Selling rendered beeswax blocks at market — getting to cosmetic grade, and what are you charging per 100g?
Alentejo, 6 years, and I've accumulated about 9kg of rendered wax from cappings and old comb. The local market has a clear appetite for beeswax blocks — the soap and cosmetics crowd keep asking — but my wax is currently "rustic": rendered once through a nylon strainer, still slightly cloudy at the base of each block with fine debris, colour ranging from pale gold (cappings) to proper brown (old comb).
Questions for those who sell wax: how many remelts does it take you to get a clean cosmetic-grade block, and what filter material actually catches the fine stuff? I've heard everything from old t-shirts to paper towel to proper felt. Do you keep cappings wax and brood-comb wax as separate grades? And pricing — what's a fair per-100g price at a farmers market these days? I don't want to undercut other producers by accident.
#beeswax#rendering#market#wax-processing
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3 replies
AbejasCarla · Aug 15, 2026
Always two grades, never mix them. Cappings wax is your cosmetic product; brood comb wax I sell cheaper for candles and wood polish, or trade for foundation. For cleaning: melt in rainwater or soft water, let it cool slowly so debris settles into the base layer, scrape that off, repeat. Two water-renderings plus a final filtered pour through felt or a couple of layers of cotton sheet gets me blocks people compliment.
muglabalci · Aug 15, 2026
The slow-cool-and-scrape method AbejasCarla describes is the old way and it works better than any fancy filter — gravity is free. On price: here quality clean wax fetches roughly 2-3x the price of honey by weight. At a European farmers market I'd expect somewhere in the 3-5 euro per 100g range for pretty cosmetic-grade blocks; check what soap makers pay online in Portugal and price just under.
LavenderSophie · Aug 15, 2026
One practical add from Provence markets: pour into small silicone moulds, 30-50g, not big blocks. Cosmetic buyers want to try before committing and small pretty blocks with a stamped label outsell one big lump at a better per-gram price. And yes — felt filter, but only on the final pour, or you'll be cleaning felt forever.