How to Make Beeswax Tealight Candles In 7 Easy Steps

Want to make some beeswax tealight candles? It’s so easy – here are the full instructions to make these pretty and sustainable candles.

Lately, I’ve been experimenting with making my own candles. This is because many standard candles are made from fossil fuels. Most are made from paraffin wax, a petroleum by-product of crude oil. With that in mind, I wanted to try making something more sustainable.

It was so easy and successful (for a crafting novice like myself!) that I’ve put together a simple easy guide on how to make beeswax tealights for you.

I always assumed that making candles would be difficult or would require some specialist equipment or tools. The good news is that you don’t! You can make these beautiful and sustainable candles in about twenty minutes flat in your own kitchen. 

The best bit is you don’t need any specialist equipment. Nothing more than some basic candle-making supplies, an old tin can, and a saucepan of water will suffice!

How to Make DIY Beeswax Tealight Candles At Home

Ready to get started? Here are all the things you need, and all the steps to follow to get the best results:

You Will Need

To make these sustainable beeswax tealight candles you will need the following:

• 4 metal or ceramic containers – I used old small pie tins found on eBay.
• Approximately 300g beeswax pellets for four tealights
• 4 petroleum-free candle wicks with sustainers – these are the metal tabs that hold your wick in place at the bottom of the candle container. Most retailers carry different sizes of wicks for different-sized containers. I recommend looking for wicks specifically designed for tealights, as thicker wicks could cause your candles to burn too hot and produce a dangerously large flame. This could potentially be a fire hazard.
• A clean tin can
• A saucepan
• Lots of sheets of newspaper
• Bamboo skewers

Instructions

• To make your DIY beeswax tealight candles, first, gauge how many pellets you need per holder. To do this, fill your container with beeswax pellets. Pour these into the tin can, and then repeat. Through trial and error, I’ve found that to get the right amount of wax you need double the amount of pellets that your container can hold.

• Put plenty of newspaper down to protect your work surface.
• Now put your tin can containing the pellets into a small saucepan of boiling water, and keep boiling. Take care not to get any water into your can.
• Whilst the pellets are heating in the can, stir with a bamboo skewer to help the wax break down into a liquid. It should take around 15-20 minutes to liquefy completely.
• Once the wax has completely liquefied turn off the hob. Then, using an oven glove, very very carefully lift the hot can out of the water. Slowly pour the melted beeswax into your candle container. Take extreme care with this as the wax will be very very hot.

• Add your wick. It may need support with a skewer until the wax starts to firm up again.

• Once the wax hardens trim your wick to no more than 1cm in height.

• Finally, leave the candles to cure for 7 to 10 days. I’ve found giving my candles time to cure – essentially a rest period between making and burning them – helps then burn cleaner and steadier. If you don’t let your candle cure, it might result in the candle tunnelling (burning straight down, rather than burning the wax at the edges), melting unevenly, or burning too quickly.

Burning Instructions

Once your candle has cured, then you can burn it as you would any other candle. It goes without saying that as with any candle, always burn your beeswax tealights on a heat-resistant surface, and never leave a burning candle unattended.

Other Variations

The pie tins I’ve used are just one idea. You can use any metal, tempered glass or oven-safe ceramic candle container that you like. I picked up these old metal pie tins on eBay last year and had been hoarding them until I could decide how best to use them. Candles seemed like the perfect fit.

Alternatively, you could reuse an old candle container. Here’s how to remove wax from candle containers so that you can reuse them.

I also saw that Artemis of Junkaholique made candles in enamel mugs that looked very pretty. They would make a lovely eco-friendly gift idea.

And if you have any beeswax leftover, then these beeswax wraps are another really easy and practical make. And if DIY isn’t for you, do check out my guide to beeswax candles to buy, to get all the benefits without any of the work!