Candle making For Beginners From a Beginner

So you want to learn how to make a candle? Well its not that hard and with the plethora of videos and blogs on how to and tips its fairly easy to get started or is it. Well as a beginner candle making can be daunting especially if you are not very crafty. Despite the massive amounts of information, as a beginner candle maker, I found that there was a lack of some vital information that maybe only a beginner would need or want.

Candle making is as much an art form as it is a science yet, its not an extremely hard craft for beginners if you are armed with the right information. Most people who aren’t familiar with candle making probably wouldn’t know there are several types of wicks all that burn differently. So its important to do your research on what wick to get because not knowing what wick you need and why can throw a wrench in your plans. Soy wax specifically does not work with zinc core wire wicks. After a little research I learned that it won’t burn properly and the scent will not be very fragrant.

The wick is very important part of determining whether your candle is useful or just pretty so word from the wise research the type of wick you need. For more information on wick see Cajun Candles guide on wicks.

Determining the wick you need is only half the battle now you have to figure out what other supplies you need. Personally, this depends on the amount of money you want to make as an initial investment. You can start off making your first candle with very minimal supplies as shown in this video or you can buy a starter kit. If neither of those are appealing to you, you can do a combination of the two and only buy the supplies you feel you truly need.

From my experience I think you need to buy at the very least the following items in which you can find at discount stores:

• thermometer for cooking(this is for measuring the temperature of the wax)
• a container with a spout for pouring wax, make sure its microwavable if you plan on microwaving the wax. I suggest buying a glass 8oz or higher measuring cup for this
• Glass or Tin containers for your wax which these can be found at discount stores and thift stores. This is where you can be creative
• Fragrance Oil or essential oil, I think fragrance oil can be cheaper but essential oils are natural and allow for a lot of flexibility. I suggest starting with Eucalyptus or Peppermint. These scents are usually rather inexpensive, and strong.
• Skewers, Popsicle Sticks, or wooden spatulas something to hold the wick straight while its curing.

Besides the wax and the wick I found these supplies to be very important and useful when making my candles.

Next step is to determine your method. You can use microwavable Soy wax or you can melt it on the stove top. I choose to use the microwave method and although it was easy I found it time consuming because I was limited to only melting 8oz of wax flakes at a time, whereas on a stove top I could probably melt a lot more wax faster. So it depends on your personal preferance and how many candles you are making. The next time I do this I plan to use the stove top method.

I hope I helped shed some light on candlemaking from the point of view from a beginner. As a beginner candle maker I did a lot of research but what I learned was that some of the most important things are learned by trial and error. This is truly one of those crafts where practice makes perfect.