Monday, October 24, 2011

Making Scented Candles

By Claire Jason


Elegance and sophistication can be seen in the room when you have candles in it. Lighting a candle can bring out romance in the room. This is because of its sweet and pungent scent.

Scented candles could be achieved through the use of oil essences that can be bought in specialty crafts shops and online stores. Different scents come as water-based, alcohol-based or oil-based but the oil essences are the ones that blend well with melted wax. Water-based don't mix well with candles and it tend to settle at the bottom of the wax.

Placing scented candles in your room could really make the place aromatic even though they are not lighted. If you want to surprise someone with a gift, giving personalized scented candles is a really good choice.

Scented candle making is as easy as reciting the ABC. The very first thing to do is to decide what kind of wax you want to use. It depends on your preference and requirements. You can choose waxes that are all natural like soya, beeswax and palm wax.

The most commonly used waxes are made of paraffin and gel. Paraffin and gel waxes are the ideal types to use in making scented candles. You have to be sure how strong the fragrance of your candle will be in case you want to use gel waxes. Lower density gels can have stronger fragrance than those with higher density.

The procedures in making scented candles start with melting the wax and ends with pouring it in your desired mold. Melting the wax is done with the use of double broiler. It is a pan that has a smaller pot in it and that is where you will put the wax to melt. Fill the pan with water and let it boil to melt the wax.

You should be cautious in monitoring the temperature. If you put the stove in a higher temperature, you will burn the wax. It is very helpful to have a thermometer with you so you can maintain the temperature to 170 to 180 degrees. While waiting for the wax to melt, you can place the wick I the mold.

When the wax is melted, remove it from the pan and then pour the essence in the wax using a ratio of 1:1 or an ounce of essence to a pound of wax. That candle will have a fragrance concentration of 6%. It is a very big mistake if you put more essence in the candles than the wax. The candle will not burn properly as it will have high liquid concentration.

Expect trial and error until you perfect it. You should have a record of your concentration until you finally achieve your desired result of scented candle.

You could be very fulfilled once you use brighter colors, shapes, different essences, sizes and textures in candle making. Having these plenty of things to choose from in making a candle will allow you to have a unique gift and do a diversity of more beautiful candles. Making candles can be a very exciting thing to do.




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