They have the most striking and realistic looking candles with butterflies, flowers, fairies and even cars.

The great thing about these candles is that they have an opening in the middle where you burn a tea light. The outer gel glows but of course does not burn.

If you wanted to make your own fish bowl gel candle, you could buy fish gel candle embeds like the ones at GelStuff.com. They also carry fragrance oils, dye blocks, wicks, wax and labels for gel candles.

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To attach the wick onto the bottom of the candle and prevent it from floating I used a wick stickum. It’s basically a double sided sticker so one end sticks to the wick tab and the other to the glass container. I purchased these wicks pretabbed but they’re not hard to make with a pair of needle nose pliers.

I heated the gel until it was 180 degrees Fahrenheit and then added a little blue dye. You only need a tiny bit of dye with gel. Make sure your dye is safe for gel candles because some dyes don’t break down properly.

The slower you pour your gel, the fewer bubbles you will have. I was actually hoping for more bubbles because I was going for a bubbly ocean look.

To keep the wick straight I just used a pencil but any sort of stick would work. It didn’t take long for the gel to harden. Someone poked at them while hardening but they still turned out fine. One is in a regular glass container and the other is a baby food jar. I think the result is beautiful especially for my first try with gel.

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The flutes with fall leaves are beautiful and you could customize it with other plants so don’t have to go with the fall theme. I love how they used red colored gel at the top of this design.

This fuschia orchid gel candle would brighten up any summer gathering. I love it’s simplicity and it is cheerful and elegant at the same time.

If you’re making your own you could tailor the color and type of flower to your theme. Check out Wedding Reception Ideas for more gorgeous gel candle favors.

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They use pieces of gel to create the look of snow. A creative candle project that would make a nice present would be placing a miniature nativity scene inside the gel.

If you would like to make your own holiday gel candle Gel Tyme has a large selection of wax embeds for candle making. They have gingerbread men, gumdrops, trees, snowflakes and more.

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Happy Candles also offers full gel candle making instructions if you would like to try your own gel creations. There is even a handy wick size chart at the end to ensure your candle burns properly.

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They share some useful tips and busted some myths, exaggerations and horror stories. One email in particular has been circulating and has now been deemed as an urban legend. It includes stories about toilets blowing up and exploding gel candles which seems to be a slight exaggeration. Some polar fragrance oils can separate from gel and form pockets which can then possibly flare up so using the proper fragrance oil is important.

Although candles don’t really explode, if the glass isn’t thick enough it could possibly shatter after being overheated for too long. See Making Gel Candles section on gel candle horror stories for more information.

Although Making Gel Candles guides are broken into sections, it would be a good idea to read all of them before beginning.

Section 1 is all about Gel and includes what it’s made out of and what type you need. Section 2 explains the equipment needed which is typical traditional candle making equipment but a Presto Kitchen Kettle is suggested instead of a double boiler. This is much easier anyway and also has a temperature control which is safer. I haven’t made gel candles so a new piece of equipment that looked unfamiliar was metal knitting needles or a metal spoon for stirring. Section 3 includes a little bit of information on dyes. Section 4 is about fragrances which is important because they have to be non-polar and above a certain flash point. There is a lot of useful information here including a test for polarity if you want to see if your fragrance is safe for gel. Section 5 has some information on wicks and which wicks to use. Section 6 is on embeds and includes suggestions on non-flammable items to use. Section 7 is on technical info, 8 is on product testing and 9 has a well organized safe gel check list.

It’s an informative site and a good source of information for the beginning geller.

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GelCandles.com tells us a story about Expoloding Gel Candles and urban legends even covered the same article and questioned its authenticity. Breakthechain.org also has this exact letter listed as a chain mail sent out to spill myths and legends amongst gullible people. There have been numerous re-calls which has spiked the rumor mill even the Body shop had to recall their gel candles. Forget the chain mails and recalls and ask your self this , at the end of the day do you think they are safe?
If your still interested in making some gel candles then I suggest reading as many sites as possible on How to make gel candles before even ordering in your supplies. Why not just 1 website I hear you say ? because as with life the best way to learn things is from our mistakes, so by reading others websites you are learning from other peoples mistakes and its going to make your gel candle making and burning experience so much more pleasurable.

If the worst happens do you know how to treat a burn ?

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