How to Create a Mother's Day Candle & Reed Diffuser Gift Set (with free downloadable labels!)
If you’re looking for a fantastic fragranced gift for Mother’s Day, our tutorial will share how to make a simple scented candle and reed diffuser set that any beginner can create with our tried and tested recipes along with printable labels and inspiration for creating the perfect present.
Our post today will show you the prettiest, most wonderfully fragranced gift option for Mother’s Day. We’ll be making a reed diffuser and 9cl candle in the time-old, iconic White Musk fragrance oil. A famous scent since its launch for a well-known bath and body retailer in 1981, this sophisticated, powdery musk fragrance will be sure to whisk your loved ones back in time.
Download our Mother's Day White Musk Candle and Diffuser Labels Here
Mother’s Day is a time when we show our mums, wives, grandmas, step mums, best friends, sisters and any other important ladies in our lives, just how much we truly care! It’s a day to show that extra little bit of love and give thanks for everything they do. If you’re looking for the perfect home fragrance gift set, we’ll start with making the candle then the reed diffuser and finishing off with how to pull it all together in a gorgeous basket, ready for gifting.
Ready to jump straight in? Our video tutorial above will show you how to make the products for this fabulous gift set. You’ll also find written step-by-step guides below with visual images if you prefer.
Difficulty: Beginner
Makes: 1 x 9cl Candle, 1 x 100ml Reed Diffuser
How to Make a 9cl White Musk Scented Candle
Ingredients Needed
Materials Needed
- 1x 9cl Meredith Clear Candle Glass
- 1x Stabilo 8 Wick
- 1x wick centring tool
- Glue dot or wick sticker
- Digital weighing scales
- Melting pot & pan (or double boiler)
- Thermometer
- Metal spoon
- Heat gun (optional)
- Kitchen roll to protect your work surface
- Nitrile gloves (or similar protective gloves) and an apron. We’d also highly recommend the use of a chemical mask
Top tip: Before starting, make sure your work surface is covered and you’re wearing the correct PPE as stated in the materials needed above. This is to avoid skin/respiratory irritation from the fragrance oil and to protect your clothes from any splashes.
Step 1 – Prepare your candle glass
Wash your candle glass in warm soapy water before use. This ensures there is no dust or other residue on the glass that may have formed whilst in storage/transit. Make sure the glass is dried thoroughly once washed.
Once the glass is washed and dried, take your wick and put a glue dot on the underside of the sustainer (the metal base of the wick), place in the centre of the wick centring tool and place in the glass, making sure to position the centring tool correctly on the rim.
Adhere the wick to the glasses base by gently pushing down on the metal sustainer. Pull the wick up carefully if its bending in the glass, ensuring it’s as straight as possible and pulling it gently into the slot of the centring tool.
You candle glass is now ready and you can move onto the next step.
Step 2 – Weigh out the wax
Place the melting pot on your scales and turn on. Weigh out 73.6g of wax.
Step 3 – Melt the wax
Half fill your pan with cold water and place on your cooker/stove top. Sit the melting pot on top of the pan. Turn the hob/ring on and set to a medium - low heat. This is called the double-boiling method.
Top tip: The water in your pan should be no more than halfway up your melting pots bowl.
When the wax starts to melt (a visible pool of wax is forming), place the thermometer in the wax to check the temperature. Once the wax has fully melted and reaches 80 degrees Celsius, turn the hob off and take the pan off the heat.
Top tip: Don’t leave your thermometer in the melting pot whilst the wax is melting as it will get hot from the water steam. Keep adding the thermometer to the wax at melting intervals to check it's not getting too hot.
Step 4 – Add fragrance oil
Take the melting pot off the pan and carefully wipe the underneath to remove any water residue. Add 6.4g of White Musk fragrance oil once the wax reaches 70 degrees Celsius. Stir continuously for around 60 seconds to ensure the fragrance oil is thoroughly mixed into the wax.
Step 5 – Pour the wax into your candle glass
After stirring, allow the wax to reach 58-60 degrees Celsius, tap the melting pot on your work surface a few times to knock out any air bubbles within the wax and then start to fill your candle glass, pouring slowly.
Top tip: We recommend pouring the wax closer to the glass and not against or too close to the wick. This will reduce the likelihood of sink holes or bubbles appearing once the wax has set.
Once you’ve poured the wax, check that the wick isn’t bending too much. If it is, you can simply give it a little pull to straighten up. Be careful not to pull too hard!
Step 6 – Leave to set
Note: We had to quickly blast the top of our candle with a heat gun as there was a sink hole. We had to leave it to set afterwards for around 20 minutes before being able to trim the wick.
Allow the wax to set fully before moving or touching the glass – usually around 1-2 hours. Once the wax has hardened, you can remove the centring tool, being careful to not pull on the wick. Trim the wick to 5mm with wick trimmers or scissors.
Your candle is now made and can be put away for curing. Place the candle in a cool, dry area away from any heat or light sources until ready to gift, usually cured in around 7-10 days.
With this tried and tested recipe you may notice that this wax shrinks slightly upon setting and you may experience sink holes. If the shrinkage is severe (you notice quite a bit of dipping in the wax) you can gently heat the top of the candle with a heat gun to even out the surface. Do take care with this method, just a few short blasts should be sufficient enough.
Wet spots are also common with most container waxes. See our candle troubleshooting guide which will help you to understand why this happens and steps you can take to reduce the likelihood of this happening.
The burn time of this candle is around 18 hours (based on burning the candle in 3 hourly bursts at a time).
How to Make a 100ML White Musk Scented Reed Diffuser
Ingredients Needed
Materials Needed
- 1x Clayton 100ml clear diffuser bottle
- 1x Gold metal reed diffuser cap (and travel stopper)
- 8x Natural fibre diffuser reeds
- Digital weighing scales
- Small funnel
- 100ml measuring cup
- Kitchen roll to protect your work surface
- Nitrile gloves (or similar protective gloves) and an apron. We’d also highly recommend the use of a chemical mask
Step 1 Weighing out the base
Place the measuring cup on your scales and turn on. Weigh out 80g of Augeo clean multi base.
Pour the weighed out base straight into the diffuser bottle (through the funnel if you opted to use one).
Step 2 – Weighing out the fragrance oil
Place the measuring cup on your scales and tare to 0. Weigh out 20g of White Musk fragrance oil.
Pour the fragrance oil into the diffuser bottle (via the funnel if you opted to use one).
Step 3 – Combining the base and fragrance oil
Take the plastic travel stopper and push it into the neck of the diffuser bottle, securely sealing the liquid in the bottle.
Screw the gold cap on the bottle and whilst holding the neck and base of the bottle, shake well for around 30-60 seconds to fully combine the ingredients.
Your reed diffuser is now ready and can be placed with your candle until ready to put your gift basket together.
Add Your Candle & Reed Diffuser Labels
Of course, you can leave your candle and reed diffusers unadorned or you can add your own designed labels. However, if you like the ones we've used here, we've created a free download to enable you to print them off. We'd recommend using an adhesive paper for ease but you can also use normal printer paper and secure with double-sided tape.
Download our Mother's Day White Musk Candle and Diffuser Labels Here
Putting the gift set together
Step 1 – Ribbon and Filler
Take your gift basket and fill with filler of your choosing. We’ve gone for a wicker basket with curled shredded craft paper. Other options are tissue or shredded paper.
If you’re adding ribbon like we have, you’ll want to do this before filling your basket so you can simply tie it with a bow at the end.
Step 2 – Add the Candle & Diffuser
Place the reed diffuser and reeds in the gift basket, positioning them to one side and along the bottom. Then take the candle and place it somewhere to the other side. We’ve tied some matching coloured ribbon around the fibre reeds to make them look more aesthetically pleasing.
Step 3 – Add Any Additional Small Gifts and Foliage
This is where you can then add in any extra gifts that the lady in your life will love. Some suggestions may be socks, some gorgeous scented soap, a mug, little trinket trays, chocolate, wine, jewellery or even a gift voucher. The possibilities are endless and you can really tailor the gift to the recipient. We’ve gone ahead and added a lovely gold heart trinket tray as well as some sprigs of foliage.
Step 4 – Tie Your Ribbon to Complete
Once you’ve added any extras and they’re positioned in the gift basket, take the ends of the ribbon and tie together in a nice bow.
Your gift basket is now made and is ready to be presented to your loved one on Mother’s Day. The great thing is that the colours and contents can be changed up to suit the recipient. If you’re making more than one gift set, simply times the ingredients by however many of each product you’ll be producing. We really hope you enjoyed this tutorial and if anything, took inspiration for styling the perfect gift.
Looking for ideas on other products to add to your gift basket? How about a delightful linen spray or a tub of beautifully fragranced scoopable wax. You could even add in some White Musk soap or body butter to make the ultimate all-rounder gift!
Don’t forget to add CLP and safety labels to your products before gifting! CPSR & assessments will be required for cosmetic and body products. These are legal requirements. More information on these can be found within our blog posts.