All about making scented candles...

Hey, gido, here are some helpful links and tricks that might interest you or any person who wants to start making scented candles. Personally, I am only interested in soy candles.

I suggest you not to waste your money with candle-making books. You have all the resources online (see links below). You just have to follow religiously the instructions you will find here and there Just buy a beginner kit before going forward and just start to make your candles. Making candle seems easy and fun, but actually, its very complex and requires lots of testing.

Just make 1 candle at a time for testing (adjust the ratio of wax, scent, dye, as the percentage is usually for 1 pound):

1) Always start by making unscented candles and see how your wax and type of wick reacts after cooling and when burning. The same candle will burn differently according to the type of candle, of wax, fragrance, dye and wick.

2) Once you are comfortable, then, test unscented colored candles. Test it with each color and wick as some color could clog a wick that was working perfectly with an unscented candles.

3) Then, make scented color and uncolored candles and test, test, test!! It's the key of candle-making. Know that all essential oils will not work with wax. Same for fragrance oils, some will work fine with soy, others not. Anything water or alcohol based (food grade colors, tinctures,) is not made for candles, or even essential oils diluted in carrier oils (your wick will make lot of smoke).

And last but not least, yes, testing candles is very tricky and costly. But once, you get the appropriate formula for each type of candle, candle-making will be a piece of cake.

Here are some candle-making forums and blogs:
http://www.candlecauldron.com/
http://candles.lovetoknow.com/Category:Candle_Making
http://candleandsoap.about.com/
http://www.soycandleforum.com/
http://www.candlehelp.com/
http://www.soycandlewax.net/

International guild of candle artisans:
http://www.igca.net/

Candle-making suppliers are also very useful as they give instructions. I dont know about European suppliers, but here is a list of some American suppliers:
http://www.candlewic.com/default.asp
http://www.peakcandle.com/
http://candlecocoon.com/index.asp
http://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/
http://www.candlescience.com/
http://www.brighterscents.com/howtomasoyca.html

Some handy online calculators:
http://www.candletech.com/general-in...y-calculators/
http://www.candletech.com/calculator/burntime.php

Troubleshooting:
http://www.wicks-wax-scents.com/mainpg.html
http://www.aromacreations.com/troubleshooting.html
http://www.lynnscountrysoycandles.co...ing-guide.html
http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/ti...leshooting.htm

Some fragrance oil suppliers:
http://www.scentit.com/
http://www.fragranceoilsuppliers.com/
http://www.wellingtonfragrance.com/
www.saveonscents.com

Good luck to everyone!

You're very welcome! Everyone is so kind and helful, I want to give a hand in return. I took me a while to find all those really comprehensive links as I was totally new to this art, I wish I had a whole list of useful links... For sure, there a lot more links, but these one are enough for a nice beginning. And, yes, take all yout time, you have plenty information to digest before creating your first candles!

Last recommandations:
- Do not do like me: make your first scented candles with fragrance oils first, and use your precious essential oils only when you will be more expert with the candle-making process. I was curious to see how wax will react, so I did a mix and match with fragrance oils and essential oils, and I've ended up wasting lot of essential oils for almost nothing. My FO candles are more fragrant than the EO ones: my cedarwood, lavender or eucalyptus essential oils candles had a super great throw the first 2 days and after that, nothing or a very mild scent. I'll definitely leave the essential oils experience for later;
- Only buy excellent quality fragrance oils, I suggest you to get few Manufacture Grade (even if it's just for a beginning) as most of the time, you may find lots of crapy cheap FOs that just smell horribly chemical. If you buy a beginner kit, 2-3 scents will be included though, but these are not very good and come in small vials;
- Be organized and take detailed notes for each candle (always compare both scent: cold throw and hot throw, the eventual troubleshooting, etc.);
- Last thing, always think "safety" when making candles: ventilated area, long-sleeve shirt and gloves, and alway use a double-boiler to melt your wax since wax could ignite very easily;

Have fun!