Easy Luxury Candles You Can Make at Home
Making candles at home is fun! No wonder the candle industry has grown by 15 percent in the last decade. Luxury candle lines have paved the way for new niche markets in the candle-making industry. An average 10 oz luxury scented candle retails between $48-$95, whereas a classic 10 oz. candle retails under $20. If you are going to make a candle at home, you might as well make it chic too!
What makes a luxury candle? And is there an easy way to make a candle that qualifies as a luxury line? Luxury candles need to pass the sniff test, burn clean, and complement interior design trends. I hope my experimentation with various waxes helps you choose the right wax for your candle-making projects.
Easy Way to Make Candles that Look Luxurious
How to Make Candles that Smell Good and Pass the Luxury Scent Test
Luxury candles are made with clean, phthalate-free fine fragrance oils plus pure essential oils. Most candlemakers will tell you not to use essential oils in candles. In most cases, that is the best advice. However, Woodwick and other luxe candle lines set themselves apart combining pure essential oils with fragrance oils. It’s a sophisticated combination that requires resources to get it right. I’ve experimented with just essential oils in candles, but I could never get the hot throw (HT) to be strong enough. Now I only buy my fine fragrance oils that contain pure essential oils from trusted suppliers. Warning! The price point difference in the type of fragrance oil used in luxury candle lines can cost up to four times as much as the average fragrance oil. After wasting my precious candle wax on fragrance oils that didn’t pass the sniff test, the cost difference didn’t make me cringe as much.
How to Make Candles Smell Good
Curing time for candle wax affects the scent throw. I always cure my candles for a minimum of 2 weeks. 4 weeks is even better! Curing is essential to allow the fragrance oil to spread into the wax evenly.
Choose a candle wax that holds a higher fragrance load. Most Soy and Paraffin wax hold an 8-10% load. Try a coconut blend that allows up to a 12% fragrance load.
What is the Best Candle Wax for Scent Throw? And Which Candle Wax Burns Cleaner?
I’ve tested a lot of candle waxes over the years. I have made custom candle wax blends adding stearine and coconut oil. I have bought some reliable pre-blends too. Here is my personal experience using each of these waxes for candle making.
Paraffin Candle Wax
It’s not the easiest wax to get a finished candle without holes. I often had to do a second pour or take a heat gun to make my candles look consistent. The CT (Cold Throw) and HT (Hot Throw) were great, but the burn was unacceptable. It produced black soot, and over time the candle container looked like a cheap hot mess after the 3rd burn.
Soy Candle Wax
So creamy, yet so cranky is how I define it! I could not for the life of me get my soy wax to behave. How can a texture that starts creamy turn into a pitted mess? Well, it does! If you are looking for smooth candles, this should not be your candle wax choice. Soy also offered the worst CT and HT. Soy likes to be paired with paraffin to increase both the CT and the HT.
Soy Blend
This candle wax is easy to work with and satisfying. It is a blend of about 50% paraffin and 50% soy wax. I buy one that is 51% Soy wax and 49% Paraffin. I felt more comfortable putting Soy Blend on my candle labels with these numbers, but I don’t think the extra 1% Soy is more than a marketing strategy. Soy blends allow up to a 10% fragrance load.
Coconut Soy Blend
This wax is lovely in its creamy white coloring, strong CT and HT, and consistent burns. My favorite part about this candle wax is the how strong my candles smell. You can add up to a 12% fragrance load! It’s an easy one-pour candle wax and burns the cleanest. It’s more expensive than soy and paraffin candle waxes but doable for luxury candle lines’ budgets. Candle company suppliers struggle to keep it in stock. I strongly suggest dipping your toes into coconut wax. No worries, it’s skin-safe, renewable, vegan, and non-toxic!
What is the best candle wax for scent throw?
And my number one pick for making luxury candles, coconut wax for the win. It’s also the best wax for scent throw. You should start with around 5 lbs. of high-quality candle wax. Once again, I would not start with a 100% soy blend to avoid frustrations.
Where can you buy wax for making candles?
If you want to experiment with a pre-scented coconut wax, a beginner candle-making option that requires no candle making equipment is a DIY candle-making company called Sibling’s. I’m working on a candle container for the clove, lavender, cedarwood wax. If you are starting a candle making business, you will want to start with about 10 pounds of candle wax, so you can test your fragrances, wicks, and candle containers before packaging your luxury candle line.
Recommended Candle-making Wax on Amazon
This luxurious Coconut Soy candle wax is a vegan blend of natural soy and coconut with a superior scent throw!
- Scent Recommendation: 8-12%
- Wax is made in flake form making it easy to use!
Recommended Fragrance Oil for Candles
What Makes a Luxury Candle?
I’ve talked about scent throws and the expectations associated with clean-burning, but the candle presentation may be the most important. For me, it is the most exciting part of branding a luxury candle line.
Luxury candle labels are typically minimalistic and implement a neutral color palette. When designing your luxury candle label, use white space or a smaller label size. White space on a larger label tends to lend a more chic appearance.
The font and letter spacing also play a role in the overall aesthetic of a candle label. I prefer the fragrance of the candle to be the largest font on the label. Branding in the luxury candle line is less about your candle company name, more about your design style.
Luxury candle containers often come with lids or artistic embellishments to make the candle container more unique. Craft and dollar stores offer free local store delivery once you meet the minimum. For instance, when I shop for candle containers at Dollar Tree online, I have access to wholesale candle containers with lids, concrete bases, and more! I have several chain stores in my city, but they do not carry the same options as I can find when I do a search on their website.
The trick to finding unique wholesale candle containers at Dollar Tree is to type in the word "glass" and hit the search bar. That's how I found these black and white frosted candle holders with gold rims. Use Coupon Code: BULK (25% OFF shipping for bulk orders).
Unique Wholesale Candle Containers for Luxury Candles
Entering the luxury candle line may require a candle vessel makeover. A little paint, sand, mica, or artistic embellishment goes a long way on a dollar glass jar. Here is an example of how I used matt black spray paint and a wax seal to turn this simple square candle jar into a luxury candle look!
