The Easiest Way to Make a Beeswax Candle

It is pretty easy to make candles with beeswax if you have the right tools and clear instructions. There are so many kinds of beeswax candles you can make, from rolled tapers to moulded tea lights. By spending little time and effort, you can make a wonderful honey aroma candle with satisfaction. If you never make a beeswax candle before, I would recommend you to start making it with beeswax sheet. This is the easiest approach for beginner as it does not involve in melting wax, even a child can make it safely with fun.

You will need:

• 1 beeswax honeycomb sheet
• 1 cotton wick
• Knife/Scissors

Step-by-step instructions:

1. Prepare the beeswax sheet into appropriate proportion accordingly. If you intend to make a beeswax taper candle, cut it diagonally from one end to the other. Otherwise, just leave it if you wish to make a pillar candle.
2. Lay a cotton wick along one edge of beeswax sheet. Cut the wick and ensure it is 1/2 inch long extends from both ends of the beeswax sheet.
3. Start rolling from the edge which is close to the cotton wick. Firmly press with your fingers while rolling to hold the wick in place.
4. Once the wick is secured, continue to roll the beeswax sheet slowly until the other edge is reached. Press the edge to adhere tightly and complete the process.
5. Trim the wick from the bottom, make sure the bottom of the candle is flat and even. Then, trim the other end of wick to approximately 1/4 inch to prevent soot while burning later.

Candle making tips:

1. Priming wick is optional in the candle making process but it helps to burn the candle better. You can coat the wick in the melting beeswax for few minutes and let it cool before using it to make a candle.
2. You can create beeswax candles in different shapes, sizes and colors by using some sheets of beeswax. A candle in spiral form will looked interesting with combination of 2 matching colors of beeswax sheet.
3. Try to make a rolled candle as tight and straight as possible to make sure it burns well and efficiently.

No matter how is your first made candle look like, I am sure that you will improve your skill in making beeswax candle after some attempts. Making candles can be an interesting personal hobby as well as a great family activity during free time. Try to make some on your own or with family. Once you make one, you will love to make more.

Why Beeswax Is So Special?

Often, we talk about the good things on beeswax candles or beeswax cosmetics, but what is beeswax actually? Why it is so special?

Beeswax, bees wax, beewax, bee wax or bee’s wax, no matter which term you called it, they all are the same thing – a yellowish to dark brown wax produced by honeybees in the bee hive to construct honeycombs. In fact, beeswax is white and odorless when just created. It becomes darken quickly and absorbs the smell of honey when intermingle with pollen, honey and propolis in the honeycomb. Beeswax is one of the natural products of nature and widely used in making polishes, ointments, crayons and candles after being processed and purified. History recognizes that beeswax as one of the valuable commodities since ancient times.

Do you know that bees will pass through around 150,000 miles which equals to approximately 6 times around the earth and visit 2 millions of flowers to generate merely a pound of beeswax? In other words, only 1 pound of beeswax can be collected from consuming 8-10 pounds of honey. Honeybees initially make wax in the form of extremely small flakes and it takes them to make and assemble almost 500,000 flakes of wax to produce less than half kilogram of beeswax. Wow! Imagine how hard those bees work to provide quality beeswax for us!

One of the uniqueness of beeswax is no expiry. It can be kept as long as you wish even for thousand of years. This is not an exaggeration as a research on ancient Egypt found that beeswax kept in the pyramids almost unaffected even after millenniums. In truth, beeswax if stored for a long time will naturally develop a layer of white powdery which recognized as bloom. However, the bloom will not make any difference to the beeswax and it is actually a desire feature as an indication of pure and high quality.

Beeswax is renewable and very biodegradable to be used to make any products and safe for allergies due to its nature of 100% natural and organic when it is collected from beehives. Moreover, beeswax absorbs the natural fragrance of honey from the same beehive where the honey is made, makes it a distinctive resource in manufacturing cosmetics and candles. Many remarks showed that the sweet and soothing aroma can simply change a person to a better mood by burning beeswax candles. Thus, it is not hard for us to believe that beeswax candles can even enhance the romantic feel of couples at home too.

Beeswax Candles versus Paraffin Candles

Over 90% of the candles in the world are made with paraffin. Many people may have beautiful candles at home, but how many of them ever think about what actual materials used for making those candles and what they breathe in from burning candle every day? Perhaps they do not aware of the negative sides of paraffin based candles.    

In general, paraffin candles seem cheaper than other natural candles but allowing for other aspects especially health issue, paraffin candles definitely are not a good choice. Paraffin can cause a burning candle emits toxic smoke and dangerous chemicals such as benzene and toluene due to its nature of petroleum byproduct. Most scented and aromatherapy candles are made with the combination of paraffin and artificial fragrance, they also release toxins and soot just like the exhaust of any diesel engine. The polluted air from paraffin is truly dreadful for human consumption, it is even worse for people with asthma or allergies.

beeswax candle

Contrary to paraffin candles, beeswax candles burn cleaner and produce very little soot or smoke. Beeswax is a natural and renewable resource that does not give off any toxin into the air. Therefore, candles made with beeswax are hypo-allergenic and very pleasant for people who are sensitive to harsh chemicals. Another persuasive reason to burn beeswax candles is that they are somehow produce negative ions which are important to purify the air from contaminants, odors and allergens. There is a belief that the negative ions can relieve tension, improve brain alertness and create better mood as well.  

Other advantages of burning beeswax candles over paraffin candles include the burning time as well as the quality. Beeswax, a 100% natural fuel created by bees, has a significantly high melting point. This fact allows it to take longer time to melt and burns much slower than paraffin; it burns almost every drop of wax. As a result, it only costs pennies for an hour burning time and leads to savings in the end. Unlike paraffin, candles made with beeswax do not leave any stains or black residue on the interior walls. Besides, they naturally tend to drip less and release clear bright light. Even though paraffin can be dripless, additional chemicals must be added in.

All in all, beeswax candles have much more competitive benefits than paraffin candles. They are considered as the most environmental friendly alternative among all the candles available in the market. Therefore, I believe that more and more people will replace their traditionally used paraffin candles with beeswax candles, sooner or later. As a matter of fact, not all beeswax candles in the market are made with 100% beeswax. Some of them may contain chemicals as well if not labeled as 100% or pure. Thus, make sure you only buy and use the 100% or pure beeswax candles in order to get all the optimum beeswax benefits.