Do-it-yourself gel candles at home: description and the easiest method in our step-by-step MK

History of the candle

Historians believe that the first candles appeared in Ancient Egypt; they were made from papyrus, which was previously soaked in fat.

Much later, already in China, Japan and India, wax began to be used in the production of candles. True, it was extracted from insects and plants. But for a long time the most common material was fat, which smoked mercilessly and smelled unpleasant.

In the 18th century, a viscous substance extracted from the head of a whale was used as a raw material for candles, and only in the 19th century was paraffin discovered.

Gel candles

Recently, gel candles have gained well-deserved popularity. The gel does not hold its shape, but fills it, which is why this candle differs from the classic paraffin analogue, first of all, in the candle holder. Small vases, wine glasses and glasses can be used as it. Gel candles are more economical, burn much longer, without smoke or smoking.

And besides, they are stunningly beautiful! Depending on the size of the container, entire decorative compositions can be created inside it, be it the seabed or a strange garden.

The vessel into which the gel is poured is decorated in various ways:

• artificial flowers, figurines or figurines;
• elements of marine decor, which can be multi-colored sand, shells, pebbles, starfish;
• dried pieces of fruit, such as orange or lemon, cinnamon sticks or spices, coffee beans;
• all kinds of beads, seed beads, glass pebbles;
• sparkles.

The gel candle can be scented.

What you need to make gel candles

To make the simplest candles, you will need:

• candle gel;
• wick (preferably reinforced, as a cotton wick can absorb a lot of gel, speeding up combustion);
• candle molds;
• glue;
• container for melting the gel.

Additionally you can use:

• dyes (you can use food dyes, as well as phosphors, thanks to which the container with the candle will glow in the dark);
• decorative elements (twigs, pebbles, shells, sparkles, colored quartz sand, colored glass, special non-flammable plastic decor, and so on);
• stickers;
• aromatic substances (essential oils).

Candle based on ready-made gel

First, let's look at how to make gel candles with your own hands from purchased material - a jelly-like transparent environmentally friendly gel made from natural ingredients. You can buy it in specialized stores for creativity.

The manufacturing technology boils down to heating the gel to a liquid state and filling the prepared form.

How to make gel candles with your own hands in a step-by-step tutorial

To make a candle at home, you will need the following materials and tools:

• Candle gel
• Candlestick shapes
• Cotton or reinforced wick. But the best one would be reinforced, but if you don’t have one, then you can use cotton. There is not much difference between them, but a candle with a cotton wick will burn faster.
• Glue
• A container suitable for melting the gel

You have seen the list of what is required and without which it is impossible to make a candle. Now we will talk about those things that will simplify your work or be a great addition.

And so, this is:

• Dyes. Food-grade phosphors work well, and thanks to the latter, the container with the candle will also glow in the dark.
• A variety of decorative elements: pebbles, shells and anything else you want to decorate the container with.
• Stickers on the container
• Aromatic substances or, as they are also called, essential oils.

How to get some substances while working?

All of the substances listed can be purchased in specialized stores, but you can also make them yourself. Let's start with the candle gel - the basis of any gel candle.

The photo shows a piece of candle gel. As you can see, it is a solid substance, similar to glass. But this is only in a hardened state. The gel is completely harmless to health, as it consists of glycerin, gelatin and tannin. And all these substances are completely harmless to health and are found in our lives every day. It is in harmlessness that the main difference between gel candles and paraffin candles, which release some harmful substances when burned.

For the gel we need the following substances:

• Water
• Tannin
• Gelatin
• Glycerol

We will tell you the easiest way to make gel with your own hands. Take a 100 gram glass and fill it halfway with water. We dilute twenty-five grams of gelatin in it and add another one hundred and ten grams of glycerin to the resulting solution. Remember that you must do all this in a large enough container! Dissolve ten grams of tannin in fifty grams of 40-degree glycerin. Heat the resulting mixture to forty degrees and mix with the first solution.

As a result, we should get a slightly cloudy mixture, which must be heated to 80-90 degrees. To heat the gel, you can use a water bath, which will allow the gel to warm up better, but remember that at temperatures above 120 degrees, the gel will begin to deteriorate!

The wick can be made from cotton thread. To do this, soak it in a salty solution of boric acid for two to three hours. After that, we weave it into a single braid and fasten it so that the braid does not unravel.

We received the materials - we make a candle.

You need to pour a little glue on the bottom of the mold, which will help fix the wick. This step will greatly simplify further work. Remember that the mold should be as clean as possible after you glue the wick.

Preparing the gel. We cut pieces of purchased or made independently gel. It is best to make 100 gram pieces. Place the resulting “slices” in a stainless steel bowl and heat the gel to 90 degrees. And watch when the gel is completely melted.

Once the gel is completely melted, we can add colorants to it if needed. Remember that you need to add little dyes, since it will be impossible to remove the excess. Although there is one way - to dilute the mass with pure gel. At the same stage, we can add aromatic substances - no more than five grams per two hundred grams of gel. If you have rose oil, then discard it - the candle will smoke.

If you want to make decorative inserts, then they need to be placed in the melted gel for a few seconds and placed in the mold. There is a rule for the distance from the edge of the form. The further the insert is from the edge, the less visible it will be.

Well, that's all, our candle is ready. Constantly make new candles and your skills in this area will increase.

Important points, necessary materials and equipment

It is very important not to overheat the gel, otherwise it will become cloudy. The melting point is about 60–80 degrees. It is necessary to heat over low heat, or in a water bath - this way there is less chance that the gel will burn.

Glassware is best suited as a container for a candle - it should be transparent, clean and wiped dry. There may be a small pattern on the walls. You should not use containers with a narrow neck: firstly, it is difficult to pour the gel into it, and secondly, the walls should not be heated by the flame so as not to burst, so the diameter of the neck should be at least 5 cm. Before pouring the gel, the container is recommended warm it up a little - this way it won’t burst due to the temperature difference.

It’s easier to buy a ready-made wick, better reinforced, that holds its shape, or you can remove it from a regular candle by carefully cutting off the paraffin. But if you decide to make gel candles with your own hands, try making your own wick.

Other materials you will need are tweezers and heat-resistant dishes for heating the gel.

Dyes are added if there is a desire to master making gel candles of different colors. You can use special food coloring or a richly colored gel, which is used to dilute the base while heating.

Decorative elements must be chosen that are heat-resistant - they must withstand the temperature of the molten gel.

Instructions for making gel for candles

You will need:

• plain water;
• glycerol;
• gelatin;
• tannin;
• Select molds for pouring into future products from glassware with an interesting shape. Glasses, glasses, rosettes, and vases are better suited.

1. For 80-100 grams of water you will need about 20 grams of gelatin. After mixing the two compositions, gradually pour in 100 grams of glycerin.
2. 8-10 grams of tannin are dissolved in 40 grams of slightly warmed glycerin. Do not be upset if the resulting composition is cloudy in color. Just warm it up a little and the mixture will become transparent.
3. Mix both mixtures and bring to a boil over low heat. That's it, the general composition is ready for pouring. Let's move on to the process of making the beautiful crafts themselves.

Materials for making gel candles

1. You will need the gel composition described above.
2. Material for the wick, it is advisable to use reinforced wicks, since ordinary (cotton) wicks are not so economical.
3. Also, if desired, you can add various flavors. Dyes, and any decors, if you plan to further decorate the finished products.
4. In addition to these components, you will need a container into which you will pour the finished mixture. Dishes must be thoroughly washed and dried.

How to make a wick

Natural fiber, such as cotton or linen, is suitable for the wick. Colored ones, for example, floss, look original. You can easily check whether it is truly natural if you set fire to the tip of the thread. If it burns, the material is suitable, but if it melts, then it is not.

Next, the threads need to be twisted, and it is important to calculate the thickness. A wick that is too thick will create a large flame, which will melt the gel around it if the candle is small. And the thin one, accordingly, will give a small fire, which will begin to fade.

In order to make gel candles with your own hands, you will need thin threads and tight weaving. Alternatively, you can braid or crochet the chain. But there is no exact recipe. The wick should be soaked in a special solution: 2 tablespoons of table salt and 4 tablespoons of borax are dissolved in 1.5 liters of warm water. The threads are soaked for 15 minutes and dried thoroughly. Then the wick must be immersed several times in melted wax or paraffin and dried again.

Candle wick

Now we have to learn how to make a candle wick with our own hands. Whether we make a gel, paraffin or wax candle, in any case we will need a wick. In order to make it, we need natural cotton thread without any impurities. Alternatively, use colored floss threads as a wick. It looks very cute and unusual.

The thickness and texture of the wick depend, first of all, on the thickness of the part of the candle that should burn out. For example, there are candles that are partially composed of flammable materials. Only the core burns out in them.

For those who are going to cast a candle from wax, you need to take thick threads and weave them not very tightly. Paraffin and gel candles, on the contrary, require a tight weave of threads (otherwise the wick will smoke when burning).

Wick for wax candles

Wick for gel candles

You also need to be attentive to the following detail: if the candle is colored with wax crayons, small shavings can clog the wick without dissolving in the paraffin or wax. In general, there are a lot of nuances in this issue; be prepared for the fact that choosing a wick for a certain type of candle will have to be done by trial and error.

If you use a very thick wick, it is possible that the candle will melt too much, which can lead to soot. If you make a very thin wick, it will constantly go out.

There are several options for designing a wick: it can be crocheted, braided, or twisted with a rope. Before pouring the candle, you can soak the thread with wax, or you can do both pouring and impregnation at the same time.

If you don’t want to waste time making a wick, then use a wick from ready-made household candles.

Third step

The gel cools down very quickly, so it needs to be heated again. You can add aromatic oils other than rose.

Want to know how to make a colored gel candle? Now is the time to add dye, but don't put too much of it so that the color doesn't turn out dark. Fill in the second layer of gel. And if it is tinted, you will get a two-color candle. Using several dyes, it can be made multi-colored.

By adding colored gel to the not yet completely hardened first layer, you can get interesting effects: inject the gel using a medical syringe in the form of balls or move it inside, creating spirals. The form in which gel candles, made by hand, have not yet hardened, can be rotated and turned. This technique allows one color to transition into another.

Recipe for making gel candles

To make beautiful and fragrant gel candles at home, carefully follow the suggested instructions:

• Place a little hot glue in the center of the bottom of the cup and place the wick there. Wait for the glue to harden;
• Cut the candle gel into small pieces so that it melts faster and more evenly. Take a jar, ladle or stainless steel pan and melt the gel in it at medium temperature;
• Next, you must bring the gel to a temperature of 93 degrees. Make sure that it does not overheat, otherwise the gel wax will lose its transparency and become cloudy;
• Use a thermometer to ensure that the temperature remains the same at all times. The candle gel should melt, becoming liquid like sugar syrup;
• Carefully add dye to the melted gel wax until you get the desired color;
• Next, add fragrance oil, about 1/3 teaspoon. For a stronger scent, you can increase this amount. It is best to use lemon, orange, bergamot or lavender oil. You should not add rose oil - during combustion it emits an unpleasant odor;
• In the microwave, heat the candle container to 65-70 degrees to avoid bubbles;
• If you are using the liners to make your own gel candles, first dip them in the hot gel and immediately place them in the container as far from the center as possible;
• Place a decoration, for example, a branch with rowan berries, small flowers, pebbles or shells in the center of the container;
• Next, very slowly and carefully pour the candle gel into the container from the side. For the first time, you most likely will not be able to do everything perfectly without the formation of bubbles, but you can reduce their number as much as possible if you warm the gel sufficiently;
• Pull the wick up, winding it around the pencil;
• Let your candle cool and then cut off the excess end of the wick. Your gel candle is ready!

Make your own gel

So, we told you how to make gel candles with your own hands. Craftsmen's recipes also contain information on how to prepare the base for candles yourself.

This requires gelatin, glycerin and tannin. The last two ingredients can be purchased at the pharmacy.

To obtain a colorless gel, add 40 ml of water to 10 g of gelatin and leave until swelling; add 50 g of glycerin. This mixture should be heated over low heat until the ingredients are completely dissolved, but do not boil.

While the first composition is cooling, prepare the second. To do this, mix 20 g of hot glycerin and 4 g of tannin. If the solution becomes cloudy, you can return transparency by boiling. Then we add one mixture to another and get a gel that can be used to fill candles.

How can you make candle gel yourself?

To make candle gel you can use the following recipe:

1. Mix 10 grams of gelatin and 40 grams of distilled water;
2. Add 50 grams of glycerin to the resulting mixture;
3. In a small saucepan, heat the resulting solution until it becomes transparent;
4. In a separate container, dissolve 4 grams of tannin in 20 grams of slightly heated glycerin;
5. Mix the 2 mixtures together;
6. If air bubbles form in the resulting gel, it must be slightly heated in the oven or microwave. The heat will cause the bubbles to disappear on their own.

With and without air bubbles

As the gel heats up, air bubbles form. You can leave them and even increase their number if you actively stir the gel with a whisk.

How to make a gel candle without bubbles? It happens that they are not needed, but still appear. Place the finished candle in a warm oven or on a sunny windowsill - the heat will remove excess air. Preheating the container also prevents bubbles from forming.

How to make a gel candle

You need to drop a little glue on the bottom of the mold to fix the wick: this will simplify further work. The mold with the wick attached must be clean and dry.

After this, you need to prepare the gel: purchased or made candle gel, you need to cut it into pieces so that it melts faster, place it in a stainless steel container and heat it to a temperature of 90-95 degrees. You can use a water bath for melting - this will make it easier to control the temperature .

When the gel is completely melted, you can add dye to it if necessary, but do not overdo it: remember that you can add a little more dye, but you won’t be able to remove the excess (unless you put some more transparent gel in the container, then the color will become less saturated ). At the same stage, you can add aromatic substances - no more than a third of a teaspoon per 200 grams of gel, while it is better to avoid rose oil: because of it, the candle will smoke.

If you are planning a complex multi-layer candle, you will need several containers of melted gel - one for each color, including clear.

If you plan to use decorative inserts, they need to be dipped in the melted gel for a couple of seconds and then placed in the mold. The closer to the edge you place the earbuds, the better they will be visible. In addition, in candles with decor it is better to use a minimal amount of dye - this will also make the decorative elements more noticeable.

Now you need to pour the melted gel into the container. This should be done carefully : you need to pour very slowly and along the edge of the mold. If you hurry, there will be a lot of bubbles in the candle, which, however, is not scary - by placing the finished candle in heat, you can get rid of them. Once the gel is poured in, all that remains is to align the wick.

To do this, you need to pull it up and secure it, for example, by winding it around a spoon or pencil laid across the container. When the gel hardens, simply trim the wick and the candle is ready.

If you are afraid that you will not be able to cope, attend the appropriate master class : there they will clearly demonstrate to you all the stages of creating a candle and teach you how to properly handle materials.

Interesting ideas

Do you want to make unique gel candles with your own hands? Photos showing interesting finds will help with this.

The gel, tinted with yellow dye and whipped with a whisk, looks like champagne after hardening, especially if you choose a tall wine glass as a candlestick.

And if, in addition to the transparent gel, you use white melted paraffin, you can make a souvenir beer mug.

Place a spruce branch and a few cones in the gel - you will get a magnificent New Year's candle. To make it sparkle, stir finely chopped tinsel or rain in hot gel.

Each candle will be unique in its originality, because it will be almost impossible to repeat it.

How to make gel

We will need:

• Water - ½ cup.
• Gelatin - 25 grams.
• Glycerin - 160 grams.
• Tannin -10 grams.

All components of the base are environmentally friendly, so you don’t have to worry about your health.

All components are easy to find in any city and town. gelatin can be bought at a regular supermarket, and glycerin and tannin at a pharmacy. They are cheap, so it is much more profitable to make the gel yourself than to buy it ready-made.

So let's get started.

We dilute gelatin in cold water (according to the instructions on the package) and add 110 grams of glycerin.

In another container, heat the remaining 50 grams of glycerin to 40 degrees, add tannin to it.

Without cooling this mixture, we heat the first one to 40 degrees. Mix the resulting components.

The finished mixture will be cloudy, so it must be heated in a water bath to 80-90 degrees. There is no need to overdo it in this matter. Heating above 120 degrees can ruin the resulting gel. It will remain cloudy and have an unpleasant odor. If bubbles form in the gel, simply warm it up.

Add 5-7 drops of essential oil to the still hot mass. If desired, you can add dye, but in our case this is unnecessary, since we will be decorating the candle.

Our gel is ready!