January 4, 2012

• Adventures in Candle Making

  I didn’t announce it on Xanga, but I’m thinking about starting to make candles to sell. So I bought a candle making kit at Michael’s, and yesterday I made them. Here’s how it went!!

  Process

  

  This is what my work station looked like. The kit came with the materials to make 2 candles. I also bought a book on making candles. So there’s the wick tabs, candle thermometer, soy wax, a pen and a pencil, tacky wax, and the color and scent blocks.

  

  The book recommends placing wax paper underneath everything at your wax station. On the back of the stove is an old glass pan lined with wax paper, which the book suggests to pour the extra wax out.

  

  This is the double boiler I bought. The bottom hold water that boils, and the top is where you put the wax to melt.

  

  Step one is actually washing the container you are going to pour the candle into.

  

  Next, you take the tacky wax, about a pea-sized amount, and secure the wick tab to the bottom of the glass.

  

  In order for the wick to stay centered, tie the wick to a pencil or pen and make it taught. This was a little difficult, as the tacky wax wasn’t strong enough to keep the tab at the bottom of the glass. It took a few attempts to get it right.

  

  I used this pen for the second candle. I would recommend using a pencil, because of the sides. The smoothness of the pen made it more difficult to to secure the wick.

  

  I decided to color my candles blue. With soy wax, it doesn’t take to color too well, and most of your candles will look pastel in color.

  

  I first chopped up the blue color block. Doing this will make the melting faster instead of placing the entire block into the melted wax.

  

  The white block was the scent block. The scent provided with the kit was vanilla. It’s recommended to chop this up as well so it melts faster.

  

  This is the wax melting. The wax needs to reach 180 degrees.

  

  Next the blue color slivers are added.

  

  The color needs to be mixed well into the melted wax.

  

  Next, the scent slivers are added to the melted wax. This also needs to be stirred well.

  

  The wax is then carefully and slowly poured into the glass containers once it cools to 140 degrees.

  

  The box recommends leaving some wax at the end.

  

  After only 5 minutes, the wax was already hardening.

  

  The box says to that after half and hour to an hour, poke holes that are 1 3/4″ deep to release air.

  

  Then heat the remaining wax to 140 degrees, and pour to fill the holes.

  

  After letting the candles cool for 4 hours, this is what it looked like.

  

  Thoughts

  I don’t like using scent blocks. The scent isn’t as strong, and I’ve read that using essential oils for the scent is a lot more effective.

  I didn’t like poking holes in the candles, because it didn’t look right. I need to do some research on soy candles, but I don’t think I will do this in the future.

  I am planning on buying just a few supplies and experimenting a little bit before I decide to sell them. Nick created a spreadsheet for me to track my supply costs and profits. He also said that if the testing phase goes well, he might invest in my little company ^_^

  I need to do more research on the cost of supplies from different websites, and I need to think of a name for my company. I also need to research what scents I want to play with, because there’s so many to choose from.

  If anyone has any any recommendations or suggestions for me, please let me know!! And would you buy any candles? I plan on setting up an Etsy page if all goes well.

  • 6:19 pm
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