Candle making using the microwave

We're a bit obsessed with scented candles in my household at the moment. We ordered supplies from All Australian Candle Making Supplies and Kits. The prices are reasonable and they only took a couple of days to arrive. I was impressed with their efficiency. I love the sweet smell of candles, especially with all the rain and wet dog smells wafting around. We really enjoyed being able to create our own candles. Using the microwave made it all very easy.

We used the following materials to make our candles:

• soy candle wax
• coloured candle dye
• wicks
• pegs
• glass jars and silicone mould
• essential oils - (1) lavender and (2) apple with cinnamon
• microwave safe bowl and spoon
• microwave.

The candle dyes come as wax cubes that look like squares of chocolate.

In order to get a smooth colour and consistency, I recommend you shave the coloured cubes with scissors or a knife. Then add the colour to a bowl of wax and put in the microwave. It is very important to melt the wax slowly. I started by putting 500g of wax in the microwave for 2 minutes. I took it out and gave it a stir, then put it back for another 30 seconds, stirred again and put back for another 30 seconds.

While the wax is melting, prepare your moulds or glasses. You need to put a wick in every candle. Keep the wicks in place using pegs. See the photo below.

Once you have a super smooth consistency in your melted wax, it is ready to pour into your moulds. We made some plain white candles scented with lavender.

And some red heart candles scented with apple and cinnamon.

Lastly we made yellow stars. We didn't have any other essential oils but being big fans of vanilla decided to try pure vanilla essence. It worked ok but I found the smell wasn't as strong as an essential oil. The candles looked hard after a few hours but resist touching them until at least 12 hours as they need this time to fully harden up. The kids couldn't resist so if you look closely you will see some finger prints in some of our candles.

To any extent they look very pretty and will make lovely additions to our kitchen or perhaps we could give some away as presents (assuming the children will let me do this).