30 Creative Uses for Beeswax You Should Know

Beeswax is a versatile product you can use for many things around your home.

Beeswax is a natural, versatile product to keep in your home. It is a natural thickener for products, available online or from local beekeepers. You might keep honey bees yourself! Since we plan to get bees in the spring, I looked up tons of practical uses for beeswax.

After harvesting honey, beekeepers end up with beeswax as the byproduct of the extraction process. It is typically melted in blocks and hardened, but you may purchase shredded beeswax or pastilles. I use pastilles for creating salves at home since they melt faster.

Natural beeswax is easy to source. Ask around to find a local beekeeper or stores that sell it. If you can’t find anything local (I’m sure you can), sourcing natural beeswax online is easy. I buy yellow beeswax pastilles online because they melt fast and work great when I make herbal salves at home.

Perhaps, you are a beekeeper yourself, and you have extra beeswax to use around your home. You would be surprised how far a pound of beeswax goes when creating useful items.

A Few Reasons to Use Beeswax

It’s Eco-Friendly

Other products do some of the same things beeswax does but are synthetic ingredients. Beeswax is natural and won’t cause any environmental harm.

Long Shelf Life

Beeswax has a ridiculously long shelf life. We know it’s been found in ancient tombs of Egyptian pharaohs thousands of years ago.

While I’m not sure I would use 5,000-year-old beeswax, chances are your beeswax won’t go bad. So, if you find a great deal or harvest a lot from your hives, don’t stress. You can use it as you need and want.

Safe and Healthy for Your Skin

Natural beeswax is an excellent addition to cosmetic and skin care products. It creates a natural barrier to seal moisture into your skin, so beeswax is a great ingredient if you struggle with dry and cracked skin or lips during the winter months.

Many beauty products use petroleum jelly, but this ingredient is not only full of chemicals but suffocates the skin. Beeswax, on the other hand, allows your skin to breathe while still providing a protective barrier.

Naturally Hardens

One of the benefits of beeswax is that it naturally hardens. It thickens homemade cosmetics, lotions, and other DIY products because it’s solid at room temperature and has a high melting point.

Since it hardens easily, it will harden other oils, so you can mix it with whatever ingredients you want to create a unique blend.

How to Properly Melt Beeswax

Melting beeswax is easy, but it requires a few hand tools. You want to pick the pots and pans you use carefully because they often have a waxy film for quite some time.

A double boiler is an essential item when working with beeswax. Beeswax has a low boiling point, so you need a thermometer on hand. You don’t want to burn beeswax, especially when using it in a body product like lip balm.

Once beeswax reaches 185 degrees F, discoloration begins. Since it boils between 144-147 degrees F, this increase happens fast, so watch for the boil to begin.

The trick is heating beeswax slowly and steadily. Don’t go in and turn the boiler to the highest heat and let it go. Letting it come to that temperature at a slower rate is better.

30 Uses for Beeswax

1. Make Homemade Beeswax Candles

Candles are expensive. I recently purchased a pine-scented candle at the store, and it was over $15!

While grabbing candles at the store is undoubtedly easier, it is cheaper to make your own, and beeswax is a common ingredient for homemade candles. You can mix beeswax with other compounds to make scented candles or make pure beeswax candles. Grab some cotton wicks and glass jars as well.

2. Make Beeswax Wraps

Plastic is bad for the planet, but plastic wrap is one thing that you may use to keep food fresh. A sustainable alternative is to use beeswax wraps rather than Clingwrap.

Beeswax is a washable, reusable alternative made with cotton, beeswax, and other natural ingredients like jojoba oil. It’s easy to make beeswax wraps yourself, but you also can purchase them. Sometimes, it’s better to buy them if you don’t have the time to give to make them.

3. Make DIY Lip Balm

One of my favorite uses for beeswax is making DIY lip balm. Beeswax is regularly used in beauty products to lock in moisture throughout the day. Chapped lips are miserable, so using homemade lip balm keeps your lip skin moisturized and happy.

Making lip balm is easier than you may think. A basic recipe involves two ingredients: shea butter and beeswax pastilles. However, you can find all sorts of DIY recipes with flavored lip balms using different essential oils.

4. Create Homemade Beeswax Lipstick

Believe it or not, if you wear lipstick and know how to make lip balm, making your own lipstick isn’t much harder. You will need to color it; natural colors are easier to figure out.

For example, orange cocoa powder works well for tan hues, and beet powder creates a red color. Otherwise, you only need three ingredients for homemade beeswax lipstick.

5. Make Beeswax Eyeliner

Have you ever thought about the ingredients in your cosmetics? Eyeliner has some questionable ingredients, and you put that on your eyes.

Beeswax eyeliner is something you can create at home using activated charcoal, beeswax, coconut oil, and distilled water. Try this DIY alternative eyeliner.

6. Put Together Homemade Deodorant

Conventional deodorant contains chemicals you may not want to put on your body. Homemade deodorant is a great alternative to store-bought, allowing you to control what you put on your body.

Beeswax helps form a natural protective moisture barrier when added to homemade deodorant. It avoids sweat stains on your clothes without adding more chemicals to your body.

7. Make Herbal Salves

One of the ways I use beeswax most often is to make herbal salves. Beeswax is used to harden the salves into tins and provides a moisture barrier on your skin.

I prefer to use beeswax pastilles since they melt fast when combined with other ingredients like calendula oil or dandelion oil.

8. Make Bug Bite and Sting Balms

Getting bug bites in the summer is just part of being outside. There are fewer ways to truly avoid getting bit by mosquitoes and other insects.

You can make a soothing bug bite balm using calendula oil, lavender, tea tree, and beeswax. This soothing bug bite balm is an awesome recipe.

9. Soothe Cracked Heels

I regularly suffer from cracked heels in the summer when wearing sandals. One of the best remedies I found involves mixing beeswax, shea butter, coconut oil, and magnesium flakes. Essential oils also work with this mixture; I like peppermint essential oil.

You can check out this tutorial for making a soothing DIY salve for cracked heels.

10. Use as a Natural Neosporin Alternative

Skip using Neosporin, and add this natural alternative to your medicine cabinet. I use a homemade triple-antibiotic cream to treat scrapes, stings, bruises, and other mild injuries.

It’s easy to create a DIY Neosporin with calendula and comfrey oil, beeswax pastilles, essential oils, and coconut oils.

11. Put Together Homemade Vapor Rub

Colds and illnesses happen when you have a house full of kids, and I prefer to use natural remedies. We used Vick’s regularly, but then I switched to a homemade natural vapor rub mixture instead.

Vapor rub is great for handling congestion and coughing and gives you relief without needing to use petroleum on your skin. All you need is some oils, beeswax, and essential oils to make the perfect homemade vapor rub.

12. Make Homemade Soaps

Making homemade soap is something I am slowly learning how to make, and beeswax is a common ingredient used to make the finished soap harder. Harder soap lasts longer in storage, but beeswax should never take up more than 2% of your soap recipe.

If you put more than 2% of beeswax into your homemade soaps, you will lose the lather everyone loves.

13. Make Paw Wax for Your Animals

Your animal’s paws take a lot of damage, just like your hands and feet. Animals walk all day without shoes, including on hot pavement and rocks. It leads to their paws feeling rough and, sometimes, tender.

Making paw wax is one of the awesome uses for beeswax, and your pets will appreciate the care.

14. Create Homemade Body Butters

Body butter is a beloved body product that you may get from the store, but it’s expensive. Skip the price, and make body butter at home.

All you need is a few ingredients to make a DIY body butter with coconut oil, your favorite essential oil, beeswax, and a few other ingredients.

They are slightly different than lotions if you’ve never used body butter. Lotion is made with water and oil, so it creates a thinner texture, while body butter is thicker and made from only oils. It also lasts far longer than lotions.

15. Make Hard Lotion Bars

Another skin care products that are one of my favorite uses for beeswax is hard lotion bars. A lotion bar is great for dry and cracked hands and feet, providing moisture to your skin. I use it on my dry skin after gardening.

Typically, you only need a few ingredients to make hard lotion bars, such as:

Beeswax
Cocoa Butter
Shea Butter
Coconut Oil
Olive Oil

16. Create Beard Wax

My husband recently grew a beard, and I realized the ingredients in beard wax is questionable at best. Making beard wax is a lot easier than you imagine.

If you make beard wax, you also can make beard balm. Wax is meant for styling control and hold, but beard balm helps provide moisture to your skin underneath the hair. You can find recipes for both beard wax and beard balm using beeswax; remember, you can select other essential oils and fragrances to whatever you prefer.

17. Make Homemade Crayons

If you want a fun project to work on with your kids, consider making homemade crayons. Crayons are surprisingly easy to create with equal parts beeswax and soap shavings, melted together in a double boiler.

After you melt the soap shavings and beeswax, pour the mixture into crayon molds with several drops of food coloring to create the perfect shades. Once mixed together, let the crayons harden, and you’ll be ready to use them.

18. Create Beeswax Modeling Clay

As a homeschooling mom of four kids, we love modeling clay. Instead of buying regular modeling clay, try to make your own beeswax clay with wax, olive oil, and lanolin. You also can color the modeling color whatever color you prefer.

19. Seal Envelopes

Writing letters may not be something you often do, but I bet you mail out bills and birthday cards. You can add a special seal to those envelopes for your loved ones is to make a beeswax seal.

Years ago, beeswax was the sealant that people used to close letters. At one time, they dyed the beeswax colors as well. You can have your own seals created and seal the letters with them!

20. Grease Baking Pans & Cookie Sheets

Skip the Pam, which is full of chemicals, and use beeswax to keep your baking pans and sheets looking good as new.

All you need is a clean block of beeswax; rub it over a clean cookie sheet to create a non-stick pan without any added chemicals. You could also melt the wax in the microwave, but it may be thicker when applied with a brush than you want when baking cookies.

Be careful when coating your cookie sheets, especially when applying a thick layer of beeswax. Beeswax has a flash point of 400 degrees F, so don’t bake at those temperatures.

21. Season Cast Iron

I love cooking with cast iron; I have this strange fascination with the idea of passing down my cast iron pans and pots to my kids. I cooked their meals with the pans, and they, one day, can cook for their kids.

Moments of mother thoughts.

Cast iron requires little care, but if you use the pans regularly, they need some extra care from time to time. Seasoning is how you ensure your cast iron pans last for years.

Plus, sometimes, a well-meaning friend or husband may use your skillet the wrong way. My husband boiled tomato sauce in the skillet and left it in the sink when I was out for the evening. Needless to say, my cast iron was NOT happy.

You’ll find all sorts of instructions for seasoning, and they use a variety of oils like vegetable oil, shortening, and coconut oil. Instead, use beeswax to fix up your favorite cast iron.

22. Wax Homemade Cheeses

If you make homemade cheese or see blocks of waxed cheese, you might wonder how cheesemakers protected their homemade cheese years ago.

Beeswax is the answer.

Cheesemakers used a layer of beeswax to prevent the growth of unwanted mold. Beeswax allowed cheese to retain moisture while still aging, which is necessary to create the flavor and complexity of different finished cheeses.

So, try beeswax if you prefer to avoid paraffin wax when curing cheeses. If you want to learn more about this, check out this detailed article about naturally waxing cheese with beeswax.

23. Polish Wood Furniture

Sprucing up your wood furniture may be part of your weekly cleaning schedule. Instead of using Pledge or other chemical-laden sprays, use polish furniture with only two ingredients.

All you need is one part beeswax and three parts olive or coconut oil to make furniture polish. Combine them together in a double boiler until melted. Let the ingredients cool in a container and rub over the wood furniture using a clean cloth.

24. Lubricate Wood

Beeswax is a natural lubricator. It works great when you have wooden drawers that stick in your dresser, but it also works for squeaky hinges, doors, and windows.

Honestly, you could ditch the WD40 and use beeswax as a substitute.

25. Grafting Wax for Fruit Trees

If you want to grow an orchard, one of the cheapest ways to expand your tree supply is to propagate fruit trees by grafting. Grafting wax protects the grafted scion from drying out, so beeswax plays a part in this.

If you want to make grafting wax, you need only a few ingredients, such as:

Resin
Beeswax
Tallow

You can read full details here about making a grafting wax compound.

26. Seal Mushroom Plugs

If you grow mushrooms at home, mushroom plugs benefit from a bit of melted beeswax. The wax protects the spawn from drying out and increases the chance of success when growing fungi.

Typically mushroom growers typically use food-grade paraffin to seal mushroom plugs. But, if you want to avoid chemicals or synthetic materials, beeswax is an excellent non-toxic option.

27. Waterproof Shoes

Here is one of the unique uses for beeswax.

If you have canvas shoes, try rubbing beeswax directly on the shoes and use a blow dryer to melt them. Then, rub away the excess with a clean, dry towel.

28. Polish Shoes

If you have leather shoes that need to be shined, beeswax is an alternative to store-bought shoe polishes at the store. All you need is a few ingredients, such as:

White beeswax
Olive Oil
Oxide Pigment Powder – if you want to add color
A jar for storage

Here are some instructions for making DIY beeswax shoe polish!

29. Stops Rust from Developing on Tools

Tools often rust when left outside in the elements or from frequent use, even if you recently purchased the tools. Try coating your tools, like garden forks and shovels, with beeswax bars.

All you have to do is rub the beeswax over the metal parts of the tool, and use a clean cloth to buff off any excess beeswax left over.

30. Use for Sewing Leather

Believe it or not, you can use beeswax for hand-sewing leather. I don’t often sew leather, but when I had to mend items, I realized it is hard to pull the needle and thread through the leather.

So, try rubbing beeswax along the sewing thread and needle to make it easier to sew whatever leather project you have.