We’ve been carefully saving all the wax from our hives, melting it in the solar wax melter and storing it in Kimberley’s office. We ended up with a stack of creamy white and light yellow wax discs to use in cosmetics. Last year we made lip balm, so this year we decided to be kind to our skin and make hand salve just in time for the holiday gift-giving season.

Supplies

Large double boiler (We used a large bowl over a big saucepan of water.)

Scale

Ladle

Measuring cup

Salve containers (we used 2 oz. metal tins from Mountain Rose Herbs)

Basic recipe

We measured all ingredients by weight, not volume. We had plenty of beeswax; all the other oils came from Mountain Rose Herbs.

30% Coconut oil

25% Cocoa butter

20% Beeswax

25% Avocado oil and Vitamin E oil (we measured these together to make up 25% total)

We suggest you make a small batch first and adjust the recipe to your liking. More beeswax and cocoa butter will make a stiffer salve. Less will make a more easily spread salve that some in our office described as greasy. 

Directions

1. We filled the saucepan about one third full of water and placed the large bowl on top. The bowl doesn’t need to be directly in the water. We brought the water to a boil while we measured the ingredients. 

2. We weighed the measuring cup and used that weight to zero out the scale, and measured all our ingredients.

3. We reduced the boiling water to a simmer and began adding the ingredients. Since the beeswax has the highest melting temperature and so takes the longest to melt, we put that in first. (If we had broken it into smaller pieces it would have melted faster). While the wax was melting, we set out the tins for filling.

4. With a ladle we filled a glass measuring cup with the melted wax and oil mixture. 

 5. We poured the mixture into the tins, and waited for it to cool and harden before putting on the lids.

It took about an hour to measure the wax and oils, melt everything together, and pour the wax. In our warm test kitchen, it took another half hour for the salve to cool and solidify completely. 

Make and apply labels, if you choose, and you're done!

As requested, a photo of our finished (and cooled) product.