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i spent most of halloween chaotically making candles

today is halloween and, no, i do not have a costumed addendum to my costume roundup from last year. i did wear a wig that i recently got so i could see what i'd look like with long blonde hair, though.

photo of me with a long blonde wavy wig on

this look gets 4 out of 5 pumpkins πŸŽƒπŸŽƒπŸŽƒπŸŽƒ

i had no plans today except to make candles. i have not made any in a couple of months and my collection of jars to use was starting to get out of hand. i even prepped the night before and tweeted about it to hold myself accountable.

photo of some condiment jars, dye flakes, and fragrance oils on my kitchen counter

the selection of fragrance oils i have is embarassing – enough to be accused of anti-vax delusions, but too few to impress the deluded – so unfortunately the scents do not match the labels. i did pick colors based on the accent colors of the labeling.

photo of 4 candles set to harden, one wick is held by a fork held by a bottle of cholula hot sauce

i only have one wick bar, so i had to create a rube goldberg machine of holding all the wicks up. shouts out to my girl, cholula, for helping out. also, pumagreg helped:

photo of a black cat sitting on a small box on the kitchen table

i think the two pepper candles came out great, but there's something about the brambleberry "basil" fragrance oil that i don't think i like at all! it smells a bit like fernet branca, which makes me want to spew.

photo of 3 finished candles, a red one in a pepper jar, a small green one in a pepper flake container, and a purple one in a gherkin jar

i'm most pleased with the red pepper candle. i'm going to gift it to my friend jenn. she doesn't know this yet, maybe she's reading this and wondering if i'm talking about her! i'm also really fond of my first completed scrap-wax candle:

photo of my hand holding a small, complete candle with turquoise, cobalt blue and red layers

i started the day planning 3 good candles, and ended it with 2 excellent candles, 1 good candle, and one candle i find absolutely repulsive but i imagine everyone else would love. you're all weirdos, not me!!

exciting news: i took a break half-way through writing this post to buy more wax and fragrance oils. i'm trying out candlescience because i discovered that brambleberry is charging almost twice as much for the same wax??? i'll do a haul post when these new items arrive!

xoxo jenn

this was published October 31, 2021 under living art candles candle-making cursed-kitchen pumagreg