BIG BOOK OF BOTANICAL CRAFTS: How to Make Candles

Candles, soaps, scrubs, and sanitisers are among the herbal products you can make in your kitchen, enjoying the huge satisfaction of practising a craft, helping the environment by using natural raw materials, and at the same time adding to your store of kitchen and bathroom essentials at a fraction of the cost of getting them in a supermarket. An introduction entitled "Creative Wellness" encourages you to pursue these crafts in groups, adding the health benefits of socialising and relieving stress. The three practical sections are divided into Home Apothecary, Creative Candles, and Soaps and Sanitisers. Each section gives room for variations, allowing you to change the fragrances and botanicals to create a completely individual product. Some of the recipes require melting over heat, but others are simply "mix and store" products. For melting, use a microwave or a heatproof container inside a pan of water. Plant oils for the projects include olive, grapeseed, and sweet almond oil, and other useful bases are beeswax or Epsom salts. Herb-infused oils can be made with lavender, calendula, comfrey, sage and other herbs from your garden. The oils are then used to create herbal foot soak, calendula bars or aromatherapy perfume in beautiful glass containers with a sprig or leaf of your chosen herb. Soothing botanical bath salts with rose and citrus; aromatherapy soy wax candles with lavender; natural housecleaners with refreshing orange and cleansing sage; disinfecting kitchen cleaners with lemongrass and pine; reusable lemon and rosemary citrus hand wipes; invigorating peppermint sugar scrubs; moisturising hand soaps with basil and bergamot and many more! The section on candles includes detailed instructions and troubleshooting tips, with examples such as jam jar candles and herbal sleepy time wax melts. 190pp, clear instructions and colour photos.