14 Facts About Beeswax

Beeswax is a natural wax produced by honey bees of the genus Apis.

Beeswax has been used since prehistory as the first plastic, as a lubricant and waterproofing agent, in lost wax casting of metals and glass, as a polish for wood and leather, for making candles, as an ingredient in cosmetics and as an artistic medium in encaustic painting.

Beeswax is edible, having similarly negligible toxicity to plant waxes, and is approved for food use in most countries and in the European Union under the E number E901.

Beeswax is formed by worker bees, which secrete it from eight wax-producing mirror glands on the inner sides of the sternites on abdominal segments 4 to 7.

Beeswax is a tough wax formed from a mixture of several chemical compounds.

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Beeswax can be classified generally into European and Oriental types.

Beeswax candles are purported to be superior to other wax candles, because they burn brighter and longer, do not bend, and burn cleaner.

Beeswax is the candle constituent of choice in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Beeswax blended with pine rosin is used for waxing, and can serve as an adhesive to attach reed plates to the structure inside a squeezebox.

Beeswax is used by percussionists to make a surface on tambourines for thumb rolls.

Beeswax was formerly used in the manufacture of phonograph cylinders.

Beeswax is used in lip balm, lip gloss, hand creams, salves, and moisturizers; and in cosmetics such as eye shadow, blush, and eye liner.

Beeswax is an important ingredient in moustache wax and hair pomades, which make hair look sleek and shiny.

Beeswax was among the first plastics to be used, alongside other natural polymers such as gutta-percha, horn, tortoiseshell, and shellac.