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

Just had a thought as I sit here surrounded by the DC's mountain of wax crayons....can you add crayons to the plain wax and melt it together to add colour?

I suspect not as they're probably a different type of wax or have additives or something but thought I'd ask anyway.

I used an orange wax crayon!

I need to find some pretty pots to make these in. I looked again today and still nothing! I think I am being too picky...
I was in a gift shop today though and was tempted by a raspberry and papaya one. Which I can barely bloody smell even though I am sat right next to it

Was that with the soya wax Plopper? The results certainly look fab!

I keep coming back to this thread and reckon its only going to be a matter of time before I place an order for the stuff and start a production line!

I even glanced round a few charity shops today to see what potential containers I would use if I were to make some.

Yes that was soy wax, I broke about a quarter off and put it in after it had partially melted. Worked fine.

I got some cheap containers online to test them out and will start scouring for some decent ones tomorrow.

Have saved this thread to add to the things I want to do at some point this year.

The fact I could use these as Christmas pressies has a definite advantage. Which is the best site to find out about aromatherapy scents?

Do you think they'd survive being sent to Chicago?

TwoifbySea- I think I would send them in tins to Chicago(if you do a quick ebay search for 8oz, 10oz, 4oz tins you'll see what I mean). They would be very heavy in a glass containers and expensive to post. I'm definitely going to do Christmas tins - you can get silver and gold ones.

I don't know any aromatherapy sites but you can easily find out the actual properties of an essential oil on that sort of site (like chamomile for sleep and aiding stress, citrus are envigorating, lavender for all sorts of things) and then mix and max to your own flavor - frankly I've nicked combinations of scents from Jo Malone and Diptyque as I know they will work. I think Yankee Candle would also be a good place to nick smell combinations.

PP - that is such a fab idea using leftover wax crayon - I love reusing stuff like that.

Professor PP, I love your orange candles! I might have a go at using bits of DD's crayons. I have a day off work next month and think I'm going to spend it candlemaking .
Laurie, yours are lovely. I was doing the ironing last night in the dining room and eyeing up my nice china thinking hmm, well that cup's got a little chip in, I could use that one...and maybe the sugar bowl...

I use this site for essential oils. They are good quality, fast delivery and not too pricey. They also do different sizes so if you use a lot of a particular oil you can just buy a bigger size of it. If you look at the info for each oil it tells you which other oils it blends with.

Just did a lovely rose cup candle with just a little bit of pink wax crayon - it has turned out a pretty baby pink opaque colour. My girls love making these, I might even keep the pretty rose on for myself .

p.s forgot to say teachers all loved them for their end of term pressies.

ok, so I lit the pink one to see how well it burns - was a bit disappointed . The flame started off good and strong then went into weedy mode and was still alight but only a mini flame and looked a bit pants. Any ideas?

Nutella jars seem to be working well! Tiny flower pots from the garden centre also good with the hole blocked up!
My dd decorated said choc spread jars with Christmas outline stickers and glass paint. Thanks Laurie - I now know what to fill them with!

catok what do you use to block up the holes? I've been having a so far fruitless search for terracotta pots without holes!

Reviving this and happy to report that Laurie's candle is still going strong and throwing off tons of subtle scent and only down about 1/4.

Ordered all the stuff and it's arriving tomorrow. V excited - bought some black coffee cups and saucers in a charity shop and we're going to make dark red rose scented candles in them Cant wait!

I found 4 little blue and white patterned chinese cups in a charity shop for £1 yesterday

Everything's arrived - except the wax!!!![impatient emoticon]

Oh, Ikea do shot glasses, 6 for 68p. They are clear glass, cheap and a good size, 300g of wax fills two glasses. Bought 18 on Sunday and made 6 today, Vanilla with Shortbread and Bergamot with Citrus Basil - yummy! My kitchen smells great!

This link says 89p, but I am positive I paid 68p

Wow, that is a great price for shot glasses - have you burnt one HG? does it smell good?

Is your wax here yet seeker?

I'm off on holiday tomorrow to search the charity shops of Dorset for more containers, all mine are filled here. And I will be ordering more fragrances when I get back.

Yeah Laurie, they burn really nicely and smell delicious. Only thing is, the vanilla shortbread ones make you hungry

I just remembered Laurie, I was in Urban Outfitters at the weekend and they had candle tea cups like yours with saucers and they were £8 each!! In fact here they are £8 and not even scented!!

'granny chic' lol

just wondering if u can make long pillar style ones? Do i buy mold how much are they i d like to make some for family for xmas but dont want to put them in containers as the charity shops round here dont have anything...

Won't the cups crack when the candle is burnt?

I could be wrong but I don't think they crack because the flame is not near the edge of the cup?