Beeswax and activated charcoal

[Fargood]

I live in North Dakota, so I have access to about a bazillion pounds of free beeswax. I almost always use beeswax in my soap, unless I’m trying to do a complicated swirl. I haven’t yet done an activated charcoal recipe, but plan to do one today with rose clay. I know there is debate about whether beeswax is really beneficial in CP soap or not, but I’m used to using it in my recipes and have found that not using it makes it harder to unmold the soap without edge damage. What I’m wondering is whether using the beeswax will negate or otherwise impact the charcoal? Has anyone played around with beeswax and charcoal? Thoughts on advantages vs. disadvantages?

 

[HoneyLady]

Beeswax does indeed make for a slightly harder bar of soap . . . up to a point. At about 7% + it actually can begin to soften the soap. I don't know why. Perhaps Dee Anna or another chemistry whiz can explain the reasons.

I use beeswax and honey in all my soaps; as a beekeeper, it is my "signature". (See my User Name) But it's certainly NOT necessary to a soap recipe at all. I use wax at a rate of 1-3% for all but one recipe. I like it in recipes that have a lot of softer oils, like nut oils or avocado, etc. Some people use sodium lactate to stiffen a bar. Or salt, brine, coconut oil, palm kernel oil, lard, etc.

My warning for you is about the form and prep of your beeswax. If it's not been melted, strained, and/or filtered, you will need to do it yourself. It's not difficult, but it is messy, and you will need to dedicate that pot to permanent beeswax use. Beeswax melts at high temps, (140 F) and in block form, it is . . . challenging to shave/chip/hack of the small amounts you need. That's why the pastilles are so very popular. I invested in some candy molds that make dots or kisses shapes, and hold about an ounce. I pour my wax in those and let them harden, then I have a supply of 1 oz dots to use as needed. Most of my wax goes into candles, frankly.

Beeswax pastilles CAN be safely melted in the microwave, but it is a hands on process. Zap for 1 minute, stir for a minute. Repeat. Do NOT set for several minutes and walk away! (See Anne-Marie at Soap Queen for what can happen) I just mix it in with my other oils and melt. They are usually the last things to liquefy. If you're melting a block, use a double boiler.

As for charcoal, wax will not interfere with the properties of the charcoal, it will just mean you soap at slightly higher temps (or the wax re-solidifies) and your bar is a bit harder.

Unless you are serious about it, you are looking at a lot of work, due to the form your wax will be coming in. (I assume a 1-2 pound block here, as you'll be getting from beekeepers working the clover fields.) In your place, I'd buy the pastilles from a soap making supplier. For instance: A 2 pound soap recipe of 31% coconut/palm/olive oils, plus 5% castor oil, plus 2% beeswax, will use 0.64 ounces of beeswax. That's about a generous dozen of the pastilles.

Having said all that, *I* would really love to have access to your suppliers -- PM me with details on how I can buy 10+ pounds from them, please!

And my usual caveat about waxes -- THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN ORGANIC WAX, soapies. No matter what the label says (ignorantly, or fraudulently) the USDA does not label waxes, period. They label oils that might or might not be made into waxes, but do not imply organic in the finished form. By the time oil encounters hexanes and other nasty stuff to be made into wax, it has no acquaintance with anything resembling organic. HOWEVER, if it comes from outside the US, and the supplier claims (ignorantly or fraudulently) that it is organic, USDA will grant them that label. Grrrrr. {Pet Peeve!!}

Good Luck
~Honey Lady~

 

[Fargood]

I pour my wax in those and let them harden, then I have a supply of 1 oz dots to use as needed.

This idea is genius! I've been just using kitchen shears to shear off 1 oz at a time. I use 3.33% in my soap recipe and I've gotten so used to it that now I find it hard to do a recipe without the beeswax.

I'll PM you about where I get my beeswax. It's a local guy. It's fairly well-strained, but yeah, it comes in the big chunky blocks that I have to melt and/or cut off. Our little part of the world is not highly populated and the beekeepers do not have a good market for their wax, so it's readily available for almost nothing if you know the right people. I also get all my beef and pork fat for free. In theory, I could get canola oil for free, too, but I don't use it very much in my soap. On the other hand, ask me how long it's been since I've had decent seafood . . . or a tan . . .

 

[SaltedFig]

And my usual caveat about waxes -- THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN ORGANIC WAX, soapies. No matter what the label says (ignorantly, or fraudulently) the USDA does not label waxes, period. They label oils that might or might not be made into waxes, but do not imply organic in the finished form. By the time oil encounters hexanes and other nasty stuff to be made into wax, it has no acquaintance with anything resembling organic. HOWEVER, if it comes from outside the US, and the supplier claims (ignorantly or fraudulently) that it is organic, USDA will grant them that label. Grrrrr. {Pet Peeve!!}

Beeswax (and other bee products used in food and cosmetics) can be certified organic here in Australia. There are very strict rules regarding certification of bee products, and the exclusion zone is quite large.

Australian Certified Organic products carry a logo and a certification number, which anyone can use to look up the product and the producer.

If you are needing an Organic Certificate, as an input product for production of certified organic foods or cosmetics, this is also available (and provides further detail on the source of the product - this allows for full traceability in the production of certified organic goods.

America recognizes our Organic Beeswax (and other beeswax products) legitimately - there is nothing ignorant or fraudulent in this process.

"... THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN ORGANIC WAX, soapies. ..."
This statement is not correct.

... where I get my beeswax. It's a local guy. It's fairly well-strained, but yeah, it comes in the big chunky blocks that I have to melt and/or cut off. Our little part of the world is not highly populated and the beekeepers do not have a good market for their wax, so it's readily available for almost nothing if you know the right people....

@Fargood, if you have access to large beeswax blocks, then a cheap electric frypan with a thermostat and high sides will become your best friend - the block fit easily into the pan and if the temperature is set on low, they can be melted for straining and pouring into smaller discs (I used to pour into thin sheets, but I find storage of thin discs to be much tidier).

If your wax is fairly unfiltered, then melting it gently first and letting it set tends to settle out a lot of the debris to the bottom (parts) and top (dust), where it can be scraped off with a blade.

Lighter blocks are generally cleaner (the wax is younger) than darker blocks. If the wax block is very dark, it may have been heat damaged (it took me a while to find a supplier of good quality golden wax - once you find one, hang onto them!).

 

[DeeAnna]

I don't use beeswax in my soap, but I do harvest it from my bees.

I pour cleaned, melted beeswax in a thin layer onto parchment paper. When the wax is cool and brittle, I peel it off the parchment and break it up into convenient flakes that are easy to weigh and fast to melt. Much, MUCH better than the chore of grating a big block of beeswax.

I think awhile back on a similar thread SaltedFig mentioned scoring the thin layer of wax after it's cooled to the point that it is solid but still soft. That lets you break the wax into more uniform pieces if that's your cuppa tea.

 

[cmzaha]

When I get chunks of beeswax from a vendor friend, I melt it down and pour the melted wax into my multi cavity silicone molds. (24 cavities per mold).

 

[Kelly Frizzell]

This was my first year owning bees and when I melted and strained my wax I was quite exited to pack as much as I could into the pot and thought that it was so neat to get that big amount that looked like a big block of cheese, and I was disappointed on my later batch that only had a thin round of wax. Then when I wanted to use some for soap, and I had to try hold the huge thing and grate it and I was no longer excited about making my big block of it. Thanks Honeylady, DeeAna and cmzaha, next year I will try those ideas.

This idea is genius! I've been just using kitchen shears to shear off 1 oz at a time. I use 3.33% in my soap recipe and I've gotten so used to it that now I find it hard to do a recipe without the beeswax.

I'll PM you about where I get my beeswax. It's a local guy. It's fairly well-strained, but yeah, it comes in the big chunky blocks that I have to melt and/or cut off. Our little part of the world is not highly populated and the beekeepers do not have a good market for their wax, so it's readily available for almost nothing if you know the right people. I also get all my beef and pork fat for free. In theory, I could get canola oil for free, too, but I don't use it very much in my soap. On the other hand, ask me how long it's been since I've had decent seafood . . . or a tan . . .

Would you mind if I asked for your source as well? I am finding that I can use more wax. Although I am not sure if US to Can pricing with the exchange will make it as good of a deal for me, but, if you are willing, I would appreciate being able to check it out.

 

[amd]

Our little part of the world is not highly populated and the beekeepers do not have a good market for their wax, so it's readily available for almost nothing if you know the right people. I also get all my beef and pork fat for free. .... On the other hand, ask me how long it's been since I've had decent seafood . . . or a tan . . .

Sorry, this South Dakota girl can relate to all of this. I have been getting Lard for free for years from friends who regularly have pigs butchered. I switched at the beginning of the year to tallow when I discovered that I can't smell it in soap the way I can smell lard, and I also get tallow free from friends who have cattle butchered (obviously I don't get ALL of it). This weekend I had two people bring me about 20lb each of unrendered lard and tallow, it will go into the freezer until spring when I can render it outside (I still have 30-ish lbs from last spring so I should be good for awhile). The lady who brought me the lard also brought me a quart of raw honey - she allows a local crew to keep bee boxes on her property and in exchange she gets free honey - I'll have to ask about the wax. I don't use a lot of it, but I'm curious to play with it.

 

[DeeAnna]

If you can get rendered wax for a good price, take it in a heartbeat. Cleaning and rendering comb is a process similar to rendering lard, so if rendering fat isn't your cuppa tea, rendering beeswax won't be either.

There are 3 general types of comb. Cappings wax is the very pale wax cap that is cut off the honey comb so the honey can be extracted. It's often pale yellow and yields the most and nicest wax. Beekeepers often save this wax for themselves. Second best is honey comb. It may be a little darker gold than cappings wax, but still very nice to work with.

IMO, the least desirable is brood comb (the dark comb that bees use to raise their babies). You don't get a lot of wax from brood comb, and the wax can be quite a bit darker, from a dark gold to caramel. I personally wouldn't want to use brood-comb wax for lotions or lip balms because it is too dark for my preference, but it might be acceptable for soap.

If you get a mixed batch of comb, render the cappings wax and honey comb separately from the much darker brood comb.

 

[SaltedFig]

@DeeAnna I once saw a pure white hive in a bush on a walk trail near where I live ... it would have easily been over a foot across and down (but in that familiar curved shape of a natural hive) ... it had neither honey nor brood in it yet, the hive was that new! Really young (clean) wax is a beautiful thing ... can you imagine how nice that would have been in a balm?

(PS. The hive wasn't disturbed, just in case anyone was wondering)

 

[Fargood]

Would you mind if I asked for your source as well? I am finding that I can use more wax. Although I am not sure if US to Can pricing with the exchange will make it as good of a deal for me, but, if you are willing, I would appreciate being able to check it out.

Kelly - what part of Saskatchewan are you from? We go up there a lot for skiing, near Russell. It’s just a local supplier, near the border.

 

[HoneyLady]

@SaltedFig ~

Yes! There are some *lovely* organic stuffs that come from Oz! I have had some *fabulous* honey from Down Under!! I have *no* problem with Australia Organic Standards. Canada is pretty good; they're stricter about some things than the US, and just like them in others.

My caveat was directed more at stuff that comes in from China, India, Brazil, sometimes Argentina . . . that may be *quite* questionable. (China is well known for problems) But if, for instance, the Chinese sell contaminated honey or wax to a packer in . . . the Republic of Whooknowzwhere and Whooknowzwhere wants to sell it in the US -- they can tell the USDA "this is absolutely 100% Whooknowzwhere organic honey and wax, not Chinese!" The USDA, who does *not* have authority in Whooknowzwhere, nor has any way to confirm or deny that the honey was raised by USDA organic standards, wherever it was raised, *WILL* grant the USDA organic label.


If you look closely at labels, you will see that most USDA "organic" honey is blended with imported honey, resulting in the label. And now that we are confirming that Round Up can remain residual in the body, ground, water, and beeswax for a decade or more . . . I don't know if we'll be able to consider anything organic at this rate.

(FWIW, if you are looking for genuinely US organic honey, there are only 2 producers I am aware of: one on the Big Island of Hawaii, and one on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State.)

Okay. Off the soap box now before I get thrown off line. Mea Culpa. (Change requires knowledge and understanding!) Ignorance really is bliss, lol! Smooches! Add US sourced beeswax to your soaps!

~Honey Lady~

 

[SaltedFig]

I agree that local is the way to go!

We are fortunate to have Country of Origin Labeling laws here (with pictorial percentages of local ingredients, so we can see at a glance how much is imported).

Even then, just in the last few weeks we've also had a honey scandal, where sensitive NMR tests (rather than official C4 tests) have been used on cheap honey samples, and they came back with the results that modified syrup was being blended into the imported honey!
Fortunately we also have agitators here (like yourself for your country), that have kept going, and now we might get some changes to the system to combat this rip-off.

"In the tested samples, she said it was the Chinese aspect of the honey that was adulterated not the Australian honey."

The only way to avoid this (really) is to buy from a trusted, local source - I fully support your call to buy local Honey Lady!

 

[HoneyLady]

I understand that there may also be issues surrounding NZ's Manuka honey, sometimes falsely called "medicinal" honey. (ALL pure honey can, and has been for millennia, used medicinally.) I have read (in beekeeping journals) that some 1 million pounds of Manuka honey are harvested annually, but if ALL the products claiming to have real Manuka honey are added up, it requires an annual harvest of 2 million pounds or so.

Even my math challenged brain can figure out this doesn't quite work!

YES!

Buy local, sell local, eat local, and support your local ag and businesses! I wish more of our soapy ingredients were made locally, too. Coconut oil, and PKO flakes come from tropical plants, tho, that don't like snow and winter seasons.

Am now wondering *what* if anything, could interfere with charcoal's beneficial properties . . . and where bamboo charcoal is sourced from . . .

I *love* the idea of picture labels that show amounts and percentages! Brilliant!

~HoneyLady~

 

[SaltedFig]

HoneyLady,

While I agree that honey in general has antimicrobial qualities, honey produced from the flowers of various Leptospermum's has been scientifically proven to have an additional benefit to healing. New Zealand has one variety (Leptospermum scoparium), which they call the Manuka tree. Australia has many varieties, some of which produce a far more potent honey, but New Zealanders enjoy the benefit of their bush knowledge and brilliant marketing (they introduced Manuka honey to the world). You might like to have a look at this informative and interesting article on Manuka honey

But yes - where there is money there is often a problem and this lucrative honey is suffering the same fate as Olive Oil across the world (as an example) - cheaper substitutes by less than honest traders is undermining the market. For this honey (where you are) buying local isn't an option, so the only choice is to buy direct and buy from a trusted brand. The honey has a distinctive flavor (of the Leptospermum, or tea tree).

On the charcoal - I don't buy bamboo charcoal. It is sometimes hard to find a product with the source material listed (it's out there - activated carbon can be made from many different source materials). I have made my own (using pyrolysis) from gum tree wood. Willow is said to be very good.

... I know there is debate about whether beeswax is really beneficial in CP soap or not, but I’m used to using it in my recipes and have found that not using it makes it harder to unmold the soap without edge damage. What I’m wondering is whether using the beeswax will negate or otherwise impact the charcoal? Has anyone played around with beeswax and charcoal? Thoughts on advantages vs. disadvantages?

I use the two together in soap, with the charcoal mostly for colour. People do like charcoal in face soaps. I don't think the beeswax has much impact on the activated charcoal.

 

[Kelly Frizzell]

Kelly - what part of Saskatchewan are you from? We go up there a lot for skiing, near Russell. It’s just a local supplier, near the border.

I am just outside of Regina. I have to say I do not even know where Russell is, but there are not really any places that anyone would want to ski in Sask., unless it is cross-country, as we have no mountains. So, I am very curious where it is that you come to ski, I am going to have to google 'Russell'.

 

[Fargood]

I am just outside of Regina. I have to say I do not even know where Russell is, but there are not really any places that anyone would want to ski in Sask., unless it is cross-country, as we have no mountains. So, I am very curious where it is that you come to ski, I am going to have to google 'Russell'.

There’s a great little ski place called Asessippi near Russell, Manitoba. It’s in a ravine. It’s not Whistler, but for a bunch of flatlanders from North Dakota, it’s amazing.

 

[Kelly Frizzell]

There’s a great little ski place called Asessippi near Russell, Manitoba. It’s in a ravine. It’s not Whistler, but for a bunch of flatlanders from North Dakota, it’s amazing.

Ohhh, it is in Manitoba; yes I have heard of that. Here in Sask. we do also have some hills that we can ski on, but nothing like the mountains in Alberta or BC, you should check those out if you like to ski (The Rocky Mountains: Kimberly, Jasper, Ferber, Sunshine, are all great ski resorts in Alberta, I am not as familiar with the ones in BC, but they are very popular too.)

 

[Kelly Frizzell]

Kelly - what part of Saskatchewan are you from? We go up there a lot for skiing, near Russell. It’s just a local supplier, near the border.

I am just 5 min east of Regina.