Many people think that you can used crayons to colour candles. Well, I know that as kids many of us who were in the Brownies, Guides or Scouts used this method to colour the candles we made during those crafting sessions, remember? Unfortunately, this is not recommended as crayons contain pigments that will clog up the wick, drown out the flame giving you a poor burning candle.

Instead you should use either solid dyes, available in blocks, chips or flakes, powdered dye or liquid dye. You will need to experiment with ratios as it all depends on the wax and how strong a colour you're looking to achieve. With soy wax, you will find that it is opaque, unlike paraffin which is translucent. Consequently, you will find that you need to use slightly more dye in order to get a deeper colour. The easiest way of checking the intensity of the colour as you're mixing it is to drip a little bit of the melted wax onto a piece of white paper. Once it has dried this should give you an idea of the finished colour.

One thing to bear in mind with soy wax is that a deeply coloured candle is prone to "frosting", because soy wax is a vegetable based wax. Ever noticed how on chocolate you sometimes get that white stuff on it after extreme heat? In chocolate it's called "bloom", in soy candles it's "frosting". Some candle makers embrace this as it gives the candle a somewhat rustic appearance, others don't.

So should you colour your soy candles? Personally, I think it depends on the type of candle. If it is a container candle in a food jar, then the rustic look looks good as a "country-style" candle. If it is in a tumbler, then leaving it uncoloured will make the candle look more "chic" perfect for a more upscale candle. That is one of the beauties about soy wax, you have the choice to either colour or leave it natural.