Learn to make candles from scratch — free, in 14 lessons, in the order that makes sense. Start with supplies and wax, learn to melt and pour safely, make your first candle, then fix the problems every beginner meets. Go in order, or jump to the lesson you need. Every lesson is a full photo tutorial, free on this site.

Prefer one lesson a day by email? Sign up free for the email version of this course — a lesson a day, linking back here for reading ahead. This page always has every lesson, open, whenever you want it.

The 14 Lessons

1. Candle Making Supplies List: Everything a Beginner Needs — Every item a first candle actually needs, what each one does, and what you can skip until later.
2. Which Wax Should You Use? A Beginner Wax Comparison — Soy, paraffin, beeswax, coconut, and blends compared side by side, with a clear pick for your first candle.
3. Before Your First Candle: How Candles Work and What to Expect — How a candle actually works, what a first attempt realistically looks like, and how to set up your workspace.
4. Candle Making Safety: Hot Wax, Fragrance, and Burning Safely — Hot wax, fragrance handling, and burning rules, the habits that keep making and burning safe from day one.
5. Preparing and Melting Wax: The Double Boiler Method — The double boiler method step by step, with the temperatures that matter and a worked soy example.
6. How to Center a Wick: Stickers, Devices, and Chopsticks — Stickers, centering devices, and chopsticks, plus how to rescue a wick that drifted.
7. How to Make Your First Soy Wax Scented Candle — Your first pour, start to finish: weighing, temperatures, curing, and lighting that first burn.
8. Candle Making Do’s and Don’ts: Beginner Mistakes to Avoid — The handful of mistakes nearly every beginner makes, and the habits that prevent all of them.
9. How to Make Tealights & Votives (The Cheapest Way to Start) — Try candlemaking before committing to jars and a pile of equipment: the cheapest way to start.
10. How to Choose the Right Wick & Test Burn Your Candles — The most-asked candle question, answered: wick types, sizing basics, and a step-by-step test burn with a printable log.
11. How to Blend Fragrance Oils — Create scents nobody else sells: notes, ratios, strip testing, and scaling to candles.
12. Fixing Candle Sinkholes — Why sinkholes form around wicks, and how to fix them with a heat gun or repour.
13. Cure Times for Soap and Candles: Why Waiting Matters — How long candles and soap need to cure, why fragrance binding can’t be rushed, and what goes wrong when you skip the wait.
14. How to Price a Candle From Scratch — Materials, labor, and overhead, worked out per candle, then turned into wholesale and retail prices that actually leave a profit. Pair it with the Candle Pricing Calculator.

Keep Open While You Learn

Candle Glossary: Every Term a Beginner Meets, Explained — Melt pool, hot throw, mushrooming, wet spots: every term a beginner meets, in plain language. Bookmark it and check back whenever a tutorial uses a word you don’t know yet.

After the Course

Keep going with the free maker tools — pricing, batch costs, burn tests, and more — and bring your questions to the Candle Makers Resource Group, where 150,000+ makers share what they’re pouring.