How to Make an Essential Oil Candle (Plus 6 You Can Buy in Case That Sounds Like Too Much Work)
Essential oils are to candles what spiked seltzer is to alcohol: the perfect amount of basic, and designed to make you feel your best. Yep, those oils that you see featured in every other Instagram ad are supposed to have major health perks, including reducing stress and anxiety. Granted, the benefits of aromatherapy haven’t been 1,000% proven by scientists, but all I know is that it's not going to hurt you to smell a little peppermint or lavender at the end of a long day. Candles crafted with essential oils are a great way to reap all those yummy aromatic benefits, and if you’re in the mood for a DIY project, you can even make one yourself.
To be clear, an essential oil candle is just like a normal candle, but it uses oil to create the scent, rather than other extracts. The idea is that you’ll get the health benefits of the oils when you burn it—lavender oil will calm you, peppermint oil will energize you, sandalwood might even make you frisky! So let's go.
What You'll Need
Glass containers or jars (these are nice, imo)
Essential oils (you can shop some here)
Soy wax (shop an option here)
Candle wicks (these work, just make sure the wick is taller than your glass jar!)
If you really want to be profesh, you can get a wick-centering tool
Wooden dowels or wooden chopsticks, basically anything that you can use to stir the wax and the oil
How to Make Your Own Essential Oil Candle
Step 1: Attach the wick to your container. It doesn't have to be in the exact center, but if you splurged on a wick centering tool, you can use that now. Otherwise, eyeball it and use a glue gun. (Some wick kits come with stickers that work as adhesive.)
Step 2: Melt the wax in the microwave. (I didn't list a microwave in the Things You Need list because I assumed you had one, but apologies if I was wrong!)
Step 3: Add in the oils of your choosing while the wax is still hot. Something to keep in mind: You kinda have to add a lot of oil in order to produce a scent, but everyone's nose is different so you'll probably want to experiment to find your ideal number of drops. Thirty drops is a good place to start, though.
Step 4: Let the wax harden! If you're impatient, you can stick the concoction in the fridge so it hardens faster. Trim the wick if needed and voilà—the essential oil-infused candle of you dang dreams!
But if that sounds like too much work—which, hey, I get it—there are plenty of essential oil candles that you can just *click* and buy. You might not be able to get the exact oil combo you want if you order one instead of making it yourself, but it’ll still smell delish. Check out the list below:
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