Have A Girl’s Night Coming Up? Try Out Candle Painting Together!
This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s fall editorial intern Hannah Yarrington. Find her on Instagram at @513hny. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
With the weather getting colder and the days getting darker, having a girl’s night in is absolutely needed to keep your spirits high during the holidays. For your next gathering, I’ve recently seen the idea of candle painting resurfacing on the internet, where people will take plain candle sticks, melt some wax, and paint their own unique designs to personalize them. So, today, we’re going to teach you how to host the perfect candle painting party and all the essentials you need for everything to go smoothly.
What you need
When you begin your candle painting party, there are several essentials you will need for the process:
- Tea light candles: Tea light candles are basically mini candles that are sold typically in packs of 5 or 6 with an array of different colors that you can use. You can find these at your local craft store, Walmart, etc., for pretty cheap, and you can get a good selection of colors that you and your friends will enjoy.
- Solid colored candle sticks/pillar candles: Next, you’re going to need a candle to paint on. I’ve seen many people paint simple white candle sticks and pillar candles, but it could also be cute to paint other colored candles with white wax. Just make sure that there is enough contrast between the wax colors so you are able to see your design well.
- Essential oils (optional): This is an optional step to add if you end up buying unscented tea light candles, or you can skip it if you don’t feel like making those candles smell. I think it would be fun to add your favorite essential oil to the wax while it’s melted to give it a personalized scent.
- Paint brushes: Paint brushes are another essential for this activity, but you don’t necessarily have to buy new ones if you have some lying around. Just make sure to get some relatively small ones so you can dip them into the wax. Fair warning: cleaning the brushes of wax is not the easiest task in the world, but it does come out with some dish detergent and hot water.
- A lighter: I think this is pretty self-explanatory…
- Paper towels: I would definitely have some paper towels on stand-by to consistently whip off and clean your brush to avoid any wax build-up.
Techniques to try
So, the real fun begins after you’ve gotten everything you need and got your setup going. But painting with wax is obviously very different than painting with paint, and there are different techniques you need to use in order to be successful.
- Dab, don’t rub: Dabbing the wax onto the candle is the most effective way to get the wax on there without it streaking all over the place or not looking opaque. Once the wax dries and it does dry pretty quickly once you put it in there, you can add multiple layers to get the desired color.
- Utilize the whole brush: The really fun thing about wax is that you don’t have to wait long for it to dry, and you can also chip away at the edges using the end of your brush to refine any line that you might have messed up. Or if you drip any wax by accident, you can pick it off pretty easily.
- Use a stencil for bigger designs: If you decide to paint a pillar candle and want to do a larger design, drawing out a stencil on a piece of paper might be more manageable, and you can tape it onto your candle so you don’t have to worry about being so precise. But this is just a suggestion, and you can totally freehand all of your designs as well.
And that is about all you need to know for having a candle painting party. Don’t overthink it too much, and be creative in your designs! Let us know what you think below!