There's nothing like the scent of warm beeswax and we've been surrounded by it today as we collected and lightly filtered the beeswax from our latest harvest of Manuka (also known in Australia as leptospermum and/or jellybush beeswax).
This picture shows the Manuka beeswax as it slowly cools back to room temperature in 10kg molds. Manuka beeswax is not as yellow as other beeswax harvests and when it hardens has a colour that is more pale olive than bright yellow.
We keep our Manuka wax separate from the other beeswax harvests as it's a limited and specialty natural product that people and companies like to use in the creation of healing and nourishing skin and lip balms. Yes, Manka beeswax costs more, but it's also more effort for our bees to produce (Manuka is a thicker nectar and they need to work harder to get it) and it's harder for us to harvest too. It's also just a wonder of the natural world so is a premium natural product that is excellent for skin care. (We wouldn't advise using it for beeswax candles though when there are so many other beeswax harvests that our bees bring in that can be used to make great candles such as the beeswax produced from Yellow Box, Ironbark, Stringy Bark, Bloodwood, Apple Box and the Brushbox family.)
If you are using beeswax, always be sure to buy Australian beeswax as many imported waxes have been proven to be either straight paraffin or are contaminated with paraffin.
For personal or wholesale Australian beeswax needs, we at The BeeKeeper® can assist.