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Why Beeswax?

1/13/2021

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For my second blog, I thought I'd explain the reason why we use beeswax in so many of our products. 
When we started our plastic-free journey, particularly the soap making section, I was keen to use the most natural and local ingredients as possible. After some research into what makes a good bar of soap (namely a hard bar that lasts a long time, with plenty of bubbles) it led me down the beeswax and honey route. This fit in perfectly with the natural and local sentiment, so I contacted a local beekeeper and it all went from there.

The majority of our wax comes from Mersea, our lovely little island where we live. Occasionally we have to head across the Strood (the causeway which floods twice a day if there's a high tide!) to local villages including Fingringhoe and Gt Wigborough, but this is only if my Mersea bee keeper can't keep up with my extortionate beeswax habit! 

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​It's estimated that one out of every three bites of food is made possible because of bees and their ability to pollinate crops.



​How is beeswax made?

Beeswax is produced by honey bees. They have glands on their abdomen that produce the wax, which they then discard in the hive. To start with, it is clear, and only changes to it's beautiful yellow form once it has been in contact with the pollen collected by the bees. The bees use the wax to build honeycomb cells, which they use to house their young, and store their honey. They seal each section of the honeycomb to prevent water getting in. This is very important, as water can lead to the honey going off. Beeswax is usually collected at the same time as the honey. If removed correctly, no harm comes to the bees. The beeswax is cleaned by simply boiling and filtering to remove any impurities. 


​Beeswax in cosmetics

Our main cosmetic product we make is soap, and we the Cold Process method for all our beeswax soap bars. Adding beeswax to a cold process bar of soap means it is harder, and therefore lasts longer. There's nothing worse than having a lovely bar of soap, but it disappearing before your eyes because it's not hard enough! You only need around 1-2% of beeswax in a bar of soap in order to do this, and adding too much can mean less bubbles. 
Beeswax also creates a protective layer around your skin, allowing all the other oils and butter to sink in and keeping them there. It's also a 'humectant' which means it attracts water, and helps to keep the skin hydrated. It heals and softens skin, and is antibacterial and anti-inflammatory, helping conditions such as acne, stretch marks, dry skin and eczema. 
You can also find Vitamin A in beeswax, which is great for wrinkles and age spots, and suitable for even the most sensitive of skins. 

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Honeycomb Beeswax Soap

£4.50

100g


Handcrafted here on Mersea, our Honeycomb soap uses Honey Fragrance Oil along with the other raw natural ingredients to give it a sweet, soothing aroma.
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Honey and Orange Beeswax Soap

£4.50

100g

Our usual creamy bar of soap, but with a vesty orange kick. Made using olive oil infused with oranges and orange zest, along with all our usual natural ingredients.
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Honey And Oat Beeswax Soap

£4.50

100g


This beautifully exfoliating bar of soap uses our usual blend on natural ingredients, with added oats to naturally exfoliate. With added honey fragrance.
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Honey And Rose Beeswax Soap

£4.50

100g

We pride ourselves on using natural, local ingredients. And what could be more local than the roses in our garden?! The olive oil used in this soap has been infused using rose petals, and we've even sprinkled dried rose petals on top.
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Honey and Chocolate Beeswax Soap

£4.50

Sold out

100g

This delicious slice of stripy goodness has all the qualities of our other soaps, packed full of beautiful natural oils and butters, with the added scent of chocolate!

We can't guarantee it won't make you hungry, but we can guarantee it will be a pleasure to use!
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Lemon, Ginger and Poppyseed Beeswax Soap

£4.50

Sold out

100g

Our usual beautifully creamy recipe, but with added lemon essential oil, ginger essential oil, ground ginger and Poppyseeds for added exfoliation. It smells as good as it sounds!

And in true Mudd Shack style, not only is the beeswax from Mersea, but the Poppyseeds were harvested from our very own poppies!

Handcrafted here on Mersea, our Lemon, Ginger & Poppyseed soap uses both Cold Pressed Lemon and Ginger Essential Oils along with the other raw natural ingredients to give it a fresh, zesty aroma.
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Lavender & Sea Salt Beeswax Soap

£4.50

100g

A friendly neighbour offered us their lavender before they cut it back for the winter. So we went round, cut off 2 large boxes full, brought it home, dried it, striped it, and infused alot of it in olive oil! Phew!

These lovingly made soap bars are full of 'flavour' and even include a touch of Maldon Sea Salt, along with our usual Mersea Beeswax. (No honey in these).
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'Bee My Valentine' Beeswax Soap

£4.50

100g

Made using Mersea beeswax, Mersea honey and even rose petals grown and harvested on Mersea. With a touch of Pink French Clay to colour the added heart.
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Queen Bee Beeswax Soap

£3.00

65g

A slightly smaller bar, with a honeycomb and bee mould being used to give you a really cute shape.

Available in Orange, Rose or Lavender
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Orange rose beeswax soap

£3.00

Sold out

Our usual blend of raw natural ingredients, set in a pretty rose shape.

65g
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Beeswax Guest Soaps / Favours

£1.00

Treat your guests with Mersea Mudd Shack.

These little 20g beauties are approximately 4cm wide and come in a range of fragrances, and can be personalised to suit your needs.
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Pink rose beeswax soap

£3.00

Fragranced with English Rose oil and added French Pink clay,

65g


Ingredients: Sodium Olivate, Sodium Cocoate, Sodium Shea Butterate, Glycerin, Aqua, Sodium Beeswax, French Pink Clay,Mel, Parfum, Rosa Damascena Flower, Citronellol, Geraniol
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BEESWAX IN CANDLES

As I've mentioned before, beeswax is about the most natural wax around. Paraffin wax is petroleum based, which can't be good to burn in your home. Soy wax is made from the oil of soy beans but goes through many processed to get it to wax form, not to mention the numerous soy bean plantations that have sprung up globally leading to deforestation. But I'm not here to tell you what's bad... so let's focus on the good!

Beeswax candles are the oldest kind going, and are the original traditional candle.

Beeswax had a higher melting point than other waxes, meaning they burn for longer. In fact, they can burn up to 5 times longer than other waxes.  


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​There has also been research showing that burning beeswax can release negative ions into the air. These negative ions bind with the toxins in the air, helping to remove them. People have reported improvement with their hayfever, asthma and some have even slept better!

Beeswax candles burn cleanly, leaving no soot, and if they are wicked correctly, don't drip. 

Our plain candles are not fragranced... because they don't need to be! Beeswax has it's own soothing sweet aroma, which is naturally produced by the wax being so close to honey and floral nectar in the honeycomb.

They also have a beautiful bright glow, emitting a lovely warm-toned flame, in the same light spectrum as the sun. 
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Handpoured Beeswax Candles

£4.00 - £12.00
Mersea Mudd Shack's candles, are made using Mersea beeswax. We also add a touch of coconut oil for a smoother burn, and a few drops of honey fragrance oil, to enhance the naturally occurring scent in the beeswax, creating a beautiful soothing aroma.
Our hand poured beeswax candles are packaged using eco-friendly materials, including our recycled glass jars - meaning no two candles look the same!
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Beeswax Skep Candle

£2.00

Our candles are made using Mersea beeswax, sourced right here on our lovely little island. We add a touch of coconut oil for a smoother burn, and hand pour each candle with care.  Let the sweet, soothing aroma of beeswax fill your home.

Approx burn time = 3+ hours
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Beeswax Tealights

£1.00 - £5.00

The beauty of beeswax is, if it's wicked properly, it doesn't drip! So these naked (ooh-err!) tealights don't have an aluminium case around them, further reducing waste from packaging.


Burn time of 4 hours approx.

Sold individually or as a set.
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Beeswax Candle Making Kit

£4.50 - £8.50

MAKE YOUR OWN BEESWAX CANDLES

Who's bored? Yep, thought so.

So to try and keep you all entertained, we've created a kit so you can make your own beeswax candles.


Kits available to make one candle or two.


That'll keep you busy for an hour or so!
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Beeswax Egg Candles

£2.00

Not only do these egg shaped candles have all the benefits of a normal beeswax candle, but they also have added cute factor! Burning for up to 6 hours, they are perfect as a gift or as part of your table decorations for Easter lunch.

Our candles are made using Mersea beeswax, sourced right here on our lovely little island. We add a touch of coconut oil for a smoother burn, and hand pour each candle with care. Let the sweet, soothing aroma of beeswax fill your home.

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Beeswax Citronella Candles

£4.50 - £12.50

Citronella has been proven to fend off the dreaded mozzies, so we've added Lemongrass and Citronella essential oils to our Mersea Beeswax and coconut oil blend.

Our larger 8oz candles, will burn for 40hrs approx, allowing you to enjoy your time outside without being eaten alive!

We also do smaller 3oz candles, perfect for an evening outside, burning for 15hrs approx.

Our candles are made using Mersea beeswax, sourced right here on our lovely little island. We add a touch of coconut oil for a smoother burn, and hand pour each candle with care.
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​SAVE THE BEES

We all know that bees are crucial to our planet. We hope that by supporting our beekeepers, we can also help to keep the bees safe. Because let's not forget...

​If they go, we're going with them!


​
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Happy New year?

1/5/2021

0 Comments

 

As we welcome 2021, I thought this would be the perfect time for me to start my blog! 

Every year over the Christmas break, I like to plan the next year and the developments and improvements that I can make to my little business. This year was full of plans and dreams for a full re-stock during January, upping our advertising and marketing a little and generally making our soap production a bit more time-effective.
Little did I know, that Mr Johnson would have other ideas! My first week back after Christmas has turned into a juggling act between trying to keep up with all your lovely orders and the dreaded return of home-schooling!
Anyway, with day 2 of home-schooling round 2 completed, and everyone still alive and still enjoying each other's company at Mudd Shack HQ, I'm counting that as a win!

January is normally a time of year, when people make New Years Resolutions. Promises to better themselves in the year to come. But this got me thinking... our new years resolutions are normally centred around ourselves. Loosing weight, drinking more water, doing more exercise... But what about a new year's resolution that goes further than that? What about a resolve to help the planet?

This year, our household resolution has been to further reduce the amount of single-use plastic. We already use the milkman, shop in charity shops or buy second hand wherever possible, and obviously have an abundance of plastic-free toiletries in the bathroom, as well as using the household liquids that we offer on our refill delivery service. But our next step is to cut down on the plastic in our weekly shop, mainly surrounding our food. So we have made a promise to shop locally wherever possible.

At some point this week, between the endless Google Meets that my daughter has to attend, we will wander down to our local butchers with old tupperware pots in hand to house our sausages and bacon for the weekend fry-up. We'll then head round to the bakers with our bread bag, and finally we'll fire up our faithful old Dorris (our 1970 Morris Traveller) and head just off to island to the fruit & veg shop, taking our produce bags on our travels. 

With all this talk of both New Year's Resolutions and children's education at the moment, it dawned on me that surely one of the best things we can teach our children is how to look after our planet. And how to save our planet before it's too late.

With this in mind, and with my 8 year old daughter's help, we made up an Eco Starter Kit. It contains some really easy plastic-free swaps, at a bargain price.
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Eco Starter Kit

£15.00 £10.00
Get 2021 started the plastic free way with this handy little eco kit.
​

Kit includes: 1x 100g Beeswax Soap, 1x bamboo Soap dish, 1x beeswax wrap, 2x metal straws, 2x reusable face wipes & 1x sisal soap bag.
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- Beeswax Wrap - one of my favourite swaps, particularly good for all those last little bits of left over Christmas cheese. Just use in place of cling-film. 25cm square and made using local beeswax with a beautiful bee pattern.
​
- Metal Straws - with straws (finally) being banned in the UK, metal straws are the perfect replacement. You'll need one for all those take-away drinks we'll be buying now!
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- Reusable face wipes - okay, so you may not need these that much at the moment if you're working from home! But when you do venture out into the world again (or more-likely have a zoom meeting) and want to wear make up, these towelling backed wipes are the perfect way to remove it at the end of the day. Fun fact - My Mum is a seamstress, and makes these for me from off-cuts of fabric she has left over at work. Recycling at it's finest!
​
- Soap Bag - sometimes called soap savers or soap pouches, these bags are a game changer. We have one in our shower which I fill with all our off-cuts of soap. Just get the bag wet under the shower, rub to create lather and away you go. Bye bye shower gel! Also great for those last little bits of soap that are just too small.

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- Bamboo Soap Dish - the perfect companion to our final item, keeping your soap as dry as possible, giving it a longer life span. The tray also pops out for easy cleaning!
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- Beeswax Soap Bar - yes, I saved the best 'till last. The crowning jewel of our Eco Starter Kit is one of our 100g bars of beeswax soap. I won't bore you with the benefits of our soap in this post (Have no fear - I'll do that at another time!), but our creamy moisturising bars of soap are a real treat to use. Especially in these times of excessive handwashing and sanitising. ​​​
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Whatever your New Years resolutions are. Whether you stick to them for a day, a week, or only an hour. I wish you a happy 2021. It's got to be better.... right?!


Claire xx
Mersea Mudd Shack


PS I also made a New Year's resolution to lose the stone I put on during last lockdown... But with the onset of home-schooling I never even started that one! Oops!!

​

Eco Starter Kit

£15.00 £10.00
Get 2021 started the plastic free way with this handy little eco kit.
​

Kit includes: 1x 100g Beeswax Soap, 1x bamboo Soap dish, 1x beeswax wrap, 2x metal straws, 2x reusable face wipes & 1x sisal soap bag.
Shop

Honey and Orange Beeswax Soap

£4.50

100g

Our usual creamy bar of soap, but with a vesty orange kick. Made using olive oil infused with oranges and orange zest, along with all our usual natural ingredients.
Shop

Lavender & Sea Salt Beeswax Soap

£4.50

100g

A friendly neighbour offered us their lavender before they cut it back for the winter. So we went round, cut off 2 large boxes full, brought it home, dried it, striped it, and infused alot of it in olive oil! Phew!

These lovingly made soap bars are full of 'flavour' and even include a touch of Maldon Sea Salt, along with our usual Mersea Beeswax. (No honey in these).
Shop

Soap Bag

£1.50

The perfect companion to our bars of soap!

These handy little soap bags are designed to be used in the shower or bath. Simply pop a bar of soap inside, get it wet, rub the bag on the soap inside to create some bubbles and away you go! Made from natural sisal they exfoliate as they go, and have a drawstring at the top meaning you won't lose your soap an can hang it up when you're finished to allow the soap to dry.

And, of course, it's plastic free! What's not to love?!
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Bamboo Soap Dishes

£4.00

These wonderfully natural looking soap dishes are made from sustainably sourced bamboo. Perfect in the bathroom (or anywhere with a sink!), they allow your soap to dry between uses, meaning the soap will have a longer life span.
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Metal Straw

£0.50 - £1.00

With plastic straws set to be banned in the UK, and paper straws just not quite cutting it, why not upgrade to a metal straw?
Pop it in your handbag ready to whip out at any occasion!!

Available in straight or curved.

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Beeswax Wraps

£3.50

Only a few left!

Beeswax wraps are a perfect alternative to cling film. Made from 100% cotton and 100% local beeswax, these 25cm x 25cm beauties are perfect to wrap round left over food, or over a bowl. Just use the heat of your hands to seal.
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Full care instructions are included, but they are not recommended to be used with raw meat and can be washed using washing up liquid and cool water.
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Reusable Face Wipes

£1.00
Every day in the UK we flush away 9.3 million single use wipes. Including baby wipes, cleaning wipes and facial wipes.
​
Do your bit to help cut down the amount of waste by buying reusable face wipes. Simply pop them in the washing machine after using!

Our reusable face wipes are perfect for taking off your makeup at the end of the day.
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    Just a girl, trying to save the planet, one bar of soap at a time!

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