Unscented candles tend to be decorative in nature and people who like candle ambience but hate strong smells or suffer from allergies are more drawn to these. I love unscented votives as they as more of décor than anything else. When making unscented candles, color becomes a fun way to individuate and use different candle vessels! I like to make a trip to Good Will or Salvation Army and stock up on ramekins, champagne flutes, sea shells, interesting jars, shot glasses, teacups, etc to contain the candle. You can usually get these for mere cents and impress your family with fun holiday gifts!

There’s a very easy trick to making colored, unscented candles – of course this works with scented candles too but the use of oil can eafect the way a candle burns so we’ll get more into that next time. While you’re at Good Will stocking up on candle vessels, also grab some half-used crayon boxes. The crayons are made of – you guessed it – wax which is super useful in candle making!

1. Pour your wax into a paper (wax-lined) dixie cup and throw in a crayon (with the paper removed) for coloring and pop it into the microwave until it’s liquefied. This usually only takes about twenty or thirty seconds. Throw in a few at the same time with different colors.
2. While they’re in the microwave, place your wick into whichever container you’ve chosen for today’s task.
3. Now is the fun part. You can use your colored wax however you choose to make candles of one color, or title the vessel to make color-blocking, or spin the vessel to make a color cyclone, etc. Just let the wax cool between colors so they don’t merge together into a barf-colored mess.
4. For valentines, I like to buy little clear shot glasses, do the above steps with pink and red crayons, and make color blocked valentines candles. If I’m feeling extra special, I’ll add in some rose and/or lavender essential oil.

Now, if you completed the above project one or three or seven times and are feeling confident about your skills as a novice candle-maker CONCRANDLULATIONS! You’re intermediate! Now we can get into some other candle ideas like molding (using cookie cutters to make cute floating candles for romantic baths) and fun label-making and fun colorful drippy candles etc. Once you’ve figured out your scent options, coloring ideas, vessel options and your preferred wax/wick combination, you’re ready to move along with us to new fun ideas!

Candle-making, I should warn, can be a messy hobby so if you don’t have a specific are designated for it, you may want to lay down some plastic or newspaper – especially if you have carpeting. I learned this the hard way by spilling a huge blue shot glass of wax on my beige carpeting and having to get carpet cleaners in Mobile, AL  over before the party I was hosting for which the candles were part of the grab bag gift!