Home made furniture polish.

[Woody girl]

Spring cleaning time is around the corner, so
I'm about to make some proper, old fashoned furniture polish, as I like real wood furniture and have a few old pieces I like to keep in tip top condition.
It's Easy enough to buy a can of spray and get on with it that way, but a proper old fashoned polish realy does improve the patina and condition of those real wood items.
So..
Ingredients
150g/2/3of a cup of beeswax
600g/3 cups of olive oil
30 drops of grapefruit seed extract.
(a natural anti oxidant)
10 drops of lavender essential oil
Method
Put wax and oil into double boiler and heat over medium heat until wax is completely melted.
Remove from heat and add the lavender and grapefruit seed extract. Mix well
Pour into clean containers, and allow to cool.

Add elbow grease and a soft polishing cloth, and you will have lovely shiny sweet smelling furniture.
Caviat
I havnt tried this recipe yet, but I'm sure it will be fine.

 

[Chris]

Thanks for sharing.

Would be interested to hear how the olive oil holds up in the long term, as I’d heard it can go rancid over time when used as an oil on wood. I may well have heard wrong, though.

 

[Woody girl]

Thanks for sharing.

Would be interested to hear how the olive oil holds up in the long term, as I’d heard it can go rancid over time when used as an oil on wood. I may well have heard wrong, though.

That's why the grapefruit seed oil is used, as its (as stated) a natural anti oxidant)

 

[John Fenna]

A nice recipe - the one I use is Beeswax, coconut oil, olive oil and orange oil or replace the olive and coconut with teak oil. I vary the amounts to give soft, medium or hard finishes.

 

[Pattree]

It looks lovely.
I know I’ll sound odd but I might try it using paraffin instead of olive oil. Don’t look shocked, it will bring back memories of my grandparents big house in which all wooden surfaces were embalmed in a commercial polish made from paraffin and bees wax. (I have a tank of paraffin right outside.)

 

[Chris]

That's why the grapefruit seed oil is used, as its (as stated) a natural anti oxidant)

Ah, I see. Didn't realise that the antioxidant is what stopped the olive oil going bad. Every day's a school day.

 

[Woody girl]

I guess you could use a different oil, I do 7se coconut when I make lip balm and other creams like that. but this is my first go at making furniture polish so I'm sticking with this recipe for now.

I'm not sure I'd want to use paraffin..not a great smell and with my delicate asthmatic chest I don't think it would be a good thing to have paraffin off gassing in the house. Also very flammable. I prefer to use natural scents ..orange sounds lovely, as would lemon, instead of lavender.
I do like lavender and make my own lavender sachets, and oil, ,so it makes sense to use it and also, not have competing smells in the room.