I’ve mentioned Farmhouse White, the new MMSMP color we’re launching in January of 2016, a few times, but we also have some other new products coming out.
One that’s been in the works for a long time is the 100% Beeswax finish…
I tested it out years ago, before we launched the paint line, but I wanted to start very small, so we just launched with two waxes and the hemp oil as finish options. Now that we’ve grown beyond all expectations, we’re constantly considering, testing and developing new products we can add to the line. But we don’t want to add more just to add more. We want to add products that complement the line and brand well and ones that will address the requests of our retailers and customers.
It was all of these considerations that brought me to revisit the 100% Beeswax finish.
So, the #1 question is, “How is this different from your other waxes?”
Good question.
Furniture, Antiquing and White Waxes are all made with beeswax, but they also contain carnuba wax and odorless solvents to make the wax creamy and workable. It is a beautiful product and we get compliments on our waxes all the time. Those are still going to be my go-to waxes.
But, we have many customers and retailers who use and sell our paints because they are all-natural, so we wanted to add an all-natural wax to give them that finishing option.
Because it is 100% beeswax, it isn’t as creamy as our other waxes. The Beeswax finish is similar to the feel and consistency of a body balm whereas the Furniture Wax is more like a lotion. Both are massaged and absorbed into the surface, but are applied in different ways. With beeswax, a little bit goes a long way.
Just pull a little bit out of the jar with a soft, clean cloth…
…and rub it onto the surface. You can use a brush to apply it as well, but make sure you’re only picking up a little bit of wax and then really working it into the surface. Any wax that’s left sitting on top will feel…well, waxy.
I had an old, somewhat dried-out rolling pin hanging out in the studio, so I gave it a little rub-down with Beeswax to bring out the shine and hydrate the wood.
The beeswax is food safe, so it can be used on rolling pins, wooden spoons, cutting boards, salad bowls, wood counters, wooden baby/kids toys, etc.
There are other applications for it as well and I’ll share some projects and techniques with you in the weeks to come.
We’re also launching a limited edition Lavender Wax. It is our clear Furniture Wax, but it’s been scented with lavender essential oils and it smells absolutely divine!
We know a lot of you furniture-painters are cooped up indoors during the winter months. If you’re going to be waxing furniture inside, it might as well smell amazing, right? It’s fragrant, but not overpowering.
You’ll know you’re buying the Lavender Wax, because of the pretty lavender-colored label.
Another thing we’ve been working on for months…maybe even a year…has been new labels for all of our waxes. Having your brand on a product is pretty awesome, but the labels are enough to make you want to curl up in a ball. Especially with paint and finishing products. They have to meet very specific label laws, which is especially tricky for us, since our products are sold on four (soon to be five, hopefully) continents.
Since our products are made and sold in Canada, we have to have all of our labels in French and English, which means double the amount of all text and proof-reading in two languages.
It was a really long process involving conversations like, “Can you make the font .5 larger, move the logo 2mm to the left, and the barcode is getting cut off when the label is wrapped, so we need to rearrange everything else…”, but we finally have our beautiful new wax labels that are a bit easier to distinguish from one another. They each are printed in a different color…
…and they each have their own chair “mascot” for the lid…
You’ll start to see the new wax labels trickle into stores when the old labels are exhausted.
In all of the proofing, reviews and reworking, we somehow missed one pretty obvious typo…
I didn’t even notice it until I received an e-mail pointing it out. It went something like this…
“Is there a reason why there is an extra E on the front of the small beeswax label…”
Wait, what?!
I quickly opened the picture I had of the new Beeswax labels.
AH! Beesewax?!?!
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
And the e-mail was from our distributor in Europe, so it was definitely too late to change it. The misspelled label was out in the world and I was having flashbacks of the sweatshirt my parents gave their horrible-speller-of-a-daughter for Christmas one year. It read “bad spellers of the world untie!”
And now I’m untying with my Beesewax finish.
I wonder if they make a sweatshirt that says that.
So, there it is. Of course, we’re reprinting them and, at some point, the misspelled labels will be out of circulation and I won’t feel like a total moron every time I see it.
Until then, let’s just pretend it’s some fancy spelling for beeswax, like junque or colour or theatre.
Yes, let’s do that.
And never speak of it again.
I feel for you… I have had that same nightmare happen to me. The wax is still the same inside… misspelled word and all.
Haha! I think it sounds more “French”. 😉
Can’t wait to try it all!!
Xoxo
Well, if you had to have a typo at least its a good one. That spelling seems a little more exotic than the regular spelling. 🙂
BTW, I love your new labels. They look great!
This too shall pass. Someday you will laugh about it.
Yes it sounds French! You have lots of “E’s” on there anyway so you can hardly see it.
I hope I spelled everything correctly….hehe
I think it’s cute. I like it. I do have a question tho. What’s the difference in furniture wax and all the other waxes you have? Merry Christmas Marian.
I love pure beeswax. I have it for my butcher block counter tops. I re-oil and wax them every 3-6 months. The beeswax makes my kitchen smell divine, a hint of honey. I have had my counters for 8 years and love them more each year.
I can’t wait to try your Farmhouse white.
Lavender wax? I’m in!
These little trials are sent to remind us that we are human. Also to develop our sense of humor and perspective. I always think – if that’s the worse thing that happens to me today, I am a lucky person.
The Lavender Wax sounds like the best thing ever.
just wait, your french-looking misspelled word will actually become a limited addition collector’s item by miss mustard seed fans 😉
I was thinking the exact same thing – Limited “Edition” Miss Mustard Seed Beesewax – a collector’s item.
ditto….better keep one!
Labels look great and I love the different chairs for the different waxes super cute!!
Oh no! Well it can just be a fancy or a new French way on how to spell Beeswax 🙂 Hope that makes you feel a little bit better!
I tried..
Lauren Baxter | Lovely Décor
http://www.lovelydecor.co
xx
Marion — I found the problem with the banner ads that suddenly appeared on your blog and a few others. When my laptop was serviced recently, someone turned off the adblocker plus. It’s back on now, and the banner ads are gone. Yeah, and whew!
Typos!! It is sometimes amazing how many people can proofread something and all miss it. You must be so proud of your line.
Haha!!! Ohhh…. noooo! That is so funny. People will probably think it is some avante garde way of saying beesewax. They are soooo cute! I love the labels with their darling little chairs and pretty colors!
Cindy
If you hadn’t told on yourself to us, we would have just thought it was like you wanted it to be, to differentiate it or ‘something’ lol….or that maybe it meant easy beese’y’ (without the y ) wax or something…heheh…..I think it’s a cute story! and you could keep it just cuz it’s a cute mistake!
someone is too hard on herself, join the bad speller club, there are MANYYYYYYY of them out there, my husband is # 1 though….it’s funnyyyy!
Love the new labels and waxes….can hardly wait to try them all !
love the sweatshirt ‘untied’ story tooooo, as always, so cute!
You do know how to tell a cute story, that OUTWEIGHS any spelling mistakes ALWAYS…and hey, what do you mean by ‘fancy spelling’ miss marian !…>>> like colour or theatre …thankyou for the compliment! since those spellings are the old English original spellings but also the Canadian way to this day in most schools here!!! ”EH”
ty for sharing all !!!
fellow Canadian Mustard Seed’er here
🙂
love it, I thought it was cute!! Marion, I have written many papers, letters, emails and presentations. I sometimes have to change my direction because I can’t spell a word. I know there is spell check but sometimes it is not available.
Oh well, I would want me so beesewax!! Di
LOL…I do the same thing. I will change a sentence, because I’m not sure how to spell a word. 🙂 I have made a real effort over the years to learn how to spell words I always spell wrong, but I’m still not the best, that’s for sure!
Eye halve a spelling chequer;
It came with my pea see;
It plainly marques four my revue,
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say,
Weather eye am wrong oar write;
It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid,
It nose bee fore two long,
And eye can put the error rite;
Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it;
I am shore your pleased two no,
Its letter perfect awl the weigh,
My chequer tolled me sew.
Just know there are others of us out here suffering from post disastrous spelling disorder. Twenty three years ago I was horrified when I received an RSVP card for our wedding returned to us by my future husband’s grandmother–she was a teacher. She had put a line through the word “eigth” and correctly spelled it below– “EIGHTH!” She might as well have used her red pen and written a big “U” for “Unsatisfactory”, because I sure felt like the humiliated gradeschooler when I opened it. Sure enough, the mistake was replicated on the invitation itself.
Oh, well. We’re all human. And this incident just makes your story that much more relatable to those of us who have followed your story and continue to do so because you keep it real.:)
Oh I can’t wait to get some of the Lavender wax!! I am sure it is going to smell soo lovely and will make my house smell beautiful. What a great idea… although I will have to try extra hard not to use it as a hand cream! 🙂 And from one horrible speller to another… have a wonderful Christmas!
Hugs, Lisa
As a brand new ad person for a department store, I meticulously read every little detail when proofreading a “double truck” (two page) newspaper ad. it was the kind with dozens of items, descriptions, regular and sale prices. We featured artwork at the top for our big lead item: Shirts $9.99″ Only problem….it was spelled Shits.” it happens.
Lol. Your parents have a great sense of humor! Can’t wait to try both waxes. Merry Christmas!
With such a large team and with proofreaders and even the printer no one noticed the typo or called you to confirm the spelling…so don’t be so hard on yourself. It’s only a word anyway, ha! And the product sounds amazing…and that’s what’s important. Congratulations on the growth of your company.
Printers don’t proofread, they print exactly what you give them often without looking at the text as words at all.
Lol!?
It’s so hard to be perfect! Everyone needs a little grace.:) The beesewax makes a great story!
As for the lavender wax, I have a hunch that you will have to bring it back due to popular demand.
I think you could play off the Beesewax cause it goes on with Ease. Hence the extra E at the end… I know Ease has an “A” in it…. But still its a cute way to play it off…Pluse I really had to look like 5 tis before I even saw it I like it!!
I am a pretty good speller and never would have noticed if you hadn’t pointed it out! But I agree that it just makes it look more “exotic”, like when people call their store a “shoppe.”
All of the packaging is so lovely! Merry Christmas, Marian!
Love the new products…can’t wait to get them….and I think the misspelling is cute…My dad always used the term, “you are the beeees knees” … adding the extra e’s
Marian, may you and your family have a most joyous Christmas!!!
Marian, that just makes everyone love you more because you are human like the rest of us –!!!! I probably wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t pointed it out!!! I paint with wax (Encaustic) and use organic beeswax —so I am a beeswax lover, can’t wait to try yours out on something!! Have a wonderful holiday!
don’t sweat the small stuff, makes everyone fonder of you because you are like us! have a wonderful holiday
Hi Marian,
These labels are so gorgeous. And I hate to even SUGGEST that there may be another typo in them… But when I read your quotes Move Mountains in Your Home I did wonder why you had quotation marks at the end of the sentence but not at the start. The one on the bottom of the label has quotation marks at the start and of the sentence.
And now I’ve become one of those people who comments on the use of punctuation in labels…Yikes!
A very happy Christmas to you and your family.
You could make a little jingle like Beese (pronounced beezee) rhymes with easy or just like the beese you can finish your projects with the greatest of ease
Well, don’t feel too bad, a fairly prominent kids book had a major “typo” on the back cover,as well.. We just sold through them until but the corrected ones came in. It happens
Hey, don’t feel bad – I misspelled my daughter’s name on her birthday cake one year, and didn’t realize it until someone else pointed it out.
I think it looks like a fancy spelling! My profession is public health and when you have to write the word “public” a lot for the degree, school, jobs, employers, etc. it’s really important to check resumes 10x to be sure public is spelled correctly!
The lavender wax is a genius idea. I will be getting that for sure from my local dealer! You are so right, it would be great to have a nice smell when we’re cooped up in the winter. Citrus would be awesome too!
Oh, my goodness, I know how you must have felt when you saw that miss-spelling! Like lying down on the floor and kicking and screaming, right? How embarrassing! How stupid! Why didn’t I NOTICE that?? What will everyone think–it’s not PERFECT! Well, sometimes we just have to come to terms with the fact that we can’t have everything we do turn out perfectly, even tho’ the whole world is going to see it. A lesson in accepting ourselves just as we are–human beings who make mistakes–and it’s really OK. Because we know on a deeper level that we are perfect in the eyes of our Creator. It sounds like you’ve come to this acceptance already, but it sure can be hard, can’t it?
I can’t WAIT to see the new white and to try some of the beesewax!
As a Canadian, I’m so grateful to you for going the extra mile as a retailer. Some companies just don’t bother. I’m so glad it’s easy for me to get your products here!
You and Steve Harvey, LOL! Both GRACIOUS with your apologies!!! 🙂
Well, I love it misspelled. I thought you did it purposely, just to give it some jazz. And I’m a real graphics and grammar nerd.
Love you anywaye,
Mz V
I have a question about the beeswax. I work with pure beeswax often with my bath and body business. Its almost hard as a rock. Curious as to how you manage to get one that can be swiped with a cloth for application?
I hate to say it, but the “Beesewax” label gave me a good chuckle . . . We have to be able to laugh at ourselves, right? I bet less people will notice it than you think 🙂 I have always loved your furniture wax, it is by far my favorite wax. I am pretty tempted by the lavender scented wax as well. Congratulations on your new products, I am sure it is a huge amount of work getting them all ready to go!
Like everyone else has said, don’t feel bad–and I’m sure by this time you don’t. At least, you didn’t make the mistake in your name, which i feel is something I would totally do and not catch it. Beesewax is nothing. Like Meese is the plural for mouse –and moose– beese is the more plural for bees. We have a very unique language so my suggestion is work it, girlfriend!