Making a Pillar Candle

I’ve made lots of candles before but they have all been in containers of different shapes and sizes. I had always wondered about making pillar candles and of course had to give it a go.

In a previous post on Candle Making Tips I outlined the process for choosing and measuring your wax, selecting the wick and fragrance etc. All of those apply here so I won’t repeat them again. The main difference is that you need a candle mould and you need to get a soy wax blend that is specific for making pillar candles, one that pulls away from the sides of the mould as it sets.

My first attempt was very successful and I even added some candle dye wax to colour the candle. One learning point was that you need to use Blu-tak or something similar to seal the hole at the bottom around the wick or the liquid wax will spill out the bottom of the mould.

My second attempt wasn’t so successful as I decided to use beeswax. My friend Vicky and I had tried making beeswax container candles (using wax from her partner’s bee hives) but they hadn’t burned very well. So I melted them down  to see if they would work better as a pillar candle. It was successful to the point that it made a great looking candle  but it didn’t burn properly. After some research I discovered that when using beeswax you should bump up the wick by at least 3 sizes. I was able to use a skewer and dig out the old wick and replace it with one that was 3 sizes bigger but it still didn’t burn properly.  I eventually melted it down again (along with the remains of the first candle to see if a blend would help) and put them in a glass container with 2 of the largest wicks I had. Finally a successful burn! but I think I will stick with using soy wax.