DIY Candles Using Only Your Existing Candles

If you love candles, you’ll probably love making your own at home.

This is a great way to make use of old candles that you no longer use instead of purchasing new ones.

The candles you make will not only add beauty to your home in the form of décor, but they’ll also give your home a lovely atmosphere.

But how can you reuse candle wax?

This is probably one of the first questions you might have, so it’s good to know that you can easily heat old candle wax in a pot or even in the microwave. Once that’s done, you can make beautiful candles in a variety of colors and with delicious fragrances.

Interested to give it a go? Here’s your ultimate guide on how to make DIY candles.

How To Make DIY Candles From Old Candles

What You’ll Need

• Saucepan
• Knife
• Container for your candle (such as jar)
• Wick
• Paraffin
• Pencil
• Crayons (optional)
• Essential oils (optional)

Method

• Break the old candles into pieces and put them in the pot. Heat it over low heat.
• Stir the pieces well until they melt.
• Put the end of the candlewick in the bottom of your container. Secure it with a drop of paraffin. (If you don’t have a candlewick and want to make your own, we’ll get to that in the next section!)
• Place a pencil across the top of your candle jar or container.
• You want to drape the wick around the pencil a few times so that the pencil will be able to keep it upright and in place.
• Take your wax that’s melted on the stove and pour it into the candle jar. Keep a bit of wax aside in the saucepan as you’ll use it later.
• When pouring the wax, do it slowly to prevent air bubbles from forming. You want to avoid these as they can create a splotchy, uneven finished product.
• Allow the wax in the candle jar to harden. This could take a few hours.
• When it’s hard, you want to pour the rest of the wax in the saucepan over the hard wax. This is to fill the middle of the candle around the wick that will have become hollow.
• Allow this wax to harden. Once it’s hard all the way through, you can cut the wick so that it’s about a quarter-inch in length from the surface of the candle.

Tip: Bear in mind you can use a variety of heat-safe containers for your candle, so think creatively and use whatever you have lying around the house – you could use previous candle containers, mason jars, small flower pots, or even teacups! Just make sure that the containers can tolerate high temperatures before you pick one.

Decorate your candle so it’s ready to use and enjoy! For example, you could apply glitter to it or wrap a ribbon around it.

Tip: If you’re not using a stove to melt your wax but instead want to use a microwave, you can do so – just make sure that you cover the wax so that it doesn’t splash. You also need to ensure that you watch the process so that you can keep checking when the wax has properly melted.

How To Make A Candlewick

You’ll need a wick for your candle, as we’ve seen in the instructions above, but how do you make one?

Here’s an easy way:

• Take a piece of string that’s about 10cm in length.
• Melt a bit of wax you have lying around, and then place the string in it.
• With pliers, remove the string and allow it to dry.

How To Use Dirty Candles To Make New Ones

If the wax candle you want to melt down and use to make a new candle is a bit dirty, this doesn’t mean you can’t use it.

You just need to heat it up in a pot and let it melt, then allow it to harden.

You’ll see that when it hardens, all the dirt in the candle will settle to the bottom, making it easy for you to cut it off and use the rest of the candle.

How To Add Color To Your Candles With Crayons

If you’re interested in adding color to your DIY candles with the use of crayons, the process is easy and fun to do.

Here’s how:

When you melt your wax on the stove, as mentioned in our earlier instructions, you’ll add chopped up pieces of your crayon so that the two ingredients can melt together.

You want to stir them well while they melt so that they will blend properly, then you’ll be ready to pour the wax and crayon mixture into your candle jar or other container.

How To Add Fragrances To Your Candle

You probably want your DIY candle to have a lovely scent, and this can be achieved with the use of essential oils. Here are some tips.

When you have melted your candlewax on the stove, pull it off the heat. You should let the wax cool for a bit otherwise adding the essential oils to the mixture will cause the scent to evaporate.

Generally, you should stick to using three drops for a subtle scent and then a greater number of drops for a stronger one.

It’s a good idea to test what scent you want to achieve in your candle before you go ahead and add drops of it to your wax candle.

This will ensure you don’t put too much and it will help you get the correct scent you want if you’re mixing essential oils together.

Never use perfume to make your DIY candles smell nice. Perfumes contain alcohol and are flammable when they come into contact with high temperatures.

Bear in mind that the essential oils will smell stronger when they’re put into the wax during the process of candle making than they will be when the candles are complete and you burn them.

Extra Tips For Making Your Own Candles

Never melt down scented candles to upcycle into new candles.

This is because when you melt them down this can have a negative effect on the scent that had been originally added to the candle wax, and this can make them smell bad.

Never use old candles that have decorative items in them, such as seashells.

If you want to make your candles colourful, you can use powdered dyes. A good example of a product is Rit Dye that’s suitable for this process.

Never use liquid dyes such as food coloring because it’s too watery in consistency and this will cause it to separate from the wax.

If you don’t have powdered dye handy, you can use crayons to give your candle the color you want.

Of course, you should always bear in mind that the wax’s original color will affect the final color you achieve.

How To Clean Up The Wax After Your Candles Are Done

You know that wax can be difficult to clean up, but that’s only if you allow it to harden.

So, make sure you clean all the tools that have come into contact with the wax when the wax is still liquid. This will make your job much easier!

With the use of paper towels, wipe away the liquid wax from all your items. Then, wash these items as you normally would with warm water and liquid dish soap.

Related Questions

Can you make crayon candles without wax?

You can, but the wax isn’t the same so they won’t burn as brightly or for longer, so it’s best to mix crayons with wax in order to make your own candles.

How can you remove the wick from old candles to use it?

If you don’t want to make your own wicks, you can microwave an old candle to be able to remove its wick.

Or, you can try boiling water and placing it in a bowl, before putting the candle into the hot water so that it can melt enough for you to retrieve its wick.

Conclusion

Making your own DIY candles is a great way to salvage old candlewax and get creative.

The pretty candles you make at home will also be wonderful gifts for loved ones, especially because you can customize them so much.