Lately, iluxo, my line of jewelry and home decor, has really taken off. I conceptualized iluxo in the summer of 2010 with the idea that I could make Treasure Lockets (box-shaped bamboo “lockets” that hang around the neck and can open and close), but I didn’t really start taking the project seriously until April.
The quick success of my shop made me think about an integral part of every product: Packaging. Before this, I was shipping in 4″x4″ square kraft cardboard boxes. While these served their purpose, I noticed two of my customers left positive feedback saying the product was packaged “carefully.” While their feedback about the product itself was more glowing, “carefully” wasn’t exactly the word I wanted to push forward with for the future of my brand.
I started mailing my product in bubble mailers with a sturdy cardboard jewelry box inside (the kind department stores use). To decorate the boxes I wanted something that would be memorable and would convince the customer to keep the box as a useful, and beautiful item in her home. I decided to stamp the top of the boxes with sealing wax for a sophisticated and pretty effect.
Two hundred jewelry boxes, on my bedroom floor …
There wasn’t a lot of information out there about mass-scale sealing wax operations. Most people doing this are preparing for weddings. Here’s some information for you if you’re planning to use sealing wax for wedding invitations, sealing wax for your business, etc:
1. The absolute fastest way to work with sealing wax is with a glue gun.
2. Faux sealing wax is stronger (strong enough to withstand the wear of outside of an envelope during mailing, though mine are in the inside), and a fraction of the price of real sealing wax.
3. Faux sealing wax is stickier than regular sealing wax. You’ll need frequently apply a seal non-stick.
Here’s my setup.

1. Low temperature glue gun
2. Seal
3. Faux Sealing Wax
4. Sealing wax non-stick
(I’d rather not advertise a specific place to buy these, but if you search the names of any of these products in a search engine you’ll find plenty of places selling them. You can also email me at iluxodesign [!at] gmail.com if you want to know where I got mine.)
Application was easy though not fast. It took me about two hours to complete two hundred boxes. It would’ve been faster if I had more than one seal, as much of the time spent is waiting for the sealing wax to cool down enough to pull off without breaking. I started with a couple of different colors and used them in the same glue gun. If you use different colors in one glue gun, the colors will mix into each other, and not just in the beginning. Half of each stick (except for the first one) will be a blend of the color before it. Because of that you should use a separate glue gun per color. Cleaning a glue gun between colors is hard, but you can use some clear hot glue in between colors to reset it. You might even want to use different colors if you like a swirled color.
Some advice if your seal sticks: once in a while, when you pull on your seal, it will pull on the still warm sealing wax, making the pattern of your seal break or deform. It’s a good idea to lift the seal gently, and if you feel excessive resistance, to stop. Push the seal back down and wait for the wax to cool longer. If you do end up breaking the seal, you can simply pour more sealing wax on top and stamp again.
Pictured is a mix of bronze and purple:
I got an owl stamp as a starter because everyone likes owls, and this one was cute. But I plan to eventually design a custom seal that relates to my brand. The seal I got was was 3/4″ round and I was able to make 200 seals with six sticks of faux wax. That’s about 33-34 seals per stick, however, I did not use a large amount of sealing wax per seal.
I was also interested in brand name retention with my new packaging. So I got a custom stamp kit with rearrangeable letters and stamped the inside of every box with my shop name, shop URL, and “♥ Mariko” in it.
Let me know in the comments if you have questions about sealing wax.