The Basic Candle Making Supplies
So now that you have an idea of the types of candles to make, you can start to plan what you will need to make candles for the first time at home. To begin there are some basic items that you want to have purchased.
Candle Making Tip 1: You might actually have a lot of the items you need to make candles sitting around in a cabinet in your home. Just be sure that its not something you will try to use for cooking later on down the road. This is understating it a bit but that wax will leave a little residue on any of the items you use.
From a convenience standpoint, you can get virtually every single item you will ever need from an online store/source. This is what I do for most of the candle stuff that I use; however there is occasion where I want to go to the craft store and get it. Doing this presents a perfect opportunity to run into other people who make homemade candles and you can bounce ideas, tips or new design ideas off of each other. Besides you don’t want to become too much of a homebody :0)
If you’re serious about learning how to make candles, then I recommend that your first item on your checklist of candle making supplies is a notepad and a pen, or some document on your computer that you will regularly update. What are you supposed to do with this? Well it is here that you will document the different batches of candles you make.
You would track things like
- Type of candle wax used
- How much coloring
- Did the coloring work
- Did the mold create a design you liked
- Was the fragrance of the candle pleasant
For this post so that you’re not overwhelmed I’m going to focus at length on just two of the many supplies you will need for your candles
Waxes for Candle Making
Wax will be one of the supplies that you will be regularly purchasing as you continue to make candles. One good thing about wax is that if you have leftover wax or candles that have been burned down, it can be melted down and re-used! Talk about a “green” hobby!!
Most candles are made of paraffin or beeswax or a combination of the two; however you’re not limited to just those two. You have your choice of quite a few different types of candle making quality wax and I will cover that here.
Bayberry Wax
Bayberry wax, also known as bayberry tallow, is derived from the bayberry shrub, which were first found at the time the pilgrims settled Cape Cod. It is a very limited supply and expensive wax to come by simply due to the limited supply of bayberry shrubs. The wax is obtained by boiling the berries and the wax coating on them floats to the top where it can be strained from the water. You will typically find bayberry wax at specialty candle making supply stores.
Palm Wax
Palm wax is an all natural product of the oil palm, which is found predominantly in South Asia. The wax is extracted from the fruit that the oil palm produces so it is very much so a renewable source of wax. Some of its qualities are it’s ability to absorb color and scent very well and also it is not difficult to blend with other waxes such as soy wax, which will be discussed a little bit later. Palm wax also has what can be described as a feathered effect which really helps with the visual appeal of a homemade candle. The wax can be purchased for making candles in pellet form (the most common).
Beeswax
We have now come to the grand daddy of waxes. Beeswax has been used by humans to create candles for lighting the darkness for centuries. It is the most widely used natural wax for candles, with other natural waxes such as soy starting to gain ground. As you can tell from the name, this wax is obtained from the byproduct of bees honey making. As a result, beeswax has a very sweet scent to it when it is burned.
Beeswax is a golden to brown color unless it has been bleached to remove all of the impurities. You can obtain beeswax in bulk for your candles in block or pellet form.
Soy Wax
Soy wax is another renewable wax made from soy plants. With many people being more aware of their consumption of fossil fools and such, this makes another good choice for waxes when learning how to make candles. It is also a fairly new wax available to purchase. Additional benefits of soy wax are its affordability when compared with the other natural waxes, like beeswax or bayberry wax.
I’ve purchased soy wax in flake and pellet form from the suppliers that I’ve used.
Petroleum Waxes
Petroleum waxes came about as a byproduct of the refinement process of crude oil. There are other steps taken to hydrogenate the byproduct and give it the properties required to make a wax suitable for making candles. While there are different types of petroleum waxes such as montan wax and paraffin wax, it is the latter that you will use to make candles. If your budget will only allow you to buy the most economical wax to start using while you learn the candle making process paraffin will be your best bet since it is the most common manufactured wax type.
Paraffin Wax
Paraffin wax is hands down the most used of all the types of waxes for candle making. It is also a very versatile wax since you can purchase paraffin that melts at different temperatures (which is very important based on the type of candles you might be trying to make).
It’s versatility is also evident in the fact that there is no odor to it, which will allow you to add your own fragrance without having to worry about its scent being tainted by existing odors in the wax. Paraffin is also colorless, which gives you the option to add creative color schemes to your custom candles.
Paraffin is purchased in slabs of 10 pounds or in bags of pellets.
Tallow Wax
Now this type of wax is kind of disgusting and I only mention it because of the historical use of tallow waxes in candle making. Without getting into the gory details, tallow is rendered animal fat that was used to then make candles. One of the more disturbing problems with tallow was the smell of the wax when burned (it is after all, animal fat being burned). I have never actually looked to purchase tallow nor do I care if it can be purchased these days since there are so many more pleasant alternatives to waxes for your candlemaking projects.
Candle Gel
Candle gel is another of the newer types of materials for making candles. It is a combination of mineral oil and polymer, which essentially solidifies the mineral oil until the candle is lit. As you can tell, candle gel is not a wax but it is a very popular substance to make candles with. As of today, a company called Penreco holds the trademark for candle gel so when you purchase it through a supplier or store, chances are it originated from them.
Usually I purchase candle gel in a pail which contains about 35 pounds. The only reason I buy in this quantity is I am obsessed with making gel candles right now. In a future post I’ll have to go into more details about how to make gel candles and what kind of things you can make.
Additives
We are now going to talk about additives, which for some candle making projects are essential to get the desired candle strength, color or scent. Some additives help the candle last longer when burning.
Stearic Acid
Stearic acid is the most common additive use in making candles. It is animal or vegetable fat that is rendered into a flaky or powder form. Stearic is most commonly added to paraffin to harden the wax when it is not being burned. This allows the candle to last longer and not become a puddle of wax!!
Fisher-Tropsch Wax
Fisher-tropsch wax is a synthetic paraffin wax that was created to give candles a much higher temperature threshold before melting. This is a good feature to have when you want to have a solid glow to your candle when you are burning it. I don’t have a lot of experience with this type of wax so unfortunately I can’t provide any more information as to its benefits to candle making.
Vybar Additive
Vybar is often used as a replacement for Stearic acid. It is a polymerized olefin….what? I know I’m probably getting too technical but essentially Vybar has a lower melting temperature so you can eliminate some time and steps by heating up your wax and Vybar at the same time; instead of in a different pot and higher temperatures like the Stearic acid.
Polymers
Polymars are another set of synthetic additives that help to harden a candle, make the color more opaque, which is to eliminate the mottled, blotchy appearance you sometimes see on candles. They also help to make the colors of the candles more vibrant.
The polymers can be purchased in a block form or the beads/pellets form.
White Petrolatum
Now this additive is kind of trick name to throw you off!! 
Most everyone will know what this white petrolatum is as soon as I type the “professional name”. It is basically vaseline and it is a soft petroleum product that helps to create certain types of candles such as sculptable waxes, by keeping it soft.
Microcrystallines
Microcrystallines are what is described as de-oiled petroleum. Their primary function is to provide certain adhesion qualities when you’re making candles. As an example, if you’re making a multi-colored pillar candle, microcrystallines will help aid the different sections to stay together. Another function of theirs is to either soften or harden the wax depending on the type you are using.
There are in fact, far too many types of microcrystallines to mention in this post; however understand that if you do your research you could find almost 50 different types that you could use in your candle making process.
So you have made it this far!! You’re obviously serious about learning how to make candles.
Can you think of any other types of wax or additive that you’ve used to help you with your different candle projects?
