Contributor post by Emily Hirsch and Erik Steinberg of Hello Home Shoppe
This time of year, you’d be hard pressed to find us eating dinner inside. Once the thermostat hovers above 70 degrees F and the sun is out, we’re pretty much guaranteed to be dining al fresco. The only problem? Mosquitos! Getting eaten alive by bugs tends to take the allure out of eating in the twilight. Not to be deterred, we found a solution that’s as stylish as it is practical: citronella candles!
Unlike many store bought candles that are citronella scented, we like using natural citronella essential oil to make our candles and find them just as effective. Read below for the tutorial.
You Will Need:
-planter or some other watertight vessel (we scored ours at Target)
-three candle wicks
-three pencils
-soy candlewax
-natural citronella oil
Directions
1. Anchor your wicks in the bottom of your vessel. Wrap the excess wick around a pencil balanced on the mouth of the vessel. If you’re making a three wick candle like ours, you will need to make sure that the wicks line up evenly in a row.
2. Melt your wax according to manufacuter’s directions. To save time, we microwave ours for 30 second increments until melted. Add about 15 drops of citronella oil to wax.
3. Pour hot wax into your vessel. Let wax harden for a few hours.
4. Once wax is hardened, cut wicks to desired length.
