You might not ever go to Yankee Candle again when you find out how easy it is to make your a homemade candle.
Except, you will still go to Yankee Candle because everyone knows that Yankee Candles are the #1 Gift you give to any person that you don’t know well enough to know what else they might like. Because, let’s face it, everyone loves a Yankee Candle.
Except my dad. He hates all candles and doesn’t believe in having them burning willy nilly in the house. I mean, it’s like asking for a fire to start. If my mom lights a candle, he’ll nonchalantly walk by and blow it out when her back is turned. No lie.
He also has a thing about nails in the walls. We were not allowed to nail things into the walls of our rooms. It ruined the walls. So if there were something hanging on the walls of our home, it was because my mother chose it and he hung it himself. And it never came down or was replaced.
But, I digress. My dad is an amazing man with a couple of quirks but it’s the quirks that make us special, right?
Anyway. What was I talking about? Making candles.
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What Do You Put Your homemade Candle In?
Here’s what you might secretly love about making your own candles.
What you will find that you love about making a homemade candle is finding a container for the candle. You can do mason jars, you can do teacups, you can do almost anything that won’t melt or ignite.
I actually waffled on doing this project because I knew I wanted some type of cute thrift store find as a vessel for my candles, but I really didn’t want to go to the thrift store.
So, I thought to myself, “Santos, (I call myself by my last name in my head when I need a pep talk), you probably have a million things already in this very house that you could use as the vessel for your candles. Get off your butt and go find something!”.
And so I did. I got up and wandered around the house and found a few super cute containers for my homemade candle.
I chose the pretty blue little bowl with handles because blue is far and away my favorite color and I like that it’s sort of shallow and wide. A nice shape for a homemade candle.
Then I remembered I also had those amazing little bowls with the flowers. I really, really love these bowls. They are so unique. Yankee Candle does not have their candles in these bowls, I promise you that.
What Scent Should You Choose?
I would recommend picking a scent you like. Unless you are making the homemade candle for someone else that you are not very fond of. Then you can pick a scent that no one likes and maybe they will finally get the hint that no one likes it when they walk in a room and do the WAZZZZZZZUUUPPPP thing from 1997. No one does that anymore. It stopped being funny in … it was never even funny!
There are a few different ways to get your scent. You can do essential oils, which is the method I used this time. I actually got a whole set of essential oils with a few different scents, so you can expect to see more projects that smell on the site soon.
Smell good, I mean. Probably. I don’t know, though. I’m sure if I mixed the wrong two scents together it could go very badly. Sort of like when you brush your teeth and then drink orange juice. Except the smell version of that.
You can also try things that are in your kitchen. I’ve seen tutorials for Chai tea candles using none other than Chai Tea. You can use spices from your spice rack, too.
You could probably use some onions and the essence of a dirty sock for the wazzup guy. If you wanted to.
I chose Eucalyptus and Rosemary. They are very pretty, light scents. The idea with this is to make your house smell as if you actually cleaned it.
Then you just have to pray that no one notices that you didn’t, actually. They will smell the smell of your candle, say, “Oh lovely” then you say, “Thanks! I made it” Then they say, “No Way!” and you say “Yes Way!”.
And now they are totally distracted from your messy house that is borderline natural disaster.
Win, right?
But How Do You Know You’re Going to Like the Scent Combo You Picked?
There’s a simple way to know if you are going to love the scent combination that you picked.
I will tell you right now, it is not sniffing the bottles of essential oils at the same time. That doesn’t work and will very probably give you a terrible headache.
Ask me how I know.
Instead of doing that, do this simple trick that Laura from Little Yellow Wheel Barrow taught me. Boil a little water on the stove. Add about 4 drops each of the scents that you think you want to try. Walk away for a couple of minutes and then return to the room.
Does the room smell amazing? Then you like that scent combo. If the room smells terrible, then you don’t like that scent combo.
In case that wasn’t obvious.
Now the easy part, making the homemade candle.
How to Make a Homemade Eucalyptus Mint Candle
Materials
- Soy Wax Flakes
- Wicks
- Eucalyptus and Mint essential Oil
- Thrifted Container for your Candles
Step 1
Melt the wax flakes. I did this in a homemade double boiler on the stove. By homemade I mean I just stuck one pot on top of another. If you have an actual double boiler feel free to use that.
To make the three smallish candles I made, I used about 3.5 cups of wax flakes. Luckily the wax flakes melt super quickly, so if you haven’t melted down enough to fill your candles, just melt some more.
Step 2
Add your essential oils to the melted wax on the stove. It’s usually recommended in most tutorials to do about 15 drops of essential oil. I did 20 of each. I like smells.
Step 3
While your wax is melting or add your wick to the container. Put a tiny bit of the melted wax at the bottom of the container, stick the wick in that trying very very hard not to burn your fingers because melted wax doesn’t feel good, I don’t care what those R&B videos try to tell you.
You’ll also need your craft stick or pencil or chop stick or other thing to wrap the wick around so that it stands up straight in the vessel.
Step 4
Pour your wax into your vessel.
Step 5
Allow the wax to dry.
Step 6
Snip the wick and light your candle. Unless my dad is around. He’ll only blow it out on you anyway.
Now What?
I don’t know about you, but I got a bunch of other essential oils when I ordered the eucalptus and mint and I’m going to see if I can come up with some new scent combinations. So, I’m making more candles.
I’d love to hear what combinations you came up with. What did you use for a vessel for your candle? Let me know in the comments. You can even attach a picture, if you are feeling brave enough to share your work.
Check out this post for more DIY Candle inspiration!
If You Liked It Then You Shoulda Put a Pin In It
