You can see my two sweet helpers there, Abbi and Cami. They usually look at me like this when I make candles.
Back to the candles. When I make a big batch, my kitchen becomes a total mess. Tea cups and jars usually are lined up on the counter tops. I start by gluing down the wicks and melting the sox wax in my makeshift double-boiler.
I buy the soy wax in bulk because it's really expensive to buy it in small quantities. The kind I buy comes in flake form. I find that it's way easier to work with than trying to break up a big block and melt it down.
This is the dye I use for the mason jar candles. It is VERY concentrated. I learned that the hard way when I put in one drop of brown, thinking it would be tan, and it turned out almost black. I also learned the hard way that it does not come off cabinets or my face very easily. As a TV News Reporter, the latter was a bit of a problem one day!
The jar candles require a lot more time, especially the layered candles. Not only do you have to wait until the wax gets a certain temperature to add the color and fragrance, but it has to be a different temperature to pour it. Once one layer has been poured, it has to completely dry before the next layer is poured, or else the colors will run together. (Also something I learned the hard way.)
It takes the wax about an hour to dry. The white wax looks yellow until it dries. Once it dries, I trim the wick, and it's ready to be photographed and uploaded to my Etsy page. Learning to make candles that people would actually want to buy took a lot of trial and error. And several ruined kitchen towels. If you have a special tea cup you would like made into a tea cup candle, I do that too for only $5. It saves you the trouble of learning yourself and having to purchase all the supplies.
This is one of the finished products. The jar candles, of course, will take longer to make because of all the pours. I wanted to give you a sneak peek of how the candles are made because I get that question a lot. It's a lot of fun!
