Learn How To Make Soy Candles at Home

How to make soy candles at home. Simple instructions for amazing results. It's Candle Making Time!

Learn how to make incredible soy candles at home. Simple instructions for amazing results. It's Candle Making Time!

How to Make Flameless, Wickless Jar Candles

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Candle Warmers Etc. Flameless Warmer
Candle Warmers Etc. Hurricane Candle Warmer Lantern

is very simple. You can use pretty much any jar that can withstand some heat and will fit on a warmer such as Scentsy or any other brand of Candle warmers. I love candles, but I admit, they can be dangerous, especially if you have kids and pets around that could possibly knock over a lit candle. I have an aunt who is married to a fire fighter and he won’t allow burning candles in the house!

So, with that in mind, at Christmas time I wanted to make some soy candles to give to everyone. So I gave my aunt a plugin tart warmer and some homemade soy tarts (or melts). She loved them! I’ve already written about how to make soy tarts, so now I’m going to tell you how to make wickless, flameless jar candles.

All you have to do is use my soy jar candles recipe and just don’t put a wick in the jars! That’s it! I know, easy right? I wish I could make this post longer, but there really isn’t much more to tell you. You can safely put the max amount of fragrance oil in though without worrying about clogging the wick. So for 1lb of soy wax (16oz), you could use up to 10% fragrance load (1.6 oz of fragrance oil).

So there you go! Make beautiful wickless, flameless candles and use them in your Candle warmers and enjoy. Buy some warmers and make some candles for Christmas gifts or any occasion. The cool thing too, is that you can just reuse the jars once the fragrance has gone out. And, I haven’t tried this yet, but I’m sure you could even reuse the soy wax in the jar and just melt it down and add more fragrance oil to it once all of the fragrance has been used up!

Oh, and I guess there is one more thing. If you are using a Candle warmers that heats from the top with a bulb, then when the fragrance is used up, you can pour off the top melted layer and start over with a fresh layer of fragrance!

What Soy Candle Making Supplies Do I Need And Where to Buy Them?

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Soy candle making supplies list

I thought I should post a complete candle making supplies list and where you can get them. If you only want to make jar candles, then of course skip any supplies that have to do with just votives or tarts/melts and vice versa. This list shows everything you need to start making soy candles in jars, tarts, votives and tealights.

I have listed Amazon as one place to buy some of the supplies. You’ll want to compare prices, but if you have Amazon Prime it could be more economical for you since you can get free shipping on prime items.
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Soy Wax

Enchanted Lites 100% Soy wax (Container candles) No longer in business

American Soy Organics has taken over the EL soy wax

Find this wax at American Soy Organics Soy Wax

Enchanted Lites Soy Votive wax

American Soy Organics P-100 soy wax votive/pillar blend
American Soy Organics was not able to obtain the EL votive blend, but they were able to come up with their own blend, and I have to say, it is excellent! American Soy Organics Soy Votive/Pillar Blend or buy from Candlesoylutions

Pour Pots

1lb or 4lb Metal Pour Pot
Candlesoylutions, Amazon.com

Dye

Candle Making dye (Optional)
Wholesale Candle Making Suppliers or Amazon.com(I have not tested candle dyes from Amazon except for the Candlescience Reddig-Glo ones pictured below.)

 

Wick Stabilizers

Long chip clips(recommended), clothesline clips or wick bars
Ikea(chip clips), Fred Meyer, Target, Walmart,Amazon.com



Fragrance Oils For Soy Candles Making

(start with 1oz samples at first)Candlesoylutions, Candle Cocoon are ones I recommend.

Also check out my article “Best Fragrance Oils For Soy Candles”

 

Wicks

CD-16 or 18 or Eco 10 to 14  for 8-16oz jars  (Make sure to test different sizes in case one burns too hot or not hot enough), tealight wicks, votive wicks

CD Wicks: http://www.lonestarcandlesupply.com/candlewicks/wickclipassemblies/cdwicks.html

Sampler Eco Wick Pack: http://www.lonestarcandlesupply.com/products/candlewicks_wick-sampler-kit—eco-series-%286-inch%29.html

Wick stickers   Wholesale Candle Making Suppliers or Amazon.com  hot glue gun or glue dots can be found in most stores locally.

Warning labels

Wholesale Candle Making Suppliers or Amazon.com

 

Candle Jars and Containers

Glass Mason jars or other canning type jar Candlesoylutions  Buy the lids separately on their website.

 

Votive Molds

w/ wick pins Wholesale Candle Making Suppliers

 

Tart/Wax Melt Molds

Most candle making suppliers will have these, but you can find them at Candlesoylutions or Amazon.com or check out the Wholesale Candle Making Suppliers list.

You can also use chocolate molds like these:

 

Plastic Tealight Cups

Wholesale Candle Making Suppliers, most suppliers will carry these.

 

Timer

Walmart, Fred Meyer, etc… or Amazon.com

 

Scale

Digital scale or other kitchen scaleCandlesoylutions, Walmart, Fred Meyer, etc… or Amazon.com

 

Cooking pot (not non-stick)

Goodwill,Walmart, Fred Meyer, etc… Amazon.com

 

Rubber Spatula

Heat resistant Pampered Chef, Walmart, Goodwill, etc…. Amazon.com You can use a plastic spoon as well. I like the rubber spatula for scraping out as much wax as I can from the pour pot into the candle jars.

 

The next step would be to buy what you need in order to make a few candles to test and then follow the instructions on my website and in my videos.

If you don’t know where to begin, Go Here

What I would also do is, if you have never tried the Enchanted Lites American Soy Organics soy wax, see if you can get a 1lb sample each of the 100% container wax, millenium blend and votive wax so you can try out each one.  With the fragrance oils, buy a few 1oz samples first and then only go with the ones that really stand out after testing.

Of course you can buy many of these candle making supplies at other candle making supply shops (you can also check out my list of trusted suppliers)

Got your supplies already? Then lets make some soy candles!

When To Add Fragrance To Soy Candles?

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When to add fragrance to soy candles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s important to know when to add fragrance to soy candles. You can’t just melt the soy wax and dump the fragrance oil in. So many people watch a quick Youtube video on making soy candles, or any candle making for that matter, and the video doesn’t go into any detail on the proper way to do things. Then you have people just throwing candles together and thinking it’s good enough because they don’t know any better. With soy wax, it’s especially important to get the right fragrance oils and to know when to add the fragrance to the soy wax. Soy wax tends to have a harder time with fragrance throw when burning. You have to test your soy candles to find out which fragrance oils are best, how much to use and make sure you add them at the right temperature.

What Temperature Should You Add Fragrance to Soy Candle Wax?

Adding fragrance to your soy candle wax depends on what kind of wax you are using and what brand. Usually with 100% soy wax you want to melt your soy candle wax to 185 degrees and then add your fragrance oil at 175-185. This ensures that the oil mixes well with the wax. If you add it too cool, it will not incorporate with the wax very well. Heating your soy wax too hot can cause it to discolor which is not good if you are using no dye. It could also cause the soy candle not burn well.

With soy votive, soy pillar and soy tart wax blends, you want to melt your wax to 195-200 degrees and then let it cool down to 180-185 to add your fragrance oil. Then you will usually pour the soy wax into the molds at around 160-175 F. Soy votive/pillar/tart wax has natural additives that make the wax harder so they can stand on their own, like pillar candles do. This is why you need to melt the wax at a hotter temperature.

Type of Soy Wax Determines When to Add Fragrance Oil

Different soy wax manufacturers may have different instructions, so follow those first if they differ from what I’ve told you. If that doesn’t work well, then try the above temps to add your fragrance oil. There are many different types of soy wax and they also may have different temperatures to heat them up to so make sure to follow those instructions.

Knowing when to add fragrance to soy candles is an important step in the process of candle making.

Questions? Feel free to ask!

 

Where to Sell Soy Candles?

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Homemade Candle Creations at a Holiday Bazaar

You’ve decided to launch your soy candle making business and you’re rarin’ to go! But where to start? Where can you get your amazing soy candles out in the open where people can buy them?

Today I’m going to list different places to sell soy candles. I will go into more detail in another post about each of these, but for now this should give you a great idea where to start. Some may have an easier time starting with one place or another depending on where you live and what’s available to you. I’ll try to list from the easiest to ones that may take more work. ( I even list Etsy down lower on the list, simply because it takes more work for each candle you sell since you have to pack them and ship them and takes time for you to get noticed online.)

Places to Sell Soy Candles….

  1. Yard Sale. I have set my candles out while having a yard sale before and actually sold a few! Plus it gets your name out there locally, and if you make sure they take a business card, they may want to order more down the road!
  2. Home Parties. This one is probably the most cost effective and you can definitely make some good money here! The one home party I did, I didn’t get very many people, but I ended up selling quite a bit, so if you don’t mind talking in front of people for a few minutes, the candles can pretty much sell themselves. It’s a good idea to make  a good inventory of candles to take with you though so you can sell them on the spot.
  3. In Store. You might be able to find a small shop that would display your candles. I did this for awhile at a Bi-Rite(plumbing supplies! lol) and it would have worked out better if it had been closer to home. I did get sales there though, and It didn’t take any money for me (except gas to drop off candles now and then) since my husband knew the store owners and they offered to display them in exchange for a couple candles here and there.
  4. Craft Show/Bazaar. There are usually craft shows going on somewhere, especially around the holidays. Many times you can find ones that only cost around $10 for a table too!
  5. Saturday Market. I’ve set up at our saturday market a few times and sold quite a bit there. It does take a little more work to set up and take down and you’ll need a pop up canopy, but the sales could be worth it! This does
  6. Mall Space. I’ve never done this, and I think it’s probably kind of expensive, but if you live near a large mall, it may very well be worth it, so it would be a good idea to contact your local mall and see what the cost is and requirements for setting up. Christmas time would be a great time to try this.
  7. Etsy. You can try Etsy, though I never had much luck selling there(I didn’t try too hard either since I had my own website), plus you have fees and stuff that make it hard to make much if you are wanting to price your candles reasonably since shipping is high for candles because of the weight.
  8. Ebay. Selling your candles on Ebay isn’t the best way to go unless you have extra stock you just need to get rid of at a fairly low price.
  9. Your Own Website.  To me, this was the best way to go. Most of my candle sales came from my own website. It does take time to set one up though, and some knowledge in search engine optimization so you can get seen when people search for soy candles. But once your site is established, it can pretty much start growing on it’s own once people find out about you and start coming back. A website takes the most work to set up and maintain, but it can also be the most consistent way to sell your soy candles. You could outsource some of your website work though, like paying for a custom design and search engine optimization. (I do web design and SEO, so that link goes to my own web development site)

So that’s all I’ve got for now! Please feel free to comment if you know where else to sell homemade soy candles.

What Are Soy Blend Candles?

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Soy blend candles are candles that are made with a mixture or blend of soy wax and some other type of wax or additive. It is quite common for soy and paraffin to be mixed together to make soy blend candles. Usually people do this to eliminate the frosting that can occur on 100% soy wax candles.

Soy wax can also be blended with Beeswax, Palm wax, Coconut wax, or any other kind of wax to create a soy blend.

I would prefer not to blend soy with paraffin, only because I don’t believe paraffin is completely safe to our healthy and I’d rather not benefit over seas oil companies if I can help it, since paraffin wax is made from petroleum, but that’s my opinion.

I prefer to use all soy wax or some other soy/natural wax blend like the ones mentioned above.

Soy votive/pillar wax is a soy blend. Usually it is made up of mostly soy wax with some vegetable oils added to it. There are also some soy container waxes that are soy blends as well, with additives to help reduce frosting and retain color better, as well as giving the wax a higher fragrance load. There are many different kinds of soy wax to choose from. Some of these soy blends say “all natural soy wax” but that does not usually mean that the wax is 100% soy, that just means that the soy and any additives are natural. If it says anything about reducing frosting, better color retention, then it is not 100% soy wax. If you are wanting 100% soy wax to work with, then you need to make sure it states 100% soy or Pure soy wax.