Luxurious Beeswax Candles Infused with Aromatherapy Benefits

Today, I’m going to show you how to make beeswax candles using two different methods. I’m making jar candles and some super cute little tealights; they are just gorgeous. I’m scenting them for the most luxurious DIY beeswax candles you can make at home.

But as I’m sure you know, beeswax is the most expensive wax available. So, I wanted to go a little further with these and scent them with essential oils for the most luxurious DIY beeswax candles you can make at home. But don’t worry; you can just substitute it for fragrance oil if you wish.

Important Notes

There are a few things I wanted to discuss before we get onto the method of making beeswax candles. The most important of which is how much wax to actually use.

For The Tealights

For making the tealights, I’d say around 3.5 ounces or 100g of beeswax should make around 4 or 5 tealights. Bear in mind that beeswax is a natural product, so the weight may differ slightly depending on where you source it. Just make sure you have a few tealight cups spare so you can use up all your wax if you have any left over.

For The Jars

If you fill your jar with water, the weight of this water is roughly how much beeswax you’ll need. Obviously, beeswax is heavier than water, but this will make sure you have enough left over to top up an uneven surface and fix sinkholes. If you have quite a bit left, just use the rest to make tealights or store it in sealed plastic sandwich bags.

Coloring

Another thing I wanted to mention was coloring your candle. Your ordinary, run-of-the-mill yellow beeswax can be a bit of a nightmare to color. It’s natural; yellow tint means you’ll need to use a lot of dye, and you still probably won’t get what you want (the red dye will usually turn the beeswax orange, not red).

An excellent alternative to this is to use white beeswax, which is ordinarily used for cosmetics. It’s pretty much the same as your standard yellow, just with a much softer color. But remember, it’s a natural product, and you won’t ever find white beeswax that is as pure white as something synthetic like paraffin. Just experiment and see what color dyes look best.

Finishing Your Beeswax Candle

I also wanted to comment on the overall look of a jar candle, particularly when using a more natural wax such as beeswax. You’ll notice in the pictures that the sides of the jar seem a bit mottled. It looks as if it’s layered, like I poured the wax in stages. This isn’t the case, and I’ll explain why this can happen.

There’s a certain amount of luck when pouring a candle. Sometimes you’ll get a perfect finish, other times you won’t. The finish will depend on a few variables, including the surface of the inside of your jar, pouring temperature, and the temperature of the jar when pouring.

I’ve experimented with warming my jars before pouring but have had mixed results.

Some of the most expensive and luxurious candles in the world have an appearance similar to this, mostly because they’re hand-made by expert candle makers rather than machines and conveyor belts. Remember that you’re making this yourself. We’re not computers. Nothing is going to be perfect.

I like to think of them as beautiful little imperfections, a testament to the love and care you’ve put into making these yourself.

Ingredients

• Yellow or White Beeswax
• Candle Jar or Tealight Cases
• Pre-waxed wicks (suitable size for your container or the specific tealight size)
• Essential Oils (or Fragrance Oils)
• Candle Dye (optional, recommended for white beeswax only)
• Wick Holder or pencil
• Glue Gun
• A skewer or bamboo stick

Method

First I’m going to take you through the process of how to make a beeswax jar candle. However, many of the techniques are going to be similar for the tea lights so I’ll run through that quickly at the end.

Step 1.

Melt your beeswax the same way I showed you in my candle making guide for beginners. Just like you would melt any other wax in a double boiler (bain-marie). This should take a few minutes, so keep an eye on it and stir occasionally. In the meantime, we can get on with the candle wicking.

Step 2.

Using a hot glue gun, glue the stabilizer attached to the bottom of your pre-waxed wick to the inside base of your jar. Your wick should stick out at the top.

Step 3.

Now your wax should be nice and melted. This is the point where you will want to add your luxurious essential oils. For these candles, I’ve used sweet orange essential oil. It’s a relatively cheap essential oil to buy, and a perfect scent for a candle. You’ll want to add around 6% of the weight of your wax.

Step 4.

Slowly pour your wax into your jars. You may find your prewaxed wicks begin to droop at this point. To keep them nice and straight, stabilize them using a wick holder, pencil or some bamboo sticks, much like I have In the picture below.

Step 5.

Leave your beeswax candle to harden for about an hour or two. At this stage we’ll want to fix any sink holes that are present in the candle. Using a bamboo stick, poke a few holes around the wick (being careful not to disturb it). Then leave your candle for another hour and then top up with your remaining wax. A full explanation on fixing sink holes with photos can be found on the basics of candlemaking page at why do homemade candles sink in the middle.

Step 6.

Once your DIY beeswax candle has fully hardened, it will be ready to burn. I always recommend leaving a candle for about 48 hours before burning, just to make sure it has fully settled. But otherwise, at this point, you are done!

How To Make Beeswax Tealight Candles

As I’ve said, tealights are a very similar method to the jars, so I’ll run through how to make beeswax candles using tealights, mostly with pictures, and give you some helpful notes in the captions.

Step 1.

First, wick all of your beeswax tealight cases

Step 2.

Then, when you wax has melted, use dye to color your candles. Use small amounts at first, as some dyes can be very concentrated. If your dye does not mix properly, pop it back on the double boiler and let the dye melt.

Step 3.

Now, you’ll want to add any essential oils or fragrance oils you want to use. Ensure this is done after adding any dye, as we don’t want to subject our scented oils to a higher temperature.

Step 4.

Pour your beeswax into your wicked tealight cases.

Step 5.

Leave your tealights for at least 24 hours before lighting or gifting. As these are quite small, I don’t routinely attempt to fix sink-holes. They should be just fine as is.

Final Thoughts

So there we have it, you now know how to make beeswax candles, scented with the sacred and luxurious aromas of essential oils. These make absolutely fantastic gifts, and you can tailor your scents and colors to suit the person you’re gifting. You could purchase a little tealight holder to gift alongside your amazing candles to give them that extra touch of class.

And here’s how to make diy soy candles that are both colored and delightfully scented. They smell absolutely amazing when using your favorite candle fragrance oil! They’re also pretty similar to the make-up of your favorite popular brands, namely Yankee Candle.