I Made a $500 Candle – Huge Candle DIY

I can’t afford one of the oversized Jo Malone Luxury candles ($540!) or the hilariously named Big A** Candles ($284) so I decided to make my own huge candle. This was a 10 pound candle (!) so it was an expensive project, but I did not spend anywhere close to $500. Here’s how I did it and how much it cost. I also filmed a YouTube video of the entire process:

Everything I Used to Make a Huge Candle

This is everything that went into this massive candle:

Main Ingredients

• Candle Jar – I picked a jar with an 8 inch height and 8 inch width. You’ll need something that has thick enough tempered glass to safely create a candle that is going to give off a lot more heat than a smaller 1 or 3 wick candle.
• Candle Wax – I could have saved a lot of money if I opted for soy wax or paraffin wax, but I chose a coconut apricot wax blend from Makesy because (a) I think it has a much better hot throw and (b) it looks better than soy wax after burning. I had to buy an 11 pound slab of wax and I ended up using 10.33 pounds for the candle.
• Fragrance Oil – It was hard to commit to a scent that I will be smelling for months so I avoided anything seasonal. I went with a Fruit Loops fragrance oil from Vine Vida. I used 16 ounces of fragrance oil which gave this candle a fragrance load around 8.9%. I tend to use 8-10% for most of my candles. Also, this was my first time trying a Vine Vida fragrance oil and I loved it! It smells just like a bowl of fruit loops. It’s sweet, but not sickly sweet. Vine Vida also sells a Victoria’s Secret Bombshell fragrance oil that I want to try next.
• Candle Wicks – Choose wicks that are slightly taller than the height of your candle jar. These are the wicks I used – they come in a set with multiple sizes and I used the tallest size (8 inches). If the height of your candle jar is 7 inches or less, these might work for you. In my case, the wicks were slightly too short and it meant that I couldn’t use a wick bar to prop them up. Don’t make the same mistake!

Miscellaneous

• Heat Gun – I use this heat gun to clean up all of my candles. It is my favorite candlemaking tool.
• Hot Glue Gun – I would normally use wick stickers to attach the wicks, but I ran out a few weeks ago so I used a hot glue gun for this project instead.
• Twine – My wicks were too short to use wick bars so I improvised by using a combination of twine and clothing pins. While this did work to hold up the wicks, I would not recommend this. Get wicks that are tall enough to use wick bars!
• Candle Label – This was obviously not necessary, but I put a lot of effort into this candle and it felt appropriate to add a label. I designed it in Canva and printed it on plain white sticker paper. My home printer only prints in black & white so I didn’t get super creative here, but I still loved this final touch.

How Much It Costs to Make a Huge Candle

Here’s a breakdown on all of the costs of making this candle…

The full slab of wax cost $50.86 (including shipping). If I swapped the coconut apricot wax for soy wax, I could have saved about $15-20. That said, I’m happy with all of the ingredients I chose. This was the most expensive candle I have ever made, but it was worth it. I will have to update this post in the future with details on how long it ends up lasting.

If you want to know how much it costs to make a typical 8 ounce candle, read all about it here!

How to Make a Huge Candle Step-by-Step

The Prep Work:

1. WICK THE JAR: You’ll choose the number of wicks based on the wick size. A thicker wick will create a larger melt pool. Most candle supply companies will indicate how big the melt pool will be (or they’ll give a range). If they don’t, you can test this for yourself – pour a shallow candle in an empty candle jar using one of the wicks you want to test. Burn it for a couple of hours and then measure the melt pool. Use this to determine how many of these melt pools it would take to cover the entire surface of the larger candle. Use wick stickers (or a hot glue gun) to attach the wicks to the bottom of the candle jar.
2. MEASURE THE WAX: Measure out your wax. If you don’t know how much wax to use in your candle container, fill it with water up to the point where you want the wax to go. Take the weight of this water and multiply it by 0.86. That will give you the wax weight. In my case, it took 192 ounces of water to fill the container so: 192 ounces X 0.86 = 165.12 ounces (or 10.32 pounds of wax).
3. MEASURE THE FRAGRANCE OIL: The amount of fragrance oil you use will depend on how strong you want the candle to be, but you can’t use unlimited amounts of fragrance oil. Large amounts will not properly bind with the wax and can be a fire hazard once the candle is actually burned (because the oil just sits on the surface of the candle and is easier to ignite). I usually use a fragrance load between 8-10%. If you want to skip the math, just use a fragrance load calculator. [Here’s the math for those who are interested – I used 16 ounces of fragrance. Divide the fragrance oil weight (16) by the total weight (wax weight + fragrance or in this case, 165.12 + 16) to get fragrance load. So 16 divided by 181.12 is 8.9%.]

The Candlemaking:

1. MELT: Melt the wax. Different wax types have different melting points so be sure to look at the packaging on whatever wax you purchased to find out. It should indicate the melting point and the best temperature for adding fragrance oil. For the candle I made, the wax was fully melted around 175 degrees Fahrenheit. I added the fragrance oil at about 180 degrees Fahrenheit. After adding the fragrance, I stirred it gently (so as not to introduce too many air bubbles) and then removed the melting pitcher from the heat. Do not pour right away! Pouring when your wax is piping hot will lead to sinkholes. I let the wax cool about 10-15 degrees before pouring.
2. POUR: Pour the wax slowly. You don’t want to dump it in all at once because again, you want to avoid agitating the wax too much which introduces air bubbles.
3. CURE: Wait overnight before you remove the wick bar or trim the wicks. You should ideally wait several days for the candle to cure before you burn it. Curing time depends on wax type so again, look at the packaging on whichever type of wax you purchased for tips on cure time. I waited 2 weeks before I burned mine, but candles are generally fine to burn if you can patiently wait at least one week.

Even though I made a Julia’s Jumbo Candle Co. label, I am not going into the oversized candle business. I hope you found this post and the YouTube video tutorial helpful if you want to make one of these ridiculously large candles for yourself!