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Where this comes from. The wax figures and the polish recipes are the FAO’s. The warning about oily cloths is Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service’s. The rules for selling balm come from Business Companion, the Trading Standards guidance service, and the rules for wraps from the food contact law itself. The wrap method is a craft retailer’s. Sources at the foot of the page.
Start with clean wax
Everything here starts with wax that has been rendered and cleaned. Rendering and cleaning beeswax covers that.
Beeswax melts at 62 to 65 °C. Melt it in a water bath, never in a dry pan over the heat, and never let it go above 85 °C, or it darkens. 7
Furniture polish
The simplest polish is beeswax and linseed oil, one part of each, melted together in a water bath and stored in labelled bottles with screw tops. The proportions can vary. 1
Older recipes thin the wax with turpentine. One is equal parts turpentine, linseed oil and beeswax, melted together in a water bath and spooned into labelled jars once it cools. Take care: turpentine is highly flammable. 1
For a wooden floor, equal parts beeswax and turpentine is ready once the wax has dissolved. 1
Oily cloths can catch fire on their own
Linseed oil reacts with the air and gives off heat as it does. A cloth soaked in it, folded up or bundled where the heat cannot escape, can grow hot enough to catch fire with nobody near it. A pile of such cloths put away after polishing smouldered in a house in Northamptonshire. 2
The fire service’s advice: 2
- Hang used cloths out on a line, where moving air carries the heat away.
- Do not keep oily cloths indoors.
- To throw one away, soak it in water, seal it in a plastic bag and put it in the bin.
- To keep one, use an airtight container, preferably metal.
- Keep linseed oil off clothes and other fabric: they carry the same risk.
Balm for yourself
A balm is beeswax melted into an oil in a water bath. The FAO melts the wax and the oil together at about 70 °C. 1
Make small batches and keep them in airtight pots. Vegetable oils can turn rancid within weeks, so a balm made with one will not keep as long as the wax alone would. Use the cleanest oil you can. 1
Selling balm is selling a cosmetic
In law, a lip balm or a hand balm is a cosmetic: anything put on the outside of the body mainly to clean, perfume, change the look of or protect it. The law is assimilated Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009. 3
Before you sell one: 3
- A safety assessment. It must be done by a qualified safety assessor, someone with a university qualification in pharmacy, toxicology, medicine or a similar subject. They sign a cosmetic product safety report.
- A responsible person. Someone in the UK stands behind the product. If you make it, that is normally you.
- A notification. The responsible person notifies the product to the government, through the Submit Cosmetic Product Notifications service, before it goes on sale.
The label must show: 3
- The name and address of the responsible person.
- A “best used before the end of” date, for a product that keeps 30 months or less.
- Any precautions.
- A batch number.
- What it is for, if that is not obvious.
- How much is in it, by weight or volume.
- An ingredients list, headed “Ingredients”, heaviest first.
A free sample still needs its ingredients list. 3
Food wraps
A wrap is cotton coated in wax, which grips a bowl or a sandwich with the warmth of your hands. One retailer’s method: 6
- Wash, dry and iron the cotton, then cut it with pinking shears so it does not fray.
- Melt 70 g of powdered pine resin in a bowl over a pan of water, add 100 g of beeswax, then a little jojoba oil, which keeps the wraps supple. That makes about 20 wraps.
- Warm each piece of cotton on a lined tray in the oven at 140 °C, brush on just enough of the mix to soak into the fabric, and give it another minute in the oven to even it out.
- Hang it to dry over newspaper. It sets in two or three minutes.
The wax comes out of the oven scalding hot, and left too long in there it is a fire risk. Wash a wrap in cold or warm soapy water. Hot water melts the wax. 6
Selling wraps
A wrap is a food contact material, so the food contact law applies. Under normal use it must not pass anything into food that could harm health, change the food unacceptably, or spoil its taste, smell or look. Its labelling and advertising must not mislead. 4 Whatever you add to the wax, the resin and the oil included, has to meet that.
A wrap sold before it has touched food must carry: 5
- The words “for food contact”, a description of its use, or the glass and fork symbol. This is not needed for something clearly meant for food.
- Instructions for using it safely, where they are needed.
- The name or trade name, and the address, of whoever is selling it.
- Labelling that lets it be traced.
The short version
- Clean, light wax, melted in a water bath and never above 85 °C.
- Polish: beeswax and linseed oil, one part each. Turpentine is highly flammable.
- Oily cloths can catch fire by themselves. Hang them outside, or soak and bag them.
- Balm for yourself is wax in oil. Balm to sell is a cosmetic: a qualified safety assessment, a responsible person, a notification and a full label first.
- Wraps to sell are food contact materials: safe for food, honestly described, and labelled with who sells them.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Rules change - always check the current guidance on GOV.UK before relying on it.