One of the great beauties of candlemaking is that wax can be dyed an infinite variety of colours and shades. You can use al sorts of substances to colour candles, this includes wax crayons and poster paint. It is important however to use wax soluble substances because any other substance can cause the wick to get clogged due to small particles.This will cause the candle to smoke and sputter, and eventually it will lead to the candle going out.
Specially prepared wax dyes is the easiest and safest to use, these are available in either disc, powder or chip form. For overdipping, you should use about 4 times the normal strength to achieve the desired colour, however this is a bit of trial by error excersize. When you dye wax to make a solid colour candle, you need to bear in mind that you will only see the true colour of the wax once the it has cooled down completely and usually the wax becomes slightly darker overnight.
Do not be afraid to experiment with dyes, this is all part of the fun and for really bright colours you need to ad stearin to the wax. Wax pigments can also be used and their main benefit is that they do not fade and is used for special techniques like dip and carve, as well as applique'.
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