Using Beeswax: for Health, Beauty, Home and Gifts – Everything DIY (and a few words about saving the bees)

Beeswax in my home is irreplaceable thing, one of my favorite materials not just for candle-making, but also for home-made remedies and beauty care products. It has many amazing uses even if you have it in very small amounts, so, let me share what I know. I hope you can use this knowledge in your home as well! Here is your little guide to using beeswax – cleaning it, mixing it with other ingredients to DIY your own products and gift ideas! Do not throw away any piece of beeswax – it’s usable, even if it’s just leftovers from a burned out candle.

The most natural form of beeswax is yellow/brownish beeswax – it’s just like honeybees have created it – unbleached and aromatic. Rarely bees make also white beeswax, but don’t get fooled – white beeswax you can find in shops is bleached, not found naturally made by bees. Support your local beekeepers - buy from them and you will be sure you get the best possible option of beeswax!

Properties of Beeswax

It’s the best material for candles – these candles smell nicely without artificial additives and without filling the air in your home with dangerous chemicals that can come from paraffin candles, chemical candle colorants and aromatic agents. I have heard that beeswax candles cleanse the air in home when you burn them – if you have a link to research data that proves this, let me know! One thing I know for use about beeswax candles - they are made from a renewable, natural material.

Beeswax also has been proved to be superior to other natural base materials for skincare products. It has anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and anti-allergenic properties. It helps to protect the skin from stressing environmental factors and keeps the moisture in your skin. It nourishes, protects and softens the skin.  

In medicine it is used to lower cholesterol and relieve pain, for inflammation and ulcers, and even for polishing pills. I use it only externally, although nothing bad will happen if beeswax from your lip balm gets in your mouth. It’s generally safe taking internally or applying on skin externally. For internal use you have honey, for everything else – beeswax J

Cleaning and Melting Beeswax

In case if you get dirty beeswax, you don’t have to throw it out. Taken right from the bees, wax is mixed with honey, bees pollen, little pieces of dirt, sometimes other insects get trapped in it, or if it has been left somewhere for some time, it can be covered in dust. You can clean it: melt beeswax and strain it through a cotton cloth, a piece of clean tights or a clean sock. You can also strain it 2-3 times – as much as you need to get it clean. It’s a bit messy process, but not a difficult one.

The best method for melting beeswax is doing it in a water bath or double boiler. Pour water in a pan or pot , place it over the heat and put in it an empty heatproof  bowl.  The fire will heat up the water, the water will heat the bowl and beeswax in it will slowly melt, ensuring that it doesn’t boil or scorch to the bottom of the bowl. You can check beeswax melting methods here on WikiHow http://www.wikihow.com/Melt-Beeswax  .

Remember that overheating the beeswax might result in discoloration – it will lose the bright yellow tone. As soon as it gets liquid, stop heating and use it.

So here is what you can do with beeswax:

DIY Lip Balm

Making your own beeswax lip balm is the easiest thing on Earth. You need just beeswax and oil of your choice – olive or almond oil are great because of their properties, but you can check the properties of other natural oils to use in your lip balm. Melt a teaspoon of beeswax, mix it with a teaspoon of oil of your choice, pour it in a lip balm container and wait until it gets solid. That’s it. (Beeswax alone is too hard, so you need to add oil about 1:1)

DIY Beard Wax/ Bear Balm/Styling Wax

For bearded men in your life – making beard wax to give them as gifts is easy. Read here (opens in a new tab).

DIY Sunscreen

This probably isn’t for everyone, but for me – a person whose nose is always the first one to burn so that the skin is peeling off, this is a great sunburn remedy and sunscreen. Mix beeswax with lavender essential oil + some other healing natural oil to make your sunscreen softer and easier to apply.

Make Your Own Healing Salves

Any kind of them, including Tiger balm. For essential oil users: mix beeswax with essential oils to

make salves that are safe and easy to apply any moment without caring for diluting oils every time you want to apply them. Second option – make herb infused oils and mix them with beeswax for additional healing benefits, for example, calendula salve – with beeswax you can easily make this at home.

DIY Solid Perfume

Basically, it’s the same as making healing salve just without adding oils, except essential oils – mix beeswax with essential oil of your choice – the one you truly enjoy aroma.

Make your shoes waterproof

Polish your shoes with solid beeswax, then heat them using hair dryer and let them rest for some time. While heating the beeswax will melt covering your shoes with tiny, even layer and then solidify to stay in place.

 Make candles

Of course, you already knew it. I’ve previously posted about candle-making here (but not about beeswax candles): read here (opens in a new tab) Well, some time has passed and I have learnt a lot more. Now I make candles only from beeswax, and they look stunning (yeah, I’m bragging a bit now J ). 

Here are a few of my hand-sculpted beeswax candles made without silicone molds or plastic containers:

You can check my hand-sculpted beeswax candles on my freshly opened Etsy shop - SiltiCrafts

... or follow my latest creations my Facebook page here: SiltiCrafts (opens in a new tab)

I haven’t tried it all yet, but you can find some other uses of beeswax here:

http://www.naturallyloriel.com/17-cool-and-unusual-uses-for-beeswax/

A few words about saving the bees

As a beginner beeswax candle seller (and maker) I’ve faced people who are genuinely sad that I’m using beeswax – animal produced product. The main argument in this case is “The bees around the world are dying and you are taking from them the last they have… You are encouraging killing the bees.” Huh, I don’t know where to start explaining from… Let’s start from the beginning. Why bees are dying? Mostly because of using chemicals in farming. What can save the bees? First thing, of course, the world should stop poisoning the Earth with chemicals. Secondly, the greatest bee saviors and protectors are beekeepers. Beekeeping is doing exactly the opposite of endangering the lives of the bees:

Firstly, caring for bees has nothing to do with animal cruelty. Bees aren’t tied down or locked up into small chambers without a freedom to go. They are free to go and that’s what they do every day gathering honey. They also have a freedom to leave and never come back to the hives beekeepers provide, yet they return.

In the world where forests are cut down and meadows turned into fields for farming with chemicals it isn’t easy to find a place for bees to stay. Beekeepers are offering home for the bees.

When the family of the bees is getting too big for one living place, bees kill a part of their family to get more space. When a responsible beekeeper sees bee-family growing too big, he/she offers another hive for the bees, so a part of bee family can move to another hive. Isn’t that ensuring the living of the bees?

As beekeepers earn money or use for their own needs the honey and beeswax, they are really interested to take a good care of their bees. Both involved sides are benefitting from the beekeeping. Bees aren’t left without food and what is especially important in the North, beekeepers take care of the bees surviving cold winters, because not always they actually survive on them own.

Beekeeping is a long-term process and beekeepers often are those who are taking quiet actions to save the bees and care for the nature without loud slogans. They plant trees that will flower for their bees, they seed flowers for their bees and they plan where they are putting the beehives to make the work for their bees easier shortening the distances bees have to travel for gathering honey. And bees don’t run away, they survive, reproduce and live if they receive genuine care. I don’t think that beekeepers are taking too much for what they are providing and doing for the world. The key is into giving to nature we are a part of and taking respectfully. 

If you meet people who are protesting beekeeping, please, be kind and tell them what beekeeping is and why it’s important for all of us. Support your local beekeepers!

How do you use beeswax?