Ally Russell - DIY Easy Step by Step Guide to Making Scented Soy & Beeswax Candles and Wax Melts at Home--Learn to Make Seasonal & Healing Candles with Aromatherapy Blends

DIY Easy Step By Step Guide to Making Scented Soy & Beeswax Candles and Wax Melts at Home

Learn to Make Seasonal & Healing Candles with Aromatherapy Blends

By

Ally Russell

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First Edition

Introduction

D o you remember the fresh smell of spring? How about the warm summer breeze or the cozy winter holiday season? Every season has its distinct aroma that we can all identify them easily with.

Candles are wonderful and versatile items. Not only are they relatively simple to make, but the range of colors and scents you can choose to make them in is only limited by your imagination.

You can choose scents to match a season and give as gifts sweet fresh cream and lavender in spring, a subtle combination of cut grass and rain for summer, cinnamon with just a dash of cloves during autumn, a cup of thick hot chocolate covered in marshmallows for the winter holidays.

Whether you are feeling uncharacteristically blue, stressed, or uncomfortable by a stuffy smell, you can choose scents that match a specific design or mood for a room. You can even mix specific scents to help with certain health problems. A few of these would include mint, rosemary, chamomile, and thyme, or honeysuckle.

In this book, were going to look at the basics of making candles and the types you can make, how to melt wax, how to place the wick properly; all the technicalities involved in the trade. There will also be a quick discussion of what a scent throw is both hot and cold and how to compare them.

Then well discuss how you can combine certain oils and essences in order to develop the right blend of unique fragrances that apply to you and your potential customers.

In no time, youll be ready to go to make your own candles in any variety of scents and colors of your choice for any occasion. So lets get started! Shall we?

H ere is a little bit of boring history lesson for you (in case anyone ever asks if you know the history of candle making).

With such a rich and traditional history of being used for birthday celebrations, religious services, holidays, home decorations, and even as the only source of artificial light during the old days, candles used to be made from tallow.

This material is extracted from sheep and various cattle during the Roman and early Egyptian times, and while they served their purpose at the time, they burned terribly and were inefficient.

During the Middle Ages, candles began to be made from beeswax for religious and worship purposes, which was indeed a drastic improvement but can be quite expensive in its limited quantity. Candles were thus made available only for the upper class and members of the clergy.

Early settlers in colonial America soon discovered that they could boil berries from the bay-berry shrub and produce a sweet-smelling candle, but as the process is tedious and inefficient as well, candle making using this kind of process just wasnt practical. By the 18th century, the rise of the whaling industry gave birth to the widespread availability of whale oil.

Whale oil could now be used as a good replacement for tallow, beeswax, and bayberry wax, but the smell of the oil was rather unpleasant.

When the 19th century rolled around, the first patented candle making machines arrived along with braided wicks, as well as new research and discoveries from chemists Michael Eugene Chevreul and Joseph Gay Lussac.

Paraffin wax began to be commercially producedit burned clean and bright and had no unpleasant odor. Cheaper and sturdier candles were then manufactured from paraffin wax and stearic acid.

Today, a wide variety of materials can be used to create candlesbeeswax, soy, vegetable waxes, gel waxes, and so much more. In the market today, candles can be broken down into different categories, some of which include the following: container candles are poured into special containers like tan, glass, or pottery.

They are usually for decorative purposes and can have different fragrances added to them. Votive candles are freestanding and usually white and unscented. They are used for gratitude or devotion, usually in religious events and ceremonies.

Taper candles, from their name alone, are very slender and can have heights of up to 20 in total. Tea light candles, on the other hand, are very small and are usually placed in cylindrical aluminum or polycarbonate holders.

There are plenty of colors and fragrances to choose from as well, and well get to the nitty-gritty of every single detail in the pages to come.

So sit back, put on your thinking cap on, and lets get started.

Supplies You Need

C andle making equipment and tools can vary, depending on the type of candles you make, but some basic tools and equipment are necessary for making any type of candles. Its best to gather all your equipment ahead of time and organize it. Doing so ensures that you have everything you need for a successful candle-making session.

Having your supplies and equipment available and organized can also make candle making safer. Candle making requires your focus and presence, so its not safe to leave the work area during the candle-making process to look for supplies or equipment. Lack of organization in the work area can result in accidents or botched batches of candles. You dont want either!

Since candles are all about the wax and wicks, lets start there. As I said before, the goal of this book is to provide information on natural candles, so the focus is on beeswax and soy wax.

O f course, when you start any worthwhile endeavor, you need to arm yourself with the right tools and equipment for your so-called battle ahead. Wax is one of the most important supplies you need in your candle making business, and weve spent quite a big part of the beginning of this book talking about the different kinds of natural waxes available to you.