100% Beeswax Soap?

For those that want to see it done with potassium hydroxide: https://youtu.be/KQQy6hKAC-A

vid suggestion: Na soap is normal soap, K soap is liquid soap, Li soap stops your garage door from squeaking (white lithium grease). But what secrets are Rb and Cs soap hiding? Or other cations like group 2 metals and ammonium.

Bare hands for playing with mercury, googles and gloves for playing with soap. Never change, Cody!

"I want to make soap that's textured like a rock" "It's like washing my hands with an actual rock" Task failed successfully

Cody coming back after a month of silence with "hematite" on his hands, sporting durable new protection glasses, telling us he's gotten into soap making. Anyone else getting Fight Club vibes?

I've used beeswax in soap before, usually up to 5% of the fat bill - to make it harder. Though making the soap harder is not a problem, coconut oil gives a really hard soap too if used by itself (and also has much better cleaning properties). In a regular soap bill, beeswax will saponify slower than the other fats so if you use a regular "superfat" of 5%, a lot of that will be comprised of leftover beeswax. Unreacted beeswax in soap will give it a moisturizing effect as it will coat the skin with a thin layer of itself and delay the evaporation of water. It's also why it's used in lip balms (together with things like cocoa butter). (edit) In fact, I've just played a bit in SoapCalc with some recipes, and a soap made from 50% beeswax and 50% coconut oil will again be very hard, but also have much better cleansing properties that 100% beeswax, with all parameters except for hardness falling right in the desirable zones. Just in case you want to try this recipe instead for your "fossils", because I think it will give you overall a better soap.

I love how we get to see all of Cody's different phases, from mineral extraction, to mashroom growing/tasting then bees, and now soap. Wish I had the same energy.

The harder soap flakes could be a good exfoliating agent to add to softer soaps that won't clog up sewage plants. Looking forward to more!

I don’t think a description of a smell has so strongly evoked the sense of it in my mind as, “freshly sanded wood that had spoiled milk on it”

The flakes of beeswax soap did seem to generate more foam, probably because of the bigger surface area. So the grinded up beeswax soap could maybe also be used directly as soap. Though, one might be wasting more of this soap, since the undissolved soap can be washed away.

Interesting. KOH gives softer, more smearable soaps, maybe it would make beeswax soap closer to normal? If so, you could make totally natural potash soap from ash and beeswax

A wax-related experiment suggestion I've had for a while: since paraffin wax is a combination of alkanes (approx. C20 to C40), would it be possible to separate a block of undyed, unscented paraffin wax into each individual different hydrocarbon component, without cracking any of those molecules? It'd be interesting to see just how accurate those measurements are, as well as test the exact physical properties of each higher alkane. The same could potentially be done for petroleum jelly as to ascertain the chemical composition of that, since I wasn't able to find anything conclusive.

A few years ago I was doing the same thing! I was replicating geodes with dipping different mixtures of soap (at the time I was using glycerin) with different colour, scent and textures. I'd make balls and split them afterwards. Still have some pictures if you would be interested! Good luck with the venture :)

That was really interesting. Love the idea of the fossils emerging as you use the soap.

Heard a lot of your ideas, Cody, all incredible, but you should keep this one! “Fossils” breaking out of soap is like a 10/10 business idea, it has everything! Seeing all these different schools of knowledge come together and mix with that spark of ingenuity and creativity, just wow!

I skip the whole process and simply use bees to wash my hands. The hurting lets you know it's working!

Seems like the beeswax will make great fossils than for your "normal" soap. I bet you can soften that beeswax slightly as well. I also think it would probably make for some extremely durable soap, something like survival soap hahaha. Great for any wasteland wanderer! Great video as always Cody!

Considering the coarsness, I think smaller grains of it mixed into regular soap would make a pretty effectively lava soap competitor

I was just binging all of your bee keeping episodes yesterday, this is great!

The smell is hard to describe...proceeds to give two very specific scents mixed together. Love you Cody.