Nostalgic Spice Candle Recipes You’ll Love All Year
Make your home cozy for the ‘ber months with these spiced candle recipes you’ll love all year round.
When dawn is met with crisp temperatures and evenings on the porch require an old familiar sweater, a yearning for coziness returns.
So as the fields of wheat glimmer in gold, and farmer stands fill with bushels of apples and crates of pumpkins, I happily kick my candle-making into full gear!
Handpoured candles are one of the most beautifully practical ways to invoke a warm, inviting atmosphere, leading us into autumn. Nostalgic scents of autumn tell the story of brewing cider with handpicked apples, hayrack rides, bonfires, and the first bite of Mom’s pumpkin pie.
These spiced candle recipes bring it all to light with warm spices brimming inside shimmering, golden mercury glass jars. As the scents fill the air and flickering candlelight bounces off the glass, memories of the cozy season take shape.
Learn how to make your own with a step-by-step candle tutorial and five spiced candle scent recipes you can keep with printable charts!
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Cozy DIY Scented Candles Start Here With Nostalgic Spice Blends
Whether for family gatherings, holiday entertaining, or simply for comfort, candles add a connection to our celebrations and daily life. Creating scented candles that smell nostalgic starts here with five unique blends.
Each scent recipe is crafted with percentages, so you can easily scale them to fit any candle size. Whether you’re working with a 4 oz tin or a big 16 oz jar, just apply the percentages to your total fragrance load and blend away!
Warm Spiced Scents for Any Season
Five Spice
To create a traditional five spice blend, gather notes of warm cinnamon, rich clove, bright ginger, sweet star anise, and a subtle touch of fennel.
- 35% Cinnamon
- 10% Fennel
- 15% Ginger
- 25% Clove
- 15% Star Anise
Warm Apple Pie
This is a fall candle scent recipe many enjoy year round in their kitchen. It’s a delightful aroma of freshly baked apples and warm sugar, highlighted by fall spices cinnamon and clove.
Vintage Market
Like spending a Saturday morning wandering through rows of old treasures and vintage furniture. Bright, sweet orange and rich clove take center stage, balanced by fresh garden rosemary and soft cedarwood that instantly feels familiar, worn-in, and full of character.
- 15% rosemary
- 25% sweet orange
- 10% cedarwood
- 50% clove
Frosted Morning
Creamy vanilla and cozy cinnamon soften the crisp, fresh scent of evergreen pine and a hint of thyme, creating a clean, comforting scent of a home waking up. It makes the perfect candle scent to light on frosty mornings.
Ginger Snaps
Straight off of Mom’s handwritten recipe cards, this blend captures the nostalgic scent of ginger baked with clove and nutmeg. Rounded out with sweet vanilla, it smells just like a flour-dusted kitchen on a family baking day.
- 60% ginger
- 20% clove
- 10% nutmeg
- 10% vanilla
Save your favorites to try or print them all! Then I’ll show you how to test the scents and how to blend it into homemade candles.
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3 Easy Ways to Test Candle Scent Recipes Before You Pour
If not sure what scent recipe to make, start with one of these ways to test these candle scents at home. Each is a great tool for building your own scent blends!
Quick Jar Test:
The quickest way to test a candle scent is adding drops of each oil according to your recipe onto a cotton ball.
For example, if you want to smell the Vintage Market blend before pouring a full batch, do this: Add 10 drops of clove, 5 drops of orange, 3 drops of rosemary, and 2 drops of cedarwood to a single cotton ball. Pop the scented cotton ball into a small glass jar and seal the lid.
After 12 to 24 hours, open the jar and take a whiff! If you love the way the notes meld together, you’re ready to make a batch—or move on to a wax test.
If you open your jar and feel like the clove is stepping on the orange, or you want a bit more cedarwood, now is the time to change it. Write down your new counts, recalculate your simple percentages, and you’ll have a foolproof custom recipe ready to pour into wax with zero wasted supplies.
small candle Test:
If you don’t have wax melt trays or silicone molds, this option might be for you. It is another affordable way to test a candle scent blend in a small container.
A small candle can give a great example of how a scent will perform in a large candle or multiple candles. Opt to make a small two or four-ounce candle. Make sure you give it 3 to 7 days to cure before lighting and smelling the hot throw.
Once you choose and test your candle scent follow the next steps to make a batch of cozy candles at home!
related to
Looking for a citrus candle scents? Check out my list of done-for-you citrus scent blends!
Creating Nostalgic Spiced Candles
Now that you’ve picked your scent profile and tested your ratios, it’s time to bring these nostalgic blends to life!
Grab your apron, set out your jars, and gather your candle making supplies. It’s time to turn these cozy fragrances into beautiful flickering candles. However, if this is your first time making candles, you may want to check out our candle resource center or start with a beginner’s candle-making guide.
Candle Supplies You’ll Need:
Recommended Candle Tools:
How To Make Spiced Scented Candles
1st Step: prep vessels
Press a wick sticker tab to the bottom of each cotton wick. Place a prepped wick at the center base of each vessel. Then slide a wick-centering stick over each wick. Put them on a covered area or utilize a tray.
2nd Step: weigh candle wax
With the vessels ready, place a large glass measuring cup on a digital scale. Select ounces and tare the weight. Pour soy wax inside until you reach 1.70 lbs.
3rd Step: melt soy wax
Put the container full of soy wax into the microwave and heat in 30-second intervals until melted. Monitor the wax with a no-touch infrared thermometer, not heating above 160°F. (BE CLEAR: Your Candle Wax Is Microwavable.)
4th Step: scent wax
Once the wax has melted, let it cool to 135°F before adding the candle scent blend. I added 20 ml of cinnamon, 5 ml of fennel, 10 ml of ginger, 15 ml of clove, and 10 ml of star anise to create the Five Spice scent. Slowly stir the oils into the wax for 2 minutes.
5th Step: pour wax
Cool the scented wax to the pour temperature. Warm each candle vessel with a heat gun before pouring the wax for the perfect adhesion.
6th Step: cure candles
Cure candles for 3 to 7 days for the best scent throw. Trim the candle wicks to ¼” with a wick trimmer before lighting.
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Hand-pouring homemade soy candles is a beautiful tradition you can bring into your kitchen. Whether you’re pouring a batch to cozy up your home for the ‘ber months or giving them away, they’re easily the perfect seasonal touch or thoughtful hostess gift.
To create a seasonal candle centerpiece like I did, add a trio of the candles to a generous bowl or cakestand. Then surround with dried oranges, whole cloves, cinnamon sticks, or pinecones collected on a leisurely walk.
To gift, check out my tips to make your own candle bags!
Spiced Scented Candles
Bring cozy warmth into your home with these nostalgic spiced candle recipes!
Ingredients
- 5 mercury glass 5 ounce candle vessel
- 1.70 lbs soy wax
- 5 cotton wicks
- 5 wick tabs
- 2 ounce candle scent blend
Instructions
- Press a wick sticker tab to the bottom of each cotton wick. Place a prepped wick at the center base of each vessel. Then slide a wick-centering stick over each wick. Put them on a covered area or utilize a tray.
- With the vessels ready, place a large glass measuring cup on a digital scale. Select ounces and tare the weight. Pour soy wax inside until you reach 1.70 lbs.
- Put the container full of wax into the microwave and heat in 30-second intervals until melted. Monitor the wax with a no-touch infrared thermometer, not heating above 160°F. (BE CLEAR: Your Candle Wax Is Microwavable.)
- Once the wax has melted, let it cool to 135°F before adding the candle scent blend. I added 20 ml of cinnamon, 5 ml of fennel, 10 ml of ginger, 15 ml of clove, and 10 ml of star anise to create the Five Spice scent. Slowly stir the oils into the wax for 2 minutes.
- Cool the scented wax to the pour temperature. Warm each candle vessel with a heat gun before pouring the wax for the perfect adhesion.
Notes
Cure candles for 3 to 7 days for the best scent throw. Trim the candle wicks to ¼” with a wick trimmer before lighting.
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Which of these nostalgic blends are you excited to pour first? Leave a comment below and let me know your favorite scent combination! If you make a batch of these spiced candles at home, I’d love to see how they turn out, share a photo and tag me #lifenreflection.