Traditional candles are filled with toxic chemicals that pollute the indoor air in our homes. Learn how to make beeswax candles that not only smell amazing but also IMPROVE the indoor air quality in your home! The beeswax has an amazing aroma on it own, but you can play around with different scents using essential oils to make your own unique candles!
With the Christmas holiday season upon us, we all love to fill our homes with the lovely aromas of Christmas. The glow of a warm candle sets the mood to curl up and watch a holiday movie or for a celebration with family and friends.
For most of us, scented candles are a favorite go-to gift, to both give and to receive. However, many options of scented candles compromise our air quality and our health.
Making the switch to Beeswax Candles
Just a few short years ago, I was the girl to light every candle in my home as soon as I came home from work. The aromas, the flickering glow, and the ambiance that the candles brought to my home was so cozy and inviting!
Upon learning the dangers of synthetic, scented, candles I ditched them all. It was a sad, sad day but mine and my family’s health improved greatly. When I set out to find an alternative to replace my candle addiction, I learned about beeswax candles!
However, purchasing 100% beeswax candles can get pricey, especially the amount of candles that I love to scatter around my home! So why not learn how to make beeswax candles at home and add your own unique scents using essential oil blends?
They are so fun to make and the health benefits they offer will literally help to lift your mood and holiday spirit!
Benefits of Beeswax candles
While burning, beeswax candles have no soot, no chemical emissions, AND they release negative ions into the air! This means that instead of polluting the air, they actually clean it!
The negative ions attract the positively charged particles in the air (includes dust, pollen, animal dander and odors) and drop them out of the air you are breathing onto the floor.
Think how much cleaner your air quality would be if you burned beeswax candles around your home in place of the synthetically fragranced ones!
Dangers of traditional scented candles
Most scented candles are filled with synthetic fragrances and are made of paraffin, a petroleum-based product, that releases dangerous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the air. These VOCs are released even when the candle is not even burning! These include phthalates that disrupt hormones, asthmagens that cause asthma, carcinogens that cause cancer, obesogens that cause weight gain, and neurotoxins that affect mood and brain function. (Source)
When you light the candle up, even more toxins are leached out into your home. While burning, they release formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, toluene, benzene, acetone and more if it is a synthetically dyed candle!
Not only do they release carcinogenic chemicals as they burn, the burning paraffin wax produces a soot with particulates that can remain suspended in the air for hours after you blow out the flame.
These particles can deeply penetrate the lungs and are then absorbed into the bloodstream. Particles such as these have been directly associated with allergies, respiratory issues such as asthma, bronchitis, COPD, as well as heart attacks, strokes and cancer. (Source)
After much research on Synthetic fragrances, they are not considered to be the new second-hand smoke! (Source)
Items needed to make beeswax candles
1/2 Cup Coconut Oil
Various Sized Mason Jars (tin cans, teacups, vintage jars)
Double Broiler or Glass Bowl over Medium Saucepan
How to Make Beeswax Candles
Now that I have convinced you to ditch the toxic candles and replace them with 100% beeswax candles, let’s start candle making!
This was such a fun project to do and I will even be giving some of these as Christmas gifts this year! I myself love receiving homemade gifts and know many others do as well!
To be honest, candle making is a fairly simple process. Basically, you just gather jars, melt the wax, add the wick, & pour melted wax in. The addition of essential oils is optional!
Step 1: Secure Wicks to Jars
Secure the wicks to the bottom center of the jars.
To keep the wicks centered when you pour the wax, wrap them around skewers laid across the jars.
Step 2: Melt Wax and oil
Add the one pound package of beeswax pellets and 1/2 cup coconut oil to double broiler. I just use a glass bowl over a medium sized saucepan.
Step 3: Add Essential Oils (optional)
After the beeswax and coconut oil were fully melted, add essential oils of choice. This step is totally optional. I used these holiday scents:
The beeswax smells delicious all on its own if you prefer not to add any essential oils.
Step 4: Pour Wax into jars.. QUICKLY!
The melted beeswax hardens VERY quickly, so don’t waste time filling the jars! This proved to be tricky for me as I was trying to film and take blog photos during this process.
If the wax does harden back up, just return the bowl to the double broiler and let it melt again.
Step 5: Let Wax harden
Allow the candles to completely harden before moving. The small jars harden very quickly and the larger ones took about 5-10 minutes.
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