Lemon and Lavender Homemade Beeswax Candles
Candle Making has been on my list of things to learn on my micro-homestead for awhile. When I got my supplies, I decided to make some lemon and lavender homemade beeswax candles.
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Why Lemon and Lavender
I got the idea when R expressed a desire to make a lavender lemonade and give that to her friends as valentines. We’ve always loved baking together and making Handmade Valentines! I got Mason Jars like these to put the homemade lemonade in along with a sprig of dried lavender. For her teachers, I wanted to add something else cozy. So when I started making beeswax candles at home, I scented them with lemon and lavender essential oils.
Lavender also is said to have calming properties, while lemon has a cleansing and uplifting effect on your mood. What a perfect scent for a cozy day!
Types of Homemade Candles
Most store bought candles are made from paraffin wax and it is readily available in most craft stores. Many natural living and homesteaders prefer soy or beeswax for their homemade candles.
Paraffin wax is a byproduct of petroleum and recent studies have led many to believe it is harmful to indoor air quality. Soy wax is softer and its color tends to be more pure than beeswax. Beeswax has a higher melting temperature, meaning it will burn longer but is harder to work with.
For my first trial with homemade candles, I bought some beeswax pellets like this to make homemade beeswax candles. When these are used up, I think I’ll try soy next.
Candle Vessels
You can pour candle wax into many things to become a DIY candle vessel! As long as it is heat safe and free from cracks or holes, it can function as a candle vessel. You can also buy silicone molds to pour the wax into. Once the wax hardens it can be removed from the mold and retain that shape as a candle. I wanted to buy as little supplies for this test, so I just made pour candles.
Our favorite yogurt is by far the Oui brand. Their dairy-free vanilla yogurt has a superior texture to any other non-dairy yogurt I’ve tried. As a result, we end up with a lot of those little glass jars the yogurt comes in. I took the labels off and used them as candle votive. I also went to the thrift store and found some teacups to use for my homemade beeswax candles.
How To Dye Homemade Beeswax Candles
While I’m learning about natural dye, I’m focused mainly on using it on textiles. Eventually I’ll get into lake pigment and use that to dye candles. So for now I used a store bought candle dye. My local craft store had Northern Lights brand dye wax, I’m not sure what kind of wax since it wasn’t listed anywhere on the label. I’m guessing a blend of a few different waxes. I used purple for my lemon lavender scented candles.
Homemade Lemon Lavender Beeswax Candles
Melting
First I used a double boiler method to melt the beeswax pellets. A saucepan with water over medium-high heat, a stainless steel bowl over that, and an 8 oz mason jar in the bowl. After an hour of that, the water in the saucepan had burned off and I had maybe ¼ an inch of melted wax. So I changed methods.
Melting Take 2
I added water back to the saucepan and put a small dish towel at the bottom. Then the mason jar went straight into the water. The towel keeps the glass from making direct contact with the heat which could cause it to break. Instead of medium-high I heated the water and wax slowly at medium-low. By the time the water was just beginning to simmer, the pellets had almost entirely melted.
Since the pellets took up more space than the melted wax did, I added more pellets and waited for those to melt too. Now I removed the jar from the water using an oven mitt. This is when I added the essential oils and the dye.
Adding Dye and Oils
20 drops of lavender and about 15 drops of lemon essential oils made the kitchen smell delicious! I used about a corner of the dye brick to get this shade of purple.
Pouring
Popsicle sticks served as my stir stick and to hold my wicks in place. I got the metal bottom kind like this, wrapped them around the popsicle stick and layed the stick flat on the mouth of the jar/teacup. This kept the wick centered while I poured in the melted wax.
The center of the candles were a little sunken once they hardened, but after I poured a little more over the top, the dip evened out.
Curing
After curing (or leaving them unlit) for a little over a day, I lit the teacup one. It was a sweet, subtle smell. Nothing you might want to light if you’re trying to cover up a stinky odor, but definitely enough to set a cozy mood!
Lemon Lavender Candle and Lemonade Gift Set
The other teacup candle and a mason jar of lavender lemonade will be the perfect teacher gift for this Valentine’s day. It would also be a great end of the school year teacher gift, Christmas gift, or Mother’s day gift!
PS
If you’re curious, I used this recipe to make lavender syrup for R to use in her lavender lemonade recipe!
