Making candles at home is a wonderful activity but it is essential to understand what essentials make candles and how essentials work in candles.
Once you create your recipe, the ingredients must be of good quality to burn cleanly.
Essentially they’re using pure oils and 100% soy wax chips with minimal ingredients. This list of pure essential oils will help.
Fragrance load
The scents that you use in the candles are important to know. Typically, the fragrance is about 5% of the wax volume.
The recommended scent levels of candles are 5-10%. Soy wax will probably take more fragrances than other waxes. Soy’s fragrance load can be as high as 12%.
Essential oils for candles should be the finest natural oils with high quality and a strong scent for your mix.
The oil is needed at a ratio of one ounce per oz for each eight oz bottle.
Say no to dyes
A second consideration is dyes used for candle production often found in retail stores.
Colors: Candles usually contain synthetic colors. Surprise! The dye may contain dangerous carcinogens too!
During the holiday seasons, I used different colored candles for the candles I used to dye.
When I learned of this toxic substance I discarded it immediately.
I love the classic white candle or the subtle off white hue of soy.
These appear cleaner and classier than your typical colored candle.
How to blend the Best Essential Oils for Candle Making?
There’s no need for a professional recipe to create your own fragrance blend. Although these are usually very helpful initially it is easy to do on your own.
What fragrances do you like? How does your nose determine what is a great essential oil to use when candle making?
Choose whether the fragrance is calming, energizing, or grounded. Learn about each of these essential oils until you are aware of all the aromas and subtleties that each oil brings.
Use only pure essential oils for this so you don’t adulterate the aroma of your scented candles.
Use of Essential Oils for Candle Making: A Note For Beginners
Essential oils refer to plants’ essences and aromas. Core components were discarded to preserve a minimum amount of original appearance.
Aromatherapy utilizes the use of essential oils as part of promoting physical, emotional, or spiritual health.
You should always use essential oil only in candle making, as this ensures that your fragrance stays strong throughout its lifetime.
Scent notes
Perfumes divide many essential oil scents into categories they call notes when making the blend.
It’s important to understand this as a mixture of olefins changes as it grows.
Knowing the difference and smelling it once you smell this blend again could cause some surprise if you are not on the top of your game.
Know your scents
If you use oils in candlemaking there are a variety of oils available.
When you need to add a smoky wood fragrance to the summer season, you can pick up any bright citrus scent. Let us examine each fragrance category to get a clear idea of where you should start.
Essential oils for Soy wax candles
Traditionally candlemaking was a precise science. Creating new essential oils is a creative idea for candles to use. Below are my favorite essential oils which are used to create DIY essential oil candles from scratch.
You can follow the recipe of well known candle makers or make an individual combination yourself. It’s important to know how the scent changes when essential oils mixed together are made into your own candles.
You should consider buying some essential oils yourself and have a go at making your own scented candles.
If you are looking to use essential oils for your candle making then you need to only select the best oils for candle making as other candle makers do.
First, you need to decide what essential oils you are going to use, and then what type of wax, wick, and candle you are going to make. Just adding a few fragrance oils together and hoping for the best won’t cut it.
Here are some of the best essential oils for candles
This is by no means an exhaustive essential oil list, far from it. There are many outlets that sell pure essential oils for making scented candles so when you start your candle making journey you will be spoilt for choice.
Sweet orange essential oil
The sweet orange essential oil is one of the best for candle makers. Not only does it have one of those instantly recognizable citrusy scents but it also can absorb a lot of bad odors like cigarette smoke and pet odors. Due to its sharp scent of orange peel, it does not only smell good but it lifts up your spirits.
Lavender essential oil
Lavender is another great essential oil. Being quite strong and heady it can be combined with many floral scents to provide you with a stunning scent throw everyone will love.
Rosemary essential oil
We are now starting to see many herb based essential oils and rosemary is no exception. In fact, it is one of the most popular essential oils from this family as it is very floral and appealing and gives your candle wax that authentic Italian vibe.
Cinnamon essential oil
Cinnamon essential oil is one of those oils that oozes fragrance from the melted wax of a candle.
Add cinnamon to any of your fragrance oils when you are doing your own candle making for that warm winter and Christmassy feel.
Grapefruit essential oil
Grapefruit essential oil, like orange and lemon, is one of those citrusy scents that we all love.
Scented candles made with grapefruit make you feel like you are in the tropics, plucking fruit straight from the tree.
Cedarwood essential oil
This essential oil is one of those heady and woodsy scents. If you are candle making for the male target market then woody fragrance oils are a hit.
Frankincense essential oil
For that true Christmassy scented candle experience then look no further than frankincense.
It’s one of those specific and best essential oils used when making candles for the festive season.
Peppermint essential oil
Peppermint is one of those essential oils that always brings out your aromatherapy candles’ smell and potency.
Invigorating and soothing, you’ll find it quickly becoming one of your favorite scents and will form a staple item in your candle making supplies.
Lemon essential oil
Lemon works well as a zesty, tangy scent when candle making and is one citrus oil you’ll love.
Not only by itself but it’s great when blending essential oils together for your homemade candles, candles to sell, or wax melts.
Bergamot essential oil
Bergamot is one of the best essential oils in my book as it is perfect for making aromatherapy candles. This is an absolute must for making essential oil candles.
Ginger essential oil
As an essential oil, ginger is great and has many healing properties.
For example, it has anti-inflammatory and anti-nausea properties, which could be added when making soy candles for pleasing aromatherapy candles that really can help you relax at home.
Patchouli essential oil
Patchouli is the best essential oil for relieving stress so if you are using specific oils for candle making then you will find essential oils like this invaluable.
Tea Tree essential oil
Tea tree oil has been used as an essential oil for a long time for ailments like acne but now it’s very popular with candle making especially when blended with other essential oils.
A few supplies are needed when starting the candle making process
Here are some of the best essential oils for candles that you can buy to start you off.
Laguna Moon Essential oil set 1
This set contains a great starter selection including lavender essential oil among others. It’s a good mix of essential oils for candle production and as these are organic essential oils it makes sense to pick this set if you are a fan of organic products.
Wtrcsv Essential oil set 2
This pack of essential oils is great as it packs in a whopping 30 bottles of the best essential oils for candle making including my favorite, sweet orange essential oil.
Your aromatherapy candles will thank you for choosing these oils for candle making.
SACATR Essential oil set 3
This set of essential oils comes in 24, 36, or a massive 48 bottle set of oils for candle making, making this set by far the best essential oils set for starting your candle making journey.
Making your candles
Before you began making candles, you needed to decide early on what type of ingredients you would use and what you would not.
Many modern candle making companies use a blend of paraffin wax and soy in their candles but as you know paraffin wax can be toxic so should not be used.
Dyes, as well as essential oils, are added resulting in pleasing but somewhat misleading candle making practices.
Soy wax is a great choice for your own candles as well as those you intend to sell so let’s focus on soy candles from hereon in.
When making essential oil candles we need to look at all ingredients and not just focus on the essential oils.
Pillar candles
Pillar candles are often used as a basic candle shape, especially when making aromatherapy candles, this shape makes it easy to add essential oils during the manufacturing process.
Individual oils can be added to the melted wax with more oil being able to be added if needed.
In time you will learn how much oil to add just by the smell as you melt wax in your double boiler.
If you make candles with essential oils that have a strong earthy scent or a strong invigorating scent then these kinds of candles can save money as you often need fewer essential oils for that subtle aroma rather than end up with something that hits you in the face like many synthetic fragrances.
Wax melts
Wax melts are different from essential oil candles as they do not contain wicks.
A wax melt still does, however, contain essential oils and candle wax, like traditional candles, but is not subject to a direct candle flame.
Wax melts are warmed from below and the essential oils are released from the melted wax gently.
Container candles
Container candles are by far the most popular essential oil candles as the jars can be reused over and over again, or even repurposed into something different entirely.
Mason jars, jam jars, and even cut wine bottles can be used to make suitable containers for your candles.
If you are not into cutting glass for your containers then you should be able to pick up some from your local craft store or online.
Essential oils are often used in these kinds of candles and if you are canny you can ask your customers to return the jars for a discount on their next purchase.
Candle wicks
Selecting the right candle wicks is critical for your essential oil candles.
If you use wooden wicks then the essential oils will be absorbed into the wick but may not give the same scent throw as if you used a braided wick for example.
How much essential oil should I use?
When working with essential oils it’s a good rule of thumb to use between 5 and 10%
If you are looking to use soy wax in your candle making then the ratio of essential oils you may consider using could be increased slightly to 12%.
Your essential oil candles will sometimes need more or fewer oils in the double boiler if they have a sharp scent or if a subtle aroma is needed.
Be careful not to use more oil than needed or the candle may not burn well and the essential oils may burn unevenly and small less than ideal.
Conclusion
When it comes to making scented candles for you, your family, or for the purposes of selling them, then care is needed when selecting your essential oils just as much as the other ingredients.
Candle making can be an incredibly fun and rewarding activity and being able to perfect essential oil candles is no mean feat and should at the very least earn you a big pat on the back.
If you are looking to set up a candle making business or a craft business then you may wish to check out these articles
