Transcripts
1. Welcome: Hi. My name is John Norman, and I am the founder of classy Smash Company Candles. In this class, we're gonna cover all the materials you're gonna need as well as the wax and the wicks that are gonna work best for you. Now, you might be thinking that making soy wax candles is gonna be difficult. But don't worry. This is a great craft for beginners. I would say that the difficulty level is about the same as making a box of mac and cheese. So if you know how to do that, then you're gonna be a great maker. In the end, you're gonna have a candle that you can enjoy, or it'll make a great gift for a friend or family member.
2. Dream Candle Project: for your class project. You'll be making candle that reminds you of your dream vacation. So say that you're a wilderness type. You'd want to make a candle that might smell like pine trees. Or if you're dreaming of a ocean, get away. You might make a candle that smells like ocean air for your jar. You're just gonna reuse any job that you have lying around or for bonus points, you make a jar that somehow relates to the place you want a vacation at. For my project, I'm gonna be making something that reminds me of my hometown in Dallas, Texas. I always love going to visit my friends. I would love to spend like a month there visiting them. So for mine, I'm gonna be using a pecan pie fragrance oil. And I'm gonna be putting that into a mason jar because nothing says Southern hospitality like a mason jar and pecan pie sent. Then the last step is you're going to make and burn that candle to test the scent. How did it go? Just the fragrance, Philip, the room. What would you do different. And what would you think would make it better? You're gonna take a picture of your candle and you're gonna upload it and share it with the class. Let's go ahead and get started.
3. Materials Needed: So let's talk about what materials you're gonna need to make these candles. I'm gonna break it down into what the candles actually may out of and things that you're gonna need to make the candle. Your candle is going to be made out of soy wax, A wick fragrance oil. You're gonna need some hot glue to glue that week into the jar. And, of course, you'll need a jar. What you'll need to put the candles together is a picture to put the wax in. Ah, large pot to put water in because you're gonna make a double boiler, Then you're going to need the kitchen scale to measure out the wax. You'll need a tablespoon to measure out the fragrance oil. You're gonna need a thermometer to measure the temperature of the wax. You'll then need a clothes pin to center the wick within the jar. A large spoon to mix the fragrance oil and melted. Wax together scissors to trim your wick once your candle has hardened, and then finally, you're gonna need a cup to scoop out the wax to put into the picture.
4. Getting the Most Scent: So let's talk about how to get the most fragrance out of your candle. What you're gonna want is a really strong sin. Throw now, what is a sin throw? That's just gonna be how much since your candle is throwing out into the air, How much from a radius from your candle? Are you able to smell the candle sent? Now you're sent. Throw is gonna be determined by a few different factors. It's gonna be determined by what kind of wax you're going to use, as well as the size of wick that you put into the jar that's going to go in the wax. And then it's also going to be determined by how much fragrance oil you use and at what temperature. You mix your fragrance oil into the wax, so the type of wax that I like to use is a soy wax planned. I like to use soy because I feel like it's better for the environment. It's also better for you, So the soy wax that I use is called Golden Brands 464 Now this wax is really great, has a really strong throw, but for you, if you live in a hot environment, You're gonna be mailing this out to people you might want to use. Golden Brands 444 Both of these can be found at candle science dot com. Now the reason why you might want to use Golden Brands for 44 is because it has a hotter melting point. So the hot temperatures outside one affected as much. You won't be shipping off candle of someone and they open it up and they'll have candle wax all over the box. But the trade off on that is that the scent throw usually isn't as strong as the 464 so I like to risk it and use the 464 you're sent. Throw is also going to be determined by how much sent fragrance oil you're going to put in your candle. Now if you put too much of it that can way down the fragrance oil. So when your candle wax melts, it's not gonna be able to throw that sent as much. Or if you have too little, then sometimes there's just not enough there to throw out into the environment, so you're gonna need the perfect right amount in the middle, which typically is about one ounce of fragrance oil for every pound of wax. Also, what temperature you mix in the fragrance oil is going to determine how well is going to adhere to the wax inside of it and how much it's gonna throw. So typically the best temperature to mix in your fragrance oil into the wax is about 185 degrees. At 1 85 the temperature is hot enough to where the fragrance oil and the wax are going to join together. And you're not gonna have that fragrance oil. That's just going to sit on the bottom. So someone's gonna get halfway through their candle, not smell anything. You don't want that. You want them to enjoy the fullness of your candle, not just a few ounces of it. Half of it. We're going for the real deal, all of it. So 1 85 is your perfect number, then finally, your wick size is going to determine how much throw you're going to get, and we're gonna talk about that in the next video
5. Picking Your Wick: one thing that's going to determine how much sent through you're going to get is your wick size. Now, Wicks are kind of like buying T shirts. A small one place could be totally different than a small in another place. So you're just gonna have to do a little bit of testing to see if this week size is gonna be right for you. What week size you need is gonna be determined by the circumference of your jar. So mine is going to be about three inches all the way around. So I'm gonna be using is a week from Kendall science dot com. This week is an ICO 10 6 inch pre tab with no pre tab. Just means that the little metal piece that's gonna attach to your jar is already attached to the wick. Now there's a few different outcomes when it comes to making your candle. It could be under whips, and if that happens, you'll look at your candle after it's been burning for about two hours and you'll see that the pool of wax is not going to go all the way to the edge of the jar because of that, because of the small pool of wax you're not gonna have as big of a handle through now. If it's the right wick size, you'll have a consistent flame, and your pool of wax is going to go about half an inch below where the flame is. If it's over whipped, then you're gonna see a lot of flickering with your candlelight. You're also going to see a lot of soot buildup, and you're also going to see some mushrooming at the end of that week. Another thing that you have to look out for is if you're Kendall is over whipped, then your candle could get overheated. It could damage the surface underneath it. Nobody wants that. That could be very expensive, and we're trying to save money here by making your own candles. So let's make sure we get the right candlewick size
6. Putting it All Together: Now that we have an idea of what type of wax we need and what size quicks we need, we're gonna put it all together and make our candle. The first thing that you're gonna do is they're gonna measure out a pound of wax. Let's go ahead and pull out that kitchen scale and get our picture. You're gonna put that picture on top of the kitchen scale and then turn it on. That's going to zero out the weights. You're making sure you're not weighing the picture along with the wax. It's about five cups that'll make a pound of wax. So go ahead and scoop it out and put it into your picture. Then you're gonna get your larger pot and you're gonna fill it with about an inch or two of water. You're gonna put that on top of your stovetop. Then you're gonna take your picture with the wax in it, put it inside the larger pot and then turn your stovetop onto about a medium that's gonna make sure that it heats up. Of course, fast enough. We don't want to be waiting all day, but then not heat up so fast that your wax gets too hot because here's the dangerous part of candle making. If you're wax heats up too much, it can explode and you don't want that. So the double boiler is gonna help prevent that. But then again, keep it on medium so it doesn't overheat, too. And then what I like to do is while I'm waiting for the candle wax to melt, I like to go ahead and turn on my hot glue gun and get my candle jar out and my wick. Then, Ah, hot! Glue the wig onto the jar and get my clothes pin and center that wick all while I'm waiting for the wax to melt. Once you see that, all your wax melted. Go ahead and take that thermometer and place it into the wax and make sure that it's at about 185 degrees. Then you're gonna take your fragrance oil. I've, of course, got the pecan pie sent, and you're going to measure out one ounce of fragrance oil for every pound of wax. Take your spoon or mixing tool and mix it all together. I like to do about 15 to 20 stirs each way just to make sure that it's all completely stirred in. Then once everything stirred in, go ahead and put your thermometer back into the wax in case you taken it out and wait until it's about 125 degrees. This is gonna be your perfect pouring temperature to make sure that you're minimizing those imperfections when you pour the wax, such as cracks and flaking. Once it's at 125 degrees, go ahead and pour it and wait for your candle to harden. Once the wax hardens, remove the clothes pin and trim the wick toe about 1/4 of an inch.
7. Final Thoughts: All right. How did it go? Do you have a really strong scented candle? Doesn't look great. Make sure when you're done to upload your class project with the rest of the class and share it. Let them know what your successes were in some places where you can improve. And remember if it didn't go great this first time, you can always do it again. Thank you guys. So much for taking this class. I hope you really enjoyed it. Remember that. If you want to see any of these tutorials, you can check me out of skill share dot com or to see some candles that I make. Go ahead and head on over to classy smash co dot com. All right. Thank you, guys. And best of luck with your candle making
John Norman, John of All Trades
