Are you a fan of scented candles or wax melts that fill your home with wondrous and delicious fragrances?  Then like me I’m sure you have your favourite brands and aromas. Unfortunately our patronage can often be tinged with sadness when a favourite scent is retired. I was personally heartbroken when Yankee Candle retired Gingerbread and I recently learned that Salted Caramel is on the way out too!! Aside from stocking up, there is a way you can console yourself and still enjoy your favourite fragrance or one very similar for as long as you want too. Rather than bankrupting yourself in candles stocks, why not make your own wax tart melts?

The best part about this tutorial is that it’s unbelievably simple!!

What You’ll Need

100g Wax (this will make approximately 12 mini tarts)

Fragrance Oil

Silicone cupcake cases

First a quick note on wax choices. These melts can be made with several types of wax, however different varieties can take more or less fragrance. I am by no means an expert but here’s a mini rundown of three popular wax choices.

Paraffin Wax – this wax creates the most highly scented melts and gives a good even throw. However when used in a candle (so not relevant to this tutorial) it produces more soot and some people believe that paraffin wax is not eco-friendly.

Beeswax – the classic wax option (and what I used myself when making these tarts). Beeswax is the all-natural choice.

Soy Wax – Made from the oil of soy beans many people believe this to be a more eco-friendly choice. However it cannot be used to make such a highly scented tart. A great choice if you prefer a more gentle fragrance.

Step 1

Weigh your wax. I used 100g but of course you could scale this up if you wanted to make loads of tarts. Next melt the wax using a double boiler or a pan or bowl above a second pan half filled with boiling water (the same method as melting chocolate). Keep the water simmering and wait for your wax to melt, I do not suggest leaving the room as wax can be flammable.

Step 2

Now to add your fragrance. How much oil depends on how strong you would like the end result to be. To give you an idea, many standard shop bought candles contain 2-3% fragrance. Good scented candles contain 5-6% and strong candles (like Yankee Candle) contain approximately 8-10%.

I don’t have a fantastic sense of smell so I like my fragrances strong and unmissable. Therefore I used about 10g of fragrance oil. To weigh this I used an old shot glass.

Add to the melted wax and stir.

Step 3

Pour the wax into silicone cupcake cases. I don’t like my tarts to be too big so I used mini cupcake cases. Larger ones would obviously make thinner tarts or less overall. Leave to cool and then store in a lidded jar or tub.

Tips.

An old metal ice cream scoop works brilliantly for decanting your wax into your cases. Don’t plan on using it for ice cream again though.

These tarts also make wonderful presents, just wrap them tightly in cling film.

Wax is flammable, never leave a melting tart or wax unattended.