How to transform tin cans into soy candles

I have been rummaging in the rubbish again and this week I have recycled some old tin cans into soy wax candles. Late last year I had made some wax teacup candles and I wanted to have another go at making candles. This time I decided to use soy wax, some wood wicks and old tin cans to make some scented candles. I have put together a video sharing how I made these and I will leave some details below. Make sure to take extra care when working with wax and also take care when handling tin cans as they can also have sharp edges.

I left my tin cans to soak in some warm soapy water, this made it easier to remove the labels. You can give any sharp edges a light sanding as tin cans can be quite sharp.

I bought a 2kg bag of soy wax from Amazon. I ended up using the whole bag and I made 8 large sized candles. You can use whichever wax but I prefer the soy wax. Using a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water I melted 1lb of wax at a time.

Once the wax had melted I took it off the heat and added my scent. As it is Summer I decided to make some Citronella candles to keep the bugs away in the garden. To get a nice scent that isn’t too strong I added two tablespoons of essential oil to 1lb of melted wax. You can use whichever brand of essential oil, there are tonnes of brands on the market at different price ranges so pick whichever one suits your budget.

I decided to use wood wicks for my candles. You can use whichever ones you have, I just wanted to try these and see how they burnt. I used my glue gun to glue the wicks to the base of the tin cans. The wicks come with little silver bases making it easy to glue them into place. I then carefully poured the melted wax into the tin cans and allowed them to set. Do not burn your candle for 48 hours after making them. Give them some time to settle before you go ahead and light them.

You can decorate your tins to suit your style. I decided to use up some scraps that I had left over from previous sewing projects. I simply ironed over the edges and used my glue gun to glue the fabric into place. You can see how I did this in the video below.

If you enjoyed this post then you might also enjoy my other post where I transformed teacups into candles. You can catch it here.

Let me know if you are going to have a try at making these. Have you recycled old tin cans? Let me know what you make in the comments below. Don’t forget to subscribe to my Youtube channel and give my video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it!

Thanks so much for reading, Chat soon!

Catherine.