Making candles with essential oils can lift your mood and help you feel relaxed or energized, depending on which of the 10,000 available scents you choose. Using natural ingredients, such as soy wax, gives a better final product that will burn cleanly and last up to 50% longer than other waxes. By making your own candles you can customize the shapes, scents, and ingredients based entirely on your own tastes to get the perfect candle for you. It’s a great way to get creative, express yourself and it’s cheaper than shop-bought candles.
Which Type Of Wax?
There are three types of wax commonly used, each with their own pros and cons. The first is paraffin wax which is the most frequently used as it’s cheap, easy to add scent to and can be dyed. However, it is a by-product of petroleum, so it has the potential to be toxic. Soy wax is a natural product made from soybeans with no potential to damage health. Other pros are that it is cheap and can easily be scented and colored. Soy wax can be mixed with other waxes and oils, such as palm oil, but this can cause a lot of problems for wildlife. Stick to 100% soy wax for a natural and environmentally friendly candle. Lastly, beeswax can be used and is another natural wax. Beeswax will already have a natural sweet scent and golden color to it which is difficult to override.
Choosing A Wick
The main type of wick is braided cotton. Wicks that are braided flat are best as they are self-consuming, meaning that they curl up and go into the flame. You can get wicks that have a wider diameter, which can be better suited to your candle design, but these will cause a wider flame and more melted wax, which results in a shorter burn time. Wicks can also be made of wood to give a gentler flicker from the candle. Both options are just as safe and environmentally friendly, and your choice will depend on the style of candle you want to make.
Pick The Perfect Scent
Three out of four candle buyers believe that scent is highly important when selecting a candle and the same applies for homemade candles. There are thousands of scents to choose from and they come in essential oils, fragrance oils, and natural scents. What you choose will depend on how natural you want the candle to be. Fragrance oils are synthetic scents made from chemicals and can be linked to health problems as some of them are, again, derived from petroleum. They are commonly used because the quality is improving, they have a strong scent and are inexpensive. Using essential oils can give your candle aromatherapy benefits, so you can pick your oil based on what health or mood changes you want. They are completely natural ingredients and many people prefer the subtler scent that they offer so that they don’t overwhelm the room.
Making candles at home can be an enjoyable hobby. You can have custom made candles to precisely suit what you want. It’s easy to make completely natural candles that smell just as good as expensive shop bought ones for a fraction of the price and you’ll have the pride of knowing you made it.
Complement this with the piece on Self Reflection, Spirituality, and Creativity
