Beeswax pellets (also known as beeswax beads and beeswax pastilles) are probably the most convenient and easy form of beeswax to use. They are made from the wax secretions of honeybees.
Want to whip up some age-defying, homemade face cream or keep your lips luscious with some homemade lip balm? Planning on making some exquisite-smelling homemade soap? Perhaps you want to give beeswax candle making or beeswax crayons a try?
Then you’ll probably want to buy your beeswax in the form of pellets.
Pellets: Easy To Work With
Why? Because working with pellets can be considerably easier than working with chunks or bars of beeswax.
Pellets are very easy to measure in the precise portions you’ll need for many applications that use beeswax. Pellets save you the trouble of ruining your cheese grater (or your knuckles!) in trying to shave small quantities from a block or bar.
And because of their uniform size, the pellets will melt more quickly and evenly. They have a low melting point of around 144°F.
They also have a longer shelf life, are more refined and consistent in their quality.
Use Bulk Beeswax For Bigger Projects
Now if you’re going to use a lot of wax, say for example, for making a bunch of candles, the pellets might not be your best choice. They’ll work perfectly fine, of course, for making candles.
But since the pellets, pound for pound, tend to be a bit more expensive than bulk forms of beeswax (assuming the same brand and same quality of wax), you might want to reserve the pellet use for smaller, precisely-measured quantities.
They’re so pretty, though, that you might almost hate to dump them into the melting pot! Here is my favourite melting pot.
Recommended Beeswax Pellets
I highly recommend Stakich yellow bees pellets as they are triple filtered, natural, and grade A.
Stakich offers unbeatable prices making these pellets perfect for all your DIY projects, especially lotions, balms, and skin care products.
The bags are available in different weight quantities to suit your needs.
I know a lot of times people want to go with the lowest price, but often the cheapest beeswax is mixed with soy or other products. You want to ensure your pellets are 100% beeswax and meet the quality standards I discuss below.
More About Beeswax
Beeswax is produced by female worker bees. It’s secreted by the bee from a wax gland on the underside of their abdomen. It’s then shaped into the six-sided cells which get filled with honey and capped with more wax. When you harvest honey, you have to remove the top layer of wax to get to the honey.
Raw beeswax contains impurities, like pollen, honey, propolis, debris, and dirt. So this wax gets cleaned and filtered before being melted down and shaped into bars or pellets (typically 3-4mm in diameter).
Why the Different Colors of Beeswax Pastilles?
You can find pellets in a variety of colors from white, yellow, to a brownish hue. The color changes depend on the purity of the wax, age, processing, the type of flowers where the bees forage, and even changes between regions and countries.
Yellow Beeswax is the most pure and what I recommend you go with. It’s the most pure and natural, filtered and high quality. You’ll find a range of yellow colors from gold, bright yellow, to an orange shade. A creamy yellow is going to cost more as it’s more pure over darker shades.
White Beeswax is often preferred for cosmetic uses commercially. It is unbleached but has been pressure-filtered to remove pollen and honey. It’s still natural and pure, just super filtered. Beeswax actually starts out white but it changes color in the hive with exposure to honey and pollen but it’s almost always yellow by the time we get to it.
Darker Brownish Beeswax is not a good color. This could be old wax, as the longer it’s in the hive the darker it becomes or possibly from a diseased hive. Wax that comes from a brood comb is usually darker than honeycomb and typically has more impurities in it. The dark color could mean that there are impurities still within your pellets.
Changing Color Beeswax happens if you overheat it. It can lose its color, go an olive or tan color or darken. This can also ruin the awesome sweet smell of your wax. It’s still usable but you’ll have to just get used to the color change You can learn more about Melting Beeswax here.
Quality Indicators of the Best Beeswax Pellets
When it comes to choosing the best beeswax pellets for your DIY projects, there are a few key quality things you should keep in mind.
These indicators will help you identify beeswax pellets that meet the highest standards of purity, usability, and safety. Since you’re putting this product on your skin or burning it in your home, quality is important.
Triple-Filtered Purity
One of the most important quality indicators to look for in beeswax pellets is triple-filtered purity. This meticulous process involves filtering the beeswax multiple times to remove any impurities like debris, pollen, dirt or other foreign particles.
By undergoing this extensive filtering process, the beeswax achieves a level of purity, cleanliness and refinement that ensures a high-quality end product.
This not only enhances the aesthetic appeal of your candles and skincare products but also guarantees that your final creations are free from unwanted contaminants.
Imagine a stream of pure honey flowing through layers upon layers of fine mesh filters, each designed to catch even the tiniest speck of impurity. That’s what triple-filtered purity achieves for beeswax pellets—a level of pristine cleanliness you want for your DIY projects.
Low Melting Point
Another quality indicator is the melting point of the beeswax pellets. The best beeswax pellets have a low melting point of around 144°F, making them exceptionally easy to work with for various DIY endeavors such as balms, salves and creams.
The low melting point ensures that the beeswax can be safely melted without requiring extremely high temperatures and advanced equipment, providing a user-friendly experience for crafters and artisans. You want to avoid high temperatures (above 185°F) as it will discolour your beeswax and lose the amazing aroma.
This makes beeswax pellets a great choice for adding to soaps to make them harder and last longer, lip balms to add body, and balm, butter, and salves to keep them firm.
The consistency and predictability of beeswax pellets with a low melting point simplify the crafting process, allowing you to focus on unleashing your creativity rather than struggling with unwieldy materials.
So when picking your pellets, make sure you go with triple filtered, 100% beeswax, Grade A ideally, and with a low melting point. This gives you the best beeswax, with the best aroma, color, consistency, and product to use for all your DIY projects.
How Are You Going to Use Beeswax Pellets?
There are so many projects you can use Beeswax pellets with so where are you going to start? A warning, once you get started, it’s hard to stop! Here’s some ideas to get you started.
- Soaps
- Candles
- Lip balms
- Salves
- Butters and balms
- Lotions and lotion bars
- Hair pomade or mustache wax
- Wax sachets (like candles but with a string for hanging)
- Ornaments
- Food wraps
- Homemade crayons
Since pellets are so easy to measure and work with, they’re great for people new to DIY beeswax projects and ideal when you need precise measurements and small quantities.
