A Beginner's Guide to Beeswax Wraps and Candles

Beeswax is one of those remarkable natural materials that works beautifully in the home. From food wraps that replace plastic to clean-burning candles that purify the air, beeswax products are practical, sustainable, and made from a renewable resource.

Here is what you need to know about choosing and using beeswax products.

Where beeswax actually comes from

Before the products, a quick note on the material itself. Beeswax is a byproduct of honey production. Worker bees secrete it from glands on their abdomens and use it to build the comb that holds honey and brood. When a beekeeper extracts honey, they cap the cells with a hot knife or uncapping fork; that cap-wax is the cleanest, palest beeswax available, and it is what the best wraps and candles are made from.

A single hive produces only a few pounds of recoverable wax in a typical season. That is part of why honest 100-percent-beeswax products are not cheap — and why so many products advertised as beeswax are actually a small percentage of beeswax blended with paraffin or soy. The wax is the limiting input.

If you are already buying honey from a beekeeper, ask whether they sell wax products. Most do, and you are buying a complete output of the same hive.

Beeswax wraps

What they are

Beeswax wraps are sheets of cotton fabric infused with three things: beeswax, a tree resin (usually pine or damar), and a small amount of jojoba oil. The wax provides the structure. The resin makes the wrap tacky enough to seal around bowls and food. The jojoba keeps the whole thing slightly flexible so it does not crack.

Wraps come in a range of sizes — small for half-cut lemons and onion ends, medium for sandwiches and cheese, large for covering bowls and bread loaves.

How to use them

Warm the wrap in your hands for five to ten seconds. The heat from your palms softens the wax and makes the wrap pliable. Press it around the food, the bowl, or whatever you are covering, holding it for a few seconds while the wax cools and the wrap holds its shape.

A few practical uses where wraps actually outperform plastic:

• Covering a bowl of leftovers in the fridge.
• Wrapping a half-cut block of cheese (better than plastic, especially for hard cheeses — see our [guide to storing artisan cheese](https://brothh.com/blog/how-to-store-artisan-cheese-a-practical-guide)).
• Wrapping sandwiches for lunchboxes.
• Covering a partially-used onion or avocado in the fridge.
• Wrapping a loaf of bread to keep it from drying out for a couple of days.

Wraps do not work well for: raw meat (cannot be sanitized at high enough heat), anything piping hot (the wax will melt), or liquids (no seal against gravity).

How to clean and care for them

Wash with cool or lukewarm water and a mild dish soap. Do not use hot water — anything above about 100 degrees Fahrenheit starts to melt the wax. Hang dry or pat dry with a towel; do not put wraps in the dishwasher.

A good beeswax wrap lasts about a year with regular use. You will know it is at the end of its life when the wax has worn off in patches, the cling is gone, and it does not warm up evenly anymore.

Refreshing or composting

Many makers sell a bar of refresher wax — you grate a small amount over the worn wrap, place a piece of parchment on top, and run a warm iron over it. The wax re-melts into the fabric and the wrap is good for another six months. This is worth doing once before retiring the wrap.

At the very end of its life, a beeswax wrap is fully compostable. The cotton fabric, the wax, the resin, and the jojoba are all natural materials. It will break down in a backyard compost pile in a few months. You can also cut it into strips and use them as fire starters; the wax is excellent fuel.

Beeswax candles

Why they burn differently

Beeswax candles burn longer and cleaner than paraffin. The science is simple: beeswax has a higher melting point (147 F versus 99 F for paraffin), which means it burns slower at any given wick size. A 100 percent beeswax taper of the same dimensions as a paraffin taper will burn roughly twice as long.

Beeswax also produces a much warmer color of light — closer to 1800 K versus paraffin's 2200 K — which is why a single beeswax taper at the dinner table produces light that looks like nothing else.

There is a popular claim that beeswax candles produce negative ions that purify the air. The science on this is shakier than the marketing suggests; what is verifiable is that beeswax burns more cleanly than paraffin (less soot, fewer aromatic combustion byproducts) and has a naturally sweet, honey-like scent without any added fragrance. That is more than enough reason to prefer them.

What to look for when buying

When buying beeswax candles, the labels matter and they are often misleading. Look for these specifically:

• 100 percent beeswax, stated explicitly on the label or by the maker. Many candles labeled beeswax contain only 5 to 51 percent beeswax — federal labeling rules in the United States allow them to use the term as long as some beeswax is present.
• A cotton wick, ideally listed by the maker. Avoid lead-core wicks (banned but occasionally still seen in imported candles) and zinc-core wicks (not as bad but still produce more residue than cotton).
• No added scent or color. Real beeswax already has the smell and color you want. A beeswax candle with strong added fragrance is usually masking a low beeswax content.
• A maker who can answer questions. If the maker also keeps the bees, ask how many hives they have and roughly how much wax they recover. The numbers will tell you whether the candle is plausibly all from their own hives or sourced wax.

A real cap-wax candle has a faint sheen of bloom — a light powdery coating that develops as the wax ages — that wipes off with a cloth and is harmless. Bloom is, ironically, a sign of authenticity. Pure paraffin does not bloom.

Burning them well

A few habits that double the useful life of a beeswax candle:

• Trim the wick to a quarter-inch before each burn. A long wick produces more soot and burns faster.
• Burn long enough each time. A candle should burn until the entire surface has melted across the diameter — usually one hour per inch of width. Short burns create a memory ring and cause tunneling.
• Keep candles out of drafts. A flickering flame burns hotter and faster on one side, making the candle pour unevenly.
• Snuff, do not blow. Snuffing prevents the wick from smoking and keeps it positioned for the next light.

Both as gifts

Wraps and candles make excellent gifts because they are useful, beautiful, and made from a renewable material the giver can usually trace to a specific hive. Many local beekeepers sell wraps and candles alongside their honey, creating a complete product line from the same operation. A gift bundle of a half-pound of honey, a set of three wraps, and a pair of tapers is a generous holiday or hostess gift that costs less than the equivalent quality from a department store.

Looking for beekeepers in your area? [Browse the Brothh directory](https://brothh.com/browse) — most beekeepers list their full product range, and many ship wraps and candles even when they sell honey only locally.