Like chocolates and roses, candles are an iconic part of Valentine’s Day. Today we are going to show you how to make a batch of pretty purple tealights that would be the perfect Valentine’s Day gift. If you’ve never made candles before, making tealights is an easy way to learn about the process. Follow along as we whip up this fun and easy candle recipe!
Tea lights are also a fantastic product to sell. Not only do customers love how versatile they are, tea lights are often cheaper to make and have a great profit margin that can help you keep your candle prices lower.
Skill Level: Easy
Hands-On Time: 30 minutes to 1 hour
Cure Time: 1 day
Yield: Twenty 0.5 oz tealights
Supplies & Ingredients
- Digital Scale for weighing ingredients
- Silicone Measuring Cup or 3 oz Measuring Beaker for weighing fragrance
- Metal Pouring Pitcher
- Wax melting pot
- If you do not have a wax melting pot, you will need a medium sauce pan instead, which can be used with your Metal Pouring Pitcher to create a double boiler.
- Whisk or spatula for stirring
- Thermometer
- Straight Edge Cutter for cutting wax
- 20 Tealight Votives
- 20 Tealight Wicks
- 20 Glue Dots
- 20 Small Candle Warning Labels (optional)
- 2 Tea Light Packaging Boxes
- Wick Trimmer
Ingredients
- 10 oz CB2 Wax
- 1 oz Dark Fruit fragrance oil (or other fragrance oil of your choice)
- 1 Lavender Candle Dye Chip
Project Overview
To make our tealights, we will start by attaching the wicks to the votives with glue dots. This helps secure them when the wax is poured in. An alternative method is to skip the glue dots and pour the wax into the empty votive. The wick can then be placed in the center as the wax is setting up. This method may require some practice, but is less fiddly.
Next, we will start by weighing our ingredients. It’s best to weigh the wax and fragrance on a scale rather than measuring in cups or fluid ounces. The wax is melted and then we add dye and fragrance. A whole dye chip can be used to create a bright lavender color, or you can cut the dye chip in half to create a more pastel shade. Once it has cooled to the right temperature, the melted wax is poured into the votives and left to harden.
While cooling, the wicks should be readjusted as necessary to ensure that they are straight. Wick centering bars may also be used, but due to the small size of the tealight votives, the centering bars may be more difficult to work around.
Once the wax sets up, we will trim the wicks and package the tea lights in a box (if desired). Like other candles, we recommend letting the tea lights cure before using them. The standard curing time for candles is two weeks, but due to their small size, tealights should perform fine after curing overnight.
Making Valentine's Day gifts? You might also like these fun projects!
- Luxurious Rose Petal Milk Bath Recipe
- Valentine’s Heart Wax Melt Bar Recipe
- Candy Heart Bubble Bath Bomb Recipe
Video Tutorial for Making Tea Lights
If you’d like to follow a visual tutorial, check out our video for making tea lights. Please note that in the video, a glass pouring pitcher is used rather than a metal pouring pitcher so that you can see the process more clearly.
Step-By-Step Instructions for Making Tea Lights
- Place your wicks following these steps:
- Press a tea light wick onto a glue dot, then pull on the wick tab to peel the glue dot off the roll. Don’t pull on the wick, or it may detach from the tab.
- Center the wick in a votive and press down to help the glue dot adhere.
- Repeat with the remaining wicks.
- Attach a candle warning label on the bottom of each votive (optional).
- Weigh 10 oz of CB2 candle wax using your digital scale. You may wish to place the wax on a plate to keep your scale clean. Just be sure to tare the scale to zero before adding the wax.
- Weigh 1 oz of fragrance oil in your measuring beaker.
- If using a melting pot, add the wax to the pot and begin warming it. If you don’t have a melting pot, add the wax to a metal pouring pitcher instead. Then place the pitcher into a sauce pan that is filled with enough water to cover the bottom half of the pouring pitcher. You now have a double boiler. Place the pan on the stove top and bring the water to a simmer to melt the wax.
- Once the wax is melted, cut a Lavender candle dye chip in half. Add half of the chip to the wax and stir to dissolve it.
- When wax reaches 200 degrees F, add your fragrance oil. Stir for 30 seconds to 2 minutes.
- If using a wax melting pot, transfer the wax into a metal pouring pitcher at this time. If using the double-boiler method, remove the pouring pitcher from the pan and carefully dry the water off the bottom with a towel.
- Let the wax in the pouring pitcher cool to 135 degrees F.
- Meanwhile, arrange your tealight votives in rows for easier pouring.
- Once the wax has reached 135 degrees F, fill each tealight votive.
- After pouring, gently readjust the wicks to ensure they remain centered. It is not uncommon for a few wicks to bend to one side after the wax is added. The wicks will more cooperative about staying in place once the wax in the votives reaches approximately 100 degrees F. Some wicks may need to be nudged multiple times before they stay in place. Keep in mind wicks can’t be moved once the wax has set.
- When the wax has cooled completely, use the wick trimmers to cut each wick to ¼” tall. This ensures the tea lights will burn properly.
- Let the tea lights cure overnight.
- Assemble packaging boxes and place 10 tealights into each box. To fill the box, you will need to stack the tealights and bend the wick down so it lays flat. Bending the wick will not affect how it burns. Simply straighten the wick so it stands upright before lighting the candle.
Did you try this recipe? Let us know how it worked for you in the comments below! You can also share your projects on social media with #MadeWithNorthWood
NorthWood is not responsible for any products that you make with our supplies or recipes.