This is a plant based wax, Ecocert certified and suitable for all natural and vegan cosmetic applications.

Myrica fruit wax imparts a very nice skin feel to balm, butters and hair styling products. It doesn’t contribute much to hardness and mainly adds texture and body (without greasiness) and emulsion stabilization to cosmetic products. Since it has a low melting point, it solidifies very slowly and this leads to a very nice and smooth texture of the products made with myrica wax. It is capable of making lip balms in a tube or even some stick products such as a facial balm but is not hard enough to be used as the stand-alone wax for lipsticks.

The wax is very unique as it has no double bounds and is rather a naturally “hydrogenated” oil but solid. Due to its chemical structure (iodine value < 2) it is very stable against oxidation. Very untypical is the low melting point while having an exceptional hardness. This combination leads to an outstanding spreadability. It reduces stickiness of O/W emulsions and oleogels, stabilizes stick preparations, and has excellent properties for hair styling products. In combination with fatty alcohols it can also be used in hair conditioners.

A simple body lotion gets silky, rich haptics just by the additional of 2%-3% myrica fruit wax. Applied in hair products, it gives remoldable hold in styling formulations and boosts performance of conditioners.

Myrica fruit wax has been tested at a use level of 3% in a rinse-off hair conditioner. The influence on combing force was measured using a tensile test device and the results were compared with a placebo. In a tensile test a comb is pulled through defined swatches of hair, the combing resistance and the friction forces during the combing procedure can be measured providing detailed information about the surface of the treated hair. Two evaluations are possible: from root to end or total change of combing force. The hair used was of Caucasian origin, 25 cm long, bleached and not detangled before measuring. Prior to each test, swatches are washed three times with a 10% solution of ether sulfate for 1 minute.

Myrica fruit wax was able to significantly reduce the necessary combing force compared to the result of the placebo conditioner. Used frequently, the ingredient can help to protect hair against damage.