Using 5% beeswax in recipe

lenarenee · Feb 12, 2014

Aha! It took me many (happy) hours to come up with this recipe. It's an attempted copy of the first homemade bar I bought that I really enjoyed.

Why am I attempting to copy? Simply because she doesn't use coconut oil
and so far all of my recipes have. Plus, she used beeswax and rice bran oil which I have sitting around.

It looks like other people have melted the beeswax along with the oils; anyone here had luck doing that?

Miha Engblom · Feb 12, 2014

I am using 1-2% in my bars and that works great for me... I think that more then that might diminish the lather in soft oil bar.... but i am a newbie also ... do not take my answer as a rule...
I am melting my beeswax together with the oils... and then i have to wait quite a bit for them to chill down because beeswax melts at 147F.

The Efficacious Gentleman · Feb 12, 2014

There was a thread about beeswax causing a problem for someone else not so long ago. Hardness can be found in other ways.

karenbeth · Feb 12, 2014

I started soaping to use the beeswax that we produce as beekeepers. I think I used up to 10% in some trial recipes. It makes a 'squeaky' soap and doesn't feel great on your skin in the shower. Now, I tend to use 1% beeswax to help a little with hardness. The soap feels much better - but it doesn't use much beeswax

The Efficacious Gentleman · Feb 12, 2014

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=42311&highlight=beeswax

That is the link to the other thread I was meaning

Happysoap · Feb 12, 2014

I would recommend to use a maximum 1-2% beeswax. I was stubborn and determined to use beeswax in soap. My friend is a beekeeper and I get the raw beeswax (the kind that still has propolis and pollen in it, its a bit softer than the beeswax you can buy). So I tried many different % of beeswax but anything above 3% created a number of problems in the soap (inhibited lather and it just felt weird on the skin, almost like it was sticking to the skin, not great).

seven · Feb 12, 2014

yep, i was using 5% on my facial soaps and the lather is meh

for hardness, you can also use stearic acid, but be careful as it can be tricky to work with and it speeds up trace. there are also butters, and animal fats..

CaraCara · Feb 12, 2014

Miha Engblom said:
I am using 1-2% in my bars and that works great for me... I think that more then that might diminish the lather in soft oil bar.... but i am a newbie also ... do not take my answer as a rule...
I am melting my beeswax together with the oils... and then i have to wait quite a bit for them to chill down because beeswax melts at 147F.

In one of the beeswax threads someone mentioned that she actually melts the wax and emulsifies it with some of the oils first, then adds it to the batch. I thought this was a great tip and it would cut down on the waiting. I too like using some beeswax in soaps but only at about 2-3%.

QueenBeeSoap · Feb 12, 2014

I like the qualities of beeswax in soap at 1%. Any higher could inhibit lather. It doesn't use up a lot of beeswax, so I use the rest of the beeswax left over from my backyard apiary to make candles (planning to try making lip balm and salves as well!).

To use beeswax in soap, I melt the beeswax along with some of the hard oils / butters that need to be melted for my recipe. When the beeswax has completely melted, I mix it in with the melted oils, then add the melted oil and beeswax mix into my room temperature liquid oils and mix everything together thoroughly. I soap on the colder side, since I usually use room temperature masterbatched lye water mix, so this way my oils aren't excessively hot.

The Efficacious Gentleman · Feb 12, 2014

Can also make a leather treatment using 20% Beeswax and 80% OO. Simple, but effective

new12soap · Feb 12, 2014

A word about using beeswax in soap: Don't.

I have done it and found it to be an incredible PITA that brings more negatives to the soap than positives. It is difficult to work with, can cause overheating, and is a bear to clean up after, it inhibits lather even in small quantities (1%) and all that in exchange for a harder bar. Let me save you some time, just formulate a harder bar. Use sodium lactate or stearic acid if you have to.

Save the beeswax (especially those of you that can get it locally) for things like lip balms and salves.

JM2C

Seawolfe · Feb 12, 2014

I love beeswax so much in lotion bars and candles - I would save it for that and lip balms and such. I'm envious of those who can get it "fresh".

Dennis · Feb 12, 2014

The Efficacious Gentleman said:
Can also make a leather treatment using 20% Beeswax and 80% OO. Simple, but effective

Would that recipe work on leather bicycle saddles? I'm thinking in particular of Brooks saddles. The Proofide sold by Brooks is quite expensive - 40 grams for $10 when last purchased.
Hmm, enlarging the picture of the tin showing the ingredients makes me think I could probably reproduce the recipe and likely increase my costs by several hundred percent! :neutral:
http://www.brooksengland.com/catalogue-and-shop/spareparts/Maintenance+Products/Proofide+40g+Tin/

The Efficacious Gentleman · Feb 12, 2014

Leave out the parafin wax and the last oil and it shouldn't be too expensive to make up.

I can buy beeswax at about 6€ a kilo, 10 including delivery. Lard (quite similar to tallow) at 6€ a kilo and OO at less than 4€ a kilo. So a 40g mix at 20/20/60 Beeswax/lard/OO comes to a whopping 0.224€ (at the most!) instead of 16€ from the shop. I can through in some fish oil and maybe even the other oil and wax and still be way under the costs. Throw in a fancy tin and it's still cheaper!

Dennis · Feb 12, 2014

You've made it so easy. Now I have to give it a shot.

lenarenee · Feb 12, 2014

It was helpful to hear so many people chime in with their experience with beeswax.

I've decided to skip it altogether; the only reasons I going to use it was because someone else used it in their formula. Now I see it was probably used in a very tiny amount, and I'd rather just not have the hassle of keeping one extra ingredient that only contributes 2% hardness.

And thanks to Efficacious Gentleman, who mentioned in another post that Mango and palm are very similar. The recipe I made was going to contain 17% mango; but changed it to palm because I'd much rather save the mango for my body butter!! (Love that stuff!)

This is what I ended up with:

Pko: 18% Palm: 17 rbo 30 olive 30 castor 5

Trying to make a mild bath bar so I wanted low cleansing (would prefer 10), but want as hard of a bar as possible, which doesn't seem possible with higher pko or coconut.

Since I expect this to be the softest and mildest bar I've made so far, I'm going to add some pink color, and use rose absolute to scent. (Hmm. Might have to scratch that....found out this is rose absolute in jojoba oil.)

Yes! I get to soap today!!

songwind · Feb 12, 2014

Miha Engblom said:
I am melting my beeswax together with the oils... and then i have to wait quite a bit for them to chill down because beeswax melts at 147F.

What if you heated the beeswax seperately, then added it to your other solid oils? The heat would transfer from the beeswax, simultaneously starting the cooling process on the wax and beginning the melting of the solid oils.

DeeAnna · Feb 12, 2014

Songwind, when I've done that, the beeswax instantly solidifies and makes a mess.

What I've found in my salve making is that all of the fats/oils and the beeswax need to be heated to the melt temp of the beeswax. Then the mixture should be continuously stirred as the product cools to below the melt temp of beeswax (I shoot for 140 deg F or below, just to be safe). If you don't stir enough, the beeswax will harden into annoying sandy bits that will ruin any salve or soap.

If you have a heat sensitive ingredient, you can add it in later -- but wait until the mixture is below the beeswax melt temp. If you add a cool liquid into the mixture when it's still too hot ... you guessed it! ... the beewax may again make annoying sandy bits.

DeeAnna · Feb 12, 2014

The photo enlargement didn't work for me, so did a quick check elsewhere of Proofide ingredients, found this: Tallow, Cod oil, Vegetable oil, Parafin wax, Beeswax, Citronella oil.

Looks pretty easy to duplicate. Could use a hard veg wax in place of the paraffin if one wanted to stick with non-petroleum ingredients. Citronella is an essential oil, probably used for fragrance. Not overly expensive as EOs go.

QueenBeeSoap · Feb 12, 2014

songwind said:
What if you heated the beeswax seperately, then added it to your other solid oils? The heat would transfer from the beeswax, simultaneously starting the cooling process on the wax and beginning the melting of the solid oils.

I agree with DeeAnna. Beeswax solidifies easily when poured on its own; that's why I mix it with at least some oils / butters when melting it before adding it in with the rest of the oils. For applications where you can't avoid pouring pure melted beeswax, like candlemaking, anything that touches the beeswax (pots, spoons, etc.) will be ruined for any other purpose, as some of the hardened beeswax is virtually impossible to remove. At least that's been my experience.

Using 5% beeswax in recipe

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