How to Make Safe Candles Yourself

Candles are a wonderful enhancement to ambience and mood, yet they
can contribute to air pollution, sometimes significantly if synthetic
perfumes are used. I feel as if my daughter and I traversed this
terrain and learned how to make our own stunningly beautiful candles
using sustainable, less toxic ingredients.

Here’s how we managed to make beautiful non-toxic, soot-free candles. It was easy and a lot of fun!

Here are five tips from us:

1. One of the highest goals of making your own less-toxic candles is to make them free of petroleum products, such as paraffin and synthetic fragrance.

2. You can now buy vegetable wax (usually soy) in craft stores such as Michaels. One brand offers microwaveable soy wax and the process was very, very easy. No fuss, no mess.

3. Beeswax is another pure wax choice, although expensive. I personally just love the smell of pure beeswax candles, and we make candles with 100 percent of this wax for very special occasions. Beeswax needs to be melted in a double boiler.

4. For myself, I prefer unscented candles, but my daughter is looking to add scent to her candles, and many of you might like aromatherapy.

We used only perfectly pure essential oils bought at natural food stores, and only about 5 drops for 2 cups of dried wax flakes. Add the essential oils after the wax has melted and has been removed from the heat source. Stir thoroughly.

Many so-called aromatherapy candles are very soft due to overuse of fragrance, and often these candles cause serious problems with candle soot. Making your own helps you control how much fragrance/essential oil you include.

5. Use wicks without lead. We chose wicks without any metal inside, but there are now lead-free wicks available in craft stores. Wanting to be safe not sorry, we bought metal-free wicks. They have been fine.

Read more: Crafts & Design, Crafts & Hobbies, candles, non-toxic, soot, wicks

Inspired by a beautiful photographic spread on how to make your own sand candles in last August's "Martha Stewart Living," my daughter and I took candle-making ingredients on our vacation to the coast of Maine, for a rainy-day project. We also took an inspiring new book from Storey Books, called "The Handmade Candle," by Alison Jenkins.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Kelly B.

8:17AM PST on Jan 19, 2012

hemp makes a great wick.

send a green star

Maija S.

10:56AM PST on Jan 14, 2012

Thank you for the information that I can probably find vegetable wax for candles cheaper than bees wax! I thought this venture was about to cost me a fortune!

Melinda K.

2:23AM PST on Jan 9, 2012

Good advice here, I use soy wax for tea lights and it comes in flakes which I melt down in a double boiler, works fine!

Ariana D.

6:52PM PST on Jan 8, 2012

Awesome, I just started on my candle making journey, and this is very helpful!! Thank you very much

G A R.

1:49PM PDT on Oct 17, 2011

anyone have tips on where to get inexpensive or reasonably priced beeswax? yes yes, I know beeswax is easy to find on the 'net, but if anyone knows a good place to get some I would like to know. thanks.

4:12AM PDT on Oct 15, 2011

Good solid info.

May H.

12:31PM PDT on Oct 7, 2011

I never use candles, i have cats and they like to jump around

Robert O.

12:31AM PDT on Aug 23, 2011

I have a relative that used to make candles. She enjoyed it very much. Candles are nice and add ambience and create atmosphere. Thanks Annie!

Robin H.

2:21PM PST on Mar 9, 2011

Great advice. I might make some candles for Earth Hour 3/26/11. Be sure to turn off your lights!

Emily B.