Re-gifting things can be dangerous, but does it count if the gift was a kit, and you make the kit and then give the made item to someone else?

Being a crafter, I often get given craft-kits, sometimes for crafts which I don’t (yet) do. Sometimes it’s for a craft I plan to try, at some point in the vague future when I have time/money/energy/nothing else to do (hah!), and I’m pleased with the kit and set it aside for that mythical moment. Because, obviously, I can’t make it immediately. It has to join the queue.

And then it sits in my craft room for…longer than planned, waiting, waiting, to be rediscovered and made. To have its purpose in life fulfilled.

Such was the fate of the Bee & Bumble candle-making kit a sister gave me several years ago for my birthday. It just always seemed a bit of a faff to open it up and make the candles, even though I did, really, know that it was pretty much as simple as melting the beeswax and pouring it into the jars provided.

All right, perhaps not quite as simple as that. I also needed to add some coconut oil and essential oil, and make sure the wicks remained vaguely central. But at its heart, it was about melting the beeswax, which really did take ages. I feel that chips, not blocks, of beeswax would have shortened this stage.

But I managed to make the three candles without needing to resort to swearing or looking elsewhere for instructions. Word to the wise, though: tap the jar before the wax has solidified to remove any pockets of air. I’m assuming not doing that is the reason two of the candles ended up with holes in the top, anyway.

However, I did have a quibble with the fact that it assumes you want to make all three candles in one go (and yes, that seems the most logical with a kit: you might as well finish it once you’ve started), but it does then mean that you don’t get an idea of the ratios involved, should you wish to buy separate supplies to make more. You don’t want to be buying kits every time, or you’ll end up with a cupboard full of double-boilers. As it is, I have to keep this one separate from the one I use for chocolate, because I’m fairly sure it still has a layer of beeswax on it.

And bottles of opened essential oils: the instructions didn’t actually say how much you needed. Presumably to “smell”, rather than the whole bottle, but now I have a bottle of something calming and relaxing (lavender, I think), and no idea what to do with it! Perhaps I’ll find a candle-recipe somewhere else and make some more.

The other thing the instructions could have done with is advice on the cleaning of the double-boiler and the spoon you used for stirring the wax, which you probably pulled from the kitchen drawer and which is normally used for food. Which will now be flavoured faintly with beeswax and lavender.

But the recipient of the candles was pleased, which is the main thing.