DIY Hand Poured Candles (Cozy Living)

Candles are a lovely way to bring hygge and comfort into your home. DIY Hand Poured Candles make beautiful holiday gifts.

Whenever I’m out shopping, I will buy myself a candle.

I can’t help it.

Marshalls.

Target.

HomeGoods.

Shopping in the Harbor.

I ALWAYS seem to bring home a votive of one time or another. Are you the same way?

For quite some time, I’ve wanted to make candles with our kids. I thought it would be a fun craft and also fun to give as gifts this Christmas.

I thought this would be perfect for the December segment of our Cozy Living Series hosted by my dear friend Jennifer at Town & Country Living.

I was surprised how easy these were to make and they kind of had science involved (which my boys love). We did some with wintery scents for the holidays but we all love lavender so we did a bunch of those, too.

I don’t know about you but I’m a huge lavender fan. The yoga studio I go to always gives cool towels fragranced with lavender at the end of class. The perfect shavasina.

Want to learn how to make your own?

I promise people on your holiday list would love these 😉

I’ve included some affiliate links in this post, you can read my full disclosure policy here. If you purchase via one of the links I may receive a portion of the sale.

DIY Hand Poured Candles

What You’ll Need

• Soy Wax Flakes
• Wicks and Center Devices
• Wooden Wicks (optional)
• Candle Pitcher
• Pot (to create a double boiler)
• Essence Oils (we used Lavender and Woodsy Fragrances)
• Jars (we used yogurt pots and some ball jars)
• Thermometer

Method

The first step is to make sure your containers are clean. Our son, Conor, LOVES yogurts and we have loads of the oui yogurt containers. I just store them in the basement. If you don’t have any, you can buy clean ones here.

I purchased a set that had soy wax flakes, wicks and centering devices, you can see that here. It came with 10 pounds of soy flakes, 100 wicks and two centering devices.

Next measure out the soy flakes into your candle pitcher.

We used one of our yogurt pots to measure and found that 18 of those created 4 small yogurt pots and 2 of the ball jars. Just to give you an idea.

Prep your jars, by placing either wicks or wood wicks in the center.

Next place put some water in a pot and place your candle pitcher in. Be careful to tip the pitcher so the handle isn’t over the flame (if you have gas) to prevent it from melting.

It’s like magic watching the soy flakes melt and become a liquid. When completely melted remove from the stove to allow to cool. The fragrance oils have a flash rate so the oil should be approximately 130 degrees. To speed up the process, we replaced the boiling water with cold water and monitored the temperature.

We added about 50 drops of the sandalwood essence for some and about a quarter of the lavender fragrance for some others. Make sure to swirl the mixture before pouring into the containers.

Here you can see in progress:

The ones on the left are cooled while the right is just poured.

Tip: the wood wicks move but you can center them after you pour the wax.

My boys decided to draw faces on the wood wicks so they’d know which ones they did 😉

Here’s how they came out:

You’ll want to trim the wicks.

They’d make great hostess gifts.

Or the perfect gift for your home to make these cold winter days seem just a little bit brighter.

Be sure to visit all my friends below for some more Cozy Living ideas!

Duke Manor Farm | Finding Silver Pennies | Saw, Nail and Paint | Creative Cain Cabin

Making It In the Mountains | Hymns and Verses | Town and Country Living | Sincerely Marie Designs