How to make a coloured sand candle.

Making a 'coloured' sand candle is just a little bit more involved than making a non-dyed candle.  It is a fun, and relatively non-messy activity to do with kids and is only really limited to your imagination.

To get started you are going to need:

• Palm wax - crystallising or feather.
• Liquid dyes
  
• plastic sandwich bags
• Candle fragrance
• Suitable Jar
• Scales
• Measuring cup or pipette

Directions:

Step 1: Weigh out your wax between each plastic bag, depending on how many colours are you going to make.  It doesn't matter if you have too much or leftover as the wax will keep fresh in the bags.

Step 2:  Add a drop or two of liquid dye to each bag.  Just like colouring candles, it depends on the depth of colour as to how much you add.  Remove the air from the bag, seal it tightly, then rub the bag between your hands to disperse the dye amongst the wax.  It will take a few minutes but you should start to see the wax change in colour from white to your desired colour.

Step 3:  Once you have coloured your wax, measure out your fragrance for the amount of wax you have in your bag (just as you would when fragrancing a candle).  You have a number of different options here.  You can either fragrance your whole candle with the same scent - just have different colours or you can have different fragrances for different layers.  Normally you would fragrance at 8% per weight of wax however if you are using different FO for different layers you can get away with less fragrancing so as not to overwhelm each layer.  Remove the air, seal and again massage the wax in the bag between your hands to evenly disperse the fragrance throughout the wax.

Step 4: Pour out your wax into small containers to make it easier to spoon the waxes into your candle jar.

Step 5: Attach your chosen wick to the bottom of your jar using a wick tab.

Step 6: Using a spoon, scoop small amounts of wax into your jar until you have reached your desired level.  Swap out to a different colour and continue swapping in and out of colours to build up your different layers.  Be careful not to shake the jar too much or this will cause the different colours of wax to blend together.

Step 7:  Once your jar is filled, straighten the wick and put the lid on.  There you have a beautiful, coloured sand candle.  You are really only limited by your imagination when it comes to colours, layer patterns and smells.

For a step by step walk through watch our video below.