Candle Making - Trish Baden

Trish Baden of candle brand Flores Lane may be based in the heart of West Hollywood, but her roots are deeply planted in the rural areas of the midwest. Long before she moved from Ohio to Los Angeles Trish was actively seeking ways to live a slower pace of life and to educate those around her on the importance of whole and clean living. With her candle business Trish has made a commitment to using the most health conscious of ingredients and resources. She shares how to make your own candles at home, wherever home might be. 

Supplies you'll need

Vessel:  Mason jars are safe to experiment with because they can sustain high temperatures.

Wax: Soy wax is natural, burns clean, and for twice as long as paraffin candles. Paraffin wax is a petroleum byproduct created when crude oil is refined into gasoline. Asphalt is extracted before paraffin in the refining process. It's that combustion which causes the black plumes of smoke & ash to collect throughout your house. Beeswax is perfect for when you need to make pillar candles and want to stick to an all natural blend! The only issues with beeswax are: it's costly and it has a natural scent that can interfere with any fragrance you're trying to achieve.

Wicks:  Use wicks made of all natural cotton fiber & beeswax coating with an aluminum metal base. We use glue dots and wick sticks to keep the wicks in place while pouring.

Oils:  Essential oils + a carrier oil (we use grapeseed). You can also buy fragrance oils online, which are pre-blended & ready for candlemaking. Check for the oil's flash point (usually located on the bottle) to see at what temperature the fragrance should be added to the mixture, prior to pouring.

Pitcher: We highly recommend using a pitcher for safety & ease.

Mixing: Grill skewers work well.

Fragrance: Picking a fragrance oil or blend for your candle can be difficult if you have no idea what types of scents you like. If you have a favorite essential oil you like, do not blend directly into candle wax! The real difference between an essential oil and a fragrance oil is that essential oils typically contain ONLY plant oils, whereas fragrance oils have the essential oils blended with a carrier oil (like grapeseed or jojoba) to elongate the burn time of the scent. 

Setting up

Make sure you have a flat, dry area that can be easily covered by kraft paper, plastic wrap, garbage bags, or newspaper. Tape down if needed.

1. Place wax into the metal pitcher. Heat to 160°F-180°F.

2. While the wax is melting, prepare the jars by affixing the wick's aluminum tab to the bottom of the jar. You can use a glue dot or hot glue gun. Pro tip: make sure you space the wicks out evenly if you're using multiples to ensure they can breathe. The more stable the flame, the more even the burn!

3. Stabilize the wick with the stick (metal or wood). Cut off the end of the wick, leaving 1 inch of wick above the stabilizer. 

4. Once wax is melted to liquid, let cool for a few minutes.

5. Add fragrance. Use 1-1.5 oz. of fragrance oil per 1 lb of wax. If you're using essential oils, make sure to dilute it with a carrier oil like grapeseed.

6. Pour the wax into the vessels. Let each cooling candle sit about 2 or more inches away from each other.

7. Now we wait!

After the candles have dried: Sometimes the candle will crack or even get pockets of air that get caught inside, causing them to collapse. If your candle looks like cottage cheese, you've either added too much fragrance or overheated it. You can create a finished look by heat gunning the top or using a hair dryer that has a heated feature. Sometimes I pour a little layer of new wax on top to seal it in if there's space in the jar!