I’m so excited to be sharing a project on the LorAnn blog today. I have been a big fan of LorAnn products for years, and I was thrilled to hear they are a Michigan-based company. I’m a Michigan girl myself. My name is Jessica, and I have been sharing crazy good creativity on my blog Mad in Crafts for almost eight years now.
Summers in Michigan are fantastic. My family loves to spend time playing in our backyard, visiting one of the state’s many lakes, or sitting around the campfire at a state park. The only downside of spending time outside is the mosquitoes. If you don’t find a way to keep them away, you may end up covered in itchy bites before the night is over.
I used LorAnn’s 100% natural citronella oil to make some super simple floating wick mason jar candles. The citronella oil is a natural way to keep mosquitoes from ruining your summer fun.
To Make These Candles You Will Need:
Mason jar
Glass gems, stones, or sand
Water
Olive oil
Floating wick
How Floating Wick Oil Candles Work
Traditional candles rely on wax to slow the burn time of long cotton wicks. Floating oil candles use short wicks which draw oil up through the cotton. That oil acts as the fuel for the fire, so the wick itself burns very slowly.
I found my floating wicks online, and they cost me about $10 for 50 wicks. The floating wicks are just small discs of cork into which you insert a one inch wick. The discs float on top of the oil, allowing you to make a candle almost instantly.
How to Make the Citronella Oil Candles
Begin by choosing a jar to hold your candle. You can use any size mason jar you would like, but if you choose an 8 ounce or larger candle, I recommend weighing the bottom of the jar. Adding sand or glass gems to the jar will help to prevent the jar from being knocked over or blown over by the wind.
Next, add water to the jar, leaving about one inch of room at the top of the jar for the rest of the ingredients. Pour in roughly half an inch of oil. The exact amount of oil will vary depending on the size mason jar you are using. The oil will float on the top of the water. Add in a ¼ teaspoon of LorAnn citronella oil and give it a gentle stir.
Finally, place a wick inside the cork disc so that no more than half an inch of wick extends below the disc. Place the floating wick on top of the oil. Check to make sure the bottom of the wick does not extend below the level of the oil. You want to make sure the wick is drawing oil up through the wick, not water.
The wick will use the olive and citronella oil as fuel to burn for several hours. The scent of the burning citronella oil will keep mosquitos at bay so you can enjoy your time outside. When you are finished using the candle for the day, blow out the flame and give the candle a bit of time to cool down. Then you can screw the mason jar lid back on to save the candle for another use. You can replace the floating wick when needed, and refill the olive and citronella oils if you use them up.
Making Scented Candles for Indoor Use
You can use this same easy oil candle technique with any of LorAnn’s many essential oil varieties. Just replace the citronella oil with your favorite scent to create a wonderful scented candle for your home.
A big thanks to LorAnn for letting me sharing this simple tutorial with you today!
This is such a great idea! Pinning it now!
I should give these a try – I am so susceptible to mosquito bites!
These are so pretty! We need to make some this summer, I hate skeeters.