|
How To Make Gel Candles -
The Basics
What are Gel Candles?
Gel Candles are rapidly becoming the best selling candles on the market due
to their unique beauty and the fact that they burn at least twice as long as
regular paraffin wax candles. The transparent gel used
to make gel candles has a rubbery texture which glows when the candle is
lit. Adding embeds
such as glitter, wax fruit, glass miniatures, etc. creates beautiful glowing
scenes to compliment a
home decor. Of course, when one of hundreds of available fragrances is added
to the gel, you have the perfect scented candle. The basic steps of making a
gel candle are:
Melt the gel
Add Fragrance
Add Color
Pour into pre-wicked container
Add embeds if desired
Wait until cool
Light and enjoy
Gel Candle Making
Supplies
First and foremost, you need premium ingredients for your gel candles.
Unfortunately, these premium ingredients are not commonly found at your
local craft store. Many aspiring gel candle makers have purchased
inferior ingredients or kits only to give up after they were disappointed
with the results. Be assured that
BrighterScents.com sells the highest quality ingredients
currently available on the market.
Choosing your Gel
Penreco holds the only US patents on
candle gel.
Penreco's Versagel™ is widely
considered by professional candle makers to be the best candle gel on the
market. All of the gels are pre-mixed so no additives are needed.
BrighterScents.com offers the following Penreco Versagel™:
Versagel™ C MP
A medium-polymer gel suitable for clear candles with medium- to
high-fragrance loads, 0 - 5%.
Versagel™ C HP
A high-polymer gel suitable for clear candles with medium- to high-fragrance
loads, 0 - 5%, and the ability to suspend dense pigments or decorative
particles. Also, depending on the design and shape of the candle, this gel
can be made into a free-standing form.
Equipment needed
Every candle maker has their own methods and equipment for making their
candles. The following is a suggested list of equipment and uses. Feel
free to experiment and add you own.
Large Glass Measuring Cup - for pouring heated
gel and/or melting gel in the oven
Electric Presto Kitchen Kettle - for melting
larger quantities of gel
Thermometer - a regular candy thermometer is
fine
Stirring utensil - metal is best, don't use
wooden
Metal skewer - use for stirring and/or moving
embeds around
Potato peeler - for shaving off small slivers
of block dye
Toothpicks - for adding liquid dye to gel
Wax paper - for gel color checking (see adding
color below)
Glassware/Containers
Common sense should prevail when choosing your gel candle containers.
Obviously, you should not choose plastic or any other container that might
melt or burn. Clear glassware is the best choice for gel candles so
you and your customers may enjoy the glow of a lit candle. Avoid very
thin glassware as the high temperatures may cause cracking and a potentially
dangerous situation. Currently, BrighterScents.com offers
sundae dishes,
beer mugs and
malt glasses
for sale at competitive prices. Due to high shipping costs of
glassware, most hobby and small-volume candle makers purchase their
glassware locally at craft stores and large discounts stores such as
Wal-Mart.
Melting the Gel
There are two methods of melting the gel. You can use either a presto
pot or a glass measuring cup in the oven. For either method remove the
desired amount of gel from the container and put into the presto pot or the
glass measuring cup. If you are using the presto pot, heat the gel to
225 degrees. Do not rely on the temperature control on the presto pot - use
your candy thermometer instead. If you are melting the gel in a glass
measuring cup, put it in your oven at 225° for approximately 1 hour.
Again, use the candy thermometer as your guide. Be patient - gel melts
slower than regular paraffin wax.
Gel Candle Wicks
It seems that there is an endless variety of wicks on the market which
is sometimes more confusing than helpful. Your best choice is to use
the Gelwicks™
brand of wicks. They are made especially for gel candles, are
pre-tabbed and pre-waxed. You will need to experiment and test burn if
you create larger candles that require multiple wicks. You may secure
your wicks to the bottom of the containers with a dab of hot glue, a dab of
hot gel or a wick stickum. As an inexpensive alternative to wick
stickums, you may purchase double-sticky dots from your local craft supply,
office supply or home improvement store. Don't use too much hot glue as it
can cloud your gel. Our recommendation is to use a dab of hot gel to secure
your pre-tabbed wicks to the bottom of the container.
Adding Fragrance
First you need to be sure that you have chosen the proper
fragrance oils
for gel candle making. Gel candle fragrances should have a flashpoint
of at least 170° and be non-polar. All of the fragrances sold by
BrighterScents.com meet these guidelines and are safe for use in gel
candles. You should start with 1/2 oz of
fragrance oil
per pound of gel. Some fragrances are stronger or weaker than others
so you will want to adjust this ratio depending on your chosen fragrance.
You add the fragrance after the gel is heated and before you add the color.
Adding Color
After you have heated your gel and added the fragrance, it is time to add
your color, if desired. The most important thing to remember is that
you can always add more color but you can't take it out! You will need
to add your color quickly before your gel cools. If your gel cools too
quickly, just heat it back up and keep going. You can use either
liquid dye or
a color dye block.
If using a dye
block, you should shave off a tiny sliver of dye at a time (a potato
peeler works great) and add it to your heated gel. Stir slowly with a
skewer or metal utensil until desired color is achieved. If you are using
liquid dye,
you should use a toothpick to dip into the dye and then swirl into your gel.
Liquid dye
goes a long way. Again - The most important thing to remember is that
you can always add more color but you can't take it out. If desired,
you may dribble a little bit of colored gel onto wax paper to get a better
idea of the color your have created before you pour the gel into your
container.
Embedding
Embeds are
objects that are put into a gel candles to make them unique. They can float,
they just adorn, they lie at the bottom, they fill it up, etc. In short -
they are what makes gel candles fun! Basically, you can use any
non-flammable object as an embed in your gel candle. Some
common embeds are
glass figurines, marbles, seashells, pewter, glitter, wax embeds and much
more. It's easy to get carried away with adding embeds but remember
that candles need gel to burn so leave plenty of room for the gel. The
exception to this is using embeds made out of candle wax (i.e.
fruit slice embeds)
as they melt right along with the gel. As a general guideline, you
should push your embeds into the candle with a skewer after you have poured
the gel. This takes some practice to make sure that the embeds are
displayed correctly and that your wick is still positioned in the center of
the candle. Due to the myriad of type of embeds and containers we
cannot give specific instructions for all of them but hopefully this will
help you get started. You can always email us if you have specific
questions.
Bubbles, bubbles,
bubbles!
Most candle makers want to decrease the volume of bubbles. Bubbles look
great in seascapes and champagne candles but too many bubbles are
undesirable at times. The nature of gel and gel candles is that they will
always have bubbles. There are some things you can do about it but
again, it takes practice. First - don't create them unnecessarily.
Stir slowly. Pour slowly. Pouring at a lower temperature will
produce more bubbles than pouring at higher temperatures. If you see
bubbles forming along the surface as it is cooling, a heat gun will help. If
a cooled candle has too many bubbles, you may place it in an warm oven for
several hours.
Final Notes
Temperatures to remember:
Heat gel to 225°
Add fragrance and color - 200°-225°
Pouring temperature - 185°-200°
Gel Candle Safety:
Please visit our
Safety page for more info
If you have questions, comments or would like to
contribute to the content of this page, please write to us at
info@brighterscents.com |
