Want to make a 100% natural coloured candle? Did you know you can dye candles with natural powders?
Learn how to use natural powders to infuse your candle wax with beautiful colours!
Why Colour Candles Naturally?
Using natural colourant to dye your candles means you can make 100% natural, non toxic and eco friendly candles!
Most commercial candle dyes are made up of a synthetic compound called aniline. Anilines are said to be toxic and can release chemicals into the air as the candle burns, reducing the air quality.
Synthetic candle dyes can cause the candle to burn unevenly and produce soot as it burns. They may have more colour options, but natural coloured candles have a beautiful rustic, natural look to them!
What Natural Colours Can You Make?
Depending on the powder you choose, you can make a range of colours from yellow, to green to brown and red!
Our selection of natural powders create a variety of colours:
Alkanet root - bright red
Paprika powder- bright orange
Turmeric powder - bright yellow
Nettle powder - light green
Madder root powder - light yellow to beige
Black walnut powder - light grey
Natural Colourant Candle Recipe
This recipe makes 1x 250g container candle with a natural colourant of your choice.
Equipment:
- Digital scales
- Digital thermometer
- Saucepan/ slow cooker
- Silicone spatula/ spoon
- Heatproof container
- Plastic measuring jugs
- Glass candle container/ mason jar
- Pre waxed candle wicks
- Wick stickers
- Wick holder
- Cheese cloth/ filter paper
- String (or something you can tie with)
Ingredients:
- Soy wax 250g
- Natural colourant of your choice 25g
Method:
1. Prepare your container
- Prepare your candle container, making sure to secure the wick.
- Place a wick sticker on the bottom of your wick and place it to the bottom of the container.
- Lay the wick holder on the top of your container, with the wick in the centre hole.
2. Prepare your natural colourant
- Using a small square of cheese cloth, pour the colourant into the centre.
- Gather all of the edges together and tie it tightly to secure the colourant in the pouch.
- Tie a pencil or wick holder, to the remaining amount of cloth. This will help hold the pouch in the wax.
3. Melt the soy wax
- Weigh the soy wax into your heatproof container.
- Place your container in a saucepan with hot water to melt the wax or fill a slow cooker with some water and place your container in the heated water.
4. Infuse the wax
- Make sure the melted wax is around 60°C, then sit your pouch of colourant into the wax and place a lid on top.
- Leave this to infuse into the wax, making sure to keep the wax at 60°C. We infused our wax for 8 hours.
- You can infuse the wax from 8 hours to 24 hours. The longer you infuse the wax, the stronger the colour will be. If you want to heat it for longer than 8 - 12 hours, we would recommend using a slow cooker so you can heat the wax for a full 24 hours.
5. Pour into your candle container
- Once the wax has been infused, remove the cloth with the natural colourant.
- Leave the wax to cool to around 40°C and then pour it into your candle container.
- Make sure to hold the wick holder as you pour the mixture to keep the wick centered.
- Leave the candle to set for 2 weeks and trim the wick to about ½ an inch.
- Test the candle by burning it for around 4 hours (you want the candle to melt to the edges)
TIP: Make sure you attach a pencil, wick holder or something similar to the cloth to hold it in the wax, otherwise it will sit at the bottom. You don’t want it to just sit at the bottom of the container, as it won’t infuse very well.
When infusing the powders in the wax, it must be fully submerged in the melted wax! We recommend using a taller and thinner container to do this, as wide containers will have a thin layer of melted wax at the bottom and you won’t be able to submerge the powders!
If you choose to use a slow cooker to infuse your wax, you will need to fill the bottom layer of the slow cooker with water. Then sit the container with the wax in the water, like we did with the saucepan.
When pouring the finished wax into your candle container, you may need to filter it as some small particles of powder may make it into the wax!
Continue Reading
Now you know how to colour your candles naturally, why not continue reading?
- Interested in more candle recipes? Try our autumn candle recipe today!
- Learn how to use natural colourant in soap with our black walnut soap recipe!
- Love essential oils? Read about the sustainability of our ylang ylang oil!
Which natural colourant did you try? Let us know in the comments!
