Multi-Wick Candles & Wick Test

Ah, the big giant candles you see in the store. They use pounds and pounds of wax, they have multiple wicks and they generally burn for weeks and months. I attempted a 7-pound multi-wick candle and used Naturewax. Because the candle is ginormous, I decided to make it utilitarian and use citronella essential oil, so I could burn it outside in the cool, crisp fall evenings and not have to worry about mosquitos.

For this project, I strung my own wicks which was fun and easy. I ‘glued’ them to the bottom of the container with just a bit of melted Naturewax (but could have used a hot glue gun). I like a strong candle, so I used a full 1 ounce of essential oil per pound of wax.

Just get a heat gun or blow dryer, melt the wax and watch it smooth out. Repeat as necessary!

I struggled with deciding to use 4 wicks or just the 3 I ultimately ended up with. The worry is that too many wicks will lead to too large of a wax pool which can lead to wick instability, but too few can lead to tunneling and wasted wax. We’ll see how I did after I get that giant candle burned!

I hurried and didn’t measure my temperatures well enough when I was pouring. I should have kept it to 130 degrees Fahrenheit or below, but I didn’t so I ended up with an uneven surface on the top of the candle. It’s an easy fix: A heat gun to the top of the candles to smooth it out and make the top nice and even, but that could have been easily avoided.

Essential oils don’t always come through in a candle. They’re delicate, volatile substances, but Citronella is nice and strong no matter where it is (soap, too).

I also made some adorable little beeswax pillars with the Bramble Berry beeswax and French Vanilla fragrance. Of course, I had Halloween in mind when I made them, and that’s where the inspiration for the color combos came from. Thank goodness Bramble Berry has some easy-to-use candle colorant blocks that worked like a charm in this project.

Beeswax is tricky because it is really hard with a higher melt point than soy (145 degrees) (I’ve had some harrowing experiences melting beeswax in the microwave before). This also makes it challenging for wick picking.

Rule of thumb: always go with a larger wick than you think you’ll need when making beeswax candles. Another thing to keep in mind with beeswax is that if you heat it too hot (above 180 degrees), it can discolor. Beeswax is totally worth it for a clean, natural, sustainable burn but does have a few extra considerations to keep in mind when working with it.

I was so delighted to find a secondary use for the Bramble Berry mini column mold. How great is this?! These are the most adorable little pillars too. Of course, they will completely drip down the sides, so do not burn these without placing them on a plate.

We made three pillar candles and tested three different types of wicks. From left to right, Cozyours Braided candle wick spool, CD-12 wicks and 6" Rrd wicks. The Cozyours produced a tall flame, melted wax slowly and a little unevenly, lasted 3.5 hours. The CD-12 melted super fast, lasted 40 minutes.