Mosquitoes can be very annoying, any season! It is super easy to make homemade citronella candles – cheap, effective and practices recycling/upcycling along the pathway to be mozzie free.
Citronella is a naturally occurring oil that repels insects – an essential oil that’s made from the distillation of the Asian grass plant in the Cymbopogon genus.
You’ll need:
Candle Receptacle
You can use just about anything that has a sturdy base and will handle the heat – think glass jam jars, small terracotta pots, or make the most of gifted candles in fancy jars/pots that have long been burnt down to the bottom but you can’t bear to throw them because they looked so pretty once! If you are using the latter, sit the base of the old receptacle in a sink of hot water OR in the oven at approx 100°C. Any residue wax will melt from the outside-in, making it easy to scoop it out with a spoon so you can clean it up ready for re-use.
If you are using glass jars, here are my tips on removing the sticky label.
Wax
You can use any type of wax, whether you buy fresh wax from a craft store or local supplier, or melted down wax from older candles. I personally use wax pellets however it can also come in blocks, sheets and shavings. My wax is very golden (it’s organic/not refined) so it has a particularly amber hue.
Wick
I would suggest you buy wick from a craft store. It’s cheap and you can buy it in a small bag of several metres so you can make HEAPS of candles. I wouldn’t suggest you bother about buying a base (a little metal piece that the wick attaches to that holds it down) as I have successfully used a tab from a soda/beer can that does the trick perfectly – see photos below.
Citronella Oil
This is key, obviously. You don’t need a lot of oil to be effective so you can buy smaller quantities than I did. You can google stockists in New Zealand, although you’ll find it readily available.
How to Make Citronella Candles
1. Melt the Wax
Place a stainless steel bowl on top of a saucepan of boiling water. The water needn’t be more than 1/3 of the saucepan volume (best if the water doesn’t touch the base of the steel bowl resting above it). Keep the water simmering while you add wax into the top bowl and watch it melt. It’s just as you would melt chocolate! Note: melting wax can be a messy process so you may want to have a bowl dedicated to wax melting – if you don’t have one, you can pick one up very cheaply at a second hand store.
2. Prepare the Wick
Take a length of wick and tie it to a soda/beer tab. Dip the entire wick/tab in melted wax, then remove and hold it for a minute or so while it cools and dries straight. Place it in the bottom of your chosen receptacle, allow a couple of centimeters above the mouth in height, then cut to length (you can trim it further later).
3. Add the Citronella Essential Oil
Back to the bowl of melted wax….add in you citronella essential oil. I added 1 tsp citronella essential oil per 3 cups of wax pallets. Stir to combine.
Take wax off the heat and allow to cool slightly. You don’t want the wax to cool completely, but resting it before pouring into your receptacle has its advantages (otherwise as it cools from the outside-in, it can create hollows and cracks.
4. Pour wax into your chosen mould
Carefully pour wax into your receptacles, holding the wick upright and centred. A little help from some kitchen utensils will do this job for you as it cools further and solidifies. It may take several hours for the candles to solidify, pending on the size of the jar/receptacle you have chosen.
