Subject: Need Beeswax creme recipe

From: [email-masked] (Andy Nachbaur)
Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 01:55:00 GMT

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JM<>I have a lot of beeswax and am tired of making candles and molded
  <>figures. Does anyone have recipes for hand creme, face creme or other
  <>beeswax or honey products which we could make to gain a few extra $$ at
  <>the farm stand? Thanks.

hI Jim, here is one reference I found and maybe other's will add to
it.
       ttul Andy-

                    Florida Extension Beekeeping Newsletter
           Apis--Apicultural Information and Issues (ISSN 0889-3764)
                      Volume 9, Number 1, January 1991

                          MAKING BEESWAX-BASED CREAMS

        During my travels in other countries, I have seen a profusion of bee
products that are being marketed to the public.  In Europe in particular, I
was impressed by the large variety of cosmetics and creams that have beeswax
as a base.  The September issue of "Buzzwords," the newsletter of the New
Zealand National Beekeepers Association, published an article on making
beeswax-based creams.  These products are surprisingly simple to produce and
require only a few basic ingredients.  As the newsletter editor suggests,
perhaps as the beekeeper ponders the fate of those beautiful cakes of lemon-
yellow gold beeswax, some thought might be given to making these creams.  I
also think that there is more room for manufacturing and marketing them to the
health conscious, up-scale U.S. consumer in the 1990s.

        Beeswax is a unique product with many interesting physical and
biological properties.  It does not become rancid, is not irritating or
sensitizing to the skin, and it acts as a stiffening or firming agent (base).
The information provided by the New Zealand newsletter is for producing basic
creams of the water-in-oil emulsion type.  An emulsion is the result of fine
particles of oil being permanently suspended in water through use of an
emulsifier.  The most typical emulsifying agent used around the house is soap.
The combination of sodium tetraborate (borax) and cerotic acids (provided by
beeswax) forms the soap called sodium cerotate, the basis for the following
recipe for cold cream:

Cetyl esters wax (synthetic spermaceti)         125 grams
Very light or bleached beeswax                  120 grams
Mineral oil                                     560 grams
Sodium borate (borax)                             5 grams
Distilled water                                 190 milliliters

To make a solution of                          1000 grams

        Break the cetyl esters wax and beeswax into small pieces and melt them
in a steam bath.  Add the mineral oil and continue heating until the
temperature of the mixture reaches 70 degrees C (158 degrees F).  Dissolve
the sodium borate in the distilled water, warmed to 70 degrees C, and
gradually add the warm solution to the melted mixture, stirring rapidly and
continuously until it congeals.  This cream is useful as an emollient or as a
cleansing cream.  The cream should be stored in air-tight containers.

        A moisturizing cream is made in the following manner:

Yellow beeswax (stiffening agent)               140 grams
Mineral oil (emollient)                         450 grams
Distilled water (vehicle)                       330 milliliters
Borax                                           2 tsp.

        Again, break the beeswax into small pieces and melt in a steam bath
until the mixture reaches 70 degrees C.  Dissolve the borax in the distilled
water warmed to 70 degrees C, and gradually add the warm solution to the
melted mixture, stirring rapidly and continuously until congealed.  Fill jars
after temperature declines to at least 42 degrees C.  Although the article
doesn't state it, probably most care in making the creams is required in the
gradual adding of ingredients.  If too much is added at once, the emulsifing
process may not occur.  The rapid and continuous stirring should also not be
neglected.

TS