Choosing the Scented Oils for Your Soy Candle Making

Using scented oils for soy candle making is a fun, easy way to transform any ordinary soy candle you are making into an aromatherapy candle. Aromatherapy is an alternative medicine that is gaining respect as its results become more and more apparent.

Aromatherapy uses scented oils to promote healing and prevent disease, which when you think about it is not surprising, because many medicines and other healing substances have their origins in herbs. Using scented oil for soy candle making makes it easy to incorporate these healing essences into your everyday environment.

Scented soy candles aren't just for aromatherapy. They also make great air fresheners for living rooms, bathrooms, or any other room where you need to mask odors.

Essential Oils vs. Fragrance Oils

Deciding what scented oils to use for soy candle making is purely a matter of preference. You may choose to use two kinds of scented oils: essential oils or fragrance oils. Essential oils are derived from natural substances like flowers, herbs, leaves, roots, and barks. Rose, lavender, pine, and cinnamon are examples of essential oils.

The second kind of scented oil for you to use in making soy candles is fragrance oil. Fragrance oil is derived from synthetics. The essential oils of some natural plants, like bananas, cedar, and coffee, don't lend themselves to candle making. These oils have a short shelf life, or their scents are overpowered during the candle making process. Fragrance oils were developed to mimic these natural scents with synthetic substances.

Unless it is extremely important to you to use essential scented oils for soy candle making, you will want to use essential oils and fragrance oils, and blend the two to get the fragrance you want. The best use of fragrance follows the seasons; when making candles for springtime, use pastel colors scented with fragrance oils like forest rain, freesia, and fresh-cut grass. Use cucumber, ocean; and orange blossom scented fragrance oils for summer candles. Coriander and cinnamon essential oils make fabulous fall candles, while pine, peppermint, and coffee are fun fragrances for winter candles.

Adding the Scented Oils to Your Candles

Any fragrance should only be added to wax that has been removed from heat. Remove the boiling water pan from beneath your wax melting pot and make sure no heat is rising from beneath the melting pot. Slowly add the scented oils you desire for your soy candle making process and continue making your soy candles as usual.