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

Especially because I bought my wax burner off Ebay for £3 incl. postage.

they are truly beautiful. Would make lovely gifts for teachers I reckon as well. I might ask for the bits and pieces for my birthday which is in a couple of weeks.

Go on, sell them, then we can all ask for them and not feel guilty!

Berganot and black pepper sounds interesting.

I love bergamot, one of my favourite smells.

I once made a gorgeous room spray with bergamot, grapefruit and a bit of lavender -very fresh and invigorating -would probably work well as a candle fragrance.

Is bergamot a lemonish smell? Shame we can't transmit smells online!

ooh, questions to answer

HolyGuacomole - it's not because it's old candles, it's quite usual for them to sink and to have to pour more in, so keep some aside for later. To get a very smooth top apparently you can heat it gently with a hairdryer. Also the vessel you put it into must be warmed so that it encourages it to stick.

Littlelamb - If you make a 300 mililitre candle, teacup or ikea jar sized (I don't have any moulds but you can buy them online)I guess the cost of the clean burning soya wax is about £0.70p, the fragrance if you want it strong is about £2.00 and the wick is £0.10. Colouring is about £0.10p. The vessel could work out the most expensive (some of the teacups I bought yesterday were £2.50 each - charity shops are very dear round here) but the small Ikea jars are only £0.50p.

So even making a posh teacup with a load of fragrance (rather than just minimal fragrance) is about a fiver-ish. Well within range for a Christmas present (I'm a cheapskate).

The cheapest way to get fragrance into your house is to use as others are saying the Yankee tartlets - I had a red roses one which scented the whole house for a week for about a £1.

The cheapest place I've found to buy Yankee is either when QVC www.qvcuk.com do a Today's Special Value or from this place. I'm on their mailing list and I got 18 votives of lavender and sage for a tenner.

Norbert - I'm stealing your recipe this morning I'm making bergamot, lavender and grapefruit in small votives.

ilovemydog - - sort of a spicy-ish lemonish citrus scent? I think

trying to find tins like these....

ilove, aveda used to make travel candles in tins years ago. it was a smaller tin that that, but it was superb idea and the scent was sublime. i used to carry one or two in my dop kit to freshen stale hotel rooms.

Laurie -let me know how they turn out won't you? I'm quite tempted to make some now.

ilovemydog -bergamot is what is used in Earl Grey tea so next time you're in the supermarket have a sniff of a box of Twinings Earl Grey. I love it mmmm....

I have now spent the whole day making more and have discovered the following.

1. don't bother with glue dots to stick the wick down, just hold it in place with a clothes peg balanced on top of the cup/jar

1. YES, you can use the microwave and it's MUCH quicker - I have just cooked a further five and they were done in a minute and a half. I'm guessing because of the low burning point it doesn't catch fire in the microwave.

I have made the following flavours since yesterday:
Amber and Lavender
Honeysuckle and Jasmine
Bergamot, Grapefruit and Lavender
Mimosa, Mandarin and Orange
Blackcurrant and Nectarine
Sweet Pea
Fig and Sandalwood
Lime and Fig

I put 2 pictures on my profile - one of the cutest little pink porcelain cup with 4 teeny gold feet which I got for £2 this morning in a local charity shop

And then a picture of my dresser stuffed with candles. I posted on here a couple of weeks ago asking for tips on what to put on my dresser - it's bloody full now

I have some lovely wedgwood soup bowls filled with fig and sandalwood drying and I've popped a picture on there so you can see what it looks like drying - they are the ones with the pens holding the wicks in place

Ditto. This is in Chat - please, please, please can it be moved so we can refer to it for teh future?

Thanks! Think I'm in love with bergamot.

As a side note, earl Grey is lovely. Lady Grey is not It is truly awful.

So, I get how to do the wax, I get how to do the scent, but, don't get how to do the wick....

I bought premade wicks, with a little aluminium pad at the bottom with a waxed wick attached. I just stood it on the bottom of the vessel and wrapped it (it's stiff enough) over a pen or when it was in the jar held on by a clothes-peg.

I just poured the wax into the jar and it stayed in place, it's manouverable for ages afterwards so if it moves while your pouring you just slide it back. I got the wicks from one of the links I posted.

You can buy all sorts of fancy wick-holding stuff on t'internet.

Laurie, you are all kinds of awesome! Wow, I think you've got an industry set up here. Am well-impressed.

Laurie - would you mind making some for sale? They sound brilliant.

EXPAT - you haven't sent me your addy on that email I sent you - email it I've posted out you's and PP's today.

Quatt - I'm going to wait to see what my market researchers say before i go global

I have just had so much fun doing this - the problem is I now have no idea if they smell in any way at all as my whole house smells of fragrance now - have a small cottage and every room you go in it stinks.

I shall report back with glowing testimonial.

I love candles.

Laurie you are fab!!

ilovemydog -hooray, another bergamot lover (and I totally agree Lady Grey is not nice)

Laurie -did you like the smell of the bergamot/grapefruit/lavender ones?

Ok, a list of what I need to know from my lovely guinea-pigs:

1. Did they survive the post - I'm a bit worried that they weren't 'hard' enough and that it might be warm in the post office - when I'm posting for presents at Christmas I might harden them off in the fridge before posting

1. The most important question - do they smell - if not could it be because the neck of the jar is too small, the fragrance is not 'fragrant' enough (I've never done this before so the smells I've used may be poor quality and I would not know)

1. Does it last?

You need to keep the wick trimmed even more with soya candles so that it 'pools'.

I'll post yours Monday expat

Can you all be terribly honest as I would really like to perfect this so that I give good presents instead of just vaguely ok ones. It would be really nice to manage to do a craft that was actually as good as something from a shop

I will let you know when it arrives.

What flavour do I have? No don't tell me! I want it to be a surprise!