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Beeswax is a natural wax produced in the bee hive of honey bees of the genus Apis. Worker bees have eight wax-producing mirror glands on the inner sides of the sternites on abdominal segments 4 to 7. The size of these wax glands depends on the age of the worker and after daily flights begin these glands gradually atrophy. The new wax scales are initially glass-clear and colorless, becoming opaque after mastication by the worker bee. The wax of honeycomb is nearly white, but becomes progressively more yellow or brown by incorporation of pollen oils and propolis. Typically, for a honey bee keeper, 10 pounds of honey yields 1 pound of beeswax.

The wax may further be clarified by heating in water and may then be used for candles or as a lubricant for drawers and windows or as a wood polish. As with petroleum waxes, it may be softened by dilution with vegetable oil to make it more workable at room temperature.

Beeswax is used commercially to make fine candles, cosmeticsand pharmaceuticals including bone wax(cosmetics and pharmaceuticals account for 60% of total consumption), in polishing materials (particularly shoe polish and furniture polish) and as a component of modelling waxes. It is commonly used during the assembly of pool tables to fill the screw holes and the seams between the slates. Squeezebox makers use beeswax as an adhesive, when blended with pine rosin, to attach reed plates to the structure inside a squeezebox.

Beeswax candles are preferred in most Eastern Orthodox churches because they burn cleanly, with little or no wax dripping down the sides and little visible smoke. Beeswax is also prescribed as the material (or at least a significant part of the material) for the Paschal candle and is recommended for other candles used in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church.

It is also used as a coating for cheese, to protect the food as it ages. While some cheese-makers have replaced it with plastic, many still use beeswax in order to avoid any unpleasant flavors that may result from plastic.

The burning characteristics of beeswax candles differ from those of paraffin. A beeswax candle flame has a "warmer," more yellow color than that of paraffin, and the color of the flame may vary depending on the season in which the wax was harvested.

Beeswax is also an ingredient in moustache wax, as well as hair pomades. It was used in the manufacturing of the cylinders used by the earliest phonographs.

As a skin care product a German study found beeswax to be superior to similar "barrier creams" when used according to its protocol.It is also used to make Cutler’s resin.

Beeswax has also been used as a primary constituent of bullet lubricant since the earliest days of rifleman when it was mixed with Tallow. It is now mixed with Moly grease or Lubrizol Alox.

Beeswax is also used by percussionists to make a desired surface on tambourines for thumb rolls.

It is also used to give sweets such as Floral Gums their floral taste.