Monday, November 12, 2012

beeswax candles

i have an undying love for beeswax - that sweet honey smell, incredible golden colour, the unique naturalness (that is so hard to find in candles these days). so when i stumbled upon a diy post over at a beautiful mess on making your own beeswax candles, i of course was super excited to give it a try!


a few additional notes to the instructions outlined on the beautiful mess post - here in calgary, you can purchase beeswax from soap and more - a 5lb brick runs about $35 and made 10 candles in mason jars of various sizes. in hindsight, the beeswax pellets would be much easier to work with (i came across a post HERE about the ease of working with the pellets) but the cost difference was prohibitive given the quantity of candles i wanted to make. the solid brick was fine, but i had to get jeff to help me with breaking it into smaller sized pieces. i also used a double boiler to melt the wax - mostly because i didn't want to ruin a pot, but also because you can regulate the temperature a bit better than having it directly over the burner. wax is flammable, so you do need to be careful when melting it. if you have a thermometer, use it and keep the temperature below 185°F.

happy candle making!