What Makes Beeswax Special
and Why Organic Beeswax Is Better
Millions of years ago bees developed the ability to convert the sugars in nectar and sap into the intricate hexagonal structures that became the honey comb cells that formed their home: the walls of the nursery housing eggs and developing bees, the pantry where their food supplies of honey and pollen were stored, and the other components of the bee “nest”. The earliest hunters and gatherers quickly realized that chewing the waxy honeycomb released honey, pollen, and other essential protein and enzyme-rich nutrients that supplemented their often limited diets. It’s hypothesized that while using torches to illuminate caves, hollow trees and other cavities where honeycomb was found, someone touched the beeswax with a torch and realized that wax burns. Melted beeswax was contained in shells, stones, and other vessels, using twigs and leaves as wicks.
One of the special qualities of pure beeswax is its distinctive lovely scent and warm light that falls within the same spectrum as sunlight. Beeswax is naturally absorbent, preserving its component materials and releasing them slowly over time. As it burns, beeswax releases not only its natural fragrance but also negative ions believed to trap pollutants and clean the air.
There is a downside to this absorbent property of the wax. Scientific studies done over the past 15 years have show that non-organic beehives have the highest concentrations of chemicals and pesticides in their beeswax, as opposed to within the bees or in their honey. One of the reasons our supplier of organic beeswax, Hawai’i Harvest Honey, transitioned to organic beekeeping practices was this contamination of the wax comb. When you burn wax from non-organic hives exposed to pesticide and miticide sprays and treatments the wax will release whatever chemicals it contains into the air.
All of our candles are made with USDA Certified Organic wax, never exposed to chemical sprays of any type. You can burn them for hours, enjoying their fragrance and healing properties, safe in the knowledge that everything they contain is natural, uncompromised and just as the bees made it.