Wax or oil finish
Not a fluorochemicalTreatments and actives. Also written beeswax, waxed cotton, paraffin, mink oil, lanolin.
Water repellency from a wax or an oil sitting on the fibre. Waxed canvas, boot dressing, wax wraps, and the paraffin coating on some papers.
A named wax or oil is a named chemistry that is not a fluorochemical, which makes this one of the few finish groups where the label actually settles the question. It repels water and not oil, and it needs reproofing, which is the trade.
What the makers actually said
Of the 161 graded products whose materials record a wax finish alongside a coating or finish, 80.1% name no coating chemistry anywhere in their published materials. This is a count of what companies published. It is not a statement about what any product contains.
- Named a fluoropolymer
- 2
- Named a coating that is not a fluorochemical
- 30
- Named no chemistry at all
- 129
A further 382 products record a wax finish with no coating or finish at all, so there is nothing for a maker to have disclosed. They are outside the split above.
Free to quote with a link. Of the 161 graded consumer products that record a wax finish together with a coating or finish, 80.1% name a coating chemistry anywhere in their published materials, according to PFAS Authority's October 2026 spec sheet decoder edition.
How those 543 products graded on our rubric
These are model-based estimates, not laboratory tests, scored on one public rubric. Read the spread against the categories underneath it rather than as a verdict on a wax finish in the abstract, because the rubric gives every category a baseline and a term concentrated in one category will carry that category’s spread with it.
Median grade 75 out of 100, across 31 categories.
| Grade | Products | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Excellent | 378 | 69.6% |
| Good | 61 | 11.2% |
| Poor | 99 | 18.2% |
| Bad | 5 | 0.9% |
Where a wax finish turns up
The 6 categories holding the most of it, out of 31. Each one links to the live ranking for that category, best graded first.
Best graded with a wax finish
One per category, best first, so the list is not five of the same thing.
- bareMinerals Complexion Rescue Luminous Skin Tint StickBB Cream100 · Excellent
- Maplus Arctic Base Fluor Free 1 kgSki & Sports Wax100 · Excellent
- Oral-B Essential FlossDental Floss100 · Excellent
- Primally Pure + Deodorant +Deodorant100 · Excellent
- Fels Naptha Laundry BarFabric Stain Guard Sprays85 · Excellent
Worst graded with a wax finish
One per category, worst first. A low grade here is usually something else on the product, not the term.
- Fjallraven Raven 20 BackpackBackpacks20 · Bad
- Barbour Women's Heron Waterproof JacketRain Jackets20 · Bad
- Weston Heavy Duty Coated Freezer PaperDeli Meat & Cold Cuts Packaging25 · Poor
- ULINE Butcher Paper RollGrease-Resistant Butcher & Deli Paper25 · Poor
- Signature Select Wax PaperParchment Paper & Baking Liners25 · Poor
Decode a whole listing instead
A product usually names several of these at once, and the one that matters is rarely the one in the title. Paste the full materials line into the decoder and it will pick out every term it recognises, the most open-ended first.
Other treatments and actives
Edition 2026-10-08, read from 11,337 graded products carrying a material string, and frozen at that date. A term is matched against the material and construction string recorded for each product, written from its published materials, specification and ingredient list rather than from a laboratory test. Products count under every term they match, so the totals across terms overlap. Found something wrong? Tell us.