Beeswax, Brown for Toxic

    When I mentioned to a friend I needed some beeswax to make a line of solid perfumes, he gave me several pounds of golden colored beeswax -- and a few pounds of dark brown beeswax, all from his own hives.

    When bees make wax, it's for their own purposes. They known and care nothing of the fragrance and cosmetics industry. So beeswax, straight from the hive, contains a small amount of what, to us, are impurities. Thus, for us, before it can go into our products, we have to do a bit of cleanup.

    There are a few chemical treatments you can give beeswax to make it look nicer, lighter, more uniform. But for my solid perfumes I just melt it and run it through a wire mesh kitchen strainer, double lined with (food grade) cheesecloth.

    Naturally I started my solid perfume line using the beautiful golden colored wax. But when I came to Toxic, a man's fragrance, it occurred to me that this might be a good time to test the dark brown beeswax.

    Authorities on beeswax relegate the dark brown wax, generally older than the light, golden, to industrial use, as a lubricant. But, after a cleanup, the wax itself looked fine, differing from the other only in color and, perhaps, having somewhat less of a honey aroma to it -- and for perfume, a base with no aroma is good.

    So my Toxic Solid Perfume for men -- Whoops! Men! (Let's not call it "perfume.") Start again. My Toxic Solid Fragrance for men was made using dark brown -- all natural -- beeswax. There you have it.

PS -- For "Toxic," the typical men's fragrance description, "cologne," just doesn't seem to fit.