Adventures in Homesteading: Candle Making

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Candles are both practical and romantic. And for today’s Adventures in Homesteading post, I’m making my first EVER candles!

Now there are all different ways you could go about making candles, but since I am a total novice, I decided on making soy candles because it looked easy and also soy candles burn clean. Sounded like a win-win.

Here’s what I bought at Michael’s: microwavable soy flakes, tealight forms and dye. In hindsight, I could’ve done without the dye! Heads up, the tealight forms were rather spendy. Make sure to head to Michael’s with one of those coupons in hand if you go this route!

Making these little buggers is suprisingly fast and easy! I popped out the metal forms and stood up the wicks, which were included. The cool thing about these little metal containers is that they are reusable (love that). You would obviously need to replace the wicks.

Here is what the soy flakes look like. You can melt them in the microwave, stirring every few seconds, or over the stove. I decided to melt them over the stove since this was my first attempt.

Once melted, you can work in some dye (if you wish). And at the very end, you can stir in a few drops of your favorite essential oil if you desire some fragrance.

Next, carefully pour the melted wax into your forms, making sure the wicks stay upright and in the center.

Now your wax will harden fairly quickly, but you’ll likely have it “cave” a bit towards the center. The way to remedy this is to poke several holes using a toothpick around your candle, and pouring a bit more wax in. So count on a two-step process before you have your completed candles.

Cut the wicks down and you can use them immediately!

I was honestly surprised at how super easy this craft was to do. If you’ve never made candles before, I would definitely start here!

I hope you’re enjoying this series as much as I am! I have a few more fun things up my sleeve for the rest of April – so watch for the next post on Monday! And if you’ve missed any post, you can head back to the Adventures in Homesteading page.