Mostly Sewing

DIY Recycled Candles

DIY Recycled Candle Tutorial: Use old containers from around your house and melt down some old candles

Not a sewing post today, but something I’ve been dying to try for a while now!

I was a little nervous about this project, but it turned out to be way easier than I expected! I had visions of spilling wax all over the stove or burning myself (kind of a concern every time I cook). But with the pouring pot, it wasn’t too bad at all!

I had so many random empty containers around my house, but they were too cute to throw away… I knew I had to turn them into candles.

DIY candle making supplies: wicks, metal bases, essential oils, chopsticks, and wax

DIY Recycled Candles: Supplies

  • Cute containers: tins, glass, mugs, nothing plastic
  • Wax: Candle Remnants, Dollar Store Pillars, Soy Wax in bulk from Amazon
    • you need a lot more wax than I initially expected, so just be prepared. I didn’t get to make all the candles I wanted the first time around.
  • Hot glue gun
  • Wicks
  • Metal Base
  • Chopsticks/ Skewers
  • Essential Oils: I only use lavender 🙂 favorite scent for springtime
  • Pouring Sauce Pan: you won’t be able to use this for food again. Choose carefully.
  • Pot for DIY Double Boiler

Here’s a post with tips for removing wax from old candles.

used lots of pretty containers from around my house to make some new candles

Candle Making Process

  1. Use the hot glue gun to secure the metal base and the wick to the bottom of the containers. Tie the wick to a chopstick to keep it straight when you pour in the wax.
  2. Prepare your double boiler: I used my sauce pan from Target on top of a normal pot. Fill the bottom pan about halfway with water and place candle-filled pot on top. Place on the burner and bring to a boiler
    • the steam from the water heats the top pot – make sure water isn’t touching the top.
      DIY Double Broiler with pouring sauce pan for pouring wax
  3. Wait for the wax to melt… this could take a while
  4. Pull out any extra wicks. Little scraps are ok because the wax will harden around them. Since I melted sticks, I needed to remove the long wick…. I can probably reuse them on another project 🙂
    wicks pulled out of the melted wax of the old candles
  5. Once wax is completed melted and liquid, turn off the burner, and pour into the containers.
  6. Add several drops of your oils. One blogger said 15 drops… I’m still experimenting with this.
  7. Wait for them to harden!

I saw some other blogger tips on what to do about air bubbles, but I didn’t catch this in time. I’ll just pour more wax into the bubble.

air bubbles in the candle wax

Inspiration:

Here’s some inspiration for your project! Let me know if you make any of these! I Would love to see them.

inspiration for more DIY candles

  1. Coffee Candle
  2. Lavender
  3. Pressed Flowers
  4. Recycled Frappuccino cup
  5. Recycled Teacups
  6. Funfetti 
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2 Comments

  1. Heidi
    July 27, 2016 / 12:31 pm

    Love this and totally going to try it!

    • Danielle
      Author
      July 29, 2016 / 8:35 am

      Yay! Can’t wait to see what you make!