Discount Candles Site Cleanup
Over the next few months we are working to streamline this site to make it easier for you to navigate.
One of the steps that we have taken is to remove content that is not in-line with the 2 primary purposes of this site:
Finding candles to buy at a discount and learning how to make candles on your own.
For your convenience here are some of the more popular pages on this site:
Where to Buy Discount Yankee Candles
Accentuate your Home with Beautiful Discount Candles
Picking the Shape & Design of Homemade Candles
And thus the topic of today’s post, the containers and molds that you can use for your candle wax. I’m also going to talk about wax paper, which is an invaluable tool for shaping and working with wax to prevent it from getting every where. So hold on, this will probably be a shorter post than the previous ones, but who knows.
Wax Sheets
If you’re not feeling daring at all in your first venture into making candles then you can choose to purchase pre-made wax sheets. They are made of either beeswax or a combo of paraffin and beeswax. Wax sheets will be made in a smooth texture or a honeycombed texture, along with multiple colors for you to choose.
Then it is simply a matter of rolling up a wick in the center of the candle and using a knife adjust the tops and bottoms of the candle. Voila !! You have just made a candle!
Wax Paper
Wax paper is one of those indispensable items when you have made freshly dipped candles and need to smooth it out without having the wax stick to your work space. You can purchase wax paper at your local grocery store.
Candle Containers
When it comes to choosing what type of container your homemade candle should go in, your choices are almost limitless. As long as the container is able to withstand high heat with out cracking or shattering you’re good.
Now you can go all out and purchase fancy glass containers or you can use old canning jars from your cupboard. One of the more amusing set of candles I made were in small mason jars with a handle. It had a very “Toby Keith, I love this bar” type of feel to it.
As I mentioned a moment ago, you can purchase beautiful jars of every shape (round, square, tall and short) either online or at your favorite craft store. Now normally, I consider myself to be somewhat frugal in the supplies that I’m purchasing for my candles. With the containers, I do not; simply because as soon as your done with the container you simply reuse for a new candle. Recycling at its best!!!
Finally, as an alternative to glass candle containers, you can also use aluminum tins as well. I have been to a couple crafts shows and seen up and coming candle designers using aluminum tins to hold their scented candles.
Types of Candle Molds
In the candle making world there are really no shortage of shapes and designs that you can create candles in. You just have to find the right candle mold for your purposes. To keep things simple, candle molds are made of metal, plastic or rubber.
Metal Candle Molds
A metal mold for your candle making is in my opinion the best type that you can have. Why you ask? Well that’s because they will last a heck of a lot longer than any plastic, glass or rubber candle mold. Your typical metal candle mold will allow you to make virtually any size round pillar candles, votive candles and even square shaped candles and much more. Because of the nature of metal, the dried candles you make with them will usually have to be trimmed to remove any seams that occurred where the piece of metal was joined.
Another helpful little tip is to make sure you grease up the inside of the metal mold before pouring in the wax. Now grease might be too strong of a verb since all you really need is your every day Pam non-stick spray (or the generic version for you frugal types). If you don’t want to use a non-stick spray you can always get a silicon spray that is designed to prevent wax from sticking; I just like to point out the cheaper alternatives. This site is called discount-candles!!
Aluminum Candle Molds
Now you might be wondering why I have specifically listed an aluminum candle mold since aluminum is metal. First of all, nice of you to ask questions. Second, I’ve listed the aluminum mold separately because a lot of times you’re going to have a mold that has virtually no seams that you will then have to cut off your dried candle. All of the other benefits of a metal candle mold apply.
Plastic Candle Molds
Well we have just finished covering your molds for basic candle types. Onto the plastic candle molds and this is now going to allow you to expand your homemade candle repertoire to uniquely shaped candles. These are definitely going to be one of the harder candle molds to use since they are similar to a mold you use when making jello. They clamp together and allow you to have very detailed candles.
Rubber Candle Molds
Rubber candle molds are by far the most difficult to use and that is simply due to the fragile nature of them; but the payoff is beautifully ornate candle creations. You almost never want to use one without coating it with silicon spray or non-stick spray. Otherwise you rubber molds will all turn out to be one time use molds due to tearing. Another thing to note is that you don’t want to use stearic acid in your candle wax as this will eat through the mold quicker than the wax can dry and destroy your mold.
One other type of mold is the glass candle mold; which I don’t recommend just because they are not as sturdy as a metal or aluminum one and they will get scratched and become useless much sooner than they metal cousins.
Expanding Past the Basic Candle Mold
Once you get bored with the store bought molds you will want to start creating your own candle designs. It’s not really that difficult to imagine. Say you see some object or shape that you really like. Using plaster, clay, some kind of rubber or latex you can make a mold of it and make candles from that.
The other choice you have with these custom molds is are you going to have a one-time use mold? In which case you would use plaster or clay to create the mold, pour in your melted wax and when its dried just break the mold and out pops your candle.
If you want to make more than one candle of that design then you simply move to a more permanent type of custom candle mold using a latex rubber (cheapest option), natural rubber or silicone. These are going to be similar to your rubber molds so the type of care and prep of the mold before putting in the wax will help to prolong the useful life of your candle mold.
So what is the craziest type of candle mold have you used? Did the candle burn correctly and any tips for beginners? Lets here what you have to say
Choose the Fragrance & Color of Homemade Candles
If you have a highly sensitive nose you can mix only a slight scent to the candles. If you prefer loud colors, this is your opportunity to make candles that stand out in the crowd.
I am going to cover the basics of dyes and fragrances so that you can learn how to make your candles so that they are pleasing to both the eye and the nose.
Types of Dyes for Custom Homemade Candles
You can find a variety of forms that dyes will come in for the purposes of coloring candle wax, however only a few should be considered by the home candle crafter. I say this because some of the dyes, such as those in the powder variety tend to be so fine that you have to wear a respirator to prevent inhaling it and causing damage to your lungs. Yikes!!! We don’t want to be dealing with this kind of risk; we’re trying to have fun.
The types you want to stick with are going to be natural candle dyes, which are found from items such as herbs, coffee grounds, etc and the artificial candle dyes that come in the form of blocks, chips or liquid form.
Natural Candle Dyes
In this “how to make candles” series, I’ve mentioned couple candle supply options along the way that allow you to have your hobby while keeping environmentally conscious and minimizing the impact you have. Using natural candles dyes is another option for coloring the candles.
So you might be asking me what types of things can I use to color my candles with? Well did you ever have your mother make you try different vegetables growing up just to see which ones you liked? Mine did, and to this day I’m still scared of beets and their seemingly glowing reddish purple hue. As you can imagine with such an intense color this is a vegetable that can be used to extract the color from.
Other household items that will give your homemade candles a hue other than white are coffee grounds, there are also some leaves of herbs that will provide color. Onion skins are naturally colored with fragrances that will make the candles glow. One more item that I’ll mention in this post is the use of curry powders to color the candles.
The list is quite huge with items that can be used to extract color, go out and experiment since that is half of the fun of making candles.
I definitely would encourage you to try different items and find out what the resulting color is.
Artificial Candle Dyes
Sometimes you either don’t have the patience to find out what combination of vegetables will give you a desired color or you simply don’t have the time to extract a beet’s color into your melted wax. This is when you can go out to your candle supplier and get some artificial candle dyes. They are typically supplied in primary colors, which you then blend with each other to get the desired final color. Artifical dyes come in three forms:
Dye Blocks
Candle dye blocks come in tightly packed block of color that is commonly 3/4 of an ounce each, with multiple blocks per package.
Liquid Dye
I usually get my liquid dye in a bottle with one of those eye dropper things for dispensing the color. I’ve found that the liquid goes a long way to coloring the wax. I’ve purchased liquid dye in as small an amount as 1 ounce all the way up to 16 ounces. It really just depends on how many candles of that color you’re planning on making.
Dye Chips
Candle dye chips are similar to the dye blocks in that they are tightly packed form but much smaller in size than the blocks.
Mixing Candle Dyes to get Desired Color
I usually get candle dye chips in primary colors. The main reason is I enjoy experimenting and mixing combinations of the three primary colors to get my own new color. The primary colors are yellow, red and blue and mixing them together allows you to create secondary colors. Now you may have to remember back to the days when you did arts and crafts at school so here is a refresher. I found this chart on NYU’s website.
As you can see from the chart above, those three colors will give you many different combos of colors when combined. Red and yellow will give you orange; blue and red will give you purple and so on.
List of Candle Friendly Fragrance Oils & Scents
Before we get started talking about the types of scents you can infuse into your homemade candles, I want to point out that bigger is not necessarily better when it comes to the amount of scent you put into the candle. A small amount of scent will go a long way when you’re making the candles.
You have three places where you can obtain your scents from and that is essential oils, scent disks and herbal scents (These are ones that you can make yourself using the naturally scented herbs you enjoy).
The artificial scents will generally last longer in the candle, whereas the natural scents will be fainter and less potent after the candle has been around for a while.
The important thing to keep in mind when you’re deciding what your candle should smell like, any type of scent you use should be oil-based so that it doesn’t dissipate immediately upon lighting the candle.
Essential Oils
Essential oils have been extracted from various aromatic flowers, herbs, plants, etc. They are most definitely a natural product and can sometimes be on the pricey side. However, in my opinion, the natural smell of something living as opposed to an artificially produced scent is far worth the premium cost to essential oils.
You can use these oils to mix into the melted candle wax, being careful that you don’t add too much or you risk the essential oils oozing out of the candle wax. As a way to add more scent, I’ve found that soaking my candle’s wick in the oils overnight.
To add even more scent you can also consider putting a couple drops into the melted wax as your candles burn. The choice is up to you.
Scent Disks
I’m not going to get into these too much since I don’t like them. They have very little scent and are generally weak at maintaining the scent. If you only want a faint odor I guess you can use them.
Herbal Scents
Herbal scents can be considered any of the scents that you extract from natural items yourself. Now you might be asking what types of things can I use to extract the scent from?
Well the answer is quite a bit. I’ve used everything from vanilla beans, orange peels, lemon peels, and even spearmint leaves.
This type of candle fragrance is definitely something you may want to wait on until you become proficient in making candles just due to the extra work involved.
The work involved really means how you get the scent out of a peel or bean.
Candle Wax Infusion
One of the ways is through wax infusion. Wax infusion is simply taking the item you want to extract the scent from and putting it in a porous bag. This bag is then placed into the melted wax where you let it steep for about an hour. This will provide a faint scent, but if you’re preferring to have more of an odor you will want to repeat the steps with new herbs or whatever your using.
Keep in mind that if you’re using the wax infusion method the color from whatever you’re infusing can be leeched into the candle wax.
Oil Infusion
The other method that I use to extract the scent is using oil. I’ve heard that you can use olive oil to do this but a friend told me years ago to use jojoba oil and I’ve never had any problems with it so I figure there’s no reason to try the olive oil. I use the oil infusion method the most when I’m wanting to extract spearmint leaves.
The basics entail me smashing up a big handful of the spearmint and then putting it in a plastic rubbermaid jar along with just enough jojoba oil to cover the leaves. I let that set for about a day and then strain the oil, making sure the leaves have been removed. I get more leaves, smash them and add them to the oil for another day.
After doing this about 4-6 times the oil will have been infused with enough of the scent to make it effective when adding it to your candle.
If you haven’t realized with the coloring and adding of fragrance to the candles you’re going to make, you have a lot of choices and a wide range to allow for your creativity and how much hands on tasks you want to do.
You can buy the exact color you want your candle to be along with the aritificial pre-made apple cinnamon scent or you can go crazy and mix your own color and blend your own fragrance. It all depends on your imagination and sometimes the free time you have.
What are the craziest fragrances or colors you’ve made while making candles?
