Candlefish: Candle-making 101

Need a new date night idea? Or just a fun night out with friends? Candlefish, at 71 Wentworth Street, offers a two-hour candle-making workshop that does not disappoint. During the class you get a background of the candle-making process, you get to make two personalized candles of your own, and you leave with a nice buzz because yep, it’s BYOB!

Victoria, our “chandler,” greeted us with ten candle-making stations set up for each person in the class. My roommate, Codee, and I quickly poured a couple glasses of wine and took our seats. Victoria had us all go around the table and introduce ourselves as if we were candles.

TIP: Think about what scent describes you before walking in there. That way, when you get asked to go first, you don’t say “something fruity,” because your mind was at a complete blank.

Once introductions were done, we started getting down to business. First, we got to pick our scents. This was no joke. Candlefish has a library of 100 different scents. For the sake of time, they only set out about 30 of them, so if you want to take the 100 scent challenge, arrive early, or pick your scent prior to your workshop date. Codee and I decided to agree on two scents so we could swap candles at the end of class. She loved #58 and I, in the middle of Spring, decided to make the Christmas scent, #37.

Next, we poured 16.2 ounces of wax at each of our stations and added our scents to the wax. Once the scents were mixed, we set up our candles. Candlefish makes the prettiest labels with your name, date and scent number on each. We also hot glue gunned our wicks to the center of each glass. While your glue is drying and your wax/scent mixture cools, you should definitely go shopping in their store with the 20% coupon they give you for taking the class. Or, you could try out a few more scents from their library for your next candle-making visit.

Then, once our wax cooled down, we poured it into our candle glasses and TADA! We made candles! Unfortunately, you have to leave them overnight to cool at the store, but you can pick them up the very next day!

I don’t want to give too much more of the class away so I will leave you with 5 fun facts we learned from our chandler (I just like saying that word):

1. Candlefish candles have a ratio of 10% scent to wax. Apparently, if the scent accounts for more than 10% of your candle, the wick will get clogged.

2. They use soy wax heated to 190 degrees fahrenheit. This allows for maximum wax/scent blending.

3. You want to pour the wax into your candle when the wax is between 103 and 110 degrees. This reduces bumps and ensures that it dries evenly. If the temperature is too low, you pretty much get mashed potatoes.

4. You ALWAYS want to break off the wicks of your burned candles if they look mushroomed-shaped. Mushroomed-shaped wicks cause smoking, popping, and potentially, fires.

5. Another fire hazard is burning a candle with a wick shorter than 1/4 of an inch. Throw it away and go back to Candlefish for a new one! They carry Produce candles (beet is the best) and Rewined candles (have to recommend the Reisling for that one), along with a ton of other local favorites.

Candlefish is open Monday-Tuesday: 10 am to 6 pm, Wednesday-Saturday: 10 am to 8 pm, and Sunday: Noon to 8 pm. Book your class today by clicking HERE!