes to dry completely and hold the wicks in place.
- Then pour the rest of the candle wax into the container.
- Let cool completely, which should take around 2 hours.
- To add a beautiful touch, heat the top of the candle with a torch and sprinkle with dried rose and lavender pieces. Then let dry to mold them in place.
- Trim the wicks to the level of the candle dish before lighting!
Recipe Video
Notes
- For the best burn, wait 24 hours before lighting this candle to use.
- Cooling times will vary depending on the size and deepness of the candle container being used.
