South Gloucestershire Beekeepers' Association

The demonstration on making skin cream and lip balm showed how the basic process is both simple and effective. More sophisticated recipes can be obtained from the net or from one of the many publications on bee craft. 

Skin Cream  (for 3 x 60ml pots)

10 gm beeswax
50 ml Almond Oil
50 ml Rose/rain water
¼ Teaspoon Borax
A few drops of Essential Oil. Lavender or Rose Geranium are both suitable but others may be used

Melt wax in oil. Do not do this over a naked flame. A bain-marie, microwave or cool oven are all suitable. Get the temperature of this mixture to 700C.
Unless your tap water is very soft use either Rose or rain water. It is worth boiling rain water to ensure sterility. Dissolve the borax in the water. Warm this to 700C. Be aware that the oil/wax mixture will be slower than water to both warm up and cool down. When both liquids are the same temperature mix them together using a whisk and add the essential oil. You will have to determine how much essential oil is needed by experiment as strengths vary.
Continue whisking until cream just starts to firm then pour into containers.

Almond Oil can be obtained from most chemists. It costs about £1 for 50ml. Borax can be obtained from large chemists (Boots in Cribbs Causway) and you will have to buy about 1kg.
The containers can be bought, mail order, from:

Compak
3 Ashmead Rd
Keynsham
BS31 1SX
Tel 01179 863 550
Web site www.compaksouth.com

Suggest 60ml or 100ml pots. (known as ointment jars) Note lids are bought separately from the pots.
60ml jars with lid cost 33p each (at Aug 2008). Min purchase 72 Jars. 100 ml jars cost 40p each.

Lip Balm

2 tablespoon Coconut oil
2 tablespoon Almond Oil
1 tablespoon Beeswax
4 vitamin E tablet
Flavouring if required,

Warm all ingredients together. When wax has melted mix and poor into pots.
A little lipstick can be added to colour the balm. Not much is needed. There are numerous recipes available on the Web.

Coconut oil can be bought from:
Coconut Connections Ltd
5 Sycamore Dene
Chesham
Bucks HP5 3JT
Tel: 01494 771419
Their web site is www.virgincoconutoil.co.uk
Compak sell suitable pots (known as Sample Jars). Suggest either 5 or 10 ml size. (You may have to buy more than you require for you immediate need) They cost 17p each.