Cleaning beeswax

[elle110]

We started messing around buying beeswax from a local beekeeper, he showed us how to filter it to remove little legs, bee parts etc. YUCK my hubby does it. I love the fact it is local, it is not bleached and it is cheap, he charges $1.50 a LB but always gives us a lot more. Butttt...

• It is a PITA to clean, and takes several passes to get it clean
  
• when I made test lotion bars it has little flecks not pieces but a like a thicker part of the beesax (does this make sense I cannot remember the name of the stuff but it is a by product of beeswax) that have sunk to the bottom of the lotion bar mold that irritate me being there, to me looks dirty
  
• Also, I think the natural beeswax is harder to scent. it seems to come throught on some of them taking away from their true scent

So, my ????, anyone have any experience cleaning beeswax and wish to share? Do you think it is worth the savings in $$$ if we have to clean and still have that thick stuff in it? And, if you were buying a lotion bar would the fact it were more natural appeal to you or the more true fragrance?

I have sent some of them out to testers as well

TIA

Elle

[sockmonkey]

I would be grossed out finding stuff in beeswax. The natural-ness of it would not hold any appeal to me. I want to at least have the impression that things are clean and sanitary. I'm not saying that your stuff isn't, it's just my mindset, when I find strange things not normally found in a product.

I also feel like there definitely would be some people that it would appeal to--the "naturalists", who are more educated on products like yours and would not be appalled by finding bee parts in the stuff, and actually enjoy the scent of it.

Unfortunately, I think we are all so used to overprocessed commercial products that most of us have become spoiled and might be turned off my the more natural beeswax option.

[wildangel112]

Elle..... We've been buying our beeswax from a local apiary for years and cleaning it is one of DH's favorite passtimes. He breaks the wax up into chunks and stuffs them into the legs of cut-off pantyhose. He drops these into a large pot of boiling water and lets it boil until the wax is melted. He then leaves it sitting overnight and come morning, will take the pot and flip over to produce a perfect round block of beeswax. All the gunk that managed to seep out the stocking will be stuck on the bottom. You simply take a knife and scrape it clean. I never have problems with propolis or other leavings in my wax with this process. HTH and good luck to you!!!

[elle110]

Elle..... We've been buying our beeswax from a local apiary for years and cleaning it is one of DH's favorite passtimes. He breaks the wax up into chunks and stuffs them into the legs of cut-off pantyhose. He drops these into a large pot of boiling water and lets it boil until the wax is melted. He then leaves it sitting overnight and come morning, will take the pot and flip over to produce a perfect round block of beeswax. All the gunk that managed to seep out the stocking will be stuck on the bottom. You simply take a knife and scrape it clean. I never have problems with propolis or other leavings in my wax with this process. HTH and good luck to you!!!

Thats the word I was trying to think of, propolis. My hubby takes the beeswax and breaks it up, boils it in water and then pours it through homemade strainers (made with cheese cloth etc) and pours the liquid into big vats and then when the beeswax cools cuts a hole in the beeswax and pours the water and any debris from the vat, he does this 2 processes on each batch. There is not anything like legs or anything in the bars, Thanks so much on your cleaning tips Wildangel