Advice for a newbie

[jmspgh]

Hi Everyone!  I am new here and a complete newbie to making candles.  A few months ago I decided that I wanted to make my own candles for personal use and maybe down the road (VERY far down the road) sell a few.  I have spent hours upon hours in the depths of this forum trying to determine how to start.  I finally decided to reach out to all of the amazing people on here and ask for some advice.  I have yet to make a candle but my gut desire is to make a candle with beeswax, high melt coconut oil, and possibly some essential oils for fragrance. Any recommendations or advice from you experts about anything would be much appreciated.  I have bought a few coconut oil/beeswax candles on Etsy and have been underwhelmed with them.  I am really looking forward to this process but finding the courage and time to actually initiate is has been challenging.  Thank you in advance!!

 

Julie S

[TallTayl]

Welcome and good luck 😅

if you are up for a good challenge, you picked the right waxes to start.  Beeswax has its own unique set of issues you might want to learn before adding “stuff” to it. 
 

for example, every single box of beeswax will be different.  It is a natural product that varies based on so many factors inherent to the life of the bees who produced that wax. From where they were raised, to what they ate, to how old the wax is that was pulled from the hive, if it was capping or hive cells, etc will all change your product. THe difference can be slight, only requiring a wick tweak, or it can be dramatic where the candle won’t even burn. 
beeswax also continues to harden over time. A taper or pillar I make today will burn at least one to 2 wick sizes different in a few months. That’s just how beeswax rolls. It will also shrink somewhat.

 

often people just randomly add coconut oil or coconut wax to make it burn. If your wax is partially or totally refined, the chemicals used to clean the wax sometimes change how Fragrance performs.  I’ve had fragrance (including essential oil) completely disappear in some wax. In others it stuck for years.). 
 

essential oils.  Well, they can work, you just need to carefully choose what can handle the high/hot wicking required for beeswax. 
 

TLDR: make a few beeswax taper or pillar candles with some square braid cotton core less wick. Burn.  See if you even like working with beeswax. Take good notes. Tweak. Test. Take more notes.  beeswax is one of the more expensive ones to work with, so the more methodical you are, and the more patience you have, learning the basics, the less this will land you in the hole. Enjoy the process. 

[jmspgh]

thank you!!!

[Kevin Fischer]

As with most things, you'll learn the most by getting your hands dirty.  In this case, it might mean having a light pleasant fragrance on your hands for many hours after you wrap up haha.

 

After a candle (or a few), you'll know if this is something you want to keep doing and improving at.  I'd encourage you to limit the shortcuts you take (given that you're not fully vested in the hustle) to give yourself the best picture of what the craft is actually like.

 

Good luck!