How to Make Your Own Tealights

Remove the double boiler from the heat source to allow the wax to cool. For tealights, you may pour at any time after the wax is melted; no specific wax temperature is required. My favored method for tealight candles is to wait to pour until I can just begin to see the wax solidifying (congealing) on the inside surface of the pour can. This is because wax expands when it is melted, and the cooler it is when you pour it, the less the wax will shrink in the tealight cup.

You need a spouted container to pour tealights. You can also use a wood stirring stick or a chopstick for added pouring control to reduce dribbles.

There are two methods of making the first pour for tealights, Method A is to fill the tealight cup to the rim, and Method B is to fill the tealight cup 1/2 full. The choice is yours. Be sure to save about 20% of your melted wax for the second pour you will make after the candles set.

After making the first pour of wax into the tealight cups, let the tealights stand undisturbed while the wax shrinks and they cool completely. It generally takes a tealight anywhere from half an hour to an hour and a half to cool completely and shrink as much as it is going too. As the tealights cool, the wax shrinks creating a depression in the center around the wick.

The “second pour” is made after the wax in the tealight cups has cooled completely. The reason for making a second pour (pouring more wax into the mold after the first pour wax has cooled) is that the wax from the first pour will have shrunk into a sink-hole around the wick. This is normal, as wax expands when melted and contracts when it cools.

To make the second pour, re-heat the remaining wax and pour it into the depression of the cooled wax in each tealight cup. Let stand another half hour or so to cool completely.