Gel Candle Designs: Glowing Gemstone Soy & Gel Candles

Glowing Gemstone gel candles… made with a base of Soy Wax.

Soy wax is one of the newest crazes to hit the candle community.

Soy wax is made from soy beads and a 100% vegetable product. It is opaque and very much resembles white paraffin however comes in 'flake', form to easy to pour into a pot to melt.

Soy burns longer than paraffin, however not as long as gel.

Soy wax is not very 'user-friendly' when it comes to melding with our candle colors. Thus, you are going to have mostly pastel colors in soy candles.

The best news is that soy wax can take up to 1.5 ounces of fragrance per pound of wax. So this is your best choice for customers who want extreme scent, and are willing to pay the added cost. Soy is said to burn much cleaner and without 'soot' so is an environment-friendly product, a plus for naturalists.

For our Glowing Gemstone Candles, we selected glassware which has a wide mouth, for the presentation of our gemstone 'topper', which we will create and want to attractively show off, since this is the focal point of our candle.

The theme of these candles is a more 'natural' and elegant candle.

The base is going to be soy, and then placing gel 'cubes' on the top along with our Illuminary Embed 'stones'.

Place this candle in the light during the day... and at night, before lighting, the stones will reflect and give a beautiful presentation. Once again, a design that is unique and interesting.

This seems to be an age when rocks and crystals are very popular… with our added celestial glitters; we can make them simply stunning and beautiful.

First thing we need to do is melt, color and scent a small amount of gel which is going to be our gel 'rocks' on top of the candle. (If you choose, you can embed these throughout the candle; however, to have the clean burn from the soy wax, we have simply placed them on the top for show and theme.)

NOTE: Many grocery stores have 'microwave pots', usually brown, which have pouring spouts on the sides. These come in several sizes and are perfect to pour gel to color and scent.

We colored a small batch (about a pound) with pastel blue and another with green.

We are creating a blue top which we will name "Blue Lace Agate & Turquoise" scented with Blue Lagoon fragrance; and a green top which we will name "Green Quartz & Jade" scented with Juniper Breeze. (If you struggle with the names for stones, www.craftstones.com has a beautiful color catalogue naming a couple hundred stones with pictures. Of course you could even add some real stones into your 'rock topper' if you wish.)

Ok, back to our candle. We leave the colored and scented gel in our microwave pots to set up for later use. (This is also the way to make clear ice cubes for your drink candles…simply use scissors to easily cut the shapes you want.)

Next we melt our Soy Wax and scent it. We are leaving the soy wax white to contrast nicely with our rock top. Attach your wick to the bottom of the glassware to hold it in place. Soy does take much longer to set than gel. Pour the glass container and allow cooling. Keep checking the wick during the setting time to make sure it remains centered and straight. Since the soy is opaque, it isn't as crucial to make sure the wick is perfectly straight; however you do want it centered and correctly positioned for a professional candle.

When the candle is completely opaque and solid, it is time to create the magic with our 'stone topper'. This is the fun part. Using scissors cut the gel you previously scented and cooled into various shapes to appear like stone/crystals, and place them random on the top of the soy. Then place your illuminary rocks around the gel cubes. Next we lightly dusted with some gold celestial glitter to give that magic, elegant sparkle.

The final step is to re-melt a small quantity of scented soy wax. Carefully pour a very thin layer on the top of the candles, making SURE you fill in the nooks and crannies to adhere your stones to the candle. NOTE: You do NOT want to pour this soy OVER your rocks because that would give them a white coating. You want the pure look of the gel, which looks like glass and uncovered illuminary stones so that they will reflect at night. This pour is simply to attach your rock topper to the candle and only needs to be about ¼" thick at the most.

Trim your wick to ¼" inch and you have a fabulous Glowing Gemstone Candle. Remember to attach tags to name the stones. You can use pink gel for Rose Quartz, clear gel for Moonstones, dark blue for Lapis, purple for Amethyst…just for some other examples.

Select stunning pieces of glassware with open, wide mouth for the display of your rock topper and don't forget to add the shimmer of glitter, for that magic touch.

So these are fun and easy candles to present for the holidays! We've tried to give lots of extra 'information' this month, for those who have not already worked with Soy Wax yet.

So enjoy and have fun… using your creativity…. and sharing your talents!

Article & Design by Patti Smith, Design Artist
BioMax Candle Supply ~ www.biomax1.com