# Beeswax soap?



## upnorthlady

Has anyone here used beeswax for soap? I have never made soap before, and we are beekeepers and so we have wax. We have tried to make candles, and we're still learning about that, but I was wondering about soaps. If you use beeswax soaps, do they clog up your drains? Where does all the wax go? If you have any info about using beeswax or honey in soaps, I would appreciate it! thanks.


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## Shazza

When beeswax is used in soaps I dont think the small amount would clog up any drains lol.
Here is an example of Honey and Beeswax soaps here in Oz...no recipe though.


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## linn

I have used beeswax in soap and in skin creams and lotion. It is great stuff. Soap made with wax does not clog up the drain. It goes through a chemical change along with the oils when lye is added to them. I have also added honey to soap, make sure not to add too much or it will overheat while going through gel. Be sure to run any recipe through a lye calculator such as SoapCalc before using.

Here are a couple of links with more information:

http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/tipstricks/a/honeyinfo.htm

http://www.soapnuts.com/cp2.html

http://www.millersoap.com/soapallveg.html


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## upnorthlady

Thanks! I will check out all these sources!


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## MullersLaneFarm

One thing to note, beeswax should be used sparedly in your soaps. Too much and you will cut down on your lather. Be sure to clean the wax, you don't want little pieces of bees in it (although propolis is a plus!)

Salves & balms are wonderful made with beeswax!


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## Apryl in ND

I made some thick body butter type lotion with beeswax and honey in it last night. It's awesome. Very moisturizing and smells a little bit like sweet honey with no other fragrances added. Honey is a natural humecant meaning that it draws moisture from the air to you skin supposedly. I also make all of my lip balms with beeswax. it makes them have a pleasant, light honey taste. I so wish I could have bees, but I'm allergic, so that would not be a good idea.


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## MullersLaneFarm

Apryl in ND said:


> I so wish I could have bees, but I'm allergic, so that would not be a good idea.


C'mon Apryl, you only live once!!

I've had honeybees since 2002 and I'm very allergic to their stings. I keep an Epi pen with me at all times and don't work the hives unless someone else is home. They know when I'm out there & I check in with them every 30 minutes. If I don't check in, they come out and check on me.

I've been stung many times over the years but only had one bad episode a few years ago when my head veil gapped open during harvesting and I had 20-30 bees inside my veil. They didn't sting until I accidently crushed one.

Had to use the Epi pen for that one and went to the ER. Benedryl for 24 hours, then a 7 day Prednizone pack.

Since that time, I hardly have any reaction to bee stings!


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## Apryl in ND

I know people's allergies can come and go. Don't tempt me. I don't think my husband would be thrilled with the idea of getting bees. Hehe, I drive the poor guy nuts sometimes. How far away are the hives from your house? Do you get a lot of bee traffic up by the house?


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## MullersLaneFarm

The hives are on the east side of the machine shed, which is about 50 feet east of the house, so the hives sit maybe 80-90 feet from house. The house is surrounded by bee & butterfly attracting flowers & herbs. The bees are so busy in the gardens, they don't give no never mind to people and animals. Even when I'm out harvesting herbs and dye plants, when there are honeybees in the flowers, they just move on and don't pay me any attention.

Honeybees are rarely in 'attack mode'. Usually only when you're harvesting honey. I love sitting about 10 feet south of the hives watching the honeybees fly in and out. It is mesmerizing! Kind of like watching an aquarium.


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## InHisName

Apryl, can you direct to a recipe for that body butter? sounds great! I am also looking for a recipe with a lotion/ butter that I can put msm in for the friends with arthritis trouble..... maybe that would work.


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## Apryl in ND

InHisName said:


> Apryl, can you direct to a recipe for that body butter? sounds great! I am also looking for a recipe with a lotion/ butter that I can put msm in for the friends with arthritis trouble..... maybe that would work.


I Pmd you my recipe.


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## Tirzah

Apryl,

Would you be willing to share with me? I would so love a moisturizing body butter like that. My skin is so dry from the wood stove and now the water company has added more chemicals that REALLY dry out my skin. I would greatly appreciate it


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## LonelyNorthwind

I've been making my own healing skin creams for eons and I find there's no real secret. Trouble is I don't seem to measure anything.
I start with animal fat, moose or bear since I raise my meat in the woods but lard works great too. To that I add a nice oil, almond is my favorite, then I add my chosen herbs and let it simmer on the back of the woodstove for the day. Then I strain it, add some vitamin E, beeswax & lanolin. 
For herbs I always add comfrey, cottonwood buds and a favorite that grows up here called Devil's Club. For arthritis pain I add devil's club and cayenne pepper.
You need to stir your cream as it cools. Be sure to wash your hands if you made arthritis cream!

Sometimes I make a fluffy moisturizing cream by adding water and running it through the blender as it cools. Since there are no preservatives, you need to keep it in the frige for long term storage. A small jar room temp for a couple weeks doesn't hurt tho.


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## linn

I have this site bookmarked. She has lots of recipes using beeswax.

http://www.rachelssupply.com/bwax.htm


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## MullersLaneFarm

Gramma,
What are the cottonwood buds good for? I may have to get a ladder to collect from my cottonwood trees!

I totally agree with you that the use of animal oils is wonderful for skin creams. When we were kids, my mother would smear lard over our cheeks in the winter before we went to play in the snow to prevent chapping and reduce frostbite. My siblings & I always had great skin, free of blemishes.

I've made lotions using bear and lard. Sweet almond is great, as are fractionated coconut & rosehip.


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## LonelyNorthwind

MullersLaneFarm said:


> Gramma,
> What are the cottonwood buds good for? I may have to get a ladder to collect from my cottonwood trees!
> 
> I totally agree with you that the use of animal oils is wonderful for skin creams. When we were kids, my mother would smear lard over our cheeks in the winter before we went to play in the snow to prevent chapping and reduce frostbite. My siblings & I always had great skin, free of blemishes.
> 
> I've made lotions using bear and lard. Sweet almond is great, as are fractionated coconut & rosehip.


Cottonwood buds i.e. "Balm of Gilead" not only smell absolutely delicious in creams, they are a wonderful healing agent, are antiseptic and also contain a lot of salicin which helps ease pain, fever and inflammation in wounds. They're great for burns, cuts, diaper rash and all sorts of skin irritations.
For teens with acne or oily skin, a bit of cottonwood tincture clears it right up!

Your turn. What's fractionated coconut?


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## MullersLaneFarm

Balm of Gilead is cottonwood buds!!! As in the buds on a cottonwood tree? Sweet!

Fractionated coconut oil is a re-esterized coconut oil which makes it a light, non-greasy, non-staining liquid oil.

(Esterization is the production of esters by reacting alcohols with acids. Esterification is a reversible reaction.)


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## LonelyNorthwind

Balm of Gilead is cottonwood buds!!! As in the buds on a cottonwood tree? Sweet!

Yup, that's the stuff! It's much easier to gather them in winter if you can. They're pretty sticky to gather as it is but when the weather warms up they get *really* sticky. I look for the wind to blow a tree or branch down along the riverbank, them trees are just a bit too tall to climb


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## linn

Do you do an oil infusion with the cottonwood buds?


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## LonelyNorthwind

Sometimes I add them to simmer in the animal fat/oil pot if I don't have any tincture left but they make a sticky mess on the bottom of the pot and my strainer. I find it easier if I add a tincture of cottonwood along with the vitamin E etc.


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## linn

If you don't mind sharing, how do you make your tincture?


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## LonelyNorthwind

I fill a quart jar about halfway with whatever herb I'm going to tincture. Then I fill the jar to a couple inches from the top with 1/2 alcohol and water (everclear is best if you can find it but an inexpensive brandy works too). Shake real well, put it in a dark cupboard and give it a shake every day (if you can remember!) for 2 weeks. You can then strain it into dark glass bottles or just keep it in the jar and strain as you need. Just remember to keep it cool and dark.
This tincture will last 40 years.

If you don't like the idea of using alcohol, tinctures can also be made using vinegar, it's not quite as strong and doesn't last as long but works well. A vinegar tincture will last up to a couple years if stored in a cool dark place.

Tinctures concentrate the medical properties of the herbs so it doesn't take much. To a 4 cup pot of skin cream I'll add probably 2 tbs. or so of cottonwood tincture. For pain relief 1/2 teaspoon of willow tincture will usually do the job.


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## AverageJo

Boy am I learnin on this thread!! The willow tincture... what part of a willow are you using? Willow buds or bark from a weeping willow tree? ***** willow buds?


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## LonelyNorthwind

The spring bark. White willow has the most medicine, the farther north you harvest, the stronger the medicine but yes, weeping willow has aspirin-like pain killer too. Peel strips of the bark from the limbs in early spring when they're nice and juicy and peel off easy. Chop and tincture. That's all there is to it! You can place a willow tincture on any wound to not only kill the pain but to start the healing process along. For a headache, a teaspoon in a little water usually does the job. I don't know why this happened but I have a friend who suffered from migranes most of her life. I gave her some willow tincture several years ago to try when one came on, she's taken it ever since at the first tinges of a migrane and has never had once since!


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## marinemomtatt

GrammasCabin...why do you add water to your tincture? I know everclear is strong but that's why it's recommended for some herbs, barks and roots instead of 50% Vodka/100 proof, which is half water.

Back On Topic- I've tried a couple times to use honey in my soap, tried a couple different recipes and for some reason the honey separates out.
This last year I had saved out some of our beeswax cappings for my salves and soaps, my hubby found my stash and made his candles with it, I pilfered back a couple votives, only problem now is that I have to grate the wax for the amounts needed...I hate grating wax...~lol~...


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## LonelyNorthwind

marinemom, sorry, I didn't mean to say I use water in all my tinctures, but most. Some of the properties in some of the herbs are water soluable & others are alchohol soluable. By using 1/2 & 1/2 you're sure to draw all the benefits from the herbs. Willow's a good example as is yarrow. Cottonwood, however does not dissolve in water no matter what, you just get a glob of sticky gunk in the bottom of the jar so I use only alchohol for cottonwood.


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## marinemomtatt

Everclear is 95% alcohol, 5% water...that high alcohol content draws additional water from the plant itself, so...

Along with working with Beeswax and honey in soap I'm prepping to give propolis a place in my soap making, some folks say why bother? I say why not, I have plenty.


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## suemay

I have found that beeswax doesn't improve cp soap that much. I do sometimes use it when I make a honey bar, such as this one:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/63104714/handmade-soap-honey-bee

but mostly because beeswax fits with the overall "theme" of the soap. I wouldn't use more than 5% of the total weight of the oils.

However, I love using beeswax to make lotion bars and lip balms. I think that's the best use for it.

When I work with it, I try to avoid washing any down the drain and will scrap off excess as best I can into our compost pile.

-Sue May

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sue May Yen
Soapy Soaps
www.soapysoaps.com
www.etsy.com/shop/soapysoaps


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