How to make homemade oil candles in mason jars

We love the versatility and multifunctionality of our Pearl glass mason jars. Once we’ve finished storing food in them, we like to use them to make homemade oil candles in mason jars. They are an easy, eco-friendly way to create an atmosphere, look beautiful, and last longer than your average candle. Whether you dot them around your home or prepare them as gifts for your friends and family, you’re sure to enjoy the process of making homemade oil candles in mason jars with these easy steps we followed using the method from A Piece of Rainbow.

What you will need

You will need the below materials to make your homemade oil candle mason jar:

• Large floating wicks:  These floating wicks work beautifully and each oil candle wick lasts through many uses!
• Vegetable oil:  1 tablespoon of oil can last 2 hours. Olive oil, sunflower oil, canola oil and many others all work well.
• Mason jars, glass bottles, water, and some decorative elements such as flowers, pine cones, pebbles, etc.
• Wooden skewer or pencil

You can infuse your oil with herbs, spices or essential oils (think rosemary, sweet orange, cinnamon or lavendar) for a signature fragrance!

Step One

Gather some glass bottles and jars, fill them with flowers or other treasures and cover them with water. You can use the wooden skewer or an old pencil to carefully position the materials into position.

Step Two

Pour some vegetable oil on top until the oil forms a layer of about ¼ inch thick.

The large floating wicks come with discs and small waxed wicks. Insert a piece of the waxed wicks halfway through the centre hole on the disc, and put it on top of the oil layer. Now light your oil candle and enjoy the beautiful glow! To extinguish the flame, just put the lids on the jars. The floating wicks can stay in there.

Extra Tips and Suggestions

• After several uses, the waxed wick will burn off, just replace it with a small piece of pre-waxed wick that you can cut into small pieces. The floating disc can last a very long time.
• Some flowers will float to the top, you can hold the stem down with some small rocks, glass beads etc
• Add food colouring in the water for a special effect!
• Light olive oil and sunflower seed oil burns quite clean, we have not noticed smoke except for when they are extinguished.
• Fake plants will work too, just keep them away from the flame!
• You can go one step further and even print special labels with a description and instructions for your candles. We love these pre-made sets from Hearth and Vine.

For more inspiration on hot make beautiful homemade oil candles in mason jars, make sure to check out A Piece of Rainbow here! You can also discover more inspiration on how to decorate and fill your oil candle mason jar here with some images courtesy of Pinterest.

Stay Safe!

Never leave a candle burning unattended. Make sure the candle is set on a sturdy surface away from anything that can catch fire. Keep them out of children’s reach and make sure to extinguish them.