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How to Make Wax Melts-Experimenting w/ Essential Oils & Fragrance

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Making homemade wax melts is a fun and easy way to make your space smell amazing without the danger of an open flame and the annoyance of black soot that comes from a wick. In my how to make wax melts guide, you’ll learn all my tips and tricks you might not know for getting you the most scent throw (how strong your wax melts smell) possible.  Making your own wax melts is incredibly easy and it is possible to use only natural ingredients like soy wax and essential oils in this DIY. This easy recipe takes no time to make and is a great alternative to traditional candles! DIY wax melts has been a great addition to my non-toxic arsenal of making my home smell like I don’t own six cats! 

What are Wax Melts?

Wax melts, A.K.A wax tarts are typically little squares of wax that are scented and melted in a wax warmer. Depending on the type of wax used, the melted wax is meant to give off the scent a candle would but without the open flame and soot that inevitably comes with burning candles. The different types of wax typically used in wax melts are paraffin wax, soy wax and beeswax. To put it simply, wax melts are made of melted wax and fragrance that is poured into a silicone mold, allowed to cool and cure and then added as desired to a wax warmer. While the wax melts are heated in the wax warmer the scent fills the air. The wax melt warmer can be turned on and off at your preference and is considered a bit healthier than burning a candle with a wick. Wax melts are a great way to scent your home.

Why Make Wax Melts?

I never understood what the point of buying a wax warmer was when I could just burn a candle. I do love an open flame. However, my mother bought one last year because she got tired of buying expensive candles from Anthropologie and wasting quite a bit of candle wax once the wick was done. She ingeniously realized she could melt the leftover wax and pour it into her wax warmer and enjoy every last drop of her candle. That made me want to join the club and as I began researching how to make my own wax melts I realized what a benefit it would be to not have all the soot that comes from burning candles. And while I love the ambiance of candle light, I must admit, burning a candle during the day has gotten me in some trouble when I would occasionally run out the door and forget to blow out my candle. Not having that open flame does cut way back on the risk candles pose. Burning wax melts is a safer alternative to candles. 

Another obvious reason to make your own diy wax melts is to cut back or even cut out on the harm certain candle waxes and all fragrances can have on your air quality and inevitably the health of your household. I do love a toxic candle from time to time but I have learned that when those are burned, windows are open. During the cold winter months and hot summers where windows and doors must stay shut, diffusing (cat friendly) essential oils and burning safe candles is my only option. So, I set out on a journey to find out if I could make soy wax melts with essential oils that would fragrance a room like a candle would. 

I learned a lot and made some mistakes in the process but I’ve come to a conclusion and felt like it would be helpful to share. 

What You’ll Need to Make DIY Wax Melts:

Wax Melt warmer with homemade wax melts

How to Make Wax Melts

Yield: 12 cubes
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes

Learn how to make wax cubes using either essential oils or fragrance. I have experimenting using both ways and in this post have weighed out the pros and cons of both.

Materials

  • 2 cups of soy wax flakes (unmelted)
  • 75 drops of fragrance or 500 drops of essential oils
  • Candle Dye, mica powder or crayons (optional)

Tools

  • Wax Melt Burner
  • Silicone molds, candy molds or ice cube tray
  • Airtight container (jar)
  • Medium Pot
  • Glass measuring cup w/ spout
  • Food Thermometer
  • Stir stick or spoon
  • Teaspoon

Instructions

    1. Measure out 2 cups of soy wax and add to the glass cup.
    2. Thoroughly melt the wax on medium heat. 
    3. If you are adding candle dye, mica powder or a crayon, add it to the soy wax. 
    4. Add fragrance or essential oils once the wax has reached 185°F.
    5. Thoroughly stir the fragrance and wax.
    6. Pour into molds.
    7. Allow to Cool.
    8. Pop wax cubes out of molds and store in an airtight container. 

Notes

  • It is recommended to let your wax melts cure for 1-2 weeks before using them. This is not an absolute must but your scent will be stronger and better if you do. 
  • Be sure to immediately clean out your glass cup with a paper towel. If you don't get to it before the leftover wax hardens, pop it in the oven on a cookie sheet and then wipe it out once the wax has melted again. Don't try to use dish soap and scrub out hardened wax. It's a mess and will take way too much elbow grease. I do use hot water, my scrub brush and dish soap after removing the leftover wax.

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How to Make Wax Melts:

We’ll be using the double boiler method when working with soy wax. In order to do this, fill a medium sized pot half way full with water. Place a glass bowl, preferably a Pyrex glass measuring cup into the water and turn the stove to medium. This helps to gently heat the wax. Follow the simple steps listed below. Making wax melts is a synch!

  1. ​Measure out 2 cups of soy wax and add to the glass cup.
  2. Thoroughly melt the wax on medium heat. 
  3. If you are adding candle dye, mica powder or a crayon, add it to the soy wax. 
  4. Add 75 drops of fragrance or 500 drops of essential oils once the wax has reached 185°F.
  5. Thoroughly stir the fragrance and wax.
  6. Pour into molds.
  7. Allow to Cool.
  8. Pop wax cubes out of molds and store in an airtight container. 

*2 cups of soy flakes will melt down to 1 cup of soy liquid. 

**It is recommended to let your wax melts cure for 1-2 weeks before using them. This is not an absolute must but your scent will be stronger and better if you do. 

PRO TIP: Be sure to immediately clean out your glass cup with a paper towel. If you don’t get to it before the leftover wax hardens, pop it in the oven on a cookie sheet and then wipe it out once the wax has melted again. Don’t try to use dish soap and scrub out hardened wax. It’s a mess and will take way too much elbow grease. I do use hot water, my scrub brush and dish soap after removing the leftover wax.

Related Post: How to Make Beeswax Candles

How to Make Wax melts picture tutorial.

 

How to Use Wax Melts:

  1. Turn on wax burner.
  2. Place 1-2 cubes in the upper cup.
  3. Leave electric wax burner on as long as you’d like to smell the scent of the cubes. 

The Best Wax Warmers for Your Home!

I wanted to list several different warmers and am basing my list below solely on reviews and looks. I have THIS warmer and recommend it. I can not speak personally for the others. 

How To Get the Most Scent Out of Your Wax Melts:

This is the part in this post where I’ve got to be honest and if you’ve been here for long you know I always am. So I had a feeling I’d have some trouble getting a strong enough scent using essential oils. I had this problem when making soy candles so I wanted to get to the bottom of the question, “Can essential oils give sufficient smell in a candle?”

Upon much research, I found that Candlescience has quite a few tips on how to get the best scent throw.  I figure they should know since they have been in the candle making business for over 20 years.

They recommend you should add your fragrance into the soy wax at 185°F. This is the best temp for the wax to bind to the fragrance or essential oil and this affects the scent throw. I included this in my instructions.

Candlescience also recommends that you allow 1-2 weeks for your soy wax melts or candle to cure. Cure time is less if using a synthetic wax like paraffin. When wax is allowed to cure, the fragrances bind more thoroughly with the wax as well as with each other. 

Keeping your wax melts in an airtight container is also recommended in order to keep the fragrance potent. 

I also found that weighing wax and essential oils is important because essential oils have different capacities so 200 drops of lavender may be different than 200 drops of tea tree. I did not do this in this recipe.

According to Candlescience, per 1 cup of melted soy wax you need 6%-10% essential oils. 10% of 1 cup is 500 drops (1 ounce) of essential oil. That’s a heck of a lot essential oil. Like A LOT. The only economical way to do this is to buy a cheaper quality essential oil that comes in a 1 ounce size like THIS ONE which costs $12.72. You would use the entire bottle which would make 12 wax cubes and that would be $1.06 of essential oils per cube. 

Before I stumbled upon this information I had originally made my wax cubes with 100 drops per 1 cup of melted soy wax. I did get a subtle smell in the area the wax warmer was but not enough to tell you you should make my recipe. You would’ve been annoyed if I had gone forward with posting that recipe. And I will say the 100 drops was on the high side compared to the recipes I found on Pinterest and Google!

So, I made 2 batches of wax melts. One with a whole bottle of lavender essential oil and the other with 75 drops of Volcano diffuser blend oil. The Volcano diffuser blend oil by Capri is the scent you smell when you go to an Anthropologie store. It’s a delightful fragrance! While this company claims to be safe and natural I have a pretty big hunch they are not but I wanted to find a fragrance oil for the wax melts so I could compare it with using essential oils. 

I have also been working on a diffuser blend essential oil recipe of the Capri Volcano candle and while I’ve come close and tried with countless combinations, I never quite felt 100% satisfied with any recipes. However, I will post that recipe soon because it is so lovely. Just not an exact dupe to the original scent.  

Related Post: The Benefits of Diffusing Essential Oils You Might Not Have Guessed

Experimenting w/ Fragrance & Essential Oils:

I made 2 different wax melt batches. One using 500 drops of essential oils and one using 75 drops of a fragrance. 

Batch #1 1 oz. of Lavender Essential Oil: This batch turned out just Ok. I love lavender-I love it on its own. I diffuse it on its own and the Now brand lavender, even though it’s a cheaper version of my usual lavender, has a really nice smell to it. My lavender cubes had a decent scent throw so that was a win. However, I didn’t really enjoy the scent. It needed something to ground it. I end up adding a drop or two of ylang ylang or sandalwood to my wax burner with the lavender cubes. I don’t mind doing this and it really just comes down to personal preference.

In my opinion, essential oils were just not meant to be expelled through wax or a flame. They are dispersed and perform much more effectively in water when diffused. Plus, I think the essential oils loose a bit of their quality of scent when heated in this way. The conclusion to this first batch it that I won’t make lavender cubes again. However, it wasn’t as uneconomical as I thought and if I did do it again, I would create some kind of essential oil blend rather than just lavender oil. Lavender needed a base note like cedarwood, vanilla, patchouli, sandalwood or ylang ylang. I would still stick to around 500 drops per 1 cup of wax though. 

Batch #2-75 drops of Volcano Diffuser Blend: This batch is really great. There is really good scent throw and I did not have to waste my entire 1/2 ounce (250 drops) bottle of $22 Volcano. The only downside is that it’s just not as natural as I would like and when burning these wax cubes it’s really best to be able to get windows open since we’re unsure about the fragrance quality. 

Related Post: DIY Essential Oil Jewelry

My Conclusion:

After this experiment and making candles with essential oils in the past, I now believe that essential oil candles and wax melts can be done but essential oils perform so much better in a diffuser if your aim is to make your house smell good. 

Phew-this was a one of those post that required a lot of experimenting but I feel good about the info. I’ve presented and hope you now know whether or not you’d like to make your own melts. If you love the “anthro smell” too, I do highly recommend getting the diffuser oil and making candles and cubes and even diffusing it. Just be aware that I don’t think they are as natural as they claim and I would recommend that there be good ventilation if you are sensitive to fragrance. 

xx, Jenni

P.S. If you’d like to make beeswax wax melts which don’t smell strong but help to release negative ions and improve air quality, add 1/2 a cup of coconut oil to 1 lb of beeswax and follow the directions in this post. I don’t recommend adding fragrance to beeswax candles all though you can. Beeswax candles have a smell of their own.

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Jennifer Phillips

Jennifer Phillips

Jennifer Phillips worked as a licensed aesthetician for over 8 years before creating the green beauty blog, Jenni Raincloud and her natural skin care line, J. Raincloud Organics. Jennifer has been blogging full time for 9 years and loves to gain and share knowledge on how to achieve beautiful skin the natural way.

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