How to Make Soy Wax Melts: Wax, Fragrance Load and Temperatures

To make soy wax melts, you melt soy wax to 175-185°F (80-85°C), stir in fragrance oil, pour into a silicone mold or clamshell, and let it set for 24 hours. It is a candle without a wick, and that is exactly why the details matter more: without a flame to forgive mistakes, the wax choice, the fragrance load and the temperature you add the oil at decide whether a melt fills a room or just sits there. Here is the recipe we use in our workshop, with numbers.

Which soy wax to use for wax melts

A melt does not need to burn evenly, but it has to release from the mold in one piece, survive a bag or a mailer without crumbling, and hold a generous amount of fragrance. Three kinds of soy wax are worth considering.

• Pillar soy wax. Hard, shrinks slightly as it cools, so it pops out of silicone cleanly. It holds less fragrance than container wax. It is the same wax we use for candles made in molds.
• Soy blends made for wax melts. Formulated specifically for tarts and snap bars: harder than container wax, and often rated for a higher fragrance load. The easiest choice if you make melts regularly.
• Container soy wax. Works in plastic clamshells, where the wax stays in the tray until it is used. In silicone it is too soft: it sticks, deforms and leaves an oily film on your fingers.

How much fragrance oil for wax melts

A warmer runs cooler than a candle's melt pool and there is no flame heating the oil, so melts are usually scented more heavily than candles. The ceiling, though, is always the maximum load on your wax's technical data sheet. Past it, the wax cannot hold the oil, and it sweats to the surface and stains the packaging.

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How much wax per clamshell or mold

Measure a mold with water exactly as you would a jar, but use a different ratio. Melt and pillar wax is denser and molds are filled to the top, so instead of the 0.86 used for container candles, use 0.9. Set the mold on a scale, tare it, fill with water to the brim and read the weight. That number times 0.9 is the wax for one mold.

Example: a 6-cavity clamshell holds 2.8 oz of water. Wax: 2.8 × 0.9 = 2.5 oz. Fragrance at 10%: 0.25 oz. A batch of ten clamshells is 25 oz of wax (about 1.6 lb) and 2.5 oz of fragrance, plus a few percent extra for what stays on the pitcher walls. For jars, the soy wax calculator does the same math for you.

How to make soy wax melts, step by step

1. 1

   Weigh the wax and the oil

   On a kitchen scale that reads in 0.1 oz or 1 g. Weigh the fragrance into a separate cup before you start melting.

2. 2

   Melt the wax in a double boiler

   Pitcher in a pan of water, never directly on the burner. Container wax to 175-185°F (80-85°C), pillar wax to 185-195°F (85-90°C). Do not go past 195-200°F (90-95°C).

3. 3

   Add color

   If you are using dye, add it now to the fully melted wax. Melts need very little: color looks more intense in a small solid cube than in a candle. More in how to dye soy candles.

4. 4

   Add fragrance at 175-185°F (80-85°C) and stir for 2 minutes

   The step that matters most. Oil poured into wax that has cooled too far does not bind and will sweat out later. Stir slowly, without whipping in air, for a full 2 minutes.

5. 5

   Pour

   Pillar wax at 150-165°F (65-75°C), container wax at 130-150°F (55-65°C). Stand the molds on a flat tray first so you can move them without spilling. The full chart is in soy wax pouring temperatures.

6. 6

   Leave for 24 hours

   No fridge, no drafts. Cooling too fast causes cracks and white frosting.

7. 7

   Unmold and let them cure

   Push the melts out from the bottom of the mold. Store in a closed box or bag, out of the sun. As with candles, the scent develops over the first days, so test the first melt after a few days, not the same evening.

Using wax melts safely

• Use one or two cubes in a warmer made for wax melts, tealight or electric, and follow the warmer maker's instructions.
• Never leave a tealight warmer burning unattended, and do not move any warmer while the wax is liquid.
• Never add water to the dish: water under hot wax over a flame can spit.
• When a melt stops smelling, the fragrance is spent. Replace the wax rather than adding a fresh cube on top of the old one.
• Keep warmers away from children, pets and curtains, exactly as you would a candle.

Troubleshooting soy wax melts

The scents that perform best in soy candles do well in melts too: vanilla, woods, spices and fruit. Our picks are in best soy candle scents.