We have been in the Gel Candle business since 1997. We make candles ourselves, as you can see from our many illustrations. We so thoroughly enjoyed the product, that we wanted to spread the word and teach others.

Thus began our business and it just continues to grow because we believe in SERVICE to our customers. This is evidenced by our continued success with our free candle forum where Patti, our design artist, works directly with the members - helping and brainstorming. (See link to join at the bottom of the left margin frame.)

Over the years we have worked with thousands of customers helping them set up profitable and fun businesses. Whether this is a business venture OR merely a hobby for gifts, you will love it.

So Let's Get started!

BEGINNING INSTRUCTIONS:

Place gel in ordinary kitchen pan to melt. No double-boiler necessary. Set heat at med-low. Tear gel into smaller pieces to melt quicker. Estimate quantity of gel to match size of glassware you are using. Gel will melt at 200 degrees and be in liquid form.

Always continuously monitor a pan if being heated over open, continuous flame instead of temperature-gauged electrical pot. The gel will start to smoke at 225 degrees. It will flame around 400 degrees.

The best & safest choice is to buy an electric, heat-gauge device such as WalMart's Presto Pot. This type of melting pot will keep the gel at constant 200 degrees without worry.

TWO POURING METHODS: (1) If you want clear elegance, allow gel To melt without much stirring, and pour around 220 degrees. (2) If you want 'depth' (three-dimensional look) to your candle, you can create billions of bubbles by stirring during the melt and pouring after the gel has slightly cooled and thickened. You can also overpour the liquid gel over unmelted 'chunks' of gel for even more dimension. Sprinkle the chunks with celestial glitters for a metallic, diamond-cut look.

YOU CAN'T MESS UP…so experiment and use your creativity. The hotter the gel, the thinner and clearer the pour. The cooler the gel, more bubbles and depth. Drop chunks of unmelted gel (clear and colored) into your glassware, this will add even more depth and bubble effect. Again Sprinkles of gel glitter will add even more dimension and luster. This is great STARTER TECHNIQUE for beginners. You can even melt clear gel, and embed color Chunks to get 'rock' effects, like embedded soaps...for a stained-glass look. You can also Embed non-flammable objects like shells, beads, glass pieces and paraffin wax pieces.

Embedding wax fruits makes the fruit preserves candles (see wax embedding below). Another neat look is to pour the glitters on top of the sand bases… For differences between matte and sparkle bases.

When gel is melted, add colorant. You can use precolored concentrated gel chunks, liquid colors or scrapping from color palettes. If liquid, use by DROP! or a toothpick dipped in dye. A tiny bit goes very far. Pastel colors give the most illumination when the candle is lit. Beware of staining with liquid colors! Stir just until mixed depending on your pour method and desired look. If you use gel chunks, you may want to dissolve some separate to add liquid to liquid to get the desired shade.

You can save colored Gel to add to future clear batches, instead of needing dyes on hand…use 'preloaded color'. Our Kits include pre-dyed gel…add small amounts until you get color darkness desired. If making a variety of colored candles, Start with the lightest, most pale color…then you may be able to use that color as the color base for the next group of candles.

After dyeing, add fragrant oils, quantity depending on strength of scent desired. We recommend 2-3 t per pound of gel, if using extra strength fragrances will make a wonderful candle in medium density gel. Use the heavier load on citrus scents and lighter load on vanillas.

Measuring Tips: 60 drops approx. 1 tsp.
1 tsp = approx. 1/8 oz. (fragrances weights do vary)

Be sure to mix sufficiently so that no 'oil pools' remain--this is very important to get a safe burn. Use FO's that have flash point of 170 or higher so that the heat doesn't immediately burn off the scent…… Only use GEL FORMULATED, non-polar, fragrances in gel candles for safe burning. Polar fragrances contain water molecules which will not mix with the gel. Certain types of mineral oils will not even mix with each other. Water is a true polar substance. If the fragrance contains any water trace ingredients, then the fragrance would not blend entirely with the gel. Thus the need for oil non-polar, non-water, fragrances. We are fortunate the the fragrance industry understands this (they certainly don't want the liability either) and are creating non-polar fragrances for the gel candle community now. Beware of inexpensive 'candle scents' found in local retail stores; they are most probably for paraffin-only applications.

Dip the wick tab into liquid gel and use your embedding tool to seat the wick on the bottom of the glassware. The wicks needs firmly attached to the bottom of glass so that it cannot migrate toward the glass edge (and transfer the heat to the glass) instead of burning in the center of the candle.

Pour gel into glassware. Depending on glass height and height of wick, you will pour until at least 1" of head space remains in glassware and trim wick down to 1/4 inch for the initial burn. Use only zinc-core, lead-free wicks to burn best with gel. You will get a very nice size flam.

Upon extinguishing, pull any small wick pieces that may have fallen from the gel to keep a pretty top. A toothpick will do this. Leave enough head space in the glass to decrease draft, for best burn. After initial burn, trim wick to 1/16th inch" nub" for less mushrooming and best burn. Even when using the tall stem wick tabs, threading a glass bead onto the wick will ensure that the wick snuffs out before reaching the bottom of the glassware, where it could heat and break.

Allow unused gel to cool and simply peel from pan for easiest clean up, or save for next pour, or use to make votive.

If you are ever unhappy with a pour, simply pull gel out of glass, re-melt and re-pour. Thus you can also recycle leftovers. If you happen to pour gel too high or trim wick too short, pull gel, re-melt and re-pour leaving more head space for wick. Again, gel candle-making is almost completely goof-proof.

For quick clean up, WalMart has WONDERFUL product called DE-SOLV-IT, Citrus Solution in spray form. Will clean up gelled surfaces wonderfully!! It is shown in our Video.

So Have fun and invest your best asset, YOURSELF! !

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WARNING: FOR YOUR SAFETY AND THE SAFETY OF LOVED ONES, NEVER LEAVE A CANDLE BURNING UNATTENDED AND NEVER BURN GLASSWARE DRY!!