Illuminate Your Creativity with Expert Tips and Tricks
Create a Soy Candle
Discover the essentials of candle making, offering all the essential tips and tricks you need to create stunning candles. From selecting the right materials to mastering pouring techniques and fragrance blends, we've got you covered every step of the way.
1. Prepare Your Jar
Clean your container to remove dust or debris.
Attach the wick to the bottom of the container using a wick sticker, called stickums.
Use a wick holder or tape to keep the wick centered.
2. Measure & Melt
Weigh the soy wax based on your container size. A good rule of thumb is that soy wax melts down to about half its solid volume.
Melt the wax in a double boiler over low-medium heat until fully liquefied. Check the temperature using a thermometer. Ideally, the wax should be around 70°C–80°C, don't exceed 80°C.
3. Fragrance & Colour
If adding fragrance oil, let the wax cool slightly to about 65°C–75°C before stirring in the fragrance.
Stir thoroughly for at least 1–2 minutes to evenly distribute the fragrance.
If adding candle dye, mix it in at this stage.
4. Pour the wax
Let the wax cool slightly to around 60°C–70°C before pouring into the container. Pouring too hot may cause sinkholes or frosting.
Slowly pour the wax into the container.
5. Set and trim
Allow the candle to set at room temperature, undisturbed, for 12–24 hours.
If sinkholes form, you can do a top-up pour by reheating some wax and carefully adding a thin layer over the surface.
Natural wax can also leave an uneven surface, use a heat gun or hair dryer to heat remelt the top.
Once the wax is fully set, trim the wick to about 5mm to ensure a clean burn.
Troubleshooting
Why is my wick mushrooming?
This is a perfectly natural thing to happen with 100% cotton wicks. It could also happen if your wick is burning for too long or if your vessel is too large for the wick. If this does occur, just wait for the wick to completely cool down and pull off the cotton. Mushrooming can be expected when working with 100% cotton wicks.
Why is my candle tunnelling?
This usually means the wick you have in your vessel is too small. Making sure your wick is the correct size by measuring the diameter of your vessel and selecting the wick with the correct burning diameter. Also note, that if you have added colour to your candle, this could clog the wick up and cause tunnelling even if you have the correct size wick. Simply just choose the next wick size up and that should solve the problem.
If you are using a harder wax, like bees wax, you may also need to select the next wick size up. Testing is always recommended.
Why does my soy wax have holes in it once it is set?
This occurs because there were air bubbles in your wax when it was setting. This can be caused by either pouring your wax too quickly, too much humidity in the air, pouring at a high temperature, the difference in temperature between the hot wax and the candle jar, or moving your container with the melted wax in it. If you have air bubbles in your wax, poke them with a tooth pick and use a heat gun to go over the top of the wax to reset it.
Air bubbles and holes can occur when working with a 100% soy wax as it is pure and doesn't have preservatives or additives in it. While they can occur from time to time, they are easy to fix.
How much fragrance should I use in my candles?
We recommend using between 6% - 8% fragrance loading with our Australian made fragrance oil and our 100% soy wax. Some waxes can take up to 10% fragrance loading. Testing is recommended.
Got another burning question?
Reach out to us at hello@wickii.com.au, we are always here to help out.
Light up Your Creativity
Candle Making Kit
Introducing our candle making kit – your ticket to crafting custom candles!
Packed with everything you need, from wax to wicks and fragrances, it's designed to spark your imagination.
