How to Make Pillar Candles (9 Steps)

Pillar candles are a must-have for every modern house. We adore the variety of sizes, colors, and fragrances available. On the other hand, a fashionable pillar candle may be rather costly! As a result, we learned how to create our own. We’ll show you how to perform it as well.

Nothing generates a mood like candlelight, whether it’s a room filled with a hundred flickering flames for a particular event or a few modest lights illuminating a table of gathering friends and family.

Pillar candles are a flexible and practical piece of art that can lend a dramatic flair to any home décor or a minimalist touch to any space design. We’ll go through the fundamentals of creating pillar candles in this article.

Gather all of the items you’ll need to get started.

Materials needed

• double boiler
• pillar mold
• paraffin or soy wax with any required additives, including color, fragrance oil, and so forth
• wick Screw
• wick Rod (or wooden skewer)
• flat braid wick
• thermometer

Мore detail in the video below.

Read: How To Make Bubble Candles?

Step By Step Instructions on How to Make Your Pillar Candles

Step 1. Start by melting wax

While your wax is melting, you should be able to study and follow these directions (refer to double boiler instructions). Set up a double boiler to melt your wax before continuing.

Step 2. Pass Wick through Wick Hole

Choose a wick that is the right size for the diameter of the mold you’re using. Pass the wick through the wick hole in the mold’s base. Insert the wick into the wick hole. This one should be self-explanatory.

TIP: If the wick is ragged and challenging to get through the hole, consider immersing the end in hot wax and rubbing it through your fingers to produce a beautiful pointed end.

Step 3. Secure Wick to Wick Rod

Tie one end of the wick to the wick rod while retaining it in the wick hole.

Step 4. Secure Wick to Wick Hole

A wick screw is used to secure the wick. For the wick screw, you’ll need a Phillips screwdriver. Overtightening the wick screw might cause the wick to cut or harm the mold. The wick screw’s purpose is to restrict the wick from slipping back through the hole, not seal it (we use mold sealer for that).

Your wick should be tightened, but not to the point where it causes the mold to distort. Leave around 1/2 to 1 inch of the wick after trimming. This may be done using scissors or diagonal cutters.

Step 5. Seal Wick Hole

Seal the wick hole, wick screw, and wick with a mold sealer. This is to prevent molten wax from leaking out. To establish a secure seal, press the sealer firmly into place. Before applying the sealant, softly wind the wick around the screw. You don’t want any wick to be seen.

Step 6. Initial Pour

Add your additives (if any), fragrance oil, and colors to the wax in the pouring pot once it has achieved the correct temperature (175-185 degrees F for most pillars) and stir thoroughly with an old wooden spoon. Pour the wax into your prepared mold once thoroughly mixed and reached the correct temperature.

Keep an old towel or some paper towels on hand to soak up any spillage. Fill your mold until it’s approximately 1/2 inch from the top. Keep some wax in the pouring pot for a later step, but don’t put it back on the fire.

Step 7. Poke Relief Holes

Allow cooling for a few minutes until your wax has created a surface. Punch relief holes into the candle’s base to allow the natural shrinkage when the wax hardens. The relief holes should be poked to a depth of about 1 inch less than the candle’s depth and positioned around the wick as indicated.

It makes no difference how many holes are present. The critical thing here is to build a vent through which the wax’s shrinking volume may suck air in to compensate for the volume loss.

Without these relief holes, the candle may develop air cavities, the wick may be pushed off-center, or the candle’s exterior walls may become distorted.

You may need to poke relief holes multiple times during the cooling process to keep the vent open and transparent. As long as they’re available, you’ll be able to fill in the gaps in the next stage.

Before moving on to the following stage, let the candle cool entirely to room temperature. The cooling procedure may take many hours, and it might take up to a whole day for giant candles.

Step 8. Re-Pour to fill in the void (sinkhole)

Re-melt the wax that was leftover from step 6. This time, the temperature should be around 5-10 degrees hotter than when you started pouring, and the higher temperature promotes layer adhesion. Fill the sinkhole in your candle once your wax has reached the correct temperature.

Fill to a level that is somewhat lower than the previous filling. If you fill your candle higher than this, a horizontal seam line will appear on the outside of your final candle. Overfilling the mold can cause the wax to leak down between the mold and the candle, leaving an unattractive finish.

Before moving on to the following stage, let the candle cool fully.

Step 9. Remove Candle From Mold

Remove the wick screw and the mold sealer. Your candle should slip out of the mold after it has cooled. If the candle does not readily slip out, store it refrigerated for about 15 minutes before trying again. The wax will shrink even more as it cools, releasing it from the mold.

We recommend studying our article on making silicone molds for candles yourself.

At the end

The bottom of the candle is the end of the wick rod linked to the candle. With a pair of scissors or diagonal cutters, trim the wick on this end. Trim the wick so that it is flush with the candle’s base.

If desired, you may level the candle’s base by setting it on a cookie sheet (one with edges works best) that sits above a saucepan of boiling water. Melt some wax away with the hot cookie sheet until you have a level foundation.