A Soy Candle Tute~ from Upcycled Stuff

We're looking forward (especially me, lol!) to the return of Valerie's weekly series, 'Meet and Greet' on Sept. 7th, but for now we are very grateful to Tricia from Upcycled Stuff for her guest post!

 Preparing for Soy Candle Making

A while back, on my blog~ Upcycled Stuff,  I promised a soy candle making tutorial.  Well, I have taken my time to really find the most efficient and earth friendly way to present this overwhelming amount of information.  In fact, I find it so overwhelming that I will be presenting this tutorial in a 2-part blog.  In order to incorporate your upcycled elements you will have to do a bit of work to gather your supplies so I thought that I would start there.

Pure soy candles have a very low melting point.  That means that, unlike paraffin, the entire top of your candle becomes a pool of melted wax when the wick is burning.  For this reason, pure soy candles need to be housed in a container.  This is the fun part!

Start collecting glass containers from anywhere you can find.  In the picture to the right you'll see that I have a B&M baked bean jar, sake cups, water goblets and some miscellaneous heart shaped containers.  Most of these were yard sale items and many mismatched pieces that wouldn't find much use elsewhere.  A word of caution when selecting your containers:  If you pick clear glass, I recommend selecting glass that is textured.  Why? Wet spots will happen, even in soy candles sold in retail stores.  Don't worry, there is nothing wrong with your candle and it isn't actually wet, it will just look like the wax didn't ever dry in one spot.  It isn't very pretty and it will bug you, the texture disguises it.

You'll also want to start collecting containers for mixing and melting your wax.  Soy wax is super easy to melt in the microwave....yes, the microwave!  So hit the thrift shops and yard sales in pursuit of large glass measuring cups.  You can not only melt your wax in these but they are easy to pour from as well.  Plastic will start to deform as it holds that hot liquid so definitely stick with the glass.

I found it easiest (after trying many different methods) to melt all of my wax in one container and then pour it and any essential oils in separate containers.  The containers that I chose were upcycled as well.  I saved coffee cans and other large tin food containers.  Be very careful that you take a minute to file down the sharp point that is formed at the location where you snapped the lid off.  It is really sharp and you'll feel it when you're cleaning up.  The cans are also really easy to tap with a hammer to form a pouring spout, kind of like the one on the coffee can to the left.

What else will you need? Head over to 'Upcycled Stuff' to find your "shopping list"! 

Tricia promises to meet us back here this weekend for Part 2, so get your supplies together and we'll see you soon!