As I was poking around Etsy one day, I happened to see something surprising — even more kinds of beeswrap! I’ve written about it before, and there are so many people making similar things in every design you can imagine. It was the one thing that had slightly dissatisfied me with Bees Wrap. Their designs were cute, but there weren’t very many available. Certainly nothing that looked like an art print!
Our other beeswrap from last year had pretty much lost its stickiness, so I figured, no time like the present to try a different company’s product and compare.
HoneyjoysAustralia, Australian made beeswax wraps, is yeah, in Australia, and a bit far if you’re in the U.S. and concerned with shipping. Unfortunately.
There was an option to get a 3 pack of any standard sizes (extra small, small, medium, large — they carry an extra large size as well but not for this option) and any combination of designs. So I picked out my favorite designs and a choice of sizes. I went for extra small (because it said you’d get two of them), medium, and large. I also chose the gift option at checkout, because I wanted to see it wrapped up. I’d been a little worried it wasn’t going to come because it took about a month, but it did come eventually, and it was totally worth it!
The outer wrapping was really cute and would definitely be a great way to give the wrap itself as a gift; it was tied with thin twine over brown paper printed with foresty designs, with the business card attached. Once I opened it up, each of the beeswraps were folded and the whole thing was stuck into a sleeve.
I was surprised to see that not only did I get two of the outer space designs (the extra small size) — which I had figured was the bonus — I also got another extra small piece I hadn’t ordered, a really pretty watermelon design!
Compared to the other beeswrap I’ve gotten this was a little stiffer and stickier. It’s made of cotton, beeswax, dammar gum, and jojoba oil. They say on their product page that one of the things that makes them stand out from competitors (besides the designs!) is the fact that they use dammar gum instead of pine resin. (check out the link if you’re feeling like you might want to make your own beeswrap) It doesn’t seem like there’s anything wrong with pine resin as long as it’s food grade, but apparently some people can get rashes if they’re allergic to it, so the dammar gum sidesteps that potential issue.
Dammar gum, like most tree resins, has a history of being used for all sorts of interesting things. It’s used for dammar varnish when mixed with turpentine, and used in oil painting. It’s used in the process of making batik (wax-resist dyeing cloth), to make the wax easier to work with. It’s used along with beeswax for encaustic painting (hot-wax painting) and even to caulk ships. As far as toxicity goes, it isn’t toxic—just don’t inhale the dust (but that’s the case for any dust, because the particles are bad for your lungs).
What I think is really interesting is that these combinations of waxes and resins have gone hand-in-hand long before anyone thought up beeswrap. I talked about that a little in my previous beeswrap article, but it’s so cool to think of how something that had a long history in certain arenas can turn up in others through ingenuity. What other things might we already be aware of, that with the smallest tweak could be used in a completely different setting, in a new way?
As far as this version of beeswrap goes, it feels a little bit like the wax that comes on the edge of cheese — moldable but not very soft (unlike the other version). Still, this is before they’ve been used at all, and it sticks together really nicely (maybe even better), so I think it would easily seal containers or food.
The colors on it are gorgeous too, and the Teal Mermaid one actually has a metallic gold around the edges of the scales, making it seem lavish and fancy. In fact, the designs were so pretty that I got an idea — what if you could use it as wrapping paper?
The sizes were fairly small, so at first I wasn’t sure what I could wrap. As you can see, the extra small is about the size of a saucer, and the medium and large are each slightly bigger.
I remembered something I’d seen on YouTube once, about how to wrap using less paper, which I’ve tried before when I didn’t quite have enough: turn your item diagonal to the paper edges instead of perpendicular! (If that doesn’t make much sense, check out the linked video — it’s super satisfying to watch, & makes perfect sense when you can see what’s going on).
I easily wrapped a box of ink in the size medium beeswrap. It was so fun to wrap because when you pressed it into shape it stayed together, no tape necessary.
Using the same method, I was able to wrap a small paperback book in the large beeswrap size.
And a few small odds and ends — like Burts Bees lip balm (the original flavor is my favorite) — in the extra small size!
I couldn’t quite fit a jewelry box into the extra small — as you can see, there’s a very tiny gap on one side. I think it may still be possible to do though, perhaps if you were slightly more precise about the angle, or if your jewelry box was just a tad smaller.
Altogether, I was able to wrap five small items in the most gorgeous gift wrap — that also serves as a gift! I think that would be a really cool idea for the holidays, though if you are interested in getting wrap from this company and live in the U.S. I wouldn’t wait to buy it 🙂 . You could use it as a way to introduce people to the idea of beeswrap instead of plastic wrap… and with something this nice, who wouldn’t want to give it a try?
As always, these are fully compostable when they’ve lost their efficacy, and completely re-waxable too if you’re feeling adventurous… though who knows, they look so pretty, maybe you could even reuse them as cloth.
This post isn’t sponsored, it’s merely an excuse for me to get beautiful dragon/mermaid scales and outer space. So pretty…
