How to Make Candles - Candle Making for Beginners (Udemy.com)
Quickly and easily make a wide range of fabulous looking, amazing smelling candles, for personal use and gifts
Created by: Shona O'Connor
Last updated October 2025
What you will learn
- Students will learn about the different types of wax and how and when to use them to suit the mold or container.
- By the end of the course you will know the type and size of wick to use to ensure the best burning of the candle for a clean burn and a good fragrance throw.
- Understand the best type of fragrances to use and how to anchor essential oils in your candles.
- How to use colour to create stunning effects in both pillar and container candles.
- How to theme and decorate candles for special occasions, for gifts and to sell.
How it compares
Against the other 418 rated Udemy courses in Lifestyle on CourseDuck:
- Rating4.3 out of 5higher than 12% of them
- Reviews1,755#44 of 419 by number of reviews
- Length3.7 hourslonger than 66% of them
- Last updatedOctober 2025more recently than 72% of them
Course Description
In this course you will learn how to make numerous candles using beeswax, paraffin and soy wax with a variety of fun techniques. You will discover the benefits of making your own candles, from avoiding the toxic ingredients often found in candles to choosing your own colours and fragrances. You will also learn:
- How candles work
- The different types of wax and the best choices for pillar and container candles.
- The correct way to colour candles and how to create fantastic effects with colours
- All about wicks, how they work and the best which ones to use in your candles
- The 2 types of fragrance, their pros and cons and which is best to use for candle making
- How to set up a safe work area in which to make candles
- What equipment you will need - most of it is basic kitchen equipment you probably already have
- The 2 main types of mold and how to use them, as well as ideas for sourcing cheap candle containers, so that you can get started straight away at little or no cost.
As well as watching how to make regular pillar and container candles, you will see how to make massage candles, wax tarts, floating candles and tea lights. You will also see how to make some fabulous candles using whipped wax.
There is even a section on decorating your containers and candles so that you can give them as gifts or even sell them.
I will walk you step by step through making all the candles, so that you can easily make your own afterwards.
By the end of the course you will have enough information and skills to design your own candle creations using a range of molds, fragrances and colours.
Instructor Details
- 4.3 Rating
1,755 Reviews
Shona O'Connor
I have been making soap, candles and bath products for over 25 years and over the last 20 years, I have taught face to face courses and created a number of online courses.
I started with the Melt and Pour soap method and then went on to make soap from scratch using the Cold Process method. I love to share my expertise with others, which led me to start teaching soap making from my home. Now my course is an online version, which allows me to share my passion with students from all over the world, who want to learn or master soap making.
I have successfully sold my soaps, bath products and candles to friends, co-workers, at craft fairs and online.
The best thing about Hot and Cold Process soap making and candle making is that you can make totally natural products that do not contain any harmful chemicals. I can teach you how to make a simple, plain bar of soap, or how to unleash your creativity using fabulous colouring techniques. I have studied aromatherapy, so am the perfect person to guide students in the use of essential oils.
I have always loved teaching and love the satisfaction of teaching a complete beginner to make something creative and seeing or hearing about their delight in the fabulous results they have achieved. Udemy's discussion area is perfect for following up with students and sharing in their successes.
Join my courses and let me help you have fun and make amazing soap, bath products and candles.
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Reviews
By Pooja Saklani Uniyal on 9/30/2025
i feel her very knowledegable and creative, but she is leaving a lot of open ended questions. we don't know anything about canlde making thats why we chose the course but if she keep on leaving the questions unaswered how will we understand.
By Janelys De Santiago on 6/14/2021
This is the most complete course that you will find, from making candles, learning pros and cons of different waxes, to the added bonus of learning how to decorate containers for candles. There are tons of designs that no one else would teach for such a good price. However, it was hard for me to take advantage of the course as most of the instructions for temperature are written. I would have loved to see more of that in practice to avoid confusion and because I am a very visual learner. Recipes as to how much fragrance are written which is helpful, but I would have loved to see more of how the teacher measures in the video. The teacher did mention percentages, however, the description did mention that you must know how to calculate percentages.
By Vignesh Karunanithi on 2/9/2021
This is the first time that I'm seeing something related to candle making. I expected a bit more from this course but probably this is all that could have been taught about candle making and the rest depends upon our own creativity. So, may be it was just my expectations which were too high because I didn't have any prior knowledge about candle making. And since this is marked as a Beginner level course, I think it is good enough.
By Evelyn Ferguson on 1/23/2021
My plan is to make container candles and was melts I have learned so much more than I was expecting I will be picking up some more jars tomorrow and I am looking forward to making different candles now course we very good at explaining everything and how to correct candles
By Undrakh Gurbaatar on 11/15/2020
amazing course learned a lot of new things thank you Shona
By Audrene Edwards on 11/15/2020
Okay so far the course is AH-MAZING. One you can tell that Shona has been making candles for YEARS and that she has really learned the craft. She is very organized with her ideas and the way she communicates them. She also is very realistic and have inexpensive ways and techniques to make sure that we get the most out of our candle making experience and candles. I love how willing she is to share her ideas and resources. I am super excited. I want to learn to make every candle she has listed for personal and business uses. I feel so confident in making my candles for my own reasons and to share. Any thing that I sell I want it to be of the best quality, and with this class, I am getting just THAT! than you! Okay! So I love the videos of her showing how to take temperatures of the wax, how to measure color and how to pour into molds! This course just keeps getting better!
By Vee on 11/8/2020
It is a good match so far.
By Harpreet Kaur on 11/8/2020
I am very excited to get started with the course
By Katherine Belix on 11/8/2020
Really enjoying this course.
By Nicole on 11/8/2020
Excellent course, covered a lot and happy with the detail.
By Sonia Malloy on 10/26/2020
It is very interesting and I am a beginner. Thank you
By Catherine Morrissette on 10/24/2020
I learned a lot about different techniques. I love that there was a lot of ressources about the different waxes and wicks etc. Useful tips and tricks.
Quality Score
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Overall Score : 86 / 100










