The Best Handmade and Thoughtful Gift for Family and Friends - Made From the Heart.
Something about cuddling up with a furry blanket, coffee in one hand, a great book in the other, and a spice cake candle burning on a mid-winter day... Ahhh the picture of self-care!
But did you know, most candles contain toxic ingredients like paraffin wax, lead wicks, and synthetic fragrance oils? And burning these candles can expose you to potentially hazardous chemicals, such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and acrolein?
Andrew Sledd, a pediatrician with a specialty in Environmental Toxicology, told KFVS12 that one hour of scented candle burning can be the equivalent of smoking a single cigarette.
With this in mind and inspiration from Darin Olien -who mentioned in one of his podcasts that he made his own non-toxic candles to give as Christmas gifts when he was in college and had little money to spend and also didn't want to participate in the material propaganda of the retail industry - I decided to make my own candles!!
I did some Pinterest research, got the supplies, and made some decent hand-poured ~ with love ~ essential oil candles!! Read below to see how I did it.
Non-Toxic Essential Oil Candles
Ingredients and Tools
This recipe calls for a 9 lb bag of wax, making approximately 9 24 oz candles. I got all of my ingredients and tools from Michaels!
Ingredients
9 lb bag of soy wax pellets
3 cups of coconut oil
180 ml TOTAL of essential oils of your choice
9 candle wicks
9 candle wick stickers to adhere the wick to the bottom of the jar
9 recycled glass jars
Cute blank labels
Tools
Wax melting pitcher
Boiling pot
Wooden utensil or spoon
Pencils to hold wicks in place
Tape
Candle Making Directions
Prep
Gather supplies
Dip wicks in essential oils to enhance the fragrance
Prepare jars by anchoring wicks to the bottom of the jar with stickers
Tape wicks to pencil to keep wick centered at the top
Melt the wax
Bring 3 inches of water to boil in a large pot
Fill the melting pitcher with 2 lb of wax and 0.5 cups of coconut oil
Place the pitcher in the boiling water
Allow the wax to melt completely, stirring occasionally with a wooden utensil
Once the wax is completely melted, remove pitcher from the pot and allow it to cool for 5 minutes
Add 40 ml of essential oil to the pitcher of wax and stir
Pour essential oil wax mixture into jars
Repeat directions until all the wax is used up. Then,
Allow wax in jars to cool for 10 hours
Cut the wicks to the desired length
Label and keep for your personal inventory or give to friends !!
Suggestions and tips
I am not a ~directions~ gal so I did eyeball most of the ingredients and wing-ed the directions. So I advise you to NOT solely rely on this post and do some more reading and research LOL.
I did not measure out the weight of my wax, I just filled the pitcher and let it melt. And I don't think I let the wax cool long enough before pouring them in the jars because some of the wax pulled away from the jar and the wax is a little bubbly and uneven. But hey- it adds character!
I also did not dip my wicks in essential oils before pouring the wax in the jars because I already prepped the wicks in the jar before reading that point in one of the blog posts I was researching. So my candles aren't as fragrant as they could be.
But nonetheless, these handmade gifts are more personal and thoughtful than buying a hoodie at Marshall's for someone. The receiver will know I thought of them and put time and effort into this personalized, NONTOXIC gift just for them :P
Did you know that most Americans lie about liking their gifts? And more than 5 billion pounds of retail items are found in landfills during the Holiday season!!!
Give a gift that matters :)
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