Hair Chalk Recipe and Tips

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Amy Warden

If you subscribe to the Brambleberry newsletter, you should have received a recipe for making hair chalk about three days ago. My nine-year-old daughter has been asking for a blue streak in her hair for quite some time, but I never wanted to do it permanently, so we decided to try this out with some ultramarine blue! Brambleberry states that the chalk should wash out in the first wash – or two, if your hair is very light. Be warned: this can be a very messy thing to make if children are involved!

Hair Chalk Recipe from Brambleberry

2 Tablespoons Colorant (We found that oxides and Bramble Berry neon pigments worked best and micas didn’t really work at all; they just crumble apart.)
1/2 Teaspoon Kaolin Clay
1 Tablespoon Witch Hazel
1/2 teaspoon Arrowroot Powder
1/2 teaspoon Water

Equipment Needed:
Gloves * Apron * Spray Bottle with water * Comb * Blow-Dryer * Hairspray

To Make Hair Chalk

ONE: Mix dry colorant and kaolin together in a bowl big enough to stick both hands in.

TWO: Place arrowroot and water in a separate small container and microwave for 5 seconds. You do not want it gummy, just slightly thickened. If it’s not thick after 5 seconds, try again on three second bursts. (Amy’s notes: when they say thickened, it means just starting to gel or coagulate. If you do not reach this stage, the chalk will NOT form.)

THREE: Add the witch hazel to the dry powders, and hand mix together (while wearing gloves!). Once well mixed, add arrowroot powder and water slurry. Really squish the mixture together. You don’t want it crumbly or wet, or to have bits of undispersed clay. It should have texture just like kid’s modeling clay. If it is too dry, spritz witch hazel one spritz at a time until correct consistency is reached.

FOUR: Roll mixture on a piece of parchment paper until you get the shape you like. Allow to air dry overnight.

To Apply Hair Chalk

ONE: Put an old sheet or towel over the shoulders of the person you’re applying the color to. Wet designated area of hair desired to be chalked. We used a spray bottle of water. (Amy’s notes: I would put the person in a bathtub as well. We ended up with some crumbled bits of hair chalk on the floor.)

TWO: Wearing gloves, apply the chalk to the wet area by dragging it along the strands. Use your fingers to rub the chalk into the hair really well.

THREE: Once you’ve reached the desired amount of coverage, comb through the hair to evenly distribute the chalk. (Amy’s note: your comb will turn color, but you should be able to wash it off.)

FOUR: Heat-set the chalk using either a blow-dryer, curling iron, or straightener. A curling iron or straightener may not be the best idea for those with damaged hair. You can also straighten or curl the hair after you blow-dry it. (Amy’s notes: I applied a LOT of chalk to her hair. After drying it with a blow-dryer, the hair got really stiff and we had to comb through it again. This was another somewhat messy step, as you could see the dry chalk flying.)

FIVE: Spray chalked hair with hair spray so that it doesn’t brush off onto clothing.

My daughter with blue hair chalk!

Amy’s Insights:

The good news is that the blue hair chalk washed out completely after the first shampoo! We attempted to make more hair chalk this morning because her sister wanted to try it, and we thought we might make some for Christmas presents. Her sister wanted a lime green, so we combined regular green oxide with yellow oxide with a 2:1 ratio. It seemed to work fine – except that I forgot to add the witch hazel to the colorant and kaolin clay and instead put it with the arrowroot powder and water. The consistency was a little off, so she ended up smearing more of it on her gloves and the waxed paper and didn’t end up with as much chalk as her sister did. Oops!!

We also attempted another hair chalk with the electric bubblegum colorant and I made the same mistake! Only this time the slurry hadn’t really gelled at all, so I ended up really ruining it. After combining the slurry with the colorant and kaolin clay, the chalk wouldn’t form at all! I tried to put the whole thing in the microwave for a few seconds to help it set up, but we ended up with hard chunks along with watery parts and had to throw everything out. The electric bubblegum colorant really stains the skin, so I’m not sure I would recommend using it for hair chalk unless you were being really careful and NOT applying it around the hairline. Lesson learned: FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS!!

UPDATE:
I just made 5 more batches. I tried following the recipe and made another batch with the bubblegum pink – another failed batch!! First of all, when you only combine the arrowroot powder with the water, after 5 seconds in the microwave, you have a solid ball of goo. I really think adding the witch hazel with the arrowroot and water is the way to go, and I’m sure this is how we must have made the first blue batch which turned out so well. I never could get the pink batch to solidify. Tried adding more arrowroot slurry, more kaolin clay…nothing worked. I ended up with a big glob of pink goo!!

Next batch worked out perfectly! I used hydrated chromium green oxide this time and only combined the oxide with the kaolin clay. I made the slurry out of the witch hazel, arrowroot and water. The key for me was to make sure the liquids only filled the measuring spoon until it was level (no extra rounded top!). With my microwave, I figured out that six seconds was good for the first burst (take it out and swirl it around in the cup), then two more four-second bursts (swirling it around after the first one, and stirring with a spoon after the second one). It was just starting to gel at that point and I could stir it up until it was just thickened.

After that I made a batch with ultramarine purple and just a bit of ultramarine blue. It came out too sticky because I added too much liquid up front (make sure it’s LEVEL in the measuring spoon!). Even after adding more kaolin clay, I lost half of it because it was stuck to the sides of the bowl.

Next I made another ultramarine blue batch that turned out perfectly. (See I’m learning!)

Finally I made a batch with brick red oxide that half worked. It turned out extra dry, and I’m afraid it’s going to crumble when it’s applied. I tried adding more witch hazel…no luck. Then I tried adding more water…again no luck! It just didn’t want to stick together like the hydrated chromium green and ultramarine blue did. Photos of the final products:

Left to right: ultramarine blue, hydrated chromium green, ultramarine purple (with a bit of blue), brick red oxide

Hoping to gift these to my nieces tomorrow!

Magma Soap, Sponsored by Brambleberry!

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Amy Warden

Ever since Brambleberry sent me one of their 5-lb wooden log molds with a silicone liner after the Soap Challenges, I’ve been looking for a reason to use it! It’s not my usual size mold, but I’ve been so intrigued with the idea of a silicone liner…so when they contacted me about sending me one of their soap kits and doing a post on my blog, I immediately picked the Magma soap kit. Not only did it use the 5-lb mold, but it combined two different kinds of soaps that I had never combined before!

It also gave me a reason to make another video – something I hadn’t done in quite some time. Check it out:

Yes, I’m leaving you hanging for now…tomorrow you can see how the soap turned out, plus I will reveal a coupon code from Brambleberry as well as a Soap Challenge for my soapmaking friends to enter a drawing for a significant prize!

Soap Beveling 101

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Amy Warden

If you are not a soapmaker, you may disregard this post. I had a request for information on how I bevel my soaps. The video is short and sweet, and I’ve already received some excellent feedback from my youtube subscribers.

I have been sending my soap scraps to Clean the World for several years now. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 2 million persons die each year from diarrheal illness. These deaths occur almost exclusively among children younger than 5 years living in low income countries. Many of these deaths are preventable through proper hygiene practices. Clean the World is a very reputable organization, and I understand they have a hub in Canada now as well (although it has been brought to my attention that the Canadian hub only accepts monetary donations and volunteers). They accept all manner of soaps, including melt-and-pour! Use this link to find their mailing address under Step 6 of their fundraiser information, and don’t forget to request a tax receipt and include your own mailing address.

Are you a soap beveler? Why or why not?

Statistics source

Goat’s Milk Soap Tutorial Updated

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Amy Warden

This is just a quick post to let you know that I updated my tutorial on How to Make Goat’s Milk Soap yesterday. I’ve changed my method slightly, plus the photos were all skewed in the original post so I fixed that too! I added links to other pertinent posts as well. I use fresh, raw goat’s milk from Screamin Oaks Farm in Tonganoxie, Kansas in my goat’s milk soaps, but you can use the canned version with the same method. You may have to re-constitute it first. I hope you find it helpful!

How to Line a Wooden Soap Mold

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Amy Warden

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard other soapmakers say they just hate to line their soap mold! I find it pretty relaxing, and thanks to the lesson from my soapmaking friend April McCart, there’s a method I use that is leak-proof and turns out beautiful soaps every time. I use wooden log molds of several different lengths, but the widths are all the same. The shortest one is about 7″ long and is the most difficult to line with this method, but it still works. I buy 15″ wide freezer paper by the roll from Uline, then cut about 4″ off one side before folding it for the mold.

I had a friend come over to help shoot some video, so here’s a quick tutorial:

If you have any questions, please let me know! I’m planning to make more videos this year, so if you are interested, I would be thrilled if you subscribed to my YouTube channel, and I will do the same.

How To Make Hot Process Soap in the Microwave

Posted on November 1, 2010 by Amy Warden

Making soap in the microwave is a great way to make a small batch of hot-process soap. It’s probably not any more dangerous than making hot processed soap with any other method. However, I must make some necessary warnings and cautions before we begin. This method is an advanced soapmaking technique, and should not be attempted by anyone who is not familiar with cold-process soapmaking, or anyone who is not prepared to watch the microwave continuously while the soap is cooking inside! I made my entire one-pound batch of soap in about an hour. Watching the microwave took about 10-15 minutes. Please read through the entire tutorial and familiarize yourself with the process and photos before you begin.

Formulating a recipe: I use my regular soap recipe, and calculate a one-pound batch using Soapcalc.com. This is a great size because it is small enough to fit inside the microwave (must have room for expanding soap), and large enough that I can still submerge my stick blender. I use the water amount recommended by Soapcalc, which is 38% of oils.

Equipment needed: The same equipment you normally use for making soap is what you will need to make soap in the microwave. Since you’ve made soap before, you know what this is, right? The only thing that is different for me is that I use a 64-ounce pyrex batter bowl to melt the oils, and mix and cook the soap. You must have a bowl that is clear so you can see the soap climbing inside.

Let’s begin!

The first thing you must be acquainted with on your microwave is how to set the power level to 5, or half power. I NEVER use full power to melt the oils, or cook the soap. On my microwave, I have to push “time cook”, then the time, for example: “2″ “0″ “0″ for two minutes, then “power level” then “5″ and “start”. Yours might be different.

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The buttons on my microwave

Step 1: Measure and melt the solid oils and butters. Using half power, I melt my oils a minute at a time, stirring after each minute until they are mostly melted. Then I stir until the rest melts, and add the remaining liquid oils.

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Solid oils & butters are mostly melted

Step 2: Measure and mix your lye solution. Mine is a simple water and lye mixture. Be sure to start with cold liquid!

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Lye solution in a plastic pitcher

Step 3: This is the best part about making hot processed soap – you can add the lye solution directly to the oils as soon as it is properly mixed without paying any attention to the temperatures.

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Lye solution has been stirred into the oils with a spoon.

Step 4: Stick blend the soap until it’s too thick to blend any longer. Now it’s ready to cook!

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Soap is at heavy trace

Step 5: Cooking soap in the microwave involves a repetitive process of cooking, watching, and stirring. With a one-pound batch, I start cooking the soap in the microwave for two minutes at half power. Since different microwaves cook differently, you will have to watch your soap carefully the first time you make it in the microwave. This is what my soap looks like after cooking two minutes at half power, and stirred down:

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Soap after cooking for two minutes in the microwave.

Then I cook it another two minutes at half power. The soap was still actively bubbling when I took this photo:

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Soap is bubbling up after the second two minutes of cooking

Step 6: Continue cooking, watching, and stirring. I set the time for about five minutes at half power – BUT I DON’T LET IT GO THE ENTIRE TIME. Watch. When the soap looks like the photo below, OPEN THE DOOR OF THE MICROWAVE IMMEDIATELY AND STIR. (You don’t have to let the soap get this high to open the door and stir it down. This was getting precariously close to volcano stage!)

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View through the microwave door of the soap bubbling up.

Stir down the soap each time it bubbles up. This photo shows the “applesauce” stage, where there is a bit of separation. You can see some liquid, and the solid parts are little balls of soap:

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Stirred down soap

Continue to cook, watch, and stir.

Time saving tip: If you just open the door of the microwave and don’t hit “stop/clear/off” each time, then you can just put the soap back in the microwave and hit “start”. You won’t have to re-set the time and power level each time. If the time is running out, I hit the “add 30 seconds” button a couple times to keep it going.

When the soap is mostly translucent after stirring it down, it’s done! The soap will hold together and the consistency is like mashed potatoes. (This process varies each time I make soap in the microwave. This time it took about 2-3 times of cooking and stirring down before it was done. Sometimes it takes a lot more. If you find that the soap is bubbling up after just a few seconds in the microwave, it probably has plenty of heat and just needs to be stirred longer.)

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Mostly translucent soap

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Close-up of mostly translucent soap

Step 7: Add color and fragrance. I didn’t add fragrance to this particular batch. You will want to test the temperature of the soap and know the flash point of your fragrance before adding it, so it doesn’t burn off. As a general rule, you will use less fragrance for hot processed soap than for cold processed soap. If you normally scent your CP soap at 0.8 oz per pound of soap, you can back that off to about 0.5 oz. per pound. I add colorants at the same rate as cold processed soap.

This is going to be plain RED soap:

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Red colorant added

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After red colorant is stirred in

After the fragrance and color is mixed in, you can mash the soap into your mold and let it sit overnight. You may be able to cut it the next day, but if it’s still soft, you might have to wait a little longer. When I make soap balls, I let the soap cool in the bowl, then scoop it out with a spoon and form balls with my hands. I can get consistent sizes by weighing soap pieces on my scale before I form them.

Technically, hot processed soap is ready to use right away. You may want to let it cure out some of the excess liquid if it’s still a bit soft. However, if you’re planning to make soap balls to put in another batch of soap – it’s ready as soon as the balls are rolled!

Any questions?

Cleaning Amber Glass Bottles

Posted on October 18, 2010 by Amy Warden

Since I’ve been absent for almost a week, I figured I better come up with something really good to post about! This will interest soapmakers and others who buy fragrance and essential oils in large quantities. All others can disregard!

Have you noticed that many of the fragrance suppliers are shipping fragrances in HDPE bottles these days? Essential oils usually come in amber glass or aluminum bottles which are recommended for long term storage. Most of you probably know that if you order fragrance oils that are shipped to you in HDPE plastic bottles, and you aren’t planning to use them within a couple of weeks, they need to be transferred to amber glass or aluminum or the fragrance oil will eat away the HDPE plastic. Many of the fragrance suppliers don’t tell you this! I’ve often wondered how a new soaper is supposed to figure this out. Anyway…

I’ve collected a whole lot of fragrances over the years, and fortunately most of the suppliers I buy from ship in amber glass – especially when I was first starting out seven years ago. I always felt bad throwing away the amber glass bottles once they were empty, but I didn’t know what else to do with them until about five years ago when fellow soapmaker Deb Hammett shared her secret for cleaning amber bottles. This was before it was trendy to recycle! Are you ready for this tip? Ok, here it is:

Deb commented on a yahoo group that she soaks the bottles in hot salt water, then rinses and puts them in the dishwasher. The good news is that it works! I usually grab one of my stainless steel soap pots, add hot tap water and a good amount of salt (probably half a cup in one to two gallons), then stir until the salt is dissolved. I pre-rinse the bottles out with warm tap water and rub the labels off with my fingernails. The paper ones come off really easily once they are soaking wet! Then I dip the bottles in the pot, one by one, allowing the salt water to fill up the bottle as I tip it in. I let them soak overnight, then run them through the dishwasher the next day.

Now the cone-lined caps are a different story. The plastic absorbs the fragrance, and does NOT want to come out. I buy new caps from Essential Supplies. They also have a great selection of amber glass bottles if you need some. If you already have amber glass bottles and need new caps, you can figure out which size you’ll need with this chart.

Please let me know if you found this to be useful information!

Almost Paradise: A Soap Saga

Posted on August 1, 2010 by Amy Warden

I’m just going to go ahead and admit something to you right now. I have a problem with patience. Yes, it’s true. That’s what made this soap story into a soap saga. It started with some inspiration from Soaphora and her Chocolate Mint soap which appears to be soap made in a PVC pipe mold embedded in more soap. Simple enough, right?

My vision for the Almost Paradise soap was to make a sandy beach with blue skies and a yellow sun – the sun being the part that had to be made in a PVC pipe mold. Except I had never (successfully) made soap in PVC pipe before.

I went to Lowe’s and picked up some 3/4″ pipe, had two pieces cut it to fit my log molds, and also picked up a wooden dowel that just fit inside the pipe, and some silicone spray. I doused some old t-shirt rags in the silicone spray and pushed them through the pipe a couple of times to try to get it slick inside. Tried to figure out how much soap would fit inside the pipe, then made a test batch of yellow soap. The pipe ended up about 2/3 full.

The next day I tried to get the soap out of the pipe. First, I put the pipe in the freezer for about an hour. Pulled it out, and the soap was still sticky. So I put it back in the freezer – this time overnight. Pulled it out again, tried to push it out with the wooden dowel, and could NOT get that soap to budge! After about an hour, I finally put out an S.O.S. to my soapmaker friends on Facebook. Meanwhile, the soap had been warming back up to room temperature, and when I tried to push it out one more time, it started to move! After a few strong pushes, it finally popped out! That’s when I did my happy soap dance, and got a little too excited (and impatient). I just knew my idea was going to work, so I started working on filling up both of my log molds the way I had envisioned (about 8 pounds of soap each).

I made more yellow soap – this time enough to fill two pipes! Then I whipped up another batch of soap to make the sandy beach. I used my regular soap recipe, and added some rose hip powder and cinnamon to create the look of sand. Scented it with the Almost Paradise fragrance, and plopped it in the bottom of the molds:

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Sandy beach soap

The next day, I had my daughters help me out a bit. My older daughter was steadying the soap as it came out of the pipe so it wouldn’t break off. (Well, sort of. Both pieces ended up with a break in the middle. I just had to place them as close together as I could in the mold.)

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Had to put all my weight down on that pipe, to try and force the soap out. (My younger daughter is still working on her photography skills.)

After we got the soap out of the pipes, I had my girls spread some lovely gold mica from Brambleberry (yea for garage sales!) over the outsides of the soap to make the “sun” appear a bit more shiny. They were more than happy to help out with this project!

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Bright, shiny sun soap!

Next step was to make the blue sky soap. Without even thinking about it, I made my regular soap recipe, added some ultramarine blue with a tad bit of hydrated chromium green, and scented it with the Almost Paradise fragrance. I figured this would work perfectly since the fragrance is non-discoloring. Only I forgot that my regular soap base is NOT very white! I started stirring in the color, and it turned a greyish-green color! I panicked and grabbed some blue mica and started dumping it in, along with some titanium dioxide. It wasn’t improving much, so then I ran to get some freezer paper and line my 3rd log mold so I could at least salvage the soap, because I wasn’t going to pour it over the sandy beach soap and ruin what I had already started. Fortunately, the fragrance doesn’t accelerate trace either and I had time to get it in the mold. So now I have 24 bars of what turned out to be sort of greyish blue soap that smells really good! Here’s a photo of some of the scraps:

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Rejected greyish-blue soap

Blue sky soap, take two: I reformulated my soap recipe to make the base a lot whiter by using refined shea butter instead of unrefined (and using a lot more of it), taking out the olive and rice bran oils and increasing the apricot kernel oil. I may have increased the palm kernel oil too. Also added some titanium dioxide to the lye water and used blue mica instead of ultramarine blue. It turned out beautiful!!! I also scooped some soap out before adding the blue mica so I could swirl it back in for some white clouds.

First I put a layer of plain blue soap over the sandy beach. Then I set the yellow sun soap on top, a bit off center. My plan was to swirl in the white “cloud” soap, then pour the rest over the suns. Worked out great until it started setting up on me, and I discovered that I was short about 8-10 ounces of soap:

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Almost Paradise soap in the mold

Stay tuned for the unveiling of the final soap, and the end of this soap saga!

Update: Click here to see the Final Reveal!

Chomper Polish Tutorial

Posted on July 12, 2010 by Amy Warden

After visiting Courtney Robyn’s “Nest” a couple weeks ago, I realized that Courtney has a wealth of information on some interesting subjects, so I contacted her to learn more about the dental soap and tooth cleansing powder that she makes for her family. She has some great ideas and information on her blog that you will definitely want to check out!

Hello, my name is Courtney and I was graciously invited to share one of the things I make here at home. Tooth cleanser! It is all natural, gentle, fairly inexpensive, and importantly (for my family) fluoride free. I have chosen to stop the use of fluoride in our dental products for various reasons upon researching the subject. There is much research and studies out there on the subject,* often with differing viewpoints; for me the evidence pointed overwhelmingly to it being harmful to one’s health with very little benefit. So, ix-nay on the fluoride, but you will not hear me judge someone on the other side – to each their own. I’m not too cracked on the “natural” toothpaste alternatives either by the way. Many brands are filled with silica, SLS, and artificial sweeteners. I figured I could make our own; then I would know and approve of exactly what went into it.

**Initial Disclaimer: This tutorial and recipe is provided for personal use. It is not intended to replace any medical treatment. Always follow your personal physician’s advisement. When working with essential oils you must exercise caution and be educated in their uses; they are volatile substances and improper use may result in injury. Pregnant women and young children should also take special care with the any application of essential oils. The following recipes and statements have not been evaluated by the FDA.

Okey dokey – on to the fun and messy stuff! Here is how I made my dental soap and tooth cleansing powder:

Part One: Basic Cold Process Soap suitable for Oral Care

Process soap as normal (meant for experienced soap makers). I CP-OP my soap for a faster cure time. Feel free to play around with the recipe and size. Always run any formula through a lye calculator.

Dental Soap

This soap can be used as-is for those going for extreme frugality and simplicity. Yes it is soap. Yes it tastes like soap. But . . . it is surprisingly mild tasting. I wasn’t frothing at the mouth like a rabid dog or gagging. Two key points are to brush your tongue before applying soap to your brush (if you do that) and to rinse very well afterward. Rinsing is key to oral hygiene anyway. Two or three swipes across the soap bar with your moistened brush are sufficient.

Part Two: Chomper Polish Powder
The goal here is to create a dentifrice that is cleansing and refreshing with a bit of mild, natural abrasiveness for tartar and plaque. For some people this will be used daily, others may want to alternate one day powder then one day plain bar soap and so on. Once your powder is mixed up it is only necessary to use a SMALL amount on your moistened brush. A little goes a long way for sure. We’re talking pea-sized or less.

Here are the basic ingredients:

Soap, baking soda, xylitol, essential oils

(This made a larger batch which I plan on sharing with family and friends. Decrease amounts if you are unsure if this is going to be the product for you to reduce waste.)

Baking Soda 5.5 oz

Xylitol 6.5 oz

CP Soap from above 2.5 oz

Essential oils for flavor and therapeutic benefits

30 drops combined

1. Using Ye Olde Knuckle Grinder aka Grater, shred up your soap bar into more manageable pieces for your food processor.

Grate, grate, grate...

2. Add soap shreds to processor and pulse to break up.

Soap in food processor

3. Add baking soda to help keep it dry as you pulse.

Pulsed until fine

4. Add xylitol and continue to pulse and mix. Once fairly small and blended you can add your essential oil drops. Try to place drops all over instead of making one large damp spot. It will mix better. Pulse more to finer consistency. You should not have large beads of soap. (FYI soap pellets are not fun stuck in a molar . . . Rinse, I say, Rinse!)

Finished product

Voila! Tooth powder/Chomper Polish. I haven’t tried it, but for anyone who has an aversion to mints or sensitivity to essential oils –they could probably use a flavor extract/concentrate in its place. For my powder I noticed it was a bit moist? I am not sure if that is the exact word I’m going for. It could be the humidity. It isn’t damp by any means – just sort of the feel of brown sugar. It should probably be left open in a cool, dark, DRY, and bug free place for a day or two to evaporate the excess moisture out. Then package as you choose. If it is for your own personal use you can do small tupperware or storage bags. Probably best to use smaller containers of it at a time to prevent any contamination of your entire batch.

Packaged in apothecary jar

For best results, sprinkle or spoon it ONTO your toothbrush. Like, don’t double dip the chip, man! Again, I recommend a pea-sized amount or less. This stuff lasts a long time! Please make sure to give it a fair chance. Despite the soda, flavoring, and sweetness of xylitol there will still be a hint of soap flavor. Within three days of using I was used to it and enjoying it. Now the cloying, pasty, thick, overly sweet gunk that comes in a tube grosses me out.

Well, that is it. I tried to be efficient but these tutorial things have a way of growing . . .
I hope you enjoyed and get a bit of use from this. You can find me at my blog – pop in for a visit. I give a big thank you to Amy for letting me visit her blog and to all the crafty folk out there who contributed knowledge in some form or another to create this product.
Cheers ~ Courtney
Email
CRNest on Facebook

*For more reading:
Organic Dental Care | Xylitol – better than fluoride
Toothpaste: hazardous to dental and bodily health?

A Buzzworthy Tutorial!

Posted on July 8, 2010 by Amy Warden

Courtney of Courtney Robyn’s Nest recently posted this tutorial on how to process beeswax from raw burr comb ends that she purchased from a local beekeeper. With just a bit of melting and straining, she came up with some beautiful beeswax for less than she would pay for the pre-processed stuff.

Living in Northeast Indiana I am in the heart of Amish country. It just so happens that my brother in law works with an Amish man that keeps bees. For $5.00 I was able to buy from him approximately 7 pounds of raw burr comb ends. Thus began my adventure in home rendering of beeswax. I had never done this before, had a vague idea of how it “should” go, and just dove in. Here I’ll show a few pictures of the process and what I learned (along with what I found would have been easier in hindsight.)

1. Take your raw burr comb and crumble it up – breaking up any big sticky chunks. This will still have some raw honey and organic matter in it. I used a double boiler on the stove. Have your bottom pot full of water and at a pretty decent medium-high to high heat. *Always take caution to not overheat beeswax especially by microwave as it is combustible. Add your burr comb to pot and begin melting down.

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Raw Burr Comb

2. Continue stirring as it is melting down. I prefer using a glass stirring rod. I would not recommend using plastic or wooden utensils for rendering wax unless you intend to designate those items specifically to this project – it does not clean off easily.

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Starting to melt

3. Here is where you can see it is fully melted down. There is quite a bit of debris in the wax. Larvae, adult bees, pollen, and other matter.

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Fully Melted

4. Here is my super fancy shmancy filtration device. Knee highs stretched over a container and secure with rubber band. I had at one point tried cheesecloth as well, but it was not nearly as effective as pantyhose. The cheesecloth was so absorbent that it soaked up the wax rather than letting it pass through.

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Filtering out the debris

5. It may be necessary to run the wax through one or two additional times depending on how much organic matter was in the wax. I sent mine through twice and it was entirely free of all sediment. You can give the hose sack a gentle squeeze as you are finishing up but be cautious of the high heat – beeswax gets very hot and will harden rapidly on your skin. Also do not squeeze too much or you will squish out gunk and make your clean wax dirty again.

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Finished product, still warm

6. Here is my finished product. It smells so lovely and has a rich golden color indicative of high quality wax that has not been bleached out or over-refined. I ended up with approx. 5 lbs. of pure beeswax for a minimal amount of money and work. I highly recommend once your wax has “set” but is still warm you cut it up right then into more manageable 1-2 ounce pieces. It will save a lot of chipping away at a mammoth hunk of hard wax later. Unless you fancy that sort of thing.

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Beeswax completely set up

Another handy tip is take paper towel and immediately! begin wiping out your double boiler while the wax residue is still warm. It is impervious to soap and water – I learned the hard way that it is difficult to clean off a pot’s surface.

6. Here is some of the yucky gunk that you get out of the wax when purifying. I’ve been told that if you put this “sludge gum” into egg carton compartments that they make excellent fire starter cubes when cut up.

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Yucky Gunk!

All in all, I really had fun doing this. It is a sustainable product and a natural additive that can enrich so many projects. I fully plan on doing this again to keep myself in wax supply. Since this batch I have been told by a beekeeper friend about another (and supposedly easier) method. So, I’ll post again once I have tried it. Which will be soon, very soon, because I have 20#’s waiting for me in my garage!!

Reprinted from Courtney Robyn’s Nest

I asked Courtney if she would share with Great Cakes Soapworks readers about how to make tooth soap, and she graciously agreed! Watch for that tutorial next week! In the meantime, I have a double batch of Oatmeal, Milk & Honey soap to rebatch – since I forgot to add the rice bran oil. All. 27. ounces. of. it. Ugh.

Great Cakes Soapworks

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