Wednesday, January 16, 2013

DIY Orange Tealight Candle

I saw this idea on Pinterest a while ago and had a hard time believing that you could actually make a candle out of just an orange peel and some oil, so I had to give it a try. I can't imagine a time when I'd actually need to try this, so this was just for fun. The blog: http://www.intimateweddings.com/blog/diy-orange-candles/ posted about how such a novelty could be completed. 

I made it a little more difficult on myself the first go around and cut the orange totally in half and gutted it out like you would a grapefruit. That did not go as smoothly as I would've liked, but I got it done! 

I then filled the orange peel with oil and made sure the wick was saturated with the oil as well. 


And...drum roll please.... ... ... ...

It eventually lit... barely. 



The candle blazed with a flame for a grand 15 seconds...or less...but, it did light...after many, many, many tries.

But, being the tenacious girl that I am, I did not give up so easily. I decided to try peeling the orange with the method intimatewedding's blog called for, which was far easier to peel, actually. Then, I tried it again.

And, TA-DA! It lit! I had a candle!



The website boasted that you could have a candle that would burn for a few hours. I timed mine. It stayed lit for 30 minutes. Would it have stayed lit for longer if I had added more oil? Quite possibly, but I wouldn't put in the effort to add more oil every 30 minutes - that would get expensive, using olive oil!

Intimatewedding's blog suggested using these as center pieces at weddings or garden parties and the like. I can't imagine doing this as it still took multiple tries to get my orange candle lit and it only stayed lit for a half hour. This would be far too much work for a wedding, in my opinion.

I also expected that this would give off a nice citrusy aroma in my home, but it actually had no smell - which some people may like better. I think I'd pass on doing this again, other than for experimental purposes.

However, maybe you'd have better luck! If you try it and it works for you, I'd love to hear how you made it work.

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