Oooooooooh, I have just made candles with 10% oils and they really are as good as Diptyque/Jo Malone

[LaurieFairyCake]

First time I've ever made candles and I wanted really smelly ones as I like dead posh ones

I made Amber and Lavender (my fave Jo Malone fragrance) and Lime and Fig.

I used soy wax so environmentally friendly and no paraffin and bought tea cups from charity shops so no waste, the ones I've made are actually giant french pottery cups that I got today.

The french cups worked out at £5.40 each as none of the stuff I bought was cheap. Not cheap as chips and if you used paraffin and cheap oils you could make it a lot cheaper. But one heck of a lot cheaper than posh candles.

Dead chuffed me and my home smells lovely.

I have another 15 oils to try - guess what everyone is getting for Christmas this year

Do you mean they 'tunnel' all the way to the bottom of the jar/cup leaving lots of wax round the side?

or do you mean that the wick is going out? (which it shouldn't do if it is set very upright in the jar)

Yes, they are tunnelling, and eventually splutter out. Did I light them too quickly, do you think? Though I did wait two hours.

Yes, I would leave overnight, they have to be properly hard really. The wick has to be very short - half a centimetre or less.

I've also found that any vessel larger than ten centimetres diameter fairs better and burns more evenly with two wicks.

I have taken mine to a toddler group and to a vie party and have made £50 so far

Still nowhere near what I've spent on making them but it helps with some of the damage!

Am taking them to another toddler group this week so will hopefully sell a few more...

Thank you. Oh,and I have just done cinnamon, clove and orange using essential oils. It is fab.

Body shop have 30% off their fragrance oils until Sunday if you have one of those love body cards. Some nice ideas and yes I am going to cheat then!

I saw teacup candles just like Laurie's in a gift shop today, selling for £22.50!!

just bumping this for more info from everyone

i made a trip to hobbycraft for soy wax but they had no candle making equipment at all (r the cake decorating stuff i needed either)

any other rl shops good for stuff, i need to make some before sat

I've just finished making some more candles. I'm off to a craft fair tomorrow to help my sister and really hope I can sell some of these.

I've filled 10 cup/saucers and about 15 Gu pots!! I hope not too many people recognise them as Gu pots and think I've had a binge on them so I can fill the empty pot with wax!!!

There was a bit of a wick crisis - I ran out of long wicks and only had some really short ones but with a few clothes pegs and a blob of blue-tac I managed to successfully use them and will now have something on my table at the fair tomorrow!!!

I have a question. I added a red crayon to dye the wax. When it's melted it looks a lovely shade of red but when it's set it goes a pinky colour. Any idea what to use to ensure a true colour? I might have to invest in proper dye.

I sold 4 cup/saucers - 2 of which were to my sister so not sure that they count!! The Gu pots looked a bit home-madey and I don't think I'll take them next week.

This thread is so interesting. I'm going to have to have a go at this in the New year.

It sounds like baking only without the problem of eating whatever I make and putting on weight

I ordered some soy wax, wickes, and oils before christmas, everything arrived but the wickes.. still waitiing now but I did find a few on sale in a craft shop, show when i finally shake the lovely bug I picked up for new year I'm going to have a go at candlemaking... its been on my list for ages to try, and I re-added it to my list of resoloutions for trying new crafts this year (what? it totally counts)

Bumping this up as it was sitting on my watch list and reading it again has inspired me so maybe someone who didn't see it first time around will be inspired too.

Bumping as I've finally got around to getting all the bits and am about to start candle making this afternoon. Was referring back to the thread and thought others might want to do this during the summer hols with dc's.

Thanks for bumping this - all sounds amazing & I love candles, essential oils AND old tea cups so it's perfect really.

Rash of birthdays coming up so I am going to get busy & make some gifts.

My first candle is cooling right now, only took me a year to get around to doing this!

Thanks, Laurie, you candle genius you.

Can't wait to get stuck into this - I've been bitten by the wax bug too!

I'm going to give this a little go, but just by re-melting some knackered existing candles, where the wicks have disappeared. Dunno what else to do with them to be honest & it seems a shame to bin them. Must be less enthusiastic when blowing them out me thinks

Great thread! I've made plain soy candles in tea cups before but not with oils so want to try now!

word of warning re the supplier CANDLELIGHTS.

After reading this thread months ago I tried to place an order with Candlelights for soya wax & wicks - the site failed at the end & I thought that the Paypal transcation failed. I received a confirmation email of my order but as I was really confused so I sent Candlelights several emails asking if they received my payment etc - no replies at all. Eventually I sent an email, explaining no reply received, no delivery received etc therefore please consider my order cancelled.

That was all on 31st July.
Today on 30th September I received my order.

So Candlelights aren't great on the customer service, though they do get there in the end albeit 2 months later. I hadn't ordered from elsewhere so I'll probably keep the wax (and crack on with making some candles if I can find where the tea cups are stashed) but they won't be getting any reorders from me.

I still have to check when they took the payment ......

Years ago I used to make candles and we bought all our supplies from here - the failure to burn properly can mean the wrong size wick for the diameter of the candle iirc. They sell loads of moulds, wicks, dyes and perfumes.

We used to make moulded candles, in particular a 15" tall one with a spiral of kneeling figures and 'church' type windows. It used to stand on the top of the octagonal font at the back of the church. We had a white one for Christmas with the relief picked out in gold and a purple one for Advent - to match the altar frontal. Poster paint can be used for decorating if you mix it with a little washing up liquid, first, so it stops it being powdery.

It was quite good fun, to do. We didn't have many mishaps, except for the time one corner of the bread board ended up a rather fetching cyclamen pink.

bumping so this thread doesnt get lost

Can someone tell me how to make new candles from old please?

I have some fabulous smelly candles which have burned down the middle as someone else said. There is more than half of each one left and they are quite big.

What do I need to 'recycle' them. I have the containers, just not sure what to do wick wise and anything else?

I saw some candles in teacups for £50 each last week! I am definitely going to make some.

MassiveKnob - I know this response is a bit late, but my mum does that. She breaks them up and melts them down. She actually cheats a bit by sticking them in a teacup (with a wick) and leaving them on top of the Aga all the time so they melt slowly, but assume you could also do in a microwave/pan like for wax chips.

i am inspired . have ordered soy wax/wicks/those metally things from ebay & some essential oils from amazon. having done a wee bit of googling it seems to matter what temperature you add the essential oils at - can i use my trusty jam thermometer or do i need a special piece of kit? am going to use old dipytique holders, see if i fool anyone!`