Comfort on a winter evening: Homemade herbal candles

Around the 1st or 2nd of February, many northern cultures have a celebration focused on candles. For Catholics, it is Candlemas in which the year's supply of candles used to be brought to the church to be blessed. For modern Neopagans, it is Imbolc, the festival of the Irish fire and hearth goddess Brigid, which derives from her ancient feast day at this time. In Eastern Europe, it is the Thundering, when protections against lightening and fire are renewed also with many candles. The Chinese New Year also takes place around this period with a show of lanterns and candles.  

There is undoubtedly something evocative in the coldest blast of the winter that makes lighting small warm candles immensely comforting. It is also the time when pre-industrial people commonly made their household candles. Candlemaking is warm work and in the summer it can be downright unpleasant, but at this time of year it is both more pleasant and often quicker.

Candlemaking in January in the run up to Imbolc has become a winter tradition at my house and I most especially like to make candles that smell and look beautiful. I have spent several years perfecting this craft and I would like to offer my conclusions here, so that you can avoid some of my more foolish mistakes the easy way.

Here is a quick and easy guide to winter candlemaking using herbs, essential oils and molds. 

You will need: 

• Wax:  Bees wax is good and will primarily make the traditional yellowish candles. It may come in large rough chunks or in sheets of pre-melted wax. Paraffin candle base is also good. It is usual sold as white granules and can be more easily dyed.
• Wicks:  You can buy wick from craft stores. Short wicks with tiny metallic discs attached at one end make it easier to hold the wick in place, but you can also cut lengths of wick from a longer string. You can even make your own wick by dipping cotton string in melted wax.
• Molds: You can technically make candles without a mold by dipping the wick repeatedly in a large vat of hot wax. However, this is tricky and requires a lot of time and arm strength unless you have a lot of specialized equipment. It is a lot easier to use molds and these can also give your candles a desired shape. You can buy candle molds from craft stores, of course. You can also use small boxes lined with wax paper. I have found that cookie cutters smeared with a little cooking oil and placed on wax paper work nicely to make different shapes of candles but they will leak a bit so this method requires patience. The best household candle molds of all are silicon muffin tins. These are completely heat resistant and will not stick to the wax at all. Glass and metal baking ware will often stick and you may be frustrated trying to get your candles out of the mold. Prep them with some grease to aid in that process. 
• Essential oils: Essential oil is optional and people who are sensitive to aromas should be cautious with their use, but I love to add essential oils to my candles. Pine, rosemary, lavender, rose, nutmeg and mint all make good candle fragrances that can be used for special occasions throughout the year.
• Dried herbs: You can also add dried herbs to your candles, which can provide a natural scent when the wax around the herbs is heated. They also create beautiful patterns in the sides of the candles. However, it is preferable to keep the herbs on the outer edge of the candles, away from direct contact with the wick, because the herbs can burn unpredictably and present a danger of fire and hot wax spills. 
• Wax colors: Coloring is optional but can be very fun. I have tried a great many options for coloring candles using homemade supplies, including food coloring, berry juice and spices--all to no avail. I am back to buying wax dyes from craft stores. These work wonderfully but are not entirely necessary to make beautiful candles.
• A metal pot, preferably one dedicated to candle, soap and salve making. Some of us like to call this our "cauldron," even though that is usually just a glorified name for an older and less-favored household pot.
• A metal dipper

How to make the candles:

1. Heat the wax. Use a low heat and allow the wax to melt over about 20 or 30 minutes. If the heat is low it will not burn, catch fire or spatter and you can prepare your other materials while you wait.
2. Prepare your molds. If you're using glass or metal molds smear them with cooking oil to make it easier to get the candle out of the mold. Only use glass if you are using glass molds specifically designed for candles as normal glass will shatter when it comes in contact with the hot wax. Also do not use plastic, except silicon used for baking in ovens. Many plastics, including my plastic measuring cups which stand up to regular cooking temperatures melt at the higher temperatures wax may reach. 
3. If you're using cookie cutters, place wax paper on your work surface and position the cookie cutters so that you can hold down several of them at one time. 
4. Insert wicks into the center of the molds. Don't worry if you wicks initially lean over. You will be able to correct this later.
5. Once your wax is hot, add essential oils and colors to it. Add just a little color at first and then add more as you go. A little goes a long way. Estimate about 20 drops of essential oil in about a cup (220 ml) of hot wax. This doesn't have to be exact and over time you will discover if you prefer more or less than that, but this is a conservative start.
6. Use a metal dipper (how did you think I know about the melting temperature of plastic measuring cups?) to pour a quarter inch (half a centimeter) of hot wax into each of your molds. If you're using cookie cutters or other molds which are not attached to the bottom part of the mold, hold them down firmly for a minute and blow around the edges. (It helps if you work in a somewhat cold room.)
7. Then adjust your wicks to stand upright. (No, creative wick angles don't work very well when the candle is actually lit. They burn best straight up and down.)
8. You may add dried herbs around the edges of your candle at this point for deeply embedded herbs. 
9. Continue pouring in a little more wax. Press down on cookie-cutter molds and readjust wicks as needed.
10. Be patient and exercise great caution when pouring the hot wax. Wax can cause severe burns and unlike water the burning liquid will not run right off of your skin and will be hard to remove immediately. The best first aid for burns is always immediate immersion in very cold water. This is essential. Do not be swayed by other claims of home remedies in the first 30 minutes after a burn occurs. Cold water, period, and seek professional medical attention if the burn is significant. 
11. An advanced technique is to create multi-colored candles by pouring first a layer of one color and then after it cools, adding a layer of another color. This can be done with multiple colors and the only limit is your imagination and patience. The effect is quite beautiful as the candle burns down through multiple colored layers.
12. Once you have filled your candle molds, hopefully without having to use the cold-water first aid for burns, you give the wicks a final adjustment, prop them in place if necessary and wait until the candles cool, at least several hours.
13. Remove the candles from the molds and trim the wicks. 
14. If you wish, you can heat the candles slightly in an electric or wood-heated oven (not a microwave or gas oven) and stick dried herbs to the outside of the candles when they become sticky. Then allow them to cool again. 

A little book for the day of candlelight

If you would like to learn about the old Irish fire festival of Imbolc and its candlelight traditions in the form of a modern story, I have a book for you. Shanna and the Raven is a story for families and children to share an adventure of learning to trust intuition amid the candles of an Imbolc celebration. It is a suspenseful story that will grip children seven and up as well as adults. 

This little book also includes a recipe for strawberry dumplings, a traditional seasonal dish from Bohemian grandmothers, and a tutorial for making a doll figure of the Irish goddess Brigid. The book is illustrated with kid-friendly pastel paintings by Julie Freel. While this is mostly a modern adventure story, it also has much to teach both about the holiday and connecting to intuition.

Another potent symbol of the intuition, inspiration and prophecy of the season is the crow or raven, which is featured Shanna and the Raven. You can read last week's post on the history and mystery of crows and ravens here. 

Five Amazing Things You Can Do with Essential Oils: Home Medicine Cycle 5

Herb harvesting season hasn’t hit yet, so I’m still working on things that don’t come directly from your garden, meadow or vacant lot. I do prefer to garden and wildcraft as much of my medicine as I can. I like to know where the ingredients come from both for the safety of the moment and for the purposes of quality control and getting a sense of what really works.

Image by Hugo.arg at the Samogitian language Wikipedia 

But there are a few things that I’ve learned to do with essential oils over the years that I simply can’t replicate with fresh, dried, infused or tinctured herbs. And given that I can’t make my own essential oils I’m always on the look-out for high quality essential oils. This is more of an issue than you might think. While essential oils may look and smell very similar regardless of the manufacturer, there can be huge differences in the quality and the actual ingredients. Big Herba can be as problematic as Big Pharma (as well as being less regulated).

For this reason I suggest doing some research in order to find a good local supplier of essential oils. In Central Europe, Karel Hadek is a reputable source that I use. In the US, Mountain Rose Herbs is a well-respected company.

Now let's get on to the eminently practical things you can do with essential oils. Obviously essential oils can smell very good. You add them to salves, soaps, candles and bath water for fun, relaxation and health benefits. Some people really enjoy putting them in those little candle-powered aromatherapy diffusers. And there are extensive lists of aromatherapy benefits that may or may not be born out in practice. Given that they smell so good, many people just use them and hope.

I am sure that some of the benefits espoused by aromatherapy probably do have some practical use. The smell of lavender has a clearly demonstrable effect on stress and anxiety. I’ll grant the aromatherapy industry that. But for many people, aromatherapy is still an under-documented field. And my specialty is herbal remedies that you can use at home and which simply work.

So, here are my five amazing tips for things to do with essential oils that are not based on aromatherapy but rather on the same mechanisms as other herbal medicinals.

Tea tree oil for yeast infections

This is one of those few areas of herbal medicine where I suspect the pharmaceutical industry of actively covering up information. Given the incredible anti-fungal power of tea tree oil, it simply makes no sense that we see so little use of tea tree essential oil. Instead we have a plethora of pharmaceutical anti-fungal medicines in pharmacies, many of which don’t actually work.

Years ago, when I went through the wringer of medical fertility treatments and hormone medications, my immune system was extraordinarily weak. As happens with immune deficiencies, I soon had fungal infections everywhere. It was so unpleasant that I tried every pharmaceutical I could get my hands on. Nothing worked. The infections either didn’t respond at all to the treatments or they went away briefly and soon came back. I tried all kinds of other things as well (even boiling my socks and underwear). Nothing worked and doctors were no help, simply saying that I had to keep trying and live with it.

Finally, I read about this simple recipe using tea tree essential oil diluted in olive oil. The strength may depend on various factors, so start with a low concentration and carefully work your way up. You do NOT want to use undiluted tea tree essential oil anywhere on your body, let alone on sensitive areas. It is powerful enough to destroy cells and wreak havoc on your mucus membranes.

Put two tablespoons of olive oil in a small glass jar with a good lid. Add 10 drops of tea tree essential oil. And voila you have topical anti-fungal medicine. You can use it on intimate areas. It should have a distinct cooling feel. If it doesn’t, add more tea tree. If it stings, add more olive oil. You don’t want it to hurt. You can use somewhat higher concentrations for the no-fuss treatment of athlete’s foot.

A slightly different use of tea tree oil is effective with thrush and other mouth and gum infections. Dilute the tea tree oil in warm water instead of olive oil and use it as a mouth wash. It doesn’t taste delicious and it isn’t advisable to swallow it. In fact, you might want to refrain from this if you are pregnant, pending further research. Tea tree shouldn’t be used internally during pregnancy, given what is known or suspected at present.

Mint for Eczema

I don’t personally suffer from eczema, a blessing for which I am grateful. But I have encountered a number of people who have seen my homemade salves and asked me for a salve for eczema. Some of the first were family friends with a two-year-old daughter. This was a fairly wealthy family and they had been to all the major experts and tried many pharmaceutical treatments. The little girl had terrible eczema on her hands and wrists which itched so much that it was usually bleeding from her scratching.

At the time, I was just starting out in herbalism and when the family asked me about herbal salves, I really had no idea. I remembered reading that mint is good for eczema and I assumed that was like saying ginger is good for upset stomachs, i.e. it helps a little most of the time but sometimes not at all. Mint is after all a very common, mild herb consumed by almost everyone. If it was some sort of miracle cure we would have heard about it. We use it for toothpaste. It isn’t a medical secret.

Or is it?

I gave the family a jar of my mint salve, which I had made because I love the way it feels cool on chapped lips. And I really like the smell of mint. I had used infused mint oil and mint essential oil for this salve. And in a week the family was back begging for more. They had never seen their daughter’s eczema so calmed.

Since then I’ve seen this happen again and again. I am confused as to why the pharmaceutical industry, which isn’t actually adverse to using mint, doesn’t use it more intensively in salves and creams for eczema. It is obviously very effective, both as fresh infused oil and as essential oil.

For the quickest remedy, just make diluted mint essential oil. Again use olive oil or whatever neutral oil doesn’t irritate your sensitive skin. Put 2 tablespoons of neutral oil in a jar with a good lid. Add 10 drops of mint essential oil. If that is gently cooling and doesn’t irritate your skin you can even try more mint oil. It should be gently cooling and should not sting or irritate the skin. If it hurts, don’t do it.

Patchouli for Lice Prevention

We have never had lice in our family since discovering this little trick, so I can’t say whether or not getting them correlates with forgetting to use it or not. But I have read that putting a few drops of patchouli oil in warm water and using that water to comb your children’s hair is a great way to prevent lice.

I started doing this about two years ago. About a year ago my son’s preschool class had a lice outbreak. We were fortunately spared. Maybe it was the patchouli oil. Studies have shown that lice avoid patchouli oil and many anecdotes by parents point to the same conclusion.

I personally like the smell of patchouli. Unfortunately, my children’s preschool teachers don’t, so I have to go easy on it.

Geranium for Tick Repellent

Another essential oil to use as bug repellent is geranium. A few years ago I ran across this idea on a blog about dogs. The dog owner put a drop of geranium on her dog before going out in the woods each day and then found no more ticks on her dog.

I tried this on my cat and on my children and on myself. For my children and me I use geranium oil diluted in almond oil. (There is some evidence that ticks may like olive oil, which is my usual base.) For the cat, I just put a drop behind her neck, which she admittedly hates. My children and I have never had a tick while wearing our geranium repellent. We have had ticks when we forgot to put it on. I’d say the record is pretty good.

My cat does still get ticks unless she is wearing both geranium repellent and a chemical repellent collar. That said, we live in an epidemic tick area where bacterial diseases carried by ticks are so common that my husband and several neighbors have had serious illnesses because of them. Without using both the geranium oil repellent and a collar (even if using either alone), our cat will return from daily rambles in the summer literally studded with ticks. So, geranium oil alone may work even for animals in areas with an intense tick problem. In any event, geranium oil has at least added to the protection of our cat and largely solved the problem for the humans of the household.

Sage for preventing the spred of viral infections

This is something I need to do more often myself. You know how it is when flu and cold season comes around. Especially if you have small children, it is nearly impossible to keep infections from spreading in the household.

Sage essential oil is another tool in your arsenal. This time it is closer to the traditional idea of aromatherapy but only in technique not in the actual function. You heat a small amount of water on a cook stove or in a small container on a wood stove or in one of those candle-powered diffusers. Add a few drops of sage oil.

If you have boiling water, be careful not to put your face right into the steam, unless you’ve only used one drop. To produce a strong effect for an entire room you may need 10 or 20 drops but the steam could hurt your eyes if you get right in it.

The idea is to spread the strong sage essential oil throughout the air as much as possible during the peak infection period when someone in the household is sick and others don’t want to get sick. Airborne sage will contribute to cutting down the spread of infection. Some herbalists claim that smudging with dried sage elicits a similar effect.

That said, the first line of defense is always covering coughs and sneezes and lots of hand washing.

Note: Please remember that this doesn’t constitute medical advice and you should consult a doctor for medical conditions.