The Art of Making Scented Candles - 4 Steps to Aromatic Beauty

Aromatic candles heighten the ambience of any room in the house. If you are a romantic kind of person, you’ll appreciate the aroma of these scented wax masterpieces. Your guests will be intoxicated with calm and well being. Also, the warm glow of just about any candle enhances the elegance of a room.

Even before it is lit, the subtle fragrance of a scented candle will heighten your energy level,. So when you come home tired and frazzled, the aroma & flickering glow of a scented wax candle will relieve your tightness & lift your spirits.

Scented candles are great gifts for every season and all occasions; especially when they are hand crafted by yours truely.

1. Pick Your Candle Fragrance

Fragrance oil is sold in most craft shops. You can also shop for it online. Select a good quality fragrance oil instead of going whth a cheap water or alcohol based fragrances. Since your wax mix will be oil based, your fragrance should also be oil based. Why? Well, as oil and water do not blend, the water from a water based perfume tends not to mix with the melted wax.

2. Pick Your Wax

The basics of scented candle making are more or less the same as for ordinary wax candles. Begin by choosing your wax type. Available in the market is a versatile range of wax beginning with naturals from beeswax, palm or soy and moving along to paraffin or gel wax. You’ll want to decide on the aromatic intensity for your candles before choosing your wax. For example, in case of gel candles, gel wax with less density holds less fragrance compared to gel wax with higher density.

3. The Art of Making Aromatic Candles

Now we’ll go through the process of creating aromatic candles.

1st step is to melt your wax. I suggest using a double boiler. Meaning place the wax in a small pot & place that pot into a slightly larger container partially filled with tap water. You may now heat the water. Use a thermometer to ensure the wax is not burnt. The temperature should be kept at 170-180 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once the wax has melted, put a wick in the mold and remove your wax from the source of heat. Next add the fragrance oil that you’ve selected. A mixture of 1 ounce of fragrance oil to 1 pound of wax will create a fragrance level equal to 6% of candle density. Be aware that greater amounts of fragrance will cause the candle to burn out sooner owing to higher liquid density of the candle.

Now pour the melted wax mixture into your mold. The only job left is to let the whole thing cool before removing your candle from it’s mold.

Congratulations, well done!

4. Experiment as You Go Along

You will gain expertise in all phases of candle making when you start experimenting. By using different fragrances and colors, you will perfect the candle making technique and thoroughly enjoy the process.

It’s a great feeling to gift your friends with a scented candle that is homemade knowing that they will find the fragrance both relaxing and invigorating.