The best candle making classes in NYC

There's nothing like making your own candle, and these are the best places in NYC to learn

Advertising

If you want to learn a new skill that’s accessible, practical, and fun, consider enrolling in one of these candle-making classes. You’ll immerse yourself in the art of candle making as you learn to blend fragrances and pour wax to create personalized creations in a hands-on class. Under the guidance of experienced instructors, you’ll discover the secrets of crafting unique scents and designing beautiful candles. In addition, thanks to platforms like Etsy, you can sell your artisanal candles online and in person at craft shows, flea markets, and swap meets. Then, once you’ve gotten candle making down, you can transfer those skills (and preferences) to other artisanal craft home goods.

Recommended: Best Pottery Classes in NYC
Recommended: Best Art Classes in NYC
Recommended: Best Team Building Activities in NYC

This article includes affiliate links. These links have no influence on our editorial content. For more information, see our affiliate guidelines.

The best NYC candle-making classes

Candle Making Ateliers

This hands-on, immersive candle-making experience is offered by Atelier Artisane, which provides instruction for creating healthy and environmentally friendly candles. You’ll learn the fundamentals of candle making and will pour your own candle, crafting a custom-scented piece that reflects your personal style. This class takes place in a relaxing and welcoming setting, and you’ll leave with your own beautifully crafted candle.

DIY Candle Making with Instructor Samantha

Design a custom scent and create your own unique hand-crafted candle in this relaxing, beginner-friendly workshop. You’ll work with 100% soy wax and use toxin-free oils, getting step-by-step instruction from Samantha, in a creative and supportive environment. All candle-making supplies are included, and you’ll take home one custom candle.

Related DIY home goods classes

Professional Cold Process Soap Making

Bespoke, artisanal soaps are a very popular gift and are highly sought after by anyone looking to find the perfect blend of organic ingredients to add to their skincare routine. In this course, you can learn how professionals make the artisanal soaps that they sell and how they select and source their organic ingredients. This program is perfect for anyone looking to turn their hobby into a way to make an income on the side, and it is also great for anyone looking to figure out how to make the perfect gift for someone close to them (or for themselves, since everyone’s skin deserves special treatment).

Natural Perfume Workshop

Choose from a wide range of botanical scents, including therapeutic-grade essential oils, rare woods, exotic flowers, and invigorating spices, that you can incorporate into your candle and perfume making. In this unique sensory experience at Bios Apothecary's perfume-making workshop, you’ll learn how scents combine and how perfume has been made throughout history. This class provides you with the knowledge and tools to craft your bespoke fragrance, drawing on Bios’s library of over 130 all-natural, organic scents. An expert perfume maker will guide you through attuning your creation to your desires, letting you create a fragrant, bespoke perfume ready to be worn when you get home.

Advertising

Intro to Perfumery: A Primer at Fragrance Alliance Network

At Fragrance Alliance Network's Intro to Perfumery: A Primer, you'll learn the intricate science of our sense of smell and fragrance perception. Designed for beginners, this two-hour workshop provides a comprehensive overview of the anatomy of the olfactory system and the role of scent receptors in detecting and interpreting fragrances. You'll explore the essence of natural raw materials and aroma chemicals in perfumery, including plant origins, extraction processes, and the use of synthetic raw materials. You'll also gain insights into the spectrum of material families and classifications in perfumery while delving into the nuances of scent differences based on genus, species, and geolocation.

Candle-Making Class Gift Card

Give the gift of a fragrant journey through the bustling streets of NYC's creative hub with an enticing gift card for a candle, soap, or perfume-making class. Whether you're a seasoned crafter or a novice looking to explore the world of fragrance, classes offer an aromatic adventure for everyone. Treat yourself or surprise a friend with the gift of crafting luxurious candles, artisanal soaps, or bespoke perfumes. From beginner-friendly classes where you'll learn the basics of candle pouring and soap molding to speciality workshops featuring advanced techniques and exotic scents, there's a class to suit every level of expertise. Spice up your date nights with romantic candle-making sessions or bond with friends over a fun-filled perfume-blending workshop. With a gift card, you'll unleash their inner alchemist so they can create signature scents that captivate the senses.

Group activities and team-building events

Soap Making at Your Office

Bringing fragrances into your home has been shown to enhance mood, reduce stress, and even improve sleep. While candles are a classic way to make your space smell great, you can enjoy your favorite scent whenever you wash your hands. Bring your team together for a fun evening of hands-on crafting as everyone makes their artisanal bar of soap. You’ll have the chance to select the coloring, scent, and botanicals you include in your bar of soap, and then your expert instructor will guide participants through turning the disparate ingredients into a complete and useful bar of soap that they can take home with them. Whether or not your employees continue with their new soap-making skills, this course will surely be a hit amongst your team members.

Candle Painting Group Event

Your employees will unwind in artistic bliss at this event, where plain candles are transformed into bespoke masterpieces infused with vibrant colors and personal vibes. Led by a live professional host, this instantly bookable experience in Bushwick offers a laid-back evening of creative fun. Everyone will receive three tapestry candles to paint during the two-hour session and enjoy free time for creative expression while chatting and sipping. They’ll take home their unique candles and cherish the memories of this chill candle painting hangout.

Advertising

Perfume Blending At Your Office

In this workshop, your employees will use a variety of cruelty-free materials to blend their own custom perfume. The instructor will bring all the necessary supplies to your office and present a brief introduction on the process of blending common ingredients and fragrances. Students will use this information to select the supplies they want to use for their perfume. After the event wraps up, each participant will leave with a hand-crafted and one-of-a-kind perfume blend that they can use whenever they’d like.

Why Enroll in a Candle-Making Class?

Learning to make artisanal, bespoke candles may seem like something other than an immediately practical skill, but the sense of accomplishment and empowerment from mastering a new craft is invaluable. Spending a few hours over the weekend learning the basics can also have useful applications. For instance, more people are embracing a health-conscious lifestyle, particularly one that prioritizes organic ingredients, and you can ensure that the fragrance you breathe from your candles is only from natural sources. Moreover, you can tailor the fragrance to your preferences, creating a restful space, masking odors, or enhancing your mood or sleep. 

This can extend to other personal products like soaps and perfumes. Learning to make your own home goods will ensure that you know what is going into them and that they aren’t full of harmful chemicals or cheap fillers. You can make hand-crafted luxuries to ensure that all your goods are perfectly attuned to your unique skin. Plus, you'll save money and enjoy making high-quality products in the long run. If you dive deeper into the world of artisanal candles and other home goods, you can also turn it into a relatively profitable side business. Handmade candles, soaps, and perfumes are popular gifts, and there's a market for organic home goods. You can sell your products online or attend local swap meets, flea markets, and craft fairs.

Advertising

Choosing the Right Candle-Making Class for You

If you enroll in a course to make candles, soap, or perfume, you must first decide what specific artisanal skill you want to know. While it may seem obvious, making perfume isn’t always transferable to learning how to make soap, except for the knowledge of fragrances. You can’t pick a course about making scented home goods and assume that all the skills you learn will be helpful if you follow a different path later.

You’ll also want to consider whether you're attending the class as a one-time experience or if you want to learn how to create artisanal goods in your home. If you spend an evening making candles to give as a gift, you don’t need to consider the long-term cost. To pursue it as a hobby (or a side business), consider the start-up costs of building a home workstation. 

Finally, when you select a course, another thing to consider is what type of students that course is intended for. Does the course focus on providing introductory instruction, like Candle Making Pop Up! Experience, or does it offer an in-depth study of a subject, like the Natural Perfume Workshop?

Recommended
    Latest news
      Advertising