I am a sucker for honey candles, and I thought what better way to use up the last of my gel wax? I’ve scented this gorgeous candle with honey fragrance oil. It smells divine! But I wanted some way to incorporate real beeswax, just so it has a touch of authenticity.
So I spent some time on Pinterest looking for inspiration, and I’ve combined some of the things I have seen there into this gel candle with beeswax honeycomb inside!
Introduction
Remember when I said in my homemade gel candle post that you can embed pretty much anything in gel wax? Well, that’s totally true.
I was a bit skeptical at first. Because gel wax hardens so quickly once you take it off the heat, I was worried that my beeswax honeycomb would end up a melty mess.
But in the name of experimentation, I decided to press ahead and give this honey candle idea a try. I am over the moon with the results!
How To Make Honey Candles
Have you ever bought super fancy honey before? You know, the stuff that actually comes with a bit of honeycomb in it? Well, that’s exactly what I was going for! And I feel like I kinda nailed this, if I do say so myself.
The great part of this DIY honey candle is that it looks way more complicated to do than you would think! If you can melt and pour wax, you can totally give this a try!
If you’ve never worked with gel candle wax before, I’d totally take a look at how to make gel candles first. It goes through all the ins and outs of using gel wax, as well as some important things to note if you worked with other waxes before. Gel wax is the most expensive wax you can get your hands on, so you want to make sure you’re getting it right!
Note that I haven’t listed the ingredients with measurements, this is because it entirely depends on the container you’re using. But I have a tip on how to figure this out, so stay with me. Anyway, enough about that. Onto how to make this gorgeous honey candle.
Honey Candle DIY
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Ingredients
- Gel Candle Wax
- Beeswax
- Candle Wick
- Decorative Glass Jar
- Candle Dye (Yellow and Red)
- Fragrance Oil For Soap (Honey)
Instructions
Making The Honeycomb Embed
- First, decide how thick you would like your beeswax honeycombs to be. Mine are around a ¼ inch thick, but I I’m using a small jar so you may want to consider going a little thicker if your jar is quite wide. You can melt the beeswax in a double boiler or make up a water bath. For a water bath, Place the wax into a heatproof container (stainless steel or pyrex jug) and place it into a saucepan containing a few inches of simmering water on a moderate heat. Until the wax has melted.
- Whilst the wax is melting, line the bottom of a loaf tin with bubble wrap. Alternatively you could lay a piece of bubble wrap onto a cookie sheet. Cut a second piece of wrap around the same size of the first , ready for later.
- As the wax melts, you can add a small amount of yellow or light brown coloring and a few drops of honey fragrance oil. This is optional and may depend on the shade of the beeswax that you are using.
- When you are happy with the wax, pour it into the prepared loaf tin, then place the second piece of bubble wrap on top.
- Allow the wax to harden for a little while, but you need to cut it before it gets too hard so keep checking it.
- Whilst it’s still warm and flexible, cut the beeswax honeycomb into squares that will fit into your decorative jar.
Melting The Gel Wax
- Next, we need to figure out how much gel wax we'll be using. To get an idea of how much, chop the gel wax into smallish chunks and push it into the jar that you will be using for the finished candle. You will need push it down tightly, and add a bit extra to compensate for air pockets.
- Put the wax into a heatproof container and place it into the oven at 225f (107c), it will take around an hour to melt. If you are using solid wax coloring then this will need to be added as the gel wax is melting. Liquid candle coloring is much easier to use and can be added once the wax has fully melted. I’m using yellow mixed with a little red. Although you will need to stir the color into the wax, this needs to be done slowly and carefully to avoid creating bubbles.
Constructing The Honey Candle
- Whilst the gel wax is melting you can prepare the candle jar. Stick the wick to the bottom of the jar with a hot glue gun or a little super glue. Place two honeycombe squares into the jar, one on each side of the wick. This will help keep the wick central.
- Once the gel wax has melted, and the colors are dissolved and disbersed you can add a few drops of fragrance oil to it.
- Now it’s time to pour the gel wax into the jar; it’s important to pour the wax as soon as you can once it’s been removed from the heat. If it looks like it's begun to cool and thicken before you get a chance to pour it, then pop it back in the stove and let it re heat. Pour the gel wax into the candle jar using one continuous pour, don’t try to stop and start and keep as close to the jar side as possible. This will help to limit the amount of bubbles in the finished candle.
- Secure the wick by bending it over a bamboo stick or pencil, and set your finished honey candle aside until hardened.
Final Thoughts
So there we have it. These gorgeous honey candles will fill a room with such a lovely aroma, while also looking beautiful as well. I just love how gel candles look when you light them. Ordinary wax is pretty opaque, so to see the light flicker into the gel wax just looks amazing.
These honeycomb candles make wonderful DIY gifts and are pretty eye-catching as well. I love when things look like something they actually aren’t. In this case, a lovely pot of expensive honey!
I hope this gets your creative juices flowing. Their possibilities with gel wax are seemingly endless. What are the cool and interesting things you like to do with gel wax? I’d love to hear about your experiences and see more candle making. Drop a comment below to let me know how you work with your wax!
