I first came to know about beeswax or beeswax from beeswax candles that burn smokeless. I later realize that there are actually many products that are made from beeswax, such as soap, skin care products, candy and pill coatings, crayons, candles, and floor and furniture wax.

Beeswax or beeswax is a natural secretion from the wax glands on the sides of the body of honey bees and is used primarily as a building block for the honeycomb cells in which brood are raised and stored. honey and pollen. To stimulate beeswax production, honey bees feed on honey and huddle together to raise the temperature of the cluster. To produce one pound of wax requires the bees to consume about ten pounds of honey.

Ranging from yellow to almost black, beeswax is extracted by boiling the comb in water and skimming the wax off the top. It has a subtle natural aroma, the fragrance of honey ingrained with the other aromas present in a hive that is often pleasant enough for many honey lovers to chew like gum and swallow as a form of fiber.

Beeswax works well in cosmetic products because of the “wax esters” that exist in both beeswax and human skin. These compounds help bind and emulsify ointments, lipsticks, and lotions. As a natural moisturizing ingredient that increases the skin’s essential moisture, beeswax is safe to use and is commonly found in hand creams and body creams that help lock in the skin’s natural moisture and relieve skin itchiness. sensitive skin. In folk medicine, beeswax ear candles are used to remove earwax. It is believed that they can cure ear infection and improve hearing by removing wax from inside the ear. Originating in many countries including China, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, and Italy, this ancient art is known as ear candles.

Processed by melting, straining, filtering, centrifuging, bleaching, and solidifying into blocks of various sizes for shipping, beeswax today is widely used in pharmaceuticals, waterproofing materials, polishes, furniture wax, and light lubricants in manufacturing. . It is also popularly used as a coating for cheese; to protect food as it ages. While some cheese makers have replaced it with plastic, many still use beeswax to prevent off-flavors that can result from plastic.