If you’ve been wondering how to make pillar candles successfully, our bubble candle tutorial is the place to start! This tried-and-tested recipe allows you to create a well-burning bubble shaped pillar candle without having to work through your own extensive testing.

We’ll be showing you how to make two pastel coloured bubble candles - one pink and one orange – using our magical Unicorn Sparkle fragrance oil, a blend of sweet and slightly musk fragrance which will carry in the air whilst burning.

If you’re ready to jump right into the tutorial, check out our YouTube video above, walking you through the steps or keep scrolling to see a written tutorial with further details as well as more information on creating your very own Unicorn Sparkle scented bubble candles.

Difficulty Level: Beginner

Makes: 2 Bubble Candles

Ingredients needed

• 276g Kerasoy Pillar Wax
• 24g Unicorn Sparkle Fragrance Oil
• Pink Liquid Candle Dye
• Orange Liquid Candle Dye

Be sure to choose the 50ml size bottle of fragrance oil in the dropdown below for this project!

Materials Needed

• 6-cell Bubble Candle Silicone Mould
• 2 x Stabilo 8 Wicks
• 2 x Wick Centring Tools (or lollipop sticks with holes in the centre)
• 2 x Melting Pots
• Pan
• Digital weighing scales
• Milk or digital thermometer
• Metal spoon
• Kitchen roll to protect your work surface and for cleaning any spills/tools
• Nitrile gloves (or similar protective gloves) and an apron. We’d also highly recommend the use of a chemical mask

(Be sure to click size 8 for the wick below when purchasing!)

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 the bubble mould

You’ll need to make a hole in the centre of each bubble cell. A metal skewer or silicone mould piercing tool will do the job perfectly. The hole won’t be visible unless you pull at the middle bubble in each cell, where you’ll see the hole that’s been made. Providing the hole hasn’t been made too big, no wax will escape once it’s been poured.

After you’ve made holes in the centre of each bubble cell, take the Stabilo 8 wicks, pull off the sustainers and carefully poke one through each hole. Be sure to keep around 1cm through the underside of the mould as this will be the top of your candle. The rest of the wick that is poking out, put through a lollipop stick or wick centring tool to hold in place.

You bubble mould cells are now ready and you can move onto the next step.

Step 2 – Weigh out the wax

Place one of the melting pots on your scales and turn on. Weigh out 138g 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. (The water in your pan should be no more than halfway up your melting pot’s bowl)

When the wax starts to melt (a visible pool of wax is forming), place the thermometer in the wax to check the temperature periodically. Once the wax has fully melted and reaches 80-85 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 as you go.

Step 4 – Add colour and fragrance oil

Take the melting pot off the pan and wipe the water carefully from underneath. Add 3 drops of pink liquid dye and stir to mix for around 10-20 seconds.

Next, once the wax has reached 70-72 degrees Celsius, add 12g of Unicorn Sparkle fragrance oil. Stir continuously for around 60-90 seconds to ensure the fragrance oil is thoroughly mixed into the wax.

Step 5 – Pour the wax into the bubble mould

After stirring, allow the wax to reach 60-65 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 one of the bubble cells, pouring slowly and carefully.

Once you’ve poured the wax into the bubble cell, check that the wick isn’t bending too much and centre the wick. If the wick is bending, you can simply give it a little pull to straighten up. Be careful not to pull too hard!

Step 6 – Repeat steps 2-5 for your second candle

Now, for your orange candle, simply repeat steps 2-5, but instead of 3 drops of pink liquid dye in Step 4, use 3 drops of orange liquid dye to create your second candle.

Step 7 – Remove the bubble candles from the mould

Once the steps have been repeated and both bubble cells have been filled, allow the wax to set fully before removing from the mould – usually around 2-3 hours (or overnight if possible).

Once the wax has hardened, you can remove the centring tools/lollipop sticks, being careful to not pull on the wicks.

The unmoulding process can be quite tricky, especially with shaped moulds so carefully pull away the mould around the open edges of the bubble cells and work your way down carefully pulling away the sides of the mould until the candle is free.

Once both bubble candles have been taken out of the mould, trim the wicks on top of the candles to 5mm with wick trimmers or scissors. The longer wicks remaining underneath will need to be trimmed flush with the bottom of the candles.

Your bubble candles are now made and will be ready to burn in 3-4 days but for best results, we’d recommend allowing 7 days for your candles to perform at their best. Whilst curing, place the bubble candles in a cool, dry area away from any heat, damp or light sources until they are ready to use.

How to Get the Best from Your Bubble Candle

As these are pillar candles, it’s important to remember that unlike container candles, the recommended 3-4 hour burn time isn’t necessary. While many use pillar candles decoratively, if you do wish to burn them, we’d recommend burning them for no more than 1-2 hours at a time due to their size and shape. If burning for more than 2 hours at a time, you'll run the risk of the wax leaking through the sides of the candle.

Although leaking is likely to happen at the latest stages of your burn, you want to enjoy as much of the candle as possible before this happens. We’d advise placing the candles on a heat proof surface such as a tray or on a specific candle mat just in case you do experience a leakage of wax.

Remember to also trim the wicks to 5mm before every burn thereafter. All candles should be extinguished once there’s around 1cm of wax left.

The burn time of these bubble candles is around 8 hours each (based on our tests of burning the candles in 2 hourly intervals, allowing them to fully set and harden again in between).

We really hope you enjoyed our beginners tutorial on how to make bubble shaped pillar candles. The possibilities are endless with colouring and fragrance so why not experiment further once you’ve got the hang of making these tried and tested creations.

Remember to make use of our Candle Burn Test Sheet also if experimenting with other fragrances. It can be used for both container and pillar candles, you just won’t need to fill in everything on the sheet if using to test pillar candles.

Frosting is common with this type of wax, especially where colouring has been added. See our Candle Making Troubleshooting Guide which will help you to understand why this happens along with other common issues and steps you can take to reduce the likelihood of this occurring (although often it can’t be avoided).

Not sure about candle safety or what labels you would need for selling? Check out our guide on What you Need to Know About Candle Safety and Warning Labels.

Ready to start selling? Our Ultimate Guide to Selling your Candles will be a great starting point.