How to Make Soy Candles

Make soy candles using recycled containers, soy wax, a natural wick, and a beautiful fragrance. This cute and easy candle project is perfect for making gifts or candles to use around the home. This recipe makes 4 container candles, but you can scale it up to make more at a time.

If people knew how easy it is to make soy wax candles, I doubt so many people would buy them. To make them, you only need the wax, a wick, scent (optional), prepared jars, and a heat-proof container to pour the candle into. After it’s poured, let the candle cure for a week, then you can use it, give it as a gift, or even sell it as part of a business. Once you have the right materials, you can make LOADS of soy candles at a time and have a great time doing it, too. Spend a day making a few batches of candles, and you’ll have plenty to use yourself and share with loved ones.

The basic steps for making homemade soy candles are to pre-measure the ingredients and prepare the wicks and containers. Then melt the soy wax in a pot, add optional fragrance and color, and carefully pour the wax into containers. Of course, I’ll go through the details below, but it’s really easy.

Soy Candles are Easy to Make

Making soy candles doesn’t take long, but you need the right materials, precise measurements, and accurate temperatures. That’s why an infrared thermometer is essential for making candles. A candy thermometer can work, but they’re more fiddly and don’t give instant readings. You’ll also need a digital kitchen scale to weigh the ingredients, choose the right wick, and pick the right container. Fragrance is optional, but you should use the right load for the wax you’re using. Fortunately, I’ve included all of this information in the recipe below.

With that legwork done, making soy candles is simple. Set up the containers with their wicks, melt the wax, stir in the fragrance, and pour it in. After you finish pouring, let the candles cool, harden, and cure for seven to ten days before burning them. That’s basically it. Making soy candles is also easier and safer than making beeswax or paraffin wax candles because the wax melts at a lower temperature. Also, if you accidentally spill melted soy wax, you can clean it up fairly easily with a cloth.

Small Candle Containers

You have plenty of options for candle containers, especially if you consider recycled items. The main thing to look for in containers is that they are non-toxic, nonflammable, and heat-proof—so don’t use wooden pots. Ceramic, metal, and some glass work, and in this project’s photos I’m using heat-proof glass ramekins. You can also use decorative ramekins and stoneware pots if you want a prettier option. Size matters, though—for this candle recipe, you should use containers that hold 4 oz (100 ml) and are around 2.75″ (7 cm) in diameter.

You might also wonder about metal containers and whether they get hot to the touch. Soy wax has a relatively low melting point, and the type I use for containers melts at 113-118°F (45-48°C). Though soy wax doesn’t heat containers as much as other waxes, it can still make containers hot to the touch. Be careful not to touch the outside of a container if a soy candle has been burning for some time.

Inexpensive Candle Container Ideas

As you gather the materials and equipment you need for soy candles, don’t forget to reuse and recycle. You can use pots and jugs already in your kitchen and even recycle glass and metal food containers into candle containers! One of the best free containers that you can use to make soy candles is the heat-proof glass or ceramic ramekins that some supermarket desserts come in. Most people I know save these glass ramekins and use them for various reasons. One thing that I use mine for is making handmade dish soap.

Another great container solution for homemade soy candles is tin cans. They can be recycled tins that once held food or bespoke candle tins with lids. If you want a free option, save up tuna fish cans. Just take the label off and clean them well first. Tuna fish cans typically hold about 5 oz (142 ml), which is a little more than the ramekins I’m using in this project. They’re also a little wider at 3.35″ (8.5 cm) in diameter. So, if you do use them, opt for a different wick—ECO 10 might be a good option.

Another idea is to use small Mason jars to make soy candles. The half-pint (250 ml) sized ones are perfect and are the ones I use in these DIY Christmas candles. Other jam jars could work too, as could cut wine bottles. I share how to cut bottles to use as candle containers in this wine bottle candle project.

Wax for Homemade Soy Candles

Soy wax is a vegetable-based wax that burns cleanly and suits vegans. It’s made from soybeans, and you can buy loads of different soy waxes. Choosing one can be a little overwhelming, especially since not all of them are great for making soy candles poured into ramekins. Some soy wax is made for wax tarts, and other types are formulated for pillar candles. Some soy wax just isn’t great and gives disappointing results.

For this project, you need soy wax suitable for containers. The temperatures and instructions below are specifically for this type of soy wax. If you use a different type of soy wax, then your results may differ. You can get small amounts through online marketplaces and larger boxes through wholesalers. I buy mine in 50 lb (22.5 kg) boxes. Buying in bulk reduces the final price of candles, but it may not be economical if you only want to make a dozen candles.

You might be wondering about other natural waxes that you could use to make small container candles. I don’t recommend beeswax unless you blend it with another wax, like coconut. However, you can use pure rapeseed wax or coconut wax for this project. If you do, please follow the manufacturer’s instructions for melting and pouring temperatures, and source appropriate wicks.

Choose the Correct Wicks for Soy Candles

DIY soy candles are a pot of soy wax that fuels a wick. The wick is primed with a little wax, and when lit, the flame feeds on this first. It then begins using the wax in the container, forming a small pool of melted wax at the base of the lit wick.

Some wicks are meant for soy wax, and some are not. Wicks are also made to suit a specific container diameter. If you choose one that’s meant for a larger container, then it will burn more wax, and your candle will be short-lived. Choose a wick meant for a smaller-diameter container, and you’ll get tunneling—that’s when the melt pool is small, and a tunnel burns through your candle.

For this project, I recommend using ramekins that are about 2.75″ (7 cm) in diameter. For them, I recommend pre-waxed ECO wicks in size ECO 8 with metal sustainers (wick tab) attached. I’ve used this wick brand for many years and love that they’re all-natural and have nothing suspect in them—they also self-trim as they burn. Some wicks have a core made of metal filaments (lead or zinc) that help hold the wick upright. This metal also burns and gets released into the air as the candle burns.

You can buy wicks without metal sustainers and then buy the sustainers separately. I don’t recommend this since you’ll need to attach the sustainer and prime the wick before you begin. It’s just extra work.

Other Materials You Need

Aside from the container, wax, and wick, you’ll need a few more materials. They include an adhesive to stick the metal sustainer at the bottom of the wick to the ramekin. I used white mounting putty for many years, but I now use candle wick stickers or a hot glue gun.

You’ll also need something to hold the wicks in place while the wax hardens. Otherwise, the wick can tip over and into the wax. I use wooden chopsticks that are not broken apart for this. They hold the wick in place and sit flush with the top of the container. You can also get custom wick holders from candle-making suppliers.

I don’t color my candles, but if you’d like to, you will need soy candle dye. It typically comes in waxy chips that you melt along with the soy wax flakes. You can achieve really beautiful colors, and even layered colors, with candle dye. They’re synthetic, though, so if you want to make natural candles, you’d leave them uncolored. Food coloring, crayons, and micas/oxides aren’t suitable for making soy candles.

Making Scented Candles

Another optional material you might want to add is candle fragrance. Although plain soy candles are lovely, scented candles are extra special. Unfortunately, essential oils don’t burn very well in most candles. You might smell it in the wax when it’s unlit, but it’s likely you won’t smell much of it when the candle is burning. The scent of lit candles is called the throw, and getting it right is important for scented candles. The throw can be poor if you don’t use enough fragrance oil, use the wrong wick, or use essential oils to scent candles.

If you want a dependable scent for your homemade soy candles, I recommend a phthalate-free candle fragrance. You also use a relatively high amount of fragrance oil for this project, at about 8-9% of the total weight of the ingredients. It will not be a natural essential oil, but it will smell lovely and not contain harmful phthalates.

Calculating Ingredients for Different Containers

The recipe for this soy wax candle project is 9% fragrance oil and 91% soy wax by weight. The instructions below give you the amounts to make four soy candles using standard glass ramekins. If you have different-sized ramekins, I have a way to calculate how much of each ingredient you’ll need so you can make the exact amount to fill your ramekins.

First, fill all the ramekins with water and measure the total amount in grams. For example, the four recycled ramekins I use in this project can hold 480 g of water between them.

Next, multiply 0.91 by the water weight you got for your containers. This gives you the approximate total weight of candle ingredients, which include the wax and optional fragrance. If you don’t plan on using fragrance, this figure is how much wax to use.

If you want to use fragrance in this recipe, 9% of the total weight is fragrance oil and the remaining 91% is wax. So multiply the figure you got above by 0.09 to get how much fragrance oil to use in the recipe by weight in grams. Remember, the figure above is the total amount of ingredients by weight, so subtract it from the amount of fragrance you’re using to get the weight of wax you’ll need.

Explaining the Formula

I hope the formula above helps you adjust this candle recipe for your size containers. I’d like to explain a little more about how it works, though, in case you’d like to see the math.

Soy wax yields about 111 ml for every 100 g of wax flakes. Fragrance oils have different volume and weight figures, depending on which one you use. However, for simplicity, I’m assuming that 10 g of a chosen fragrance oil (FO) is 10 ml. So a candle that weighs 110 g (100 g wax and 10 g FO) contains 121 ml (111 ml wax and 10 ml FO).

In the metric system, mass (grams) and volume (ml) are the same, and we can use that to our advantage. If a candle can contain 121 ml of wax (and fragrance), then it can also hold 121 ml of water.

Once you’ve used the formula to work out the total weight of the wax/fragrance oil, you’ll have to calculate the exact figures. Some of that amount will be wax, and some will be fragrance. In this recipe, the fragrance load is 9% so you multiply the total weight by 0.09. This tells you how much of the total weight is fragrance oil.

For example, my four ramekins held 480 g of water. Multiply that figure by 0.91 to get 436 grams as the total weight of ingredients needed for my candles. 436 multiplied by 0.09 gives me 39 g of Fragrance oil, and the remainder of the total weight of ingredients is soy wax—397 g.

More Ideas for the Handmade Home

• Homemade Dish Soap from Scratch (uses ramekins too!)
• DIY Recycled Wine Bottle Candle (learn how to cut wine bottles)
• Make All-Natural Beeswax Furniture Polish
• Easy to Make Winter Solstice Crafts for Instant Hygge