USP Refined Beeswax...Enkaustikos is proud to offer a very high quality refined (USP) United States Pharmaceutical Grade Beeswax. Pharmaceutical-grade beeswax is used in lipsticks and salves and to coat pills. This is the highest quality clearest wax available due to the extensive filtering process that it undergoes. We do not use bleached beeswax. Bleached Beeswax although it is less expensive and appears bright white in color is a much inferior product. Bleached beeswax uses older yellower wax which is whitened through the bleaching process. Bleaching leaves many of the impurities in the wax and also adds unnecessary chemicals to the wax such as phosphoric acid and potassium permangate to decolorize these less expensive waxes without actually removing the colorants. In addition hydrogen peroxide may also be added to lighten the poorer grades even further. These bleached out impurities and chemicals may show up later in paintings and could even darken back to its original color as it ages. To make matters even worse encaustic artists will be emitting fumes from all of these unneccessary chemicals into your studio and exposing your lungs as you breathe. Although our wax may be more expensive we feel it is definitely worth the extra expense. Our pharmaceutical grade is another people and earth friendly ingredient in our wax paints.
