My Wax products are releasing water.... why?

[Tigersmoon]

I have been making lip balms, butt balm, and wood polish, however all of a sudden my furniture polish (beeswax, paraffin wax, and olive oil) separated in the containers. Under the layer of product is large amounts of water. I would not mind this except my last batch was over half water, and the "crust" would break and release it all. I have not changed my recipe however the problem is increasing

Can someone help me, I must be missing something.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Welcome!! How old is the furniture polish, and how humid is your house? I;'m not sure about the polish, but I have made moisturizer, and it is about 5 months old now. It's almost gone, but it seems to ge accumulating a bit of water. IDK, maybe it needs to be reheated and re-emulsified?

 

[Tigersmoon]

I made the Polish Last weekend, and the water was evident when i looked on wed. We live in Salt Lake so have a dry climate even in the winter, and the house is even more so. I know that my items would not have an extreme shelf life, but they have lasted months in the past with only minor water collection, this however is more like the molecules are deciding, and wax cooled on top, leaving water underneath, however i do not add water to the recipe, and I do not know why the bonds would break that fast to release all the water from the product.

 

[Tigersmoon]

Have cut all of my polish out of the tins, and removed all water. I then remelted it back down, however now it seems to me too dry (almost flaky). I may use this batch for another project that may allow me to mix with still moist wax. However I still do not know how to keep this from happening in the future.:/

 

[Dirk Chesterfield]

Many waxes have an affinity to capture water vapor when being melted and cooled. While being cooled they crystallize and entrap water vapor in a matrix, especially in a very humid environment. Many times the water is not noticeable when the product is initially cooled and the water slowly migrates to voids, bubbles and crevices over time.

Using a double boiler or a pan floating in a water bath to melt wax can cause water entrapment due to the presence of steam. The best method to eliminate water entrapment is to use an electric potpourri crock pot to melt the waxes. Don't use a potpourri pot that uses an open flame, like a tea light candle, because it is an extreme fire hazard when used to melt wax.

 

[Tigersmoon]

Thanks, I do avoid double boilers and steam in my process as I have always had issues with spilling and contaminations. However the retention of water vapor makes sense. I still wonder why if this was the case my remelted wax came out flaky once the water that was trapped under the wax was removed.
Could it be a bad batch of Beeswax that some how had water mixed in this manner while being melted and refined? If this is the case I may have to change my supplier.

 

[Dirk Chesterfield]

I would melt each suspect component individually, let it cool and see if you can replicate the problem after a reasonable time.

Maybe the beeswax was "cleaned" or "rendered" by melting it in boiling water and it still has a lot of water trapped in it.

Here is a little info:
http://www.beesource.com/resources/elements-of-beekeeping/all-about-beeswax/

 

[Tigersmoon]

thanks i will do that