beeswax on a honeycomb

Why do we want the best Beeswax for Your Candles?

beeswaxHoney Candles sources the best beeswax we can find in Western Canada to make beeswax candles for you. Although we are a small family owned business, in comparison to many of the beeswax candle companies in Canada, we are one of the bigger candle makers. Except for Martina, one of our employees, none of us are beekeepers. Our specialty is making beeswax candles. We trust that our beeswax sources provide the best beeswax because that is what we ask for. We are confident that the majority of the beeswax is capping wax but we cannot guarantee that and I think it would be difficult for any of the larger beeswax candle companies to guarantee they only have capping wax. What is capping wax you may ask?  It is the tiny bit of wax the bees use to cap off the cell after they fill it with honey. It really is a very small amount compared to the cell wax. Is the capping wax separable from the cell wax or is the mystique of capping wax just hype? I’ll let you work through that answer yourself.

The white wax on the right of the photo was made by honey bees. It is the color beeswax starts out before the bees work it and put honey or larvae in the cells. The color of beeswax taken from the hives is often determined by the flowers the bees have foraged on but dark beeswax can also mean that it is older wax. If you find a company with very dark beeswax suspect that it might be older beeswax. Does that mean because if it is darker or older wax that it is necessarily inferior? Maybe not…as long as it has been well filtered and very clean we think it should burn well. Filtering will make it lighter, even if it is older wax.

We know that you like lighter wax so our wax is very well filtered. This also means that you get a better burn. Wax that is not well filtered and is made into candles may plug the wick more often than clean wax. If the wick of your beeswax pillar particularly is constantly ‘mushrooming’ suspect the wax is not as filtered as well as it could be. Look to see if there are specks in the wax pool. This is another indicator of less than perfectly filtered beeswax.

I think the best judge of the purity of beeswax is whether it ‘blooms’. Honey Candles beeswax blooms within a week or two of it being poured. To me this says the beeswax is 100% pure. It is very important that beeswax used for candles be clean and well filtered. We filter it ourselves to get it as clean as it needs to be to burn well.

This is a photo of a well-bloomed beeswax Honey Candles® Burgundy Pillar. We are confident the 'bloom' means you are getting the best pure beeswax. If you prefer your beeswax candles to have a polished look, just take a soft cloth and wipe off the bloom. It looks freshly poured then. Our beeswax candles will start to show a ‘bloom’ again in a week or two. Honey Candles are the best ‘blooming’ beeswax candles around!

Honey Candles are made in Canada and available at our on-line store.

If you are interested in what determines the quality and color of beeswax here are some suggested articles:

Why does the color of beeswax vary so much?

Honey Candles Field Trip to Martina’s Bees Part One

Honey Candles Visiting Martina’s Bees Part Two

Published By Pat Cattermole

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