saint007, funny you should mention the yellow beeswax. i almost didn't get the pipe for this reason, believe it or not. i wanted to get a "lifetime" pipe (aren't they all!) that I can pass to my son, and wanted to see the full color development from block meerschaum's pure white. glad to hear the yellow wax is better for color development. yeah, it smokes like a dream and at such a cool temperature.