Making gel candles is easy and you can make these scented candles at home and use them for your own use or for gifting them to others. You could even take up making gel candles as a hobby and sell them for some extra income.
Materials Required
All you need to make gel candles are the following materials:
1) Gel
2) Wicks made from zinc because cotton wicks would absorb excessive amounts of gel
3) Scented oils to give fragrance
4) Color dyes in liquid form
5) Embeds (these are not compulsory)
You can find suppliers for these candle-making materials on the Internet. It should be noted that the scented oils should be essential oils that are meant for gel candles. Fragrance oils as are available at cosmetic stores should not be used. If you are a beginner, you should get a gel candle-making kit because it will help you in understanding the process of gel candle making and it will have all the essential items.
You would also need a container which should, preferably be made of glass as the embeds would be visible. Any non-flammable container such as a vase or wine glass would serve the purpose as long as its diameter is at least 2 inches. You can choose any non-flammable material for use as embeds such as polished stones, crystals, sea shells, colored aquarium gravel, pebbles, marbles or artificial jewels.
Process For Making Gel Candles
1) Stick the wick on the container bottom with hot glue and leave it till it sets properly.
2) Melt small pieces of gel in a stainless steel pot using medium heat.
3) Using an effective thermometer, set the temperature at exactly 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Remember that overheating might take away the clarity of the gel.
4) Keeping the temperature at exactly 200 degrees Fahrenheit, allow all the gel to melt and become smooth.
5) The color dye should be added at this stage but only a little at a time to get the exact tinge that you need. If the candle has embedded objects, a lighter color would be ideal so that the objects can be seen.
6) The next step is to add fragrance. Each glass of melted gel would need about one-third teaspoon of the fragrance.
7) In order to eliminate the possibility of bubbles, the container should now be heated in a microwave or oven at 150 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
8) Embeds should be dipped in hot gel and then placed near the sides of the container for easy visibility.
9) Hot gel should now be poured slowly in the container which should be placed on a level surface.
10) The wick should be pulled up and rolled on a pencil so that it stays straight.
