I Hate Beeswax

I mean it is perfectly fine for doing what bees need it for, storing honey...

But I have tried a number of soap recipes that use a small amount of beeswax, and I hate it! First of all, maybe those recipes are not meant to be used HP, because once it reaches trace it quickly becomes a completely solid mass in the crockpot. Secondly, HOW do you clean it??? I wash and wash and wash all my implements, and they still feel like they are coated with wax. My stickblender will not come clean.

Other than that it does seem to add something to the soap...

Well if I didn't hate it before I certainly do now!

I just went back to check on it, stupid soap was pushing the lid off the crockpot!!!

Any advice for soaping with beeswax? Or is the short answer just "DON'T"!!!

How much are you using?

I don't bother - it's too much trouble. If I want a harder bar, I use sodium lactate at 1%. I gather this makes for a smoother pour too if you do HP (I don't but I read this somewhere.)

I only use beeswax for salves and lip balms. Then I wipe out my containers with paper towels and use Dawn dishwashing detergent to get rid of the rest.

I would like to know. A friend of mine keeps bees and I was going to ask for some of the beeswax to try in soap. I make CP soap, maybe that is different?

I love it and the feel and the smell it gives to soap. Have used up to 10%, but usually go with 2-3%. Also, it's supposed to help against ash and DOS.

The only difficulty I see is that you need to heat the oils and cannot soap at room temperature.

Only tried it in HP couple of times and noticed no problems whatsoever. Actually, I would say that if you're doing HP, beeswax raises no issues.

If your soap is pushing the lid it's definitely not the beeswax fault.

once it reaches trace it quickly becomes a completely solid mass in the crockpot.

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I'm puzzled here. From what I saw, as long as it has enough heat, beeswax and beeswax soap is quite fluid.

What is your recipe ?

HOW do you clean it???

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Hot, hot water, possibly a steam cleaner.

But first thing you should avoid getting dirty with beeswax. Melt solid beeswax into hot oils and stir a little. Add lye, stir a little, blend a little.

This way there isn't any beeswax anywhere - only beeswax soap. Which is a bit more difficult to clean than normal soap, but manageable.

I've never used beeswax myself in my own batches, but I've seen a handful of soapers around on the different forums who add it on a regular basis. From what I've read (so far), it seems that many like to add beeswax between and 1% and 2%, calculated on SoapCalc as part of their oil amount (SoapCalc has a SAP # for beeswax).

Some add higher amounts, though. I saw one soaper who likes to add 5% because she loves how it smells in her soap, but she had to adjust her formula to make it more bubbly because the high % of beeswax killed her lather. [edited to add that I just saw that Fragola adds 10%. How does your lather fare, Fragola?]

Also- it has a high melting point (140 degreesF, I believe). I saw where many were suggesting to melt the beeswax first, and then add your other oils in with it to melt, making sure to stir real well. And it was sugested to soap at a warmer temp in order to keep the beeswax from re-solidifying and causing pseudo-trace before the lye could work its magic.

As far as cleaning wax off your utensils- one remedy is to pour boiling water over them. The wax should melt and float off, and you can wipe any remaining hot wax off with a paper towel. The trick is getting the wax hot enough to melt. I have this trouble when making lip balm in my glass labware. Boiling water does the trick for me. You can also use your oven. If your utensils are oven-safe, you can set your oven on it's lowest setting, set you utensils on some foil in the oven and melt the wax that way. When it's all melty, take the utensils out and wipe the wax off with a paper towel.


IrishLass

Thank you all for the replies

The recipe was 1% beeswax, but I do think from now on I will just stick with sodium lactate or stearic acid... In fact, I may repeat this exact same recipe tomorrow with that substitution and compare them side by side!

I wiped everything with a paper towel then used dish soap, but even after doing that twice my stickblender still feels waxy to me. Unfortunately it is plastic and I'm not sure it would withstand the oven, but as it is meant for cooking a little hot water shouldn't hurt.

Anyways, soap is in the molds now, we shall see...

eta: sorry, just checked recipe, it is not quite 3%

1% is very little, I'm surprised you noticed anything different working your soap.

For the stick blender, I clean it like dishes: I soak it in a deep pot full of hot water with detergent for few minutes, after which I turn it on at full speed. I clean the chassis with a dish rag.

Obviously, I am not submerging the part with electrical stuff.

I have used beeswax in HP without the problems described.

judymoody said:

How much are you using?

I don't bother - it's too much trouble. If I want a harder bar, I use sodium lactate at 1%. I gather this makes for a smoother pour too if you do HP (I don't but I read this somewhere.)

I only use beeswax for salves and lip balms. Then I wipe out my containers with paper towels and use Dawn dishwashing detergent to get rid of the rest.

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+1 for the Sodium Lactate. Once I tried it, I am using it in every batch! I haven't tried beeswax.

Seems to me that sodium lactate and beeswax fall into different categories. It's like saying that you replace cocoa butter with sodium lactate.

Sodium lactate simply modifies the texture of your existing soap.

Beeswax has a saponification value and it becomes part of your soap/superfat.

That being said, it would be interesting to learn the results of adding SL to the beeswax soap.