My Own Beeswax Candles

I was so excited today to make candles from my own beeswax. I had to buy some bee supplies recently, so I added a cute candle mold of a bee skep to the order. I had a full shoebox of beeswax from when I went in and cleaned up the hive a bit and gathered some honey a few weeks ago. I had washed the wax in cold water to get rid of any excess honey in it and picked through it as best I could. Then I dried it on towels overnight. The shoebox was a good place to store it since it wasn’t airtight it allowed the little remaining water to evaporate.

In a double boiler over a low heat I put the beeswax into a 2-quart wax melting pot. It all wouldn’t fit, so I had to add more as the wax melted down.


Now even though I’d picked through the cleaned beeswax, there was still things that needed to be filtered out. I strained the melted wax twice through double layers of cheesecloth. Then I added a little lemon essential oil to add just a hint of scent. Beeswax already has a wonderful scent, but I thought lemon would enhance it rather than detract from it.

I’d prepared the mold while the wax was melting. I sprayed it with a silicone spray, threaded a wick that I’d dipped in beeswax through the center and centered it at the base using a bamboo skewer. I wanted to filter the wax one last time, so I placed a single layer of cheesecloth over the top of the wax melting pot and secured it with a rubber band before pouring it into the mold.

All that work — the gathering of the wax, washing the wax, cleaning the wax, drying it. Then today melting and filtering and everything else. I got a total of 4 candles. And because I only had one mold I had to go through the process four times! (Note to self: order more wax molds.) Now I’m not complaining. I’m thrilled to have them and so proud of my bees for their good work. But now I truly understand why beeswax is so expensive. Aren’t they beautiful?