Candle Colors - Information on Contemporary Candles Colors

The short explanation: We do not have a color chart -- every candle we make is hand-poured at the time of your order, and custom-colored. Our color chart is only limited by your imagination!

However...we can certainly create the color you are looking for! If you are a bride who would like to match her candles to her bridesmaids' dresses or table linens, or you have a favorite quilt or comforter and would love to have some pillar candles in the same shade, or even if you've been looking everywhere for candles to match your wallpaper...we can help.

The only catch is: we require a color sample to be mailed to us. If you would like us to work from an image sent on the computer, we can certainly do it but cannot guarantee a color match. Here's why:

Every computer monitor is set differently. This affects how colors appear. What may look dark blue on my monitor may appear black on yours, depending on your monitor settings and video card.

In addition, we don't have a computer in our workshop. We would have to print the image to take with us into the workshop and again, printers don't always print in the same shade that appears on a monitor.

Interested in the long explanation as to why we don't have a color chart? Read on!

Why don’t we have a color chart showing the colors that we make? There’s so many reasons, we almost don’t know where to begin!

Every candle we make uses a completely different wax (i.e., votives, pillars, melts and container candles). Each of these waxes treats colors differently. If we used one drop of blue dye in 6 ounces of container wax, it would look much more pastel than in votive or pillar wax.

We use two different types of dye: liquid and solid block, which is shaved off in small increments. Because we make every candle at the time of the order, we don’t keep huge quantities of already-made candles in stock. If someone orders two votives, we’ll make two votives and shave off a bit of block of dye to color them. If that same person comes back and orders 200 votives in the same scent, the color will be different because we’ll use liquid dye (better for large batches) and it will be a different shade.

Fragrance oil affects color (cinnamon is a major culprit). Fragrance oil can be clear or almost a dark brown color, yellow or nearly orange. The tint of the fragrance oil will completely affect the dyed color of the candle. This is why we can’t make certain candle scents in a light purple color, for instance — if the fragrance oil is fairly yellow, it mixes with the purple dye and turns it a gray color. To override that yellow fragrance oil tint, we have to add enough purple dye that the color ends up being more of a deep medium purple shade.

As mentioned before, computer monitors display color differently. What looks like purple on our monitor may look like black on yours, depending on your resolution and other settings.

We specialize in highly-scented candles. We want to provide the best quality we can, with a large number of fragrances for our customers to choose from. Unlike major candle suppliers who offer a limited number of scents and make thousands of pillars at one time using machines and pressed wax, we hand pour everything. We simply don't make 100 Magnolia Melba pillars at one time and then set them aside for months, filling orders for that scent as they come in.

In closing...if color is the most important feature of the candle for you, we want to give you the color you are looking for.

You can place your order online, then mail your color sample to:

Contemporary Candles
169 W. Wrightwood Ave.
Glendale Heights IL 60139

We'll notify you and begin processing your order when your sample arrives, and return your color sample with the finished candles.