How do you make votives and tealights?

Votives are poured into small metal cups with a wick pin, topped up after they shrink, released and wicked; they must then burn inside a holder, because a votive is made to melt completely. Tealights are poured into their own cups around a pretabbed wick and burn in the cup. Use a wax sold for votives (CandleScience tested MP-137 votives at 160 to 180°F, with a second pour at 180°F) or, for tealights, the tealight figures on your wax's sheet. This page gives the published wax figures, both processes step by step, what one retailer requires of tealight cups, and why the votive holder matters under ASTM F2601.

Votive or tealight

The burn behavior drives everything else. A votive is wicked to melt its whole width, which is why it is a pool of liquid wax by the end of a burn. A tealight is so small that one retailer protocol burns tealights to the end of their useful life in a single continuous burn, rather than in 4 hour sessions [7].

Votive wax: what the sources publish

All figures below are CandleScience's results for its own waxes, from its Lab Notes.

CandleScience reported a votive in IGI 1239 that "filled a small room in 30 minutes" on hot throw, rated a solid 3 out of 3 on its own scale [3]. That is one supplier's single test, and it sets no benchmark.

No wick sizes for votives appear in these notes. Start from your wick supplier's chart for the votive's diameter and test one size either side (see how to size a wick). A votive wick should melt the full diameter; test it in the holder you intend to sell or recommend.

Making votives in metal cups

1. Set up the cups. Clean, dry, room-temperature metal votive cups with a wick pin standing in each. Wick pins and wick tabs are sold by candle suppliers alongside the cups [4].
2. Melt and scent the wax at your wax's figures. CandleScience heated MP-137 to 190°F (87.8°C) and added dye before fragrance [1].
3. Pour at the votive temperature from your sheet. Fill to just below the top so the second pour has room.
4. Let the votives set. The center sinks around the pin as the wax shrinks.
5. Top up with a second pour at your sheet's figure (180°F for MP-137 [1]) to the original level. Do not let wax run over the cup edge.
6. Cool completely, then release. Tap or pull the wick pin and the votive should slide out [1] [2].
7. Wick the votive. Thread a pretabbed wick of the tested size through the channel from the bottom, so the tab sits flat under the base.
8. Cure before testing, for the time your wax's sheet gives.

Making tealights

A tealight needs no mold. It is poured straight into the cup that stays with it as its container.

1. Set out cups with pretabbed wicks centered. CandleScience's pretabbed wicks have a steel tab and are coated in vegetable wax and beeswax [5].
2. Use a load suited to a tealight. CandleScience lists SimplySoy at up to 10 percent fragrance for containers but 5 percent (0.8 oz per lb) for tealights [6]. If your wax's sheet gives a tealight figure, use it.
3. Pour at your wax's pour temperature, to the same level in every cup. A tray with a raised edge keeps cups from tipping and catches spills.
4. Keep wicks centered as the wax sets; a wick that drifts to the side of a tiny cup heats one side of the cup.
5. Cool, cure and test burn each new cup, wax and wick combination.

Metal or plastic cups

Clear plastic tealight cups are sold, and they bring a test of their own. Kohl's protocol includes requirements for plastic candle containers: in its test, the total burn time of ten plastic containers must be 300 seconds or less, no single container may burn longer than 30 seconds, and none may be completely consumed [7]. The protocol's revision history also records an added "Tea Light Cup Flammability Test," whose requirements are not set out in the document [7]. It requires that the container of a filled candle, tealights included, not crack or break when tested [7]. These are one retailer's buyer requirements, from its Test Protocol 100-Z (February 2025, with the same limits as 100-Y), built on ASTM F2417-17, and they carry no legal force [7]. If you choose plastic cups, ask the cup maker what flammability data it has and burn test to the end in the cup.

Why a votive must burn in a holder

A votive left to burn on a plate becomes a puddle, and its wick falls over in the liquid. A holder slightly wider than the votive keeps the pool in place, which keeps the wick upright and lets the candle burn to its end. That is why Kohl's laboratory tests votives in a votive holder it supplies [7], and why your care card must say to burn votives in a holder.

The holder is a fire safety item in its own right. ASTM F2601, Standard Specification for Fire Safety for Candle Accessories, is the standard for holders and other accessories; its current edition, F2601-25, is listed as active (last updated June 5, 2025) and prescribes minimum safety requirements for candle accessories, addressing their stability and the flammability of candle rings, among other subjects [8]. ASTM Standardization News explains that the main concern with holders is tipping, and that F2601 includes a test in which a candle and its holder must remain standing on a 10 degree incline [9]. Glass votive holders are outside the glass container standard, ASTM F2179, whose scope excludes votive holders, hurricanes and glass holders for freestanding candles [10]. All six ASTM candle standards are on the ASTM candle standards.

What that means for you:

• If you sell holders with your votives, the holder is your product too. Ask its maker whether it has been tested to F2601 and which edition, and test the pair on an incline. Candles that tip or lean describes the incline check.
• If you sell votives alone, tell customers what holder to use: heat resistant, stable, and slightly wider than the votive.
• Do the same for tealights. The cup holds the wax, but the cup gets hot. Kohl's tests tealights for stability at a 10.0° incline with the other freestanding and filled candles [7].

Moving on to the tallest molded candles

Votives and tealights are the small end of molding. If you want candles that stand on their own at height, how to make a pillar candle covers the larger pours, and making taper candles covers the hardest of the freestanding forms. The care card that tells customers to use a holder is on burn instructions to give customers.

References

1. CandleScience, Lab Notes: Paraffin Pillar Wax MP-137, undated (header image dated July 22, 2021), read October 22, 2026. https://candlescience.com/lab-notes-paraffin-pillar-wax-mp-137
2. CandleScience, Lab Notes: IGI 6028 Paraffin Soy Pillar Wax Blend, undated, read October 22, 2026. https://www.candlescience.com/learning/lab-notes-igi-6028-paraffin-soy-pillar-wax-blend
3. CandleScience, Lab Notes: IGI 1239 Paraffin Wax, undated (images dated 2018), read October 22, 2026. https://www.candlescience.com/learning/lab-notes-igi-1239-paraffin-wax
4. CandleScience, Equipment (category page), read October 22, 2026. https://www.candlescience.com/equipment/
5. CandleScience, Candle Wick (wick category page with series descriptions), read October 22, 2026. https://www.candlescience.com/candle-wick
6. CandleScience, CandleScience SimplySoy Artisan Wax (product page with applications and instructions), undated, read October 22, 2026. https://www.candlescience.com/wax/candlescience-simplysoy-artisan-wax
7. Kohl's, Private Brands Performance Claims Test Protocols 100, Protocol 100-Z: Candle (including freestanding, taper, tealight, votive, filled and novelty candles), revised February 2025 (current revision; candle limits unchanged from 100-Y, February 2023), read October 22, 2026. https://link.kohls.com/content/dam/klink/100-Z-CANDLE.pdf
8. ASTM International, ASTM F2601-25 Standard Specification for Fire Safety for Candle Accessories (store page, scope and abstract), last updated June 5, 2025. https://store.astm.org/f2601-25.html
9. Doug Clauson, Increasing Candle Safety, ASTM Standardization News, March/April 2013 (posted July 26, 2016). https://www.astm.org/news/increasing-candle-safety-ma13
10. ASTM International, ASTM F2179-26 Standard Specification for Annealed Glass Containers That Are Produced for Use as Candle Containers (store page, scope), last updated May 28, 2026. https://store.astm.org/f2179-26.html