Conifer Waxes

I love plant waxes. They've been a favorite material of mine since I first experienced them -- a beautiful jasmine grandiflorum wax followed by a kilo of rare helichrysum wax and a kilo of pink lotus wax. The jasmine wax is long gone, but I still have a few grams of the helichrysum and even more of the pink lotus. When I first began using them, they were mostly put into soap, but now I use them in a lot of things and have been known to tincture some as well. One of my favorite plant waxes was a gorgeous chunk of marigold wax. I've collected loads of plant waxes, from orris, mimosa, to tuberose, and everything in between. No one can ever have too many, is my motto. 

Plant waxes are so beautiful. And the textures! Ah! Some are pliable and warm easily to the touch, while others are rock solid and crystalline. 

So when I found a supplier on Etsy (quickly becoming the go-to place for these rarities in aromatics) selling conifer waxes, I jumped at the opportunity to get them.

Heyoka Frankincense on Etsy sells these divine conifer waxes (Canadian sourced) -- blue hemlock, black spruce, and fir balsam. 

The fir balsam wax is gloriously fruity and rich. It arrives in thin wafers like dark chocolate poured onto a cold cookie sheet with evident swirls and whorls of fruity, jammy, balsamic goodness. Yes, I do want to eat it.

The blue hemlock is roughly the same texture as a nice labdanum resin, soft and sticky and irresistibly fragrant. The scent is also somewhat fruity, but more on the tart side, like an unripe raspberry. It's also slightly animalic and smoky smelling too. 

As a freebie, I received a small piece of black spruce wax. The texture is a lot like the fir balsam, brittle and breakable, like dark chocolate bars, and the scent? Somewhat animalic, balsamic, a tinge of fruitiness, with a sheen of smokiness. 

The scents of these three are similar yet so different. They all encompass many of the same notes but in different ratios. Where the fir balsam is intensely fruity and jammy, the black spruce is much less so and incorporates more of a woody/smoky/animalic note with just a hint of the jammy fruit. 

All in all, they're damned amazing materials and I cannot wait to play.