Ever wonder where and how we make candles?!

Believe it or not, all of Homemade NJ Candles' products are made and poured at home, in our garage!

Something that we get asked a lot here at Homemade NJ Candles is how we make our candles at home! Those who come to our candle classes, stop to chat with us at markets, or have purchased from us, are always so curious about where we make all our candles.

A lot of people who find out that everything is hand-poured right in our garage are stunned! Trust us, we still don’t believe it sometimes either!

So, how does a normal day of candle-making look?

Here is a behind-the-scenes, inside look at what a day in the life of a candle maker looks like!

We work with 20+ retail stores throughout NJ to wholesale candles and room sprays to them! In order to fulfill large quantities for the wholesale orders, we realized pretty quickly that we needed to start making large batches of candles.

The most candles we can make in a day is about 100! Crazy, right?!

In our garage (candle-making factory), we have one large burner that holds about 50 lbs of wax and two medium-sized burners that hold 30 lbs of wax each.

We start off the process by assessing how many candles we need for whatever order we are making that day. So, say we have to fulfill an order of 50 candles! The all-natural soy wax we use comes in 50 lb boxes, which definitely makes things a bit easier for larger batches!

It’s about 1 lb of wax for every 16 oz mason jar candle.

What’s nice about making a whole 50 lb batch of candles is that you don’t have to measure the wax out—you can just pour the whole box of wax into the burner!

Then, we let the wax heat up to 180 degrees! We have learned through trial and error that the wax has to be at or around 180 degrees for the scent to properly mix with the wax and to produce the best-smelling candles!

Once the wax melts and comes up to temperature, we add in whatever scent we have for the batch. Then we stir that baby up for a good minute or two, just to make sure it gets really well mixed together!

We add in about 1 lb of scent for every 10 lbs of wax. The candle fragrances normally come in 16 oz bottles (1 lb), so it normally takes about 5 lbs of scent (or five bottles) for a 50 lb batch of candles.

Didn’t think you were getting a math lesson in this blog today, did you?! Don’t worry, we made a chart for ourselves too to make it easier when we’re doing different-sized batches!

After the scent is properly mixed into the wax, the wax has to cool down a bit before we pour it into the jars. If we pour the wax too hot, sometimes it doesn’t properly adhere to the jars or dry correctly!

When we are at our candle classes, you will notice that the candles are poured directly into the jars. This is a bit different process and has been tested multiple times to make sure the candles dry correctly!

During the time the wax is cooling off, we usually go inside to start working on labels for the candles or work on another project until the wax is ready.

It usually takes about an hour or so for a batch of 50 lbs to cool down!

Eventually, when the wax is cool, we head back into the garage to pour it into the mason jars. After the wax is poured into the jars, we use wick holders to keep the wicks in place as the candles dry.

Again, it normally takes about 2-3 hours for the candles to harden (longer in the summer, depending on the humidity in the garage).

Once the candles are done drying, we bring them inside, trim the wicks, tie on the tags, and take them to their new homes in a store—eventually ending up in your home!

The candle-making process can seem and sound intimidating at first, but it is a pretty cool experience!

We hope this was fun for you to learn a bit more about candle making!

Stay tuned to find out how we make our room and linen sprays!