By Joleen Morehead

I’ve made candles before. It was in school, and it was one of those fun projects that teachers come up with that doubles as a Christmas presents for the family. Simple, easy, and fun. Imagine me when I realized that I could make bear grease candles! I’m now on a quest to find everything that I can make with bear grease.

First, I had to gather supplies. For this project you can use old mason jars or reuse old candle jars. (Cleaned out of course!) That was my plan, until I walked into Target and some cute looking jars with wooden lids. I fluttered my eyelashes at Kolby (my husband) and he said we could get them.  Success!

Supplies:

Jars- regular or fancy, maker's choice!

Rendered bear grease

Wicks – I found at Hobby Lobby

Glue dots- I used them to glue the base of the wick to the jar, not necessary but very helpful. I found at Hobby Lobby.

Steric acid- Amazon

Beeswax- Amazon (Hobby Lobby was out but the next time I went they had a ton!)

Essential oils- you can find at your local health food store or your favorite essential oil supplier. 

Measurements:

2 cups of Bear Grease

½ cup of Stearic Acid

4 tablespoons of Beeswax

30+ drops of your favorite essential oils, I went with a sandalwood blend. You could even use a citronella blend to keep the bugs away in the summertime. 

Take three glass Pyrex measuring cups (or mason jars) filled the biggest one with bear grease, the second with steric acid, and the third with beeswax. You can use mason jars to double boil, but I liked the Pyrex measuring cups because they have handles that I can easily pick up, when needed.

Put the steric acid and beeswax Pyrex measuring cups in the same pot. They both have a higher melting point than the bear grease so it took about 25-30 minutes on low to get them completely melted. About ten minutes in, I double boiled the bear grease in the second pot. It doesn’t take it long for it to get warm, so you can just put it on the lowest setting on your stove and let it hang out.

 
While your ingredients are melting, get your mason/ candle jars prepped. I put a glue dot on the metal base of the wicks and pushed them down into the middle of the jar. I tied the top of the wicks to pencils so that the wicks would stay in the middle of the jar during the setting up/ pouring process.

Once all the steric acid, beeswax, and bear grease has melted completely, you can start mixing. Take the steric acid and pour it into the bear grease. Next, pour the beeswax into the same mixture.

Take your essential oils and drip about 30 drops in the mixture. Make sure you mix the essential oils in your mixture very well. Essential oils can be flammable if not mixed properly.

Now it’s time to pour! The great thing about using my glass Pyrex measuring cups is that they are easy to pour. Move the wicks to side and pour until desired height in the jar. I left just enough space for the lids to be able to shut with the wick length.

Let your candles set- I left them on the table for an hour or two and decided to put into the refrigerator overnight. 

Cut those wicks and burn your candle! Not too many people can say they burn bear grease candles.

Notes:

This recipe makes about two jars- 10oz candles.

 The steric acid used helps the bear grease stay a solid at room temperature.

The scent of the essential oils in this candle was light, so if you want your candle to have more fragrance add more drops!

Y'all- we burned this candle for 20 hours straight and it only burned about a quater of the way through!!!