DIY Soy Candles with Labor of Love Kits {review}

Okay, hold on tight, because we have a very image-heavy post today! I received a DIY soy candle kit from Labor of Love Co., and I’ve photographed the whole process of making the candles. It’s a lot easier than you might think, and nearly everything you need is included. (You’ll also need a double-boiler or a pot and a heatproof bowl, and a pot holder. That’s it.) These make great gifts, or the kit itself would make a good gift for a DIY-er in your life.

Why Soy?

Soy wax has several benefits over paraffin wax. The primary two are healthier burning (when you burn the candle itself) and convenience for working with (when you’re making the candles).

Soy burns cleaner than paraffin, and it’s much healthier to breathe around it. Paraffin is derived from crude oil — the same stuff as, say, diesel fuel. So when you burn paraffin candles in your house it’s a little like burning a tiny diesel engine inside the house. (Yuck, right?) Soy generally leaves less soot, too, although that depends in part on how well you keep your wicks trimmed.

It’s also easier to work with. It has a much lower melting point than paraffin. This means it’s safer, because you’re not very likely to burn yourself on hot wax. (I’m not saying I recommend dipping your fingers in, and you can still burn yourself on boiling water or a hot pot, so be careful! But soy is what massage candles are made from. The hot wax doesn’t scald the same way hot paraffin does.) It’s also a lot easier to clean up. Soap and very hot water will clean your pans, stirring utensils, etc. I cleaned a small spill off my table with a Norwex cloth.

Why Labor of Love’s Candle Kit?

It’s easy! Seriously, everything you need is included (except the melting container and hot pad, as previously noted), it’s all pre-measured, etc. Even the stir stick for stirring the wax is in the kit! So there’s no guesswork or “figuring things out.” And there’s the advantage of not having to buy limited quantities of supplies you only need a couple or a little bit of.

Note: the fragrance oils are synthetic, which some people might not be crazy about. If this is a problem for you, you can simply leave the fragrance out and keep your candles unscented. Do not substitute essential oils unless you know what you’re doing, as some essential oils are highly flammable and oughtn’t just be mixed into hot wax.

Let’s dive into the kit, shall we?

The kit ships in a box that has this handy label on it, and otherwise is just the shipping box. (That’s why you only see this much; my address is excluded on purpose. 😉 ) Of course it doesn’t come slit open; I just didn’t think to take the picture before!

Not an exciting picture, I know. When you open the box, this is what you see. It’s all neatly packaged up. And when you open up the tissue paper…

There are instructions and this little note (held together with a cute tiny clothespin), and all of the supplies. With the exception of the stir stick, everything is carefully packaged in bubble wrap so nothing breaks. (Can you imagine what a mess it would be if the fragrance oil bottle broke? So bubble wrap is good.)

Of course we want to pull everything out of the box and get it all unwrapped so we’re ready to go.

We have wax (in the box), the stir stick (still in the box), wicks, clothespins for holding the wicks upright, two mason jars with decorative tags inside, and fragrance oil. Plus the instructions. First, we’re going to take off the tops and set them and the decorative doodads aside, because we don’t need them for a little while.

Then we’re going to gear up to melt the wax. Which is in little chips like this:

I have a double boiler, so I used that. If you’ve never used a double boiler before, you put water in the bottom pot (but not so it’s touching the top pot) and bring it to a boil. Then you put your stuff in the top pot, so it’s heated gently with indirect heat. If you don’t have a double boiler, you can improvise one with a boil that is sufficiently heat safe to go atop a pot on the stove. (I think stainless steel is safest, personally, but some glass bowls can handle the heat.)

Once the water is boiling in the bottom pot, pour the wax flakes (all of them) into the top pot/bowl. (By the way, I am not left-handed. I just can’t take pictures with my left hand. Some of these steps I definitely recommend doing with your dominant hand!)

Then wait for the wax to melt, stirring it gently as needed.

(It reminds me a little of coconut oil when it first starts to melt.)

When the wax has melted completely, it will be time to attach the wicks to the jars. Basically what you’re going to do is “stick” them to the bottom of the jar by using melted wax as the “glue,” so you dip the end of the wick (the metal ring for the bottom of the candle) into the melted wax, then press it against the inside-center of the bottom of the jar with the stir stick until the wax is set enough that it doesn’t move. (This works much better once you aren’t trying to take pictures.) It took longer to set up for me than the instructions said. (Possibly this has something to do with the temperature of the room.)

It likes to slide around a little during this “setting up” stage, so watch for that. It’s a little tricky to hold it firmly but not let it slip out of place.

In this next picture, it’s stuck fairly well. You might be able to see in the picture how the wax is a little more opaque now. This is where the clothespins come in. They’re meant to hold the wick centered while you’re putting the rest of the wax into the candles. (This is also why the wicks are so long — so there’s room to work with them.) Mine didn’t stay quite in the middle, which means the candles won’t burn quite as evenly, but oh, well. They’re (sort of) close.

Add the entire contents of the fragrance oil bottle to the remaining wax and stir it well.

Then pour the scented wax into the jars.

Now the hard part’s done! Yep, that was the “hard part.” See how easy it is? At this point, the candles are supposed to sit undisturbed for about 24 hours so they can be sure to set back up all the way. The only place I could think to put mine that I knew they wouldn’t get jostled, with four kids in the house, was on my school bookshelf in the closet.

Sorry these next couple are blurry, but…taking photos in a closet isn’t ideal. Here you can see how after just a little while, the bottoms were starting to solidify again:

By the next morning, they looked like this:

This was probably only around 16 hours or so, so I left them for a few more hours to make sure they were good and hard.

See how off-center my wicks are? Oops.

At this point, though, they look like candles (well, they are candles; they just still have a couple finishing touches left), and there’s a sense of accomplishment. Trim the wicks. (I didn’t measure; I just trimmed them to just below the rims of the jars.)