There aren’t too many things in a home that add as much warmth and ambience as a candle’s warm glow. The most common candles used are wax candles that have been scented to be more appealing and coloured to give a nice look while in your home.
Sometimes a wax candle isn’t the best option in your home, whether you are allergic or sensitive to the fragrances in store-bought candles. Whatever the reason, a wax candle doesn’t cut it.
So the question is, are there candles that aren’t made of wax?
There are candles made without wax; no wax candles are becoming a trendy alternative that can be made from ingredients already at home! Requires some form of fat, like shortening or the leftover grease from cooking fatty meat to burn instead of wax. However, they can be scented with essential oils and give the same warm feeling that wax candles give without the toxic ingredients.
This doesn’t completely answer the question, so I did a deeper dive to fully explain what no wax candles are and how you can make them in your home with ingredients you likely already have! Read on to learn more!
What Is A No Wax Candle?
A no-wax candle is an alternative to the typical wax candle, utilizing ingredients from your pantry such as cooking oils or grease drippings from fattier meats! This candle style will provide light and great smells without burning toxic ingredients in store-bought candles made from wax materials.
What Are The Pros And Cons Of A No Wax Candle?
There are plenty of reasons why you might consider making your own no-wax candles, with very few reasons why you would reconsider making them! However, if you think of other benefits (or cons) you have experienced with them, please let me know about them below!
| PROs | CONs |
| Simple To Make | Unique Smells Hard to Recreate |
| Made With Ingredients In The Pantry | |
| Healthy Alternative to Wax Candles | |
| Can Pick The Smell You Want |
Are No-Wax Candles Better Than Wax Candles?
No-Wax candles are a healthier alternative to wax candles, using only natural ingredients to give the same inviting effect that a scented wax candle might provide.
A significant reason why plenty of candle lovers are looking for an alternative to wax candles is because of the carcinogens that are created when paraffin wax is burned. When burned, paraffin wax (a petroleum waste product) creates highly toxic benzene and toluene.
The no-wax alternatives you can easily make at home do not create toxic carcinogens when burnt and are a much safer candle to burn.
Both candles burn the same (both use a wick) and can burn for a long time.
If you are health conscious and are trying to minimize your exposure to the chemicals above, then a no-wax candle is definitely better to burn than a wax candle!
How To Make A No Wax Candle Guide
Making a no-wax candle is very easy, simply follow the steps below and make your own no-wax candle in no time!
Looking for the perfect materials to make your own candles? Click over to my recommended resource guide and see what we use to create and scent our own candles!
What You Will Need:
- A Jar For The Candle. Use one from a previous candle, or pick a Mason Jar. Something made from glass is preferred.
- Vegetable Shortening (Or something similar, like Coconut Oil)
- Candle Wicks (Can be purchased from a craft store)
- Essential Oil of your choice. Pick the one you want to smell when your candle is lit!
- Food Coloring ( Pick the colour that you want the candle to be)
- Scissors
- Sticky Glue (White glue, hot glue gun, etc.)
Now that you have the ingredients to make your first no-wax candle let’s get started!
Make a No Wax Candle From Scratch!
- Step 1: Take the jar you are using for your candle, measure how long the wick needs to be, and cut it to size. Glue the wick to the bottom of the jar.
- Step 2: Put your Shortening or Oil of choice into a pot and warm until it is thoroughly liquefied.
- Step 3: Add a few drops (three to five) of your essential oil and food colouring to the pot and stir them in!
- Step 4: Pour your fatty mixture into your jar to the ¾ mark, and let it cool off!
- Step 5: Once the shortening is solidified, your candle is ready to be used!
Congratulations! You just made your first no-wax candle, and it was so easy!
Are you going to gift it? Here is how I recommend packaging candles to help make them the best gift possible!
An alternative to food colouring is to melt crayons into your fat while it is on the stove. This takes away from the candle truly being a no-wax candle (since crayons are made of wax) but is an easy way to get a particular colour!
You can also skip using a saucepan if you have a microwave-safe container like a mason jar. Instead, put your shortening or different fatty ingredient into the jar and simply warm it up in the microwave. This will cut down your clean-up time in half!
How To Make A No Wax Candle Video
If you are a visual learner, here is the perfect video to teach you how to make your own candle. They follow the same set of steps that we use and make some beautiful candles!
Make A Water and Oil No Wax Candle
A really cool idea for making a unique candle is to utilize water and oil to create cool-looking candles! These candles don’t burn as long as the one we made above and serve mainly as a decoration piece.
A “water burning’ candle is very unique looking and will fit in well with your candle collection!
Here is how you make one:
- Step 1: Pour water into your container until ⅔ full.
- Step 2: Put any decorations you want inside the water. This could be rocks, ornaments, plants, etc.
- Step 3: Fill the jar until ¾ full with vegetable oil or lamp oil
- Step 4: Cut out a circle to the size of the container’s interior from a plastic material. Make a hole in the middle and feed your wick through it.
- Step 4: Place on top of the oil. Light the wick, and your candle is complete!
This vegetable oil is lighter than the water, which allows it to sit on top of it to give a unique look. This then provides the wick with a base to sit in and burn!
Curious to see what they look like before making one? Watch this video below that showcases several different ideas for water candles and how to make them!
Summary
If you are looking for a healthy alternative to the average wax candle that has been a staple for years, then a no-wax candle is for you! Using household ingredients, you know exactly what they are made from and can pick the scents you want in your home!
Take 15 minutes to grab the ingredients needed and follow the step-by-step guide above to make your first no-wax candle today.
Share what you made on Facebook and Twitter; I would love to see what you come up with!
