The Making of "Pup-In-A-Cup"
I've been thinking about the design and creation of this Pup-In-A-Cup candle since my first pop-up in September 2021. So when one of my first customers - a Doxie mom, reached out to me and requested a repeat order of a Doxie candle I made in bulk for her friends and family in 2021, I couldn't say no. She let me have full freedom with the design and her only requirement was the addition of her little Doxie - Loki to this design again; so off to work I went, with a 2.5 day lead time, to craft another bulk gift order.
Having studied Korean Candle making and completed two intensive courses by two different candle masters over the last two years, I knew in theory what wax components I'd need for this candle. However, I had to experiment with the temperature, the wax proportion and the quantity, so that I could bring to life the candle in my head and in the diagrams in my theory book.
THE CANDLE: The base of the candle is made of regular Soy wax that's poured at a specific temperature after being mixed with premium Fragrance Oil, and left to cool for at least a day, so that there are no lumps and bumps in the wax and the candle compounds are able to bind together perfectly. The chemical proportions in the wax to fragrance ratio need to strike a balance to give out the perfect scent throw.
While the base is cooling, I mixed the Beeswax to create the cute little Doxie/ dog shapes in a mould. Loki is a brown doxie, so to get the right shade, I mixed a few shades of gold, yellow and cranberry to get to the correct colour. These Doxie wax embeds take about an hour to cool, and once popped out of the mould, they need to "settle" for at least 2-4 hours so that they don't break if you handle them.
The final part is the HARDEST part - making the frothy, foamy milk top texture. For this part, I use four different kinds of waxes in different and exact proportions, each having to be heated at their own temperatures, some reaching 100 degrees Celsius! I then have to blend them together with an electric whisk, making sure the wax isn't too hot, or I'll get burnt, or too cool - it will never mix. Once the wax has reached the texture I think is just right, I need to make sure I maintain the room temperature at a constant - this is very important as I need the wax to hold its "shape" in the piping bag, otherwise I won't have a consistent texture.
*WHEW!*
This last part is very intense and needs to be done very quickly, with warm wax literally in the palm of my hand. Once the piped wax has settled on top of the candle and I can see it is holding its shape, I can stick the dog embed in, BEFORE it hardens. 24 hrs later, I clean up the jars with Clorox wipes, remove excess blobs of wax, and add final touches before trimming the wick, labeling and packing the jars.
So there you have it. I hope you enjoyed reading the (intense) candle-making process of the newest, cutest member of the candle art section at Penne & Co. I appreciate you taking the time to stop by, read, and if you have a moment, please leave a comment if you found this interesting or if you learnt something new.
PS I named this OG custom batch "Loki Latte" after my client's Doxie. Needless to say, the customisation was a big hit and I'll be adding other dog breeds silhouettes to the candles soon :)
Did you enjoy reading about the Pup-in-a-Cup's intensive candle-making process?
- Yes, absolutely
- Sort-of
- It was eye-opening