Why Didn't I Just Buy A Kit Earlier?

I really should have started with a candle-making kit. They come with everything you need, and in the right quantities, all in one place.

I recently purchased a locally made beeswax scented candle DIY kit, and my first reaction on opening it was pure joy.

Ignore the bite marks on the top left. They are not mine, I swear.

Here's the culprit.

My second reaction was of unbridled horror at how much essential oil was provided. You're telling me we need at least 10ml of pure, unadulterated essential oil just for 1 small jar? Has anybody smelt essential oils? A few drops are enough to make you gag from the strength of the smell, yet waxes want to be temperamental and exude nothing on burning unless you dunk in a whole bottle.

This is plain extortion.

At least now I realise why my candles never had much of a scent, hehe.

The scents in this box were 2 10ml bottles of lemongrass, 2 of peppermint, 1 of camphor and 1 of something called Citradora(the explorah).

All said, the kit seemed pretty pricey at first, but seeing how much essential oil they've given - just those 6 bottles alone would come up to the cost of the kit, ordinarily.

Yet it has all 6 bottles of pretty good, strong-smelling oils and 4 glass jars, 4 blocks of beeswax, wicks and spoons and wick holders and labels and gloves whoa. I'm impressed. I need to contact this company's suppliers.

Cute little airtight jars!

You might be wondering if I'm advertising this unnamed kit with such a large number of garishly edited pictures, but no, I'm not. I'm simply learning how to edit images on GIMP and spamming my practice pictures on here to assault your poor flaky eyes with.

(But for any interested in the kit - it's called Bee Organik Beeswax DIY Kit, available on Amazon too. Go vocal for local (: )

The box included an instruction sheet too! The method to melt beeswax seems standard; so I went ahead with one slab of the wax, a bottle of lemongrass oil, a bottle of the Citradora....theexplorah oil and all the accessories needed for making one jar candle.

Instructions

1. Lay out all your equipment on your workbench.

2. Attach the wick to the inside bottom of the jar, and use one of the provided wick holders (they're just ice-cream sticks with a hole drilled in the centre) to keep the wick centred. Keeping the wick centred is pretty important to making sure the candle burns evenly and the wax melts from all sides, rather than melting just from one side and leaving the rest of the wax to go to waste unburnt.

3. Heat the wax in a double boiler on an induction stove. Please don't use a gas stove for candlemaking, unless you enjoy giving yourself haircuts dangerously administered with flames of burning vapour.

A double boiler, for anyone new to...double-boiling...is used for an indirect, controlled way of heating things (especially useful for melting chocolates). All that's needed is a large vessel with some water (an inch or so of water in height), and a smaller vessel where the material to be heated is kept. Place the smaller vessel in the larger one and boil away on a stove.

I used a rice cooker, which is sort of like an electric double-boiler anyway. And a steel bowl for the actual melting.

Saste ka photo-editing - Exhibit 9452

I couldn't cut through the beeswax block or flake it or break it (even though it's sort of soft), so I just plonked the whole thing in there and started giving it a manic, near-constant stir with the wooden spoon from the kit.

Wheeeeeeee!

The stirring helps with a more uniform melting.

Note: Beeswax, as the instruction sheet so helpfully provides, melts around 62-65 deg. C, and if it's heated beyond 80 deg. C, it will get discoloured. Which can't be too bad since the wax is already yellow.

Note (to self): Overheat the next batch and see what 'discoloured' really means ho ho ho.

4. Once it's melted, slowly add 2tsp (10ml) of essential oils in total, and keep stirring as you add it. I added 1tsp (5ml) of lemongrass and 1tsp (5ml) of Dora, and from hereon it's just a lot of stirring until you pour the melted wax into the jar.

What I usually do to check if my wax is hot enough (to my liking) to add the scent in, is I pull out the spoon for a little bit and let the wax cool on its surface. Then dip it back in the melting wax. If the cooled blob of wax on the spoon melts away very easily, that's about when I add in the scents.

An interesting experiment (which I will definitely try) is to add in the oils at different wax temperatures and see if there's any noticeable difference in the fragrance, both when the candle is burning ('hot throw') and when it's not ('cold throw').

What a pretty golden colour!

5. A little while after the oils have been stirred in, turn off the heat, but keep stirring. Then pour the wax into the jar and let it set.

I like to stir melted wax till it cools down a bit, before adding it to any container or mould. This way the sudden drop in temperature once the wax hits the cold glass jar won't cause it to cool suddenly or result in any holes or pits. Well, I still get a few of those, but I ignore them 'cuz I'm a rebel. Warming up the glass jar slightly before pouring the wax in might also be a good idea.

Despite all my care, the wax still began cooling immediately

In order to test if it's cool enough to pour, but not too cool (such that it begins to solidify as I pour), I take the spoon out and let a bit of the wax cool on an area of the spoon that does not get submerged while stirring. Then I pick up some more molten wax and run it over this area. If the molten wax melts away the wax on the spoon pretty easily, then it's still a bit hot. But once the molten wax no longer does that, or, it begins to slowly solidify on top of the coated spoon instead, then it's a good time to pour.

I know, I know, I need a thermometer already.

But I refuse to get one :o)

What you see "...will come to pass, if you should fail."

After a couple of hours it was done and ready for use (yet I have still not used it).

*angels sing in the background*

Did anyone realise that I've added a purple tinge to all these images?.....No?

Okay.

One thing I noticed was that the beeswax did not shrink nearly as much as paraffin wax or palm wax upon cooling. Another was that I may be allergic to beeswax as my nose started swelling up and running (away into the sunset to elope with her motorcycle). Or it could be the oils, not sure (but next time, I will be sure (: ).

I'm certain the candle will have a decent amount of fragrance as beeswax is supposed to be the best for fragrant candles (followed by paraffin. Soy sucks, and I'm not positive about palm yet).

I'll update my thoughts on here after I use it for a bit!

UPDATE: It smells quite strongly! Took a while for it to spread out from the jar, but the scent was very much there. A hint of the lemongrass, but mostly a deep, gingery smell which must the 'Dora.

Also, it's definitely the oils I'm allergic to, not the wax. A minute in the refreshingly scented room and I got a major headache. Glad to know I have an excuse to lessen the amount of oil that goes in to my next batch of candles!