Lotion bars

[Carolyne Thrasher]

I’ve had a big hunk of beeswax for a few months now. Don’t know what I was thinking when I ordered it. Anyway thought I would try some lotion bars for my heels and elbows. But the cleanup Ha ha. I hate cleaning up. Guess you don’t know until you try something. And now my kitchen smells like Brambleberry’s Rose Quartz Fragrance so that’s awesome.

Anyone have some interesting beeswax stories. I probably have 3/4 of a pound brick left.

 

[DeeAnna]

Cleaning beeswax off stuff is actually pretty easy. Warm heat resistant utensils and containers over your stove (or use a heat gun) until the wax melts. Quickly wipe off the residue with a paper towel or even newsprint. Repeat as needed until the wax residue is gone.

Un-petroleum Jelly
Batch size: 100 grams
Beeswax 15 g
Meadowfoam 40 g (or other light, absorbent oil)
Rice bran oil 42 g (or other medium weight, not overly greasy oil)
EO blend 3 g
Melt all heat tolerant ingredients in a hot water bath until the beeswax is fully melted. Remove from heat and stir CONSTANTLY until the salve cools to 140 deg F or below. The product will go from transparent to opaque as it cools. If any large bits appear, reheat until all chunks melt, and repeat the cool/stir step. Add essential oils and other heat-sensitive ingredients when the product cools below the maximum safe temp for the ingredients -- and no hotter than 120 deg F. Pour into tottles, jars, tins, etc. This is a soft salve, so it won't work in lip balm tubes.

 

[SoaperForLife]

I discovered that if you melt 5% beeswax and add 95% castor, you'll get something like petroleum jelly.

 

[SaltedFig]

I saw my (the?) first un-petroleum jelly on the old dish forum and it's an excellent use for beeswax! Soaping 101 has a video on how to make a version that includes a dandelion infusion (the ingredients are listed as 33% light oil, 5% beeswax, 62% castor oil), but you can vary it to suit yourself (mine variously has butters, infusions, other waxes and oils, depending on use, but they all have the same occlusive properties from the beeswax). @dibbles posted a couple of hair balm recipes in this thread.

Cotton cloth wax "wraps" are easy to make and use - a little beeswax melted into the cloth, enough to soak but not enough to be thick and stiff, and they can be moulded using just your hand warmth. If the wax is still too stiff, it can be slightly diluted by melting it with a little oil first. I've seen these made using a couple of sheets of greaseproof paper and an iron ... a few shavings of beeswax on the cotton, place it between two pieces of the paper, and it can be melted in with the iron (you wouldn't want to do this directly - cleaning an iron that has beeswax on it is annoying ). If you make them by dipping the cloth into the molten wax, it needs a good squeeze/scrape as you lift the waxed cloth out, to remove excess wax.

A word of caution - don't tell your friends you have a large amount of beeswax ... it's amazing how many uses they'll come up with, and the requests for "just a little bit" might make your 3/4 pound chunk disappear pretty quickly .

 

[madison]

I discovered that if you melt 5% beeswax and add 95% castor, you'll get something like petroleum jelly.

I found out that using high % of castor oil on the skin grows hair, which might be a problem for some ladies if it was to be used on arms or legs. It will be great to be used on the scalp.

 

[SoaperForLife]

I found out that using high % of castor oil on the skin grows hair, which might be a problem for some ladies if it was to be used on arms or legs. It will be great to be used on the scalp.

Are you speaking from experience?

 

[Lin19687]

Castor oil on a Band-aid over a Planters Wart every night for 3-4 weeks (YMMV) will remove them Worked on my DD when she was little. I was shocked that it worked, and we were not good at doing it Every night

 

[dixiedragon]

When I make lip balm (which uses beeswax), I melt my beeswax + oils in a glass measuring cup. When I'm done, I put water and some vegetable oil (cheap stuff like canola or soybean, not a good olive oil), and microwave it. The heat will melt the beeswax and the oil will help dissolve it. Pour the water in the trash (not down the sink) and wipe the measuring cup with a paper towel.

If you are melting down the beeswax by itself, save a metal can and use that as your melting pot. When not in use, keep it in a ziplock bag so it doesn't accumulate dust and hair. Or just throw it away.

 

[kaygrrl]

I like to use beeswax at 1-2% in CP. In my experience it eliminated soda ash from forming!

 

[shunt2011]

I found out that using high % of castor oil on the skin grows hair, which might be a problem for some ladies if it was to be used on arms or legs. It will be great to be used on the scalp.

Would you please share the link/site where this has been proven/studied. I'd be interested to see the research proof on this.

 

[SoaperForLife]

Would you please share the link/site where this has been proven/studied. I'd be interested to see the research proof on this.

Me too! I did a little looking around on the net and found a bunch of links saying that it did and then some that said it didn't. I also stumbled across a post from India. A woman had used a combination of castor and coconut oils on her hair for some ceremony and the oils created a huge mat in her hair. That made me wonder whether the castor actually creates some sort of "bulk" or allusion of more hair... dunno <shrug>. If it did actually work I'd be right there cos my hair is rather thin at this point in my life - you just never know what joys are lucking around the corner as you age...

 

[Lin19687]

Would you please share the link/site where this has been proven/studied. I'd be interested to see the research proof on this.

Well, I can say for a fact that is DOES NOT grow hair on the bottom of a 7 y/o girls toe

Sorry couldn't resist

 

[shunt2011]

Well, I can say for a fact that is DOES NOT grow hair on the bottom of a 7 y/o girls toe

Sorry couldn't resist

I use it in lip balm and my lips haven't grown any hair......LOL

 

[earlene]

I am not defending the hair growth claim, but I would certainly suppose that hair follicles would already have to be present in the skin in question. I don't think there are any hair follicles on the bottom of feet of humans or on our lips, mustachioed areas above the lips, yes, but the lips themselves?

 

[SoaperForLife]

Here's the link about the hair felting from castor oil application https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5596646/

 

[shunt2011]

I am not defending the hair growth claim, but I would certainly suppose that hair follicles would already have to be present in the skin in question. I don't think there are any hair follicles on the bottom of feet of humans or on our lips, mustachioed areas above the lips, yes, but the lips themselves?

I was obviously kidding....the LOL should have made that obvious.

 

[Lin19687]

@earlene me too, was joking.


ok, this is from a RARE disorder and there are only 17 cases. And this is just 1 Case study. I links no other 'studies' nor does it even go into how long the other 17 peoples hair was. No controlled study either.
They also write...
"there are no studies and reports on the uses and benefits of castor oil with regard to hair and hence not proven scientifically."
just a tid bit

 

[Shalome Clark]

I’ve had a big hunk of beeswax for a few months now. Don’t know what I was thinking when I ordered it. Anyway thought I would try some lotion bars for my heels and elbows. But the cleanup Ha ha. I hate cleaning up. Guess you don’t know until you try something. And now my kitchen smells like Brambleberry’s Rose Quartz Fragrance so that’s awesome.

Anyone have some interesting beeswax stories. I probably have 3/4 of a pound brick left.

I made these yesterday and I am in love with them, super easy. 3.5 oz. of olive oil, 3.5 oz. shea butter, 2.5 oz. of beeswax, and 3 ml of fragrance. Melt oils, add fragrance, pour into mold, leave 4-24 hours and unmold.

 

[earlene]

Apparently I should have use an emoji in my above post, as I too was jesting. Do we have a tongue-in-cheek emoji? That's what I was going for. No, I don't see one. This one would have worked, I suppose:

Perhaps my ongoing down-in-the-dumps mood is still far too evident. But just so you all know, it isn't as dark as it was two or three weeks ago, in fact I think I did feel lighter yesterday. I believe confiding in my brother (the one second born to me) helped with that. Just having even one person to talk to about what's going on inside myself can make a difference. Though this is one of those times, that I do wish I had a sister. I hear sisters can be really good confidants.

Quite interesting that article about hair felting/matting. Within the past year or two, I saw a woman whose hair was a much more pronounced case of hair matting. At first I though her hair was in dreads, but it wasn't your typical dreads at all, but a huge solid mass of matted hair, which I would also described as 'bird's nest' when I first described it. But truly it looked more like felted wool than a bird's nest. The woman came and went and returned to sit and eat in the same location very near me, giving me enough time to observe her and be sure it was actually her hair and not some strange hat or something. She was very clean and wore fairly new looking clothes, so did not appear to be someone who had poor hygiene habits or anything like that. I wondered how her hair got like that and if it was intentional and how she cleaned her hair. I am sure if that happened to my hair, I would surely just shave it all off. I'd rather have a crew-cut than matted hair. I can't even imagine how uncomfortable I would be with hair so tightly matted to my head.

 

[madison]

Would you please share the link/site where this has been proven/studied. I'd be interested to see the research proof on this.

It was a group experiment with some ladies, you can call it personal experiment, no research proof or anything. I used a blend of castor oil and other oils was suggested to grow hair on my scalp but I got very busy then stopped doing that. I need to make time to try it again to see what I get.