Candle Making Tips for Safety

You'll want to be sure you follow these candle making tips to help keep you, your fingers and your candle making supplies safe from harm whether you've been making your own candles for a while or you're just beginning candle making as a hobby.

Heating Wax
There's no getting around it: to make candles, you have to heat wax. Whether you use a double boiler or other pot for melting, take care not to touch the pots or their handles with bare hands or you'll risk serious burns. Always wear oven mitts or use silicone pot holders to adjust the pots or remove them from the stove.

You also need to pay close attention to where your wax is in relation to its boiling point. For candle making, wax typically needs to be heated to between 170 and 175 degrees Fahrenheit. A temperature higher than 200 degrees Fahrenheit is called a flash point and is the temperature at which wax begins to burn and release toxic fumes into the air. Clip a candy thermometer to your melting pot and be vigilant about checking the current temperature.

Pouring Wax
Hot wax can easily cause first and second degree burns. Exercise caution when you pour wax from your melting pot into your containers. Pour the wax slowly and deliberately to avoid spills and splashes. If you do happen to get burned, take the following precautions to help minimize the damage until you can get to the emergency room:

• Cool it. Submerge the burned area in a bowl of cold water or hold under cold running water for 5 to 7 minutes. Don't use ice.
• Sterilize it. Wrap clean, sterile gauze loosely around the burn site, being careful not to apply pressure to the burn.
• Dull the pain. Consult the emergency room doctor or your regular physician for their recommendations on pain relief.

While these steps may help relieve immediate symptoms, it's best to seek medical attention for instructions on how to care for the burn and prevent infection while it heals.

Shaping Candles
Depending upon the kinds of candles you make, you may be working with knives and other sharp object if you're shaping candles into blocks or other specialty shapes. You should exercise the same caution during this process as you would when slicing or chopping vegetables. Whenever possible, shape your candles away from pets and small children and put your shaping implements away as soon as you're finished with them.

Non-flammable Inserts
A hallmark of making gel candles is the variety of fun objects that can be set inside them. However, you need to be sure the objects you choose are non-flammable. If they're not, they're likely to catch fire when the gel candle burns down to their level.

Handmade Candle Burning Precautions
Whenever you make your own candles, you want to create something that's not only pleasing to the senses, but something that actually gets used. Take the following candle burning precautions at home and consider enclosing them with the gift card for lucky recipients.

• Before you light the candle, trim wicks to ¼" to reduce the risk of fires starting should the candle fall. Trimming wicks regularly also reduces any soot burning gives off.
• Place candles on heat-resistant surfaces, even if they're jar candles, and keep them far from any flammable objects and out of the reach of children and pets.
• Don't burn your candles for more than 4 hours at a time and never leave burning candles unattended.
• Don't allow your candles to burn below 2" from the candle's bottom.