Candle craft – How to make DIY soy candles with a lollipop scent

31 Jan, 2017

Crafting tutorials: Make vegan DIY soy candles with unusual scents. Jen made hers with a Willy Wonka lollipop theme. Here’s how.

I was recently watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and found myself mesmerised by the chocolate river and the lollipop trees. Being a candle lover I wanted to re-create these scents in my own lollipop cave. My problem? A candle scented with the smell of lollies isn’t something sold at your local shop. Instead of trying to search online for something that kind of smells like what I want, I decided to make it myself at home.

Here’s how you do it…

What you’ll need to make DIY soy candles:

Containers made to withstand heat
Wick stickers
Cotton wicks
Thermometer
Pouring jug
Wick holder
Fragrance oil
Soy wax flakes (soy candles burn for a long time and they’re vegan too)

All candle supplies can be found online. I sourced all my supplies locally from Oz-based Crafty Candle Supplies, they had all the equipment I needed as well as the supplies

When looking for a Willy Wonka inspired scent I chose the classic bubble gum.

Can you use perfumes in candle making?

Let’s say you want to scent your candle with a home-made perfume, or a treasured scent from a beloved indie perfume brand. I can understand that temptation! There’s a risk in doing this because most perfumes are alcohol-based. To make candles you’ll need a ‘hot scent throw’ that smells good when burned for a long time. It’s safer to pick fragrance oils known to be suitable for making DIY soy candles. You wouldn’t want to waste all your lovely wax.

The good news is you can use some essential oils with a carrier oil to make your own candle fragrance oils, but do your research first to see what’s likely to work – and what isn’t. You need to pay more attention when combining essential oils with the wax as they can evaporate out of the wax if it’s added too hot.

Melt the candle wax

Using the double-boiler method, melt the wax over a simmering pot. I found my Pyrex jug worked best for holding the wax to melt because it allows for easy handling.

To measure out the amount of wax needed use this formula.

Volume of the container (ml) x 0.85 = Soy Wax (g)

If you don’t have scales handy then a quick measurement is to melt two containers’ worth of (unmelted) wax.

Prepare your candle container

Place the wick in the centre of the candle using a wick sticker to hold it in place. Once the wick is secured in the container, use the wick holder to hold it in place.

Add your fragrance oil to the melted candle wax

Once the wax has reached 80 degrees Celsius, take the wax off the heat and transfer it into the pouring jug. Once all the wax has been poured, add the fragrance oil and stir for about 2 minutes.

Add between 6-10% fragrance oil to grams of wax melted.

To calculate this simply follow the formula below.

Soy Wax (g) x 0.06-0.10 = Fragrance Oil (ml)

If you do not know the volume of wax then simply calculate 5-8% of the volume of the container.

Container (ml) x 0.05-0.06 = Fragrance Oil (ml)