How to make beeswax candles with an easy DIY tutorial.
I’ve been making my own handmade candles for years now. First, I started off making my own rolled beeswax candles. My kids and I have been making these together for over 10 years.
Next, it was homemade soy candles. I’ve been making my own soy candles for years, too.
But now I’m going to share with you my favorite natural candles of all. Beeswax candles are the healthiest candles I’ve come across yet. And they’re so easy to make!
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to make your own homemade beeswax candles with just a few ingredients and simple supplies.
Watch the Video
Why Should You Learn How to Make Beeswax Candles?
Beeswax candles are beautiful and natural, and they make great gifts!
But more importantly, beeswax candles are non-toxic, and they can actually purify the air in your house!
Natural beeswax candles are cleaner burning than paraffin candles, so you can feel good about using them.
Learning how to make your own candles is a useful skill that’s also easy to learn.
This post contains affiliate links below. Read my full disclosure here.
What Do You Need to Make Beeswax Candles?
As I mentioned above, you only need a few basic supplies to make these easy beeswax candles.
- 1 pound beeswax
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- wax melting pitcher and saucepan for double boiler
- candle wicks*
- 8 ounce jelly jars or 4 ounce canning jars (or any size you have available)
- glue gun and glue sticks
- clothespins
- essential oils, optional
A note about scenting beeswax candles with essential oils: it takes a lot of essential oils to scent candles. For this reason, I usually don’t add them to my homemade beeswax candles.
Usually, I just leave the candles as they are, with their delicate, natural honey scent.
But if you want to add essential oils, you could try about 40-55 drops of essential oils (or even up to as much as a tablespoon or two). You may need to experiment to see how many drops you’ll need.
Because it takes so many drops of the essential oils to scent the candles, I would use cheaper essential oils for this.
*A note about choosing the correct candle wicks: finding the correct wick for your candles can be complicated! And beeswax candles are especially difficult.
There are many different factors to take into consideration, including the purity of each particular brand of beeswax and the size of container you’re using.
Choosing the right size candle wick for the diameter of the container is an important consideration.
I’ve linked above to the exact candle wicks I used for this project. They worked well for me. However, you may need to do some experimentation to find just the right wick for your particular combination of wax and container.
How to Make Beeswax Candles
Learning how to make beeswax candles is easy and fun. Here are the simple steps for making your own.
1. Heat up your glue gun and stick the wicks (these are the wicks I use) to the bottom of the jars. Try to keep the wicks in the center of the jar.
2. Fill your saucepan or pot about half full of water, put it on the stove, and bring water to a boil.
3. Pour 1 pound of beeswax pellets into your wax melting pitcher or other container (I bought this candle making pitcher almost 7 years ago, and it’s still working well for me).
4. Set the container with the beeswax into the boiling water in the saucepan to create a double boiler effect. Turn the heat down so the water is just gently boiling or simmering.
5. Allow the beeswax to melt. Stir occasionally. I use a wooden skewer or a wooden spoon from the thrift store for this.
6. After the beeswax has melted, add the 1/2 cup of coconut oil. Stir to combine, and wait for it to melt. Then add any essential oils, if using.
7. Quickly pour the melted beeswax and coconut oil into your jars. Work quickly because beeswax starts to set up very fast.
8. After pouring the wax into your containers, center the wick with a clothespin (see the video if this is unclear), or use a pencil or bamboo skewer to center the wick.
9. Allow the candles to sit undisturbed while the wax sets up and hardens. Then trim the wicks to about 1/4″ to 1/2″ long.
10. I usually wait a day or two before lighting the candles for the first time. This allows them to cure. When lighting for the first time, it’s a good idea to let the candle burn for a few hours (about 3-4 hours).
This will help your candle burn better, and it also can prevent tunneling (assuming the correct size wick was used).
Plan for about 3-4 hours burn time each time you light your candle, and it should burn better.
That’s all there is to it!
More Candle Tutorials
Troubleshooting Beeswax Candles
Beeswax is a bit trickier to work with than other types of wax. The type of wax and the source can even make a difference.
The wicks I’ve used in this tutorial have worked well for me, but they may not work well with your wax or your containers.
With beeswax, it’s recommended that you test different sizes of wicks to see how each one will perform with your particular container and wax.
How to Avoid Cracks
I haven’t experienced cracks with my candles, but I’ve received a couple of questions about how to avoid this.
I’ve read that in order to avoid cracks, try to let the candle cool more slowly in a warm location. Also, you might try pouring the wax at a slightly cooler temperature (155-160 degrees has been the suggestion I’ve seen). You can also try heating the containers before pouring the beeswax into them (heat in a warm oven).
If you want to fill in cracks after they occur, you can melt some beeswax and pour it in the cracks to fill them in (I haven’t tried this myself, I just saw the suggestion on a candle website).
Avoiding Tunneling
Sometimes tunneling occurs because the wrong wick (for the size of the jar) was used. And it can take a bit of trial and error to find the best wick for the container used.
My beeswax candles made in jelly jars have a nice burn pool, spreading all the way to the edges. But the ones made in the wide mouth jars don’t burn as fully to the edges because I think they could really use a different/bigger wick.
The other (very common) reason for tunneling is that the candle wasn’t allowed to burn long enough. I usually plan to burn my candles for about 3 hours each time they are lit.
This is especially important for the first time the candle is lit, as it helps it to burn more successfully after that.
Beeswax candles can take a bit of experimentation to get them right!
How to Make Beeswax Candles
Ingredients
- 1 pound beeswax
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- wax melting pitcher and saucepan for double boiler
- candle wicks
- 8 ounce jelly jars or 4 ounce canning jars or any size you have available
- glue gun and glue sticks
- clothespins
Instructions
- Heat up your glue gun and stick the wicks to the bottom of the jars. Try to keep the wicks in the center of the jar.
- Fill your saucepan or pot about half full of water, put it on the stove, and bring water to a boil.
- Pour 1 pound of beeswax pellets into your wax melting pitcher or other container.
- Set the container with the beeswax into the boiling water in the saucepan to create a double boiler effect. Turn the heat down so the water is just gently boiling or simmering.
- Allow the beeswax to melt. Stir occasionally. I use a wooden skewer or a wooden spoon from the thrift store for this.
- After the beeswax has melted, add the 1/2 cup of coconut oil. Stir to combine, and wait for it to melt. Then add any essential oils, if using.
- Quickly pour the melted beeswax into your jars.
- After pouring the wax into your containers, center the wick with a clothespin (see the video if this is unclear), or use a pencil or bamboo skewer to center the wick.
- Allow the candles to sit undisturbed while the wax sets up and hardens. Then trim the wicks about 1/4" to 1/2" long.
- I usually wait a day or two before burning the candles for the first time. This allows them to cure. When burning for the first time, it's a good idea to let the candle burn for a couple of hours. That's it!
Note: Different shades of beeswax will give you different shades of candles. I used white beeswax for some of the candles in this post, and the darker ones were made with yellow beeswax.
Supplies Needed for This Project
- 1 pound beeswax
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- wax melting pitcher and saucepan for double boiler
- candle wicks
- 8 ounce jelly jars or 4 ounce canning jars (or any size you have available)
- glue gun and glue sticks
- clothespins
- essential oils, optional
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This post contains affiliate links. Read my disclosure here. Sharing here.
How easy is it to clean your boiler? I just used Pyrex glass measuring cups last time in a pot of water on the stove and I never did end up getting all the wax off of it. 🙁
I should have put this in the post (I did mention it in the video, but forgot to add it to the blog post). For cleanup, what I do is just put the melting pot back in the pot of water and heat it up again to make the wax liquid (this is after pouring the candles, so there is just a bit of wax left in the pot). After heating up the leftover wax, I take a paper towel and wipe out the melting pot. It’s a lot easier to clean off when it’s liquid. So, for a glass measuring cup, you could reheat it to liquify the wax and then wipe out the cup. Then you can wash and dry it after getting the wax out. Hope that helps!
Great tutorial. Candle-making is my next craft to learn. I love this. Gonna give your recipe a try. But I do want to add fragrance to mine with lots of throw. Thank you for sharing at #omhgww. See you next week. Pinned and tweeted.
I enjoyed this post so much, Joy, and I wanted you to know that this post will be featured in the next Tuesday Turn About Link Party! Thanks for sharing your project and I hope to see you at next week’s party!
Thank you, Cindy!
Can you scent the candles with fragrance oil ?
I haven’t tried that with beeswax candles, but I have used fragrance oil in my soy candles (tutorial here).
I love how easy this is!! Do you need to add coconut oil to the beeswax or is it optional?
Hi Michele! You could try leaving it out, but I’ve never tried making them without the coconut oil, so I’m not sure how they would turn out. The coconut oil is supposed to help extend the burn time and avoid tunneling. Hope that helps!
These looks so pretty… love the buttery yellow color, and your tutorial is great, too! So happy to be featuring you at Tuesday Turn About this week, Joy! Pinned to two boards!
Thank you so much, Julie!
Can I use coco-butter in place of the coconut oil? Thank you for your directions.
I haven’t tried that, so I’m not sure. I have seen recipes with coconut oil and cocoa butter in a beeswax candle, so I know it can be added, I’m just not sure if it could be used in place of the oil. If you decide to try it, let me know how it turns out!
Love this! Thank you for linking up with us at Embracing Home and Family!
Thank you, Jennifer!
I need to take the time to make these. I made candles years ago but not beeswax. Thanks for posting at Funtastic Friday
Thanks for stopping by, Michele!
Hi, I’d love to try to make these! Can I use the beeswax for $3.99 at Hobby Lobby? Does it have to be pellets?
Hi Lauren! You can use any kind of beeswax to make these. The only benefit of the pellets is that they melt faster.
Great tutorial on Candle making with Beeswax. I like your idea of wiping out the melting pot with paper towels when you are finished pouring the wax. Those wax soaked towels make amazing natural fire starters for your fireplace, or grill. I use them to light the bee smoker when working my hives. Just roll them up while they are still damp with wax and let them harden. You can clip them down into 1 or 2 inch pieces and store in a small bag for future use.
Thank you, Jody! And thanks so much for sharing that helpful tip about the fire starters!
Your beeswax candles look so beautiful! I saw your post featured on The Homestead Hop this week…congratulations!
I would love to have you share your talent with us on Farm Fresh Tuesdays! We have a Sweet Maple Giveaway going on until Monday, Sept 30th! I hope you’ll stop by and enter for a chance to win some sweet mapley goodness!
Thank you, Lisa!
I’ve never made my own candles before but this would be awesome to try to make at home. thanks for linking up with us at #OMGHWW
I love how easy they are!
Loved this tutorial. My husband and I were discussing candle making just yesterday. I can’t wait to show him your tutorial. Thanks for sharing with #omhgww
Congratulations for your feature on Wordless Wednesday at Oh My Heartsie Girl. Check back next week to see your feature. Thanks for sharing with #omhgww
Thanks so much for the feature, Clearissa!
Thank you! They’re super easy to make!
This is so awesome, I can’t wait to try it out with my kids! I had no idea it was so doable!! Thanks for sharing!!
They’re so easy and very doable! 🙂 Have fun making them!