Beginner Candle Making With Soy Wax

Learn how to make beautiful soy wax container candles our easy-to-follow video for beginner candle makers. You can quickly order the supplies used in this tutorial by clicking the "Add Items to Cart" button below the supply list. 

Supply List :

Video Transcript:

Hey there, I’m Dana from CandleScience. Today I'm going to show you just how easy and fun it is to make your own soy candles. First, let’s take a quick look at the supplies you’ll need.

For this batch, we’re going to use AAK’s 464 soy wax. This wax comes in flake form, which makes it easy to handle.

For containers, we’re keeping things simple and using our 8oz candle tins.
Wicks are chosen based on the wax and the width of the containers.

We’re using a CD 18, a braided cotton wick interwoven with small paper threads. A correctly sized wick is very important for creating a candle with a strong fragrance throw and a clean, even burn. For help finding the right size wick for other waxes and containers, take a look at the CandleScience wick guide for a recommendation.

Now for the most exciting part: the fragrance! Today we chose Oakmoss and Amber, which has notes of sage, lavender, amber, and moss. Always use fragrance oils that have been developed specifically for use in candles to make sure you get the best scent performance from your candles.

To help us measure our wax and fragrance accurately, we’ll need a digital scale. It’s necessary to measure your wax and fragrance by weight, not volume, to keep your measurements consistent.

A pouring pitcher is a candle making essential! This piece of equipment is inexpensive, lasts forever, and really makes the candle making the process a lot more friendly.

Next, you’ll need a heat source to melt your wax. Today we're using a hot plate with a medium saucepan filled about halfway with water to create a double boiler. The double boiler ensures we don’t scorch or burn the wax.

A thermometer—any candy thermometer will do. As you continue, you may want to invest in a one with a digital view.

To safely secure the wicks to our containers we’re using wick stickers, in particular, our wick stickers pro. We love these because they are very simple to use and are SUPER sticky.

Wick bars help keep the wick centered and straight as the wax cools. You can also use popsicle sticks, clothes-pins, or even pencils. 

Last but certainly not least, a warning label that includes safety tips and burning instructions. Be sure to label your candles if you are giving them away or selling them.

Now, let’s get started making our own soy candle!

STEPS:

We’ll begin by filling our saucepan with water and placing it on the hot plate with medium-high heat to create the double boiler.

While the water heats up, we’ll weigh our soy wax. Place the pouring pitcher on the digital scale and "tare" or "zero out" the scale which will subtract the weight of the pitcher. Weigh out 1 lb of wax, and place the pitcher in the double boiler.

We’re going to allow our wax to reach 185°F before adding fragrance. We like to think of this temperature as the “Goldilocks Zone.” It’s hot enough for our fragrance oil to fully bind and mix with the wax, but not so hot that any fragrance might be lost to the heat.

To scent our wax, we’re going to weigh out 1 oz of fragrance oil to give us a 6% fragrance load. We recommend starting out with 6%, but you may find you want to adjust that as you continue.

Once the wax hits 185°F, we add the fragrance then remove the pitcher from the heat. We’ll stir gently for about 2 minutes. This may seem like an easy step to skip, but mixing thoroughly is important for getting the best fragrance from your finished candle.

We’re going to let our wax cool down to 135ºF before we pour. While we wait, let's get our containers ready. Remove a wick sticker and place the sticky side on the bottom of the wick tab. Remove the paper backing and secure the wick in the center of the tin, using the ridges to guide you. We'll repeat this for the other 4 tins.

Now that our wax has cooled to 135 degrees, it’s time to pour. Working slowly, we’ll pour from our pitcher into the tins we just prepared, filling them up to the inside groove of the tin or about a quarter inch from the top.

Next, we’ll take our wick bar and center the wick in our tin by pushing the wick into the center groove. Again, you can also use a pencil, clothespin, or popsicle stick to center the wick as your candles cool.

Space your candles about 4 inches apart in an area that’s out of the way and free from drafts. We know it’s hard to wait but allow them to cool undisturbed overnight.

When your candles are cooled, trim the wick down to about a quarter of an inch and top with a lid. As the last step, be sure to add a warning label to the bottom of your container.

Before burning, we do recommend allowing the candle to “cure”—optimally for 2 weeks and at least 4-5 days to get the best scent out of your candles.

Congratulations, you just made your own soy candle!

Ready to keep learning and making? Dive into the variety of resources, tutorials, learning guides, and more available right here on CandleScience.com. And if you have questions or could use an assist, don’t hesitate to reach out. My fellow support team members and I are here to help!

Thanks for watching, see you next time!

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