Before you start...

Preparation is key, especially as candle making can get quite messy, very quickly if you are new to it. Make sure you have a clear designated space to work on, ideally a large clean flat surface, making sure anything expensive will not get wax on it. Lay out all your equipment before starting, ensuring you have everything you need and that it is all easily accessible. See our key equipment list below:

How much wax to use...

If you know your candle container size then great! If not, don’t worry, you can easily confirm this by filling the container with water (remember to leave roughly a 1cm gap from the top of the container to ensure no issues when the wax melts). Pour the water from the candle container into a measuring jug to confirm how much melted wax the candle container holds in ml’s.

If you are planning to add fragrance to the candle, we recommend using a ratio of 10% fragrance oil, 90% melted wax, which equates to 10ml fragrance for every 90ml of melted wax for example. We recommend that you measure out the correct amount of fragrance oil before starting to melt any wax so that it is ready when required.

Once you know how much melted wax your candle container can hold, you need to confirm the amount of soy wax flakes you require. To do this you need to convert your melted wax ml’s value into grams. A simple tip for this (due to the average density of wax) is to multiply the ml’s value by 86%. Click on the tabs below for some useful examples:

If you used these simple calculations to determine the correct amount of soy wax flakes to weigh out and measure for each candle container, you can’t go wrong!

You may want to add wax dye to create a specific colour to your candle. We recommend adding a ratio of 1g to 2g of wax dye flakes per 100g of soy wax flakes, depending on how pastel or deep looking you want your candle colour to be. It is advised to measure out the wax dye flakes ahead of melting any wax so that they are ready to be added when required.  

Let’s start melting...

Place your measured amount of soy wax flakes into your heating pot, if you do not have a designated heating pot for candle making, don’t panic! A simple solution is to use a glass bowl instead, then place either into a roughly half filled pan of water. Begin heating the wax to 70˚C, ensuring to stir gently whilst the wax heats up (IMPORTANT: Do not exceed 80˚C), being sure to keep an eye on the wax as it can very quickly heat up, usually taking 10-15 minutes to melt.

Wicks at the ready...

If you are new to candle making and have wick glue dots to hand, it may be worth doing this before you start melting the soy wax. Place the glue dots onto the bottom of the wick stands and then firmly press the wick stands into the center of the candle container.

If you don’t have any wick glue dots, don’t worry, you can carefully dip the bottom of the wick stand into the molten wax and attach the wick firmly to the center of the candle container with just wax! Make sure you allow the wax to set on the wick stand before you fill the candle containers with molten wax.

Why not add a bit of colour...

Once the soy wax flakes have melted and reached 70˚C, add the wax dye flakes, ensuring to gently stir the molten wax until all the wax dye flakes have fully dissolved into molten wax and the colour is even throughout.

How about some fragrance...

Once everything has fully dissolved, make sure you take your wax off the heat and allow the molten wax temperature to drop to 65˚C before pouring in the fragrance oil. Start to pour in the measured-out fragrance oil, ensuring to gently stir the molten wax whilst pouring.

Pouring the wax...

Whilst the wax is still at 65˚C it is the ideal temperature to pour into your candle containers. You may find it easier to transfer the molten wax into a pouring jug first to aid the pouring process. Slowly and gently pour the molten wax into your candle container to ensure you avoid creating air bubbles, remembering to leave 1cm from the top of the candle container. If you have any molten wax left over, this may be useful for later, therefore pour it back into your heating container for now.

Time to wait...

Once the candle containers are filled with molten wax, make sure the wicks are held upright firmly in place through the use of a wick centering tool rested across the top of the candle container. Leave the filled candle containers to cool at room temperature for about 20-30 minutes, until they are still warm but not fully hardened.

Final optional touches...

Whilst cooling you will find that wax naturally shrinks and is unavoidable so don’t panic. This is often seen by visual sink holes around the wick in the center. If the wax has sunk on the top surface, all you need to do is re-heat the left-over wax. Once it has reached the optimal pouring temperature (65˚C), pour the left-over molten wax into the sink holes. This may need to be repeated a couple of times to ensure a smooth flat finish to the candle top.

Once the candles have cooled overnight and the wax has become firm, you can trim the wicks to the correct heights. We recommend leaving 0.5cm of wick length above the top surface of the candle wax to ensure the candle is easy to light. Congratulations, you’ve made your first candle!