How to Make Soy Candles: A Beginner’s Guide

Learn how to make soy candles with this simple step-by-step tutorial. These natural handmade candles make perfect gifts!

Natural soy candles are the perfect handmade gifts! But when I first started researching natural candles, I quickly learned that candle-making is a little trickier than I had imagined.

What’s more, every guide and tutorial I found recommended weighing out the wax and fragrance oils, using a double-boiler, etc. I never found the ultra-simple guide I was looking for, so I’m writing it myself.

If you want to make soy wax melts, check out this tutorial. Wax melts are also a great way to use up any extra scented wax left over after you pour your candles!

How To Make Soy Candles

This guide is a quick-start soy candle tutorial. If you’re looking for more information about the different varieties of candle wax, fragrance oils, wax dye, wick types, etc., you’ll find answers to all your questions in this post:

How to Make Candles: A Beginner’s Guide

Materials

• Soy wax (this is my favorite brand from Amazon and it comes with wicks & wick-centering devices, which you’ll also need!
• mason jars or other glass containers with lids (I used these cute yogurt jars– they come with corks and cute tags too, and these larger mason jars)
• candle wicks (you can choose wood wicks or cotton- we’ll discuss more below)
• candle fragrance oils (Makesy makes my favorite all-natural fragrance oils!) And here’s a list of all my favorite candle fragrance oils I’ve tested that actually smell good!

Tools

• large glass measuring cup
• microwave
• fork
• 1 Tablespoon measuring spoon
• wick centering devices (optional) (these metal wick holders came with the soy wax)
• meat thermometer
• hot glue gun & glue sticks

A. Organix Soy Wax Flakes (10 lbs) + 150 cotton wicks + 3 wick holders

B. Brajttt Favor Jars with Cork Lids (30)– these come with cute tags too!

C. Glotoch 10oz. Mason Jars with Lids (12 pack)

D. Digital Instant-Read Thermometer

E. Pyrex Glass Measuring Cups

F. Natural Wood Candle Wicks with Stands (60)

Directions

1. Measure The Wax

With these natural soy wax flakes, I found that about 4 cups will melt down to about 2 cups.

2. Melt the Wax

Use a microwave-safe glass measuring cup. Heat the wax, starting with one-minute increments. Stir it thoroughly each time. After two one-minute sessions in the microwave, cut the time down to 30 seconds.

3. Check the Temperature

If you plan to add fragrance oil to your candles, you’ll want to heat your soy wax to approximately 175 degrees. If your wax gets too hot, you can either wait for it to cool, or stir in a small handful of wax flakes. This folding digital meat thermometer makes it easy to check the temperature.

4. Add Wax Dye (Optional)

If you want to add color to your soy candles, this is the time to sprinkle in some wax colorant. Note: Most of the candles pictured in this tutorial don’t have color added.

My favorite wax dye from Amazon comes in little chips that make it very easy to control the amount of dye you’re adding.

Sprinkle in a few wax chips. They should begin to melt/dissolve immediately. Then stir them in until there are no specks of color left.

If you still have specks of wax dye after a minute or so, pop the wax back into the microwave for 30 seconds and stir again. If you do this, just be sure your wax is back down in the 175-185 degree range when you add your fragrance oil in the next step.

One more note about wax dye: Soy wax is opaque in its solid state, so the color will look much lighter once the wax has cooled.

5. Add Fragrance Oil

Add about 3 Tablespoons (1.5 oz) of fragrance oil to 2 cups of melted wax. Stir it thoroughly with a fork, and continue to stir for about 2 minutes to ensure everything is well-incorporated.

Notice how you can see the oil, still not fully incorporated in the picture below? You’ll want to keep stirring until the wax looks clear again. It may take a few minutes.

6. Let The Wax Cool Slightly

Now let the soy wax cool until it starts to look cloudy. While you wait, you can prep your containers and wicks.

7. Prep Containers & Wicks

For the cotton wicks, use a hot glue gun to add a dot of glue to the bottom of the wick and attach it to the bottom center of the container.

8. Secure the Wick

Use a wick holder to hold the wick in place. The wick will soften and bend once you add hot wax to the container, so it’s important to secure it. These handy metal wick holders came with the wax I bought on Amazon.

9. Pour Wax

Once the wax has begun to cool and it’s starting to look a little cloudy, it’s time to pour your candles. If you pour the wax when it’s too hot, it can separate from the sides of your container. This isn’t a huge deal, but it will look better if you let it cool.

Carefully pour the wax into the jars, about 1/4 inch from where you want the top to be. You’ll do a second pour after it cools to fill it the rest of the way and add any decoration to the top.

10. Let It Cool

Let the candles cool completely. This will take a few hours, depending on the size of your jars.

You may notice that the tops of the candles have some holes and uneven spots, but don’t worry. We’re going to do a second pour after this one cools and hardens, so save a little bit of scented wax in your measuring cup.

11. Final Pour & Add Decoration

Pop your wax back into the microwave for 30 seconds, or until it’s just melted. Then carefully pour just enough wax to cover the top of the existing candle and fill in any holes.

Now you can sprinkle on a few dried flowers, bits of orange peel, cloves, or whatever you like. It’s important to make sure they are small, since they will burn. I also recommend keeping them as far as possible from the wick.

12. Trim the Wick

Use scissors to trim the wick. The wood wicks are very thin, so any scissors should work.

13. Let It Cure

Scented candles need to cure for a minimum of three days in order to give off maximum scent when you burn them (known as “hot throw” in the candle making world).

The ideal cure time for natural waxes like soy and beeswax is more like 2-3 weeks. But I’m not an especially patient girl. It’s also important to keep them covered, which is why I chose glass containers with lids for my DIY candles.

Fragrance Oil Calculator

How much fragrance oil should I add to soy candles?

You will come across a lot of complicated explanations of how to calculate the exact amount of fragrance oil to add based on a particular variety of wax’ “fragrance load”. But it gets complicated, requires weighing different ingredients, etc. So I put together this chart to help you determine the correct amount of oil for your soy candles:

These are my favorite inexpensive candle jars and tins, and I’ve organized them by volume.

What Size Wick Should I Use?

The size and number of wicks should be determined by the width of your candle container. In order to get the most life and enjoyment (burn time and hot throw) from your candle, the goal is for the hot wax pool to fill the entire width of the container, like this:

See how the melted wax goes all the way to the edges of these jars? Keep in mind these candles had been burning for at least an hour when I took these photos.

I originally tried using a single cotton wick for this size of container, and when the candle burned, it only created a small wax pool in the center.

This leaves all the wax around the edges untouched and going to waste.

I ended up ordering wood wicks to use with these larger jars, and as you can see above, they are just right. They also give a fancier au natural vibe to the candles. You can also use two or more wicks to get a larger wax pool in a wider candle.

Another solution to this problem is to use more than one wick if your candle vessel has a larger diameter (see above). I often use two, or even three cotton wicks to ensure the wax pool fills the container completely.

Can I Make Candles With Essential Oils?

I was originally planning to use essential oils in my all-natural candles. But after some experimenting (read wasting A LOT of expensive essential oils in my first few batches of candles!), I realized that this just doesn’t work. I was bummed to realize this, but still determined to make gorgeous DIY scented candles.

If you want to make the most of your essential oils, I recommend diffusing them instead. I also love to use them to make homemade bath salts, room spray, DIY Poo-Pourri (tutorial coming soon!), chapstick, bath bombs, hand lotion, foot scrub, etc.

But there is a great alternative. You can get natural plant-derived candle fragrance oils from Makesy. Here’s a list of the best candle fragrance oils I’ve personally tested– and I’ve tried hundreds of different oils from multiple companies- and no one is paying me to say this!

Can I Add Decorative Elements to My Candles?

If you want to add decoration to your candles, I recommend using very small bits of decorative items, such as tiny dried flowers, fir needles, bits of lemon or orange peel, cloves, etc. You can check out my ultra-simple dried orange peel tutorial here.

I added cloves to the top of this Spiced Pear Scented Soy Candle:

Remember that whatever you incorporate into your candles will eventually burn, and larger items can be a fire hazard. Not to mention smell bad when they burn, and look ugly!

See what happened when I added a bunch of pine needles to this candle? It looked great until I burned it… and then this:

I also found that it’s almost impossible to get the larger decorative items to show on the sides of your candle once the soy wax hardens, since it’s opaque. You may have better luck with this using paraffin, since it’s a bit more translucent.

I had this fabulous idea to make large candles with dried orange slices around the outside. But it just didn’t really work. See what I mean? You may have better luck with this using paraffin, since it’s a bit more translucent.

You can’t even really see the orange slices. I ended up using the dried orange slices to decorate the outsides of the candle jars instead, and I think it looks MUCH better!

More DIY Candles & Wax Melts…

The Best Candle Jars & Tins & Where to Get Them

What is the Best Wax for Candles? Soy vs. Beeswax vs. Paraffin

How to Make Wax Melts: Everything You Need to Know