Beeswax Candles

Let me just say that I am IN LOVE with beeswax! The more I read about it, the more I want to use it! My obsession started with making candles. When I started making candles, I just wanted some nice natural smells like pine, lemon grass, sage, etc. I went to Hobby Lobby and found a candle making kit that had everything I'd need to get started: double boiler, wax, scent, dye, thermometer, molds and wicks. I made my first batch of candles and wasn't very impressed. It was an easy process but the wax crystallized, it wasn't smooth. When I burned them, they burned all too quickly, left horrible black soot stains on the containers and anything it was around, and they didn't hold their color or scent.

I later bought some beeswax and honestly I was more into how pretty it was. I really do love the natural color of beeswax! But I dug a little deeper to find that beeswax, when burned, purifies the air! And here's how: Beeswax releases negative ions when it burns. Pollen, dust, dirt, pollutants, and any other floaters in the air all carry a positive charge (that's how they stay in the air). As the negative ions are released from the burning beeswax they attach to the positive ions from the pollutants in the air and become neutralized, making them heavier and fall to the ground where they can be swept or vacuumed up! With that being said, beeswax pulls all this crap out of the air, meaning asthma and allergies will improve! If there's no pollen, dander, dust or dirt in the air, there's nothing to amp up those allergic or asthmatic reactions! Yay! 

Beeswax is a very hard wax and it often cracks. When I made my first candle I had problems with the wax cracking and tunneling. It would look perfectly fine and then I'd light it and the wick would be gone in seconds and I'd find all sorts of hidden tunnels under the top surface of my candle. With some research I found that the wax was drying too quickly and couldn't settle properly. So I needed something to make the wax softer and would slow the drying process. I found that coconut oil does just that! You can use other oils too but they need to be solid at room temperature. After combining the two, my candles were an even prettier color, smooth, no tunnels, and took longer to dry but also took longer to burn. They really stabilized each other! 

The wicks I decided to use are different than the normal cotton wicks you always see. I chose wooden wicks. They look like a flat stick in the middle of the candle. Besides the fact that they look cute and rustic, they crackle like a campfire, add a hint of campfire scent, and they last SO much longer than a regular wick. Their flame can get bigger than a regular wick's flame so use caution. Wooden wicks also come in different sizes. The bigger the wick, the wider the burn radius. So if you're wanting to make a wider candle, you'll need a wider wick.

Through much trial and error, I found the perfect mix of oil to wax and perfect size of wick to jar/candle size. They are so pretty and they put off this subtle sweet honey odor all the while wood crackles in the background. I have been burning the same candle for an hour or two every night for 3 weeks now and it's not even halfway gone. Perfect for not just enjoying but power outages and emergency kits. AND there's no ugly black soot on the glass! Pure goodness to the air! I LOVE BEESWAX!