Balloon Dipped DIY Citronella Candles
These DIY Citronella Candles are the perfect way to impress guests and keep the bugs away!
Servings: 12
Cost: $75
Equipment
- Scissors
- Pencils
- Saucepan
- Stir stick
Ingredients
- Glass tumblers You can also use stemless wine glasses or mason jars.
- Citronella Java essential oil
- Soy wax
- Wax wicks
- Standard sized vinyl balloons
- Metal wick plates Optional to hold the wicks in place. You can also hot glue the wicks to the bottom of the glass instead.
Instructions
- Measure twice the volume of the amount of wax you’d like in each glass vessel and melt on the lowest setting in a saucepan. Use a stir stick to stir the wax occasionally.
- While the wax is melting, place a wick in each glass tumbler. To do so, first thread the wick through the metal wick plate. Then, wrap the excess wick around a pencil, and rest the pencil on the opening of the tumbler. If you don’t want to use a metal wick place, hot glue your wax to the bottom of the glass instead to hold the wick in place.
- Once the wax is melted, remove from heat and dip each metal wick plate in the wax. Then, adhere to the bottom of the glass.
- By this time, the wax will have cooled slightly, and we’re ready to add the essential oil. I used roughly 150 drops (50 drops per 1 cup unmelted wax chips) to make sure they’d pack enough punch to keep the mosquitoes away. Add the essential oil drops right into the saucepan of wax and give it a stir.
- Divide the the wax between the glass tumblers.
- Center the wicks.
- Allow the wax to cool for about 2 hours.
- While the wax is cooling, prepare the balloons by trimming off the neck of the balloon and the bottom point with a scissors.
- When the wax has cooled, trim the wicks to 1/4″ with a scissors.
- Stretch and slide the balloon onto the bottom 1/3 of the glass. It’ll take a little adjusting to get it into place.
Notes
- Make sure to use a saucepan that's solely dedicated to candle making. I picked one up at a thrift store.
- You can also prepare the wicks in advance.