Orange Candle

This instructable will show how to make a candle from any citrus and kitchen oil in minutes.

Step 1 Materials & Tools

1) Orange, Grapefruit, Lemon
2) Knife
3) Any type of oil, Vegetable, Olive, Canola, etc.

Comments

[SWV1787]

I have been meaning to post these for a while I made them out of Clementines and filled them with standard vegetable oil and they burned for well over 4 hours. it was pretty fun and my coworkers thought it was odd that I was burning oranges on our lab counter, and lets face it you know it's a good idea when it makes your coworkers think your crazy...

[hopelesslylovingcookin]

I absolutely cannot wait to try this one!:) How pretty it looks! Great instructable!:)

[praise_song]

Well, I just made this one. Took awhile to get it to light, but when it did ... voilá! Very simple & clever project!

[praise_song]

Brilliant! And I just bought some LARGE oranges yesterday! Can't wait to try it.
Does it make a difference whether you use the navel end, or the stem end of the orange?

[ashbegash]

This is such a GREAT idea!
I am going to try it! :D

[jfm]

I put 3 Orange Candles in a big salad bowl (glass) half filled with water. The lamps are floating and its very beautiful and safe.

[woodsdweller82]

Wow great idea!

[woodsdweller82]

I did this with a "cutie" and it worked awesome, however be careful! Mine burned for about an hour and then the top caught fire lol! I had it where i could see it so i caught it fast but my lil orange was soo hot, next time im using a bigger orange:)

[KristenlovesGA]

I just tried making the orange candle and it was a success! What a great idea for any occasion....even when your electricity goes out! I used Olive oil an pitted the orange with a spoon and ate the orange. I did not waste :)

[Lorddrake]

I tried this today.  the kids got a big kick out of an oil lamp made out of food.  I used vegetable oil, and found it a bit difficult to light.

has anyone tried different types of oil to find out which one works best?

I was amazed at how translucent the orange skin became because of the oil.  once it is lit it is really easy to see where the oil has soaked into the orange and where it didn't.

[JKPieGuy]

I've tried this for 3 days and may I say it's an excellent project and absolutely brilliant. I demonstrated this project to my Grandparents yesterday and I don't know what happened, but something went wrong and when most of the oil burnt up the orange started to catch fire, also what was stupid is that my Grandparents had set the candle right under their kitchen cabinets. Luckily I had this feeling to check the candle and then blew it out before it was to damage anything or before my Grandparents noticed. A few recommendations I'd recommend is:
1. Don't place the candle near anything flammable.
2. Make sure to house the candle maybe in a glass container or some type of ceramic.
3. Do not use a dried out citrus fruit, it doesn't burn all that good and it doesn't look as good.
4. Make sure you twist all the fruit fibers in the middle to form the wick so that their aren't any strands left.
5. Make sure the candle isn't tilted cause the oil can spill out and the fruit can catch fire.
6. Use plenty of oil so that it's just slightly bellow the top of the fruit but not above the wick.
7. You may have to use a lighter to light the wick instead of a conventional match and you may have to light it a little longer than a regular candle.
8. Place the Candle in an area where you can see it and check on it time from time (so that you don't forget that you have a candle lit.)

`I hope my suggestions help and that you all enjoy making citrus candles as I do. Now don't go burning down your house ok. Ha in fact I have one lit now, love the smell of Citrus!

[Garlikguy]

I tried it with a clementine, but I found the wick to be harder to get at than oranges. Still, super rad instructable! Thank you for posting.

[goofyahead]

Made at work after eating :)

From Madrid, Spain.

[lexkeepsitsimple]

Very, very cool! Awesome idea. Any other ideas for wicks so I could make candles with other oils and put them in glass jars? I know that's the same thing as a kerosene lamp, almost, but I am writing a horror novel so am interested in the multiple ways to make candles and lamps. THANKS!

[abaneyone]

This is a great idea! For sure I'm gonna follow it! You made me laugh when you said, "*Caution - Do not ingest the orange if you have extreme citrus allergies and/or fear of oranges or spherical objects." Fear of oranges? Never heard of that one LOL

[Sevenof nine]

Love it! Used a cookie cutter for the top half, to get an interesting shape.

[nax]

I tried it with an orange with a compact, thin skin. Hard to scoop out and the stem ended up all soggy and I couldn't light it.

But when I tried with a bigger puffier orange, with a thick skin that had lots of white stuff, it worked great.

[tiddlytrinkets]

I also used a clementine. It was REALLY easy to get the orange sections out of the skin and away from the "wick". With such a small cavity and amount of oil, I was curious how long it would burn...close to three hours.

[htarore]

I definitely will try this!! Thank youuuu :)

[handyman1940]

you can also use scented oils that you can find online or at swap-meets where they sell candles that uses a filament light to make the oils give out their fragrance.

[booga007]

I was actually just going to ask this, the oils you get are usually too strong to use on their own, do you add it to another oil (which would have its own fragrance already), or would you use water as a base?

[Evan]

The olive oil was a pretty neutral scent overall. You couldn't smell it more than a foot away from the orange, and up close it mostly smelled like the orange itself.
I'm betting the essential oils will more than make up for other oil scents.

[Evan]

Here's mine!
It received a ton of positive Facebook feedback. I'm excited to try a few drops of essential oil in my next one.

[merillo5]

How cleaver ! I can't wait to try this

[booga007]

I've just done the orange candle with Canola oil, and it seemed to work well, except that there was a smoke trail at first till I trimmed the wick down a little, but now my flame is tiny, will take a few oranges to perfect it, nice for mood lighting tho :)

Wondering tho, if you kept a drip of oil entering the orange shell, would the wick ever burn down?

[Exocetid]

Very, very clever! The citrus aroma is wonderful.

[WhyHello]

really? I thought it would smell like burnt orange :/

[Exocetid]

Got to make it right, follow the instructions.

[WhyHello]

but all I have are bannanas! =(

[belindalu]

while the oil is burning, and heating up, it also releases the smell of the orange--you could even throw a pinch of cinnamon or a drop of vanilla to enhance the smell!!

[WhyHello]

great idea =)

[k2style]

Very Cool and elegant ! ^.^

[DualPhase]

That looks great! Is that a lemon?

[k2style]

thanks for your comment, but is a orange :)

[Cristu]

I found this step easier using a small spoon all along the orange. Picture for example.

[DualPhase]

Great tip thanks for sharing. Is that a hard drive in the background? Platter swapping and candle making at the same time? ha, multitasking at its finest

[cblair1]

For those who are having problems with keeping your candle lit, try using more oil this worked for us!!! I also added orange zest, a touch of vanilla and cinn my candle has been burning since 8am this morning and the scent is wonderful thank you again.

[sajo]

combustible citrus fruit, Cave Johnson would be proud

[DualPhase]

For my next instructable, and in the name of science, I will attempt to transfer a human intelligence matrix into the orange.

[omgmissles1012]

Haha, he would even be more proud if we did a potato candle