Monday, January 30, 2012

Candle Making 101

I LOVE candles. I have one burning almost every day at my house. To me, they make a home more "homey." So, needless to say I spend a lot of money on the smell-good home accents and lately it was getting hard to justify, even though I love them so much.



Over the holidays I was browsing some blogs and I found one on how to make candles. I tried it out a couple of times and I've got to say, its pretty awesome. Its a great way to use all that left over wax once your candles have burned their whole wick.



I thought I would share my money-saving, candle-making ways with yall. Hope you enjoy!




1. After you have burned a candle to the very bottom, put the whole thing in the freezer. Freezing the wax will make it easier to remove from the jar. After you have taken out the left over wax, save it in a zip lock bag. Don't forget to save the jar! During Christmas, I go through cinammon candles like they are going out of style so I got a pretty good stash going.




2. Put a pot of boiling water on the stove and place a tin can in it with the wax you want to remelt. The tin can will save your pots from getting "waxy." The tin can and wax will want to dump over so I put the jar on top of the can to hold it in place while the wax was melting.


3. If you don' thave enough scented wax left over for a whole candle, you can add plain, unscented wax to be melted as well. The added plain wax will make your scented wax last longer. I got my wicks and wax at Hobby Lobby both for half off. The wicks come in a pack of 10 and the wax has 4 bars to a pack. I used half of one bar for this candle. So both of these supplies will last you a long time.


4. Next, place a stand-alone wick in the bottom of your jar.



5. Once the wax is melted, simply pour it back into your candle jar and WA-LAH you have a brand new candle.



Told ya it was pretty simple. I estimate that for the extra supplies I bought, this new candle only cost about $0.35! I think that savings definitely helps me justify my candle obsession!