What is Carnauba Wax?

Carnauba wax comes from the leaves of a plant native to Brazil, the carnauba palm or Copernicia Prunifera to give it it's real name. The wax is obtained by processing the leaves of the plant, it will then be refined and bleached. The wax is not actually the leaves of the plant but an excretion from the leaves.

Carnauba wax is used in a variety of products including, shoe polish, cosmetics, surfboard wax and also in the food industry as a coating on chewing gum and of course in our beloved car wax.

In it's raw form carnauba wax is very, very hard, it is said to be as hard as concrete. A bar of pure carnauba is so hard and brittle it will smash if dropped on the floor. To make Rubbsih Boy's Original edition I use a carnauba wax that is in flake form. The blocks of wax are broken up into flakes, this makes melting far easier.

To be used in a car wax carnauba has to be softened and kept under control. This can be achieved using other waxes, such as Beeswax, and oils, such as coconut oil, all heated up and blended together.

A lot of car wax manufacturers quote high percentages of carnauba wax in their formulae, 70%, 80% some even 100%, how can this be true you may be wondering? Well it can't is the answer. Often when a manufacturer quotes the percentage of carnauba in their product they are referring to the wax content in their product not the total product. Suppose a wax is claimed to contain 70% carnauba, so 70% carnauba and 30% beeswax say = 100% total wax content, this could actually be a very small percentage of the final product, especially where thin liquid or spray waxes are concerned as they will mainly be water.