Beeswax

Join us as ENSC founder Tommy Crooks shares anecdotes from his long and winding road building the company from kitchen table experiments to today's global natural skincare brand.

The first time I started using beeswax for handcream bars, I bought it from a local Beekeeper who eyed me suspiciously when I approached him. I didn’t know this at the time, but Beekeepers, believe me, are invariably eccentric and unpredictable, and will feature a lot more in future stories.

When you buy beeswax from a local Beekeeper or a small honey manufacturer, the wax is unrefined and requires careful cleaning in a wax melter before pouring through a muslin. Of course, I was doing this at home, and the first time I melted wax, (pre wax-melter days), I melted it in a very big pot in my kitchen, as I knew nothing of the process.  I’d over-filled the pot, naturally, and when I tried to pour the VERY hot wax through a muslin cloth, I underestimated the weight of the pot and when I tried to pour it, least a fifth of the contents spilled onto the floor, splashing up onto the walls, the cooker, my legs, the dinner table, the cat’s food bowl, the fridge, the kitchen surface, the dining table, and practically anywhere else you could imagine.

No amount of cleaning and scraping, even after two years, could remove all of the wax and, I was not too popular at home for a considerable time!