Light a Candle For Me

I have, in recent years, become something of a candle connoisseur.  There are several factors that play into the right candle for me.  First and foremost, the smell is really the essence of a good candle.  It's important that the smell, both when lit and when the wax has hardened, smells natural.  There's nothing worse than synthetic fragrance in a candle.  Even more important is that the fragrance is strong enough to perfume a large area.  I love having a candle lit downstairs and walking upstairs and getting hit with the smell from that far away.

Next, it has to burn well.  The wax should liquefy evenly and as it burns down to the bottom, should be completely used up by the wick.  Speaking of the wick, it should also burn properly and not blossom which, more often than not, leads to miniature explosions that splatter burnt wax all over.  Cotton wicks with no additives seem to be the best.

Finally, but definitely no less important, is the container.  The best candles come in beautiful vessels that, when the wax burns out completely can be used for other things like office supplies on your desk - or as I am about to share - made into new, homemade candles.

Okay, I realize I sound like a total candle snob but as is true with so many things in life, you get what you pay for.  A whole bunch of cheap candles that die before half the wax is gone or even worse, don't smell at all, are not worth even the small amount of money they cost.  A more expensive candle that looks good and does its job well is worth every penny.  Best yet, is one that does its job well that you can make and enjoy, or give as a gift.

When I was in middle school, one of my friends and I used to make candles.  These were not the modern fragranced candles in a jar, but the hippie era candles made in wet sand forms and of course they were not perfumed.  They came out looking like a sandy, mottled blob that got hidden under the kitchen sink because they were so ugly.  I figured if I could do that way back then, I could surely make some container candles that smell good and look better.  I found a link on Pinterest that led me to a materials supplier but quickly realized that my old friend Amazon.com had a better selection, at better prices and, of course, their signature free shipping.  You can't beat that!

I purchased 6 inch cotton wicks, soy wax flakes and 100% pure essential oil.  I found several oils at Sprouts - lemon, tangelo, vanilla, cinnamon and clove.  But I really wanted a pine or balsam oil which was tough to track down so I eventually just ordered that from Amazon as well.

I started with a hodgepodge of containers.  Some old jars with twine, some painted wide-mouth Ball mason jars (which I painted the interior of with homemade chalk paint) and some re-purposed candle containers I had washed and saved.  My first attempt worked out fabulously so I decided homemade candles would make great Christmas gifts for colleagues, the kids' teachers and my mom's friends at her horse ranch.  Of course, in the case of gifts, I wanted much nicer containers and we lucked out finding super cute little porcelain spice jars on clearance at Anthropologie for $4 each.  We bought them all and wished they'd had more.

I started with my trusty glue gun and glued the metal end of the wick to the bottom of the container.  

Next, I melted the soy flakes in the microwave until the melted wax reached the temperature recommended on the package.  I then added the essential oils.  This is the tricky part.  Each oil's strength varies and you will need to experiment with how much oil to add to the melted wax to get the strength of fragrance you want.

You can also experiment with mixing oils to make custom fragrances.  Since these are Christmas gifts I made several seasonal smells.  My favorite is the pine but I also really like cinnamon-vanilla and clove-vanilla.

Last, I poured the wax into the containers and propped the wick in the very center with a pencil.  This keeps it from leaning to the side as the wax hardens which will cause the candle to burn unevenly.

I found tubes of mini Christmas balls in the Target $ section which made great packaging for the completed candles.  

I think this will make a really nice, smelly Christmas for our friends.