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Get Started in Candle Making

Personalise scents, colours and styles to create unique candles, tailor-made for yourself or a friend! Craft your customised candle design, light your wick and enjoy the lovely fragrance and soft glow of your creation! Handmade candles will also make the perfect gift, ideal for adding to hampers.

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Tool Guide How to Shop Ideas

Tool Guide

Discover everything you need to start making your candles with our range of tools and materials.

Tool Guide
Soya Wax Flakes

Soya Wax Flakes

Soya wax flakes can be used in a variety of containers as the perfect base for a whole host of different candle designs.
Fragrance Oils

Fragrance Oils

Candles aren’t complete with a beautiful scent! Fragrance oils offer highly concentrated scents that are specially formulated for use in candle making.
Dyes

Dyes

Highly concentrated candle dye is specially formulated for use in candle making, adding beautiful colour to your wax. Choose the perfect shade!
Wooden Sticks

Wooden Sticks

Craft sticks allow you to position waxed thread to create your candle wick. When balanced over your votive, they’ll hold the wick in position as you add the hot wax.
Pre-Made Wicks

Pre-Made Wicks

Find the right wick for your handmade candle designs, with pre-made wicks available that are easy to use – perfect for beginners!
Candle Moulds

Candle Moulds

From pillar candles to small votives, the right candle mould makes it easy to create a beautiful shape.

How to Make a Soya Wax Candle

Try your hand at crafting your very first candle, adding scents and dye to set it apart. Just follow a few simple steps!

Step 1

Create the candle wick by threading the waxed thread through the candle wick base, and secure to bottom of glass candle votive using a glue dot. Wrap the end of the waxed thread around a craft stick until the waxed thread stands upright within the glass candle votive.
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Step 2

Melt the soya wax pellets using a double boiler until the melted wax reaches a temperature of 80°C.
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Step 3

Add in a small amount of candle dye – ¼ tsp to ½ tsp, depending on desired vibrancy of colour. Mix thoroughly.
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Step 4

Add in a small amount of candle fragrance – ½ tsp to 1 tsp, depending on desired strength. Mix thoroughly.
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Step 5

Pour the mixture into the candle votive once the wax has cooled to between 50-60°C, ensuring that the craft stick returns to the centre of the votive so that the wick remains straight once the candle sets.
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Step 6

Leave the candle on a cooling rack to cool for 24 hours. Then cut the excess wick, leaving roughly 1cm of wick above the top of the candle.
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Video Guides Playlist

Join David as he shows you how to make your own candles using moulds and containers.

Shop Candle Making

From tea lights that create a twinkling ambience to dramatic pillar candles, discover a range of products to make the perfect design for you.

Get Started In Candle Making Bundle

Get Started In Candle Making Bundle

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Votives and Moulds

Votives and Moulds

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Candle Wax and Wicks

Candle Wax and Wicks

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FAQ

Soy wax is a great candle base to use. It gives off less soot than paraffin wax and is 100% natural, and therefore biodegradable. However, when creating candles without containers, such as pillar candles, it is best to use paraffin wax as it has more integrity to stand on its own. The scent-throw of paraffin-based candles is also greater than soy due to the molecular structure of the wax.

It is preferential to melt each wax using a double boiler. When this is not possible, you can pop the wax in a microwavable jug and melt on high, mixing regularly to ensure an even melt.

The best pouring temperature for soy wax is between 50-60°C. Pillar candles using paraffin wax are best poured at temperatures exceeding 80°C. You can measure the temperature of the wax using a thermometer.

Warming a glass candle votive before pouring the melted wax can help to prevent the occurrence of wax ‘frost’ or ‘wet spots’. However, these are simply aesthetic issues and do not affect the functionality of the candle.

It is important for the first burn of any candle to create a complete ‘wet pool’ of melted wax across the entire top portion of the candle – approximately ½ inch in depth. This should usually take two to three hours and usually prevents future tunnelling of the candle. If the ‘wet pool’ does not reach the edges or is extinguishing the flame and the candle begins to tunnel, then the wick thickness is too small for the candle.

It is important to display safety information with a candle – even if you are giving the candle to a friend. Here is a list of safety information that it may be relevant to include:

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