In a statement the company said that it had inadvertently processed the beeswax at excessively high temperatures. The beeswax wax passed the company's initial quality control measures but it was not detected that the quality of the ingredient was compromised after it was formulated into the lip balm.
The company said that this caused its Lot 61 Mocha Latte, Lot 62 Chocolate Raspberry and Lot 63 Chocolate Orange lip balms to have a 'grainy' or 'crystalline' texture, deemed unacceptable to its quality standards.
Following the incident Ganache has amended its quality assurance procedures and has also changed the supplier of its beeswax in an effort to avoid a repeat of the situation.
Company spokesperson Patricia West said that although the lip balms posed no health or safety risk, the company was recalling the lip balms because of the compromise to the products' overall texture and quality.
"As a small company I realized this could hit us pretty hard, but at the end of the day, it's more important to do the right thing and maintain our standards of quality for the consumer," West said.
West started the company in her kitchen back in 2003, with the launch of two balms, one made with peppermint and one made with real chocolate, and now includes nine different varieties in the range. Since then she has gone on to develop the range, exporting and distributing on both a national and international basis.
Beeswax has become a common ingredient for use in a variety of topical skin care. One of the main proponents has been Burt's Bees, which started off its business selling beeswax candles and then branched out when its first bees wax cosmetics became such a success.
It now supplies a host of natural cosmetic and personal care products, many of which include beeswax as a key ingredient, including its pioneering beeswax lip balms, which rose to incredible popularity on the basis of its strong moisturizing and protective properties.
Formulators are now increasingly adding this ingredient to a host of cosmetic products as a thickener, emulsifier and stiffening agent. Together with its range of functions it has also become increasingly popular in line with the increasing interest in natural based products.