How to Make Natural Lavender Body Balm
Easy recipe and instructions for making natural lavender body balm. The recipe includes shea butter, beeswax, and pure lavender essential oil
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Although I sell it, lavender body balm is a natural skin care product that you can easily make yourself. It’s a rich oil-based product scented with soothing lavender essential oil that you melt and mix together then pour into tins to harden. You can use it to soften and moisturize your skin but also to calm nerves and tension. Rub a little on your temples at night and it can also help ease you into a peaceful slumber. It will take you less than half an hour to make this recipe and once poured and cooled you can use the balm immediately.
Lavender Body Balm Recipe
I’ve never shared one of my Lovely Greens Handmade product recipes before but now a handful of people (and now you!) know how to make Natural Lavender Body Balm. The reason and audience seemed fitting for the share — it was to remember my friend Leo by showing her friends and family how to make her favourite product. Leo passed away after her second battle with cancer and I think she’d have loved to be remembered in this way.
Saying Goodbye to a Friend
The last time I saw Leo was in the hospital. It was shortly before she passed and though Cancer really had taken its toll she was still as feisty as ever. I remember bringing a pot of the body balm as a gift and asking if she’d be able to get help to put it on later.
Even though she was tiny and weak she defiantly pulled back the blanket to show that she could reach her own toes. Leo loved to use the balm on her feet, especially after she went through chemotherapy and the skin on her hands and feet became dry and irritated.
Lavender Recipes & Ideas
Lavender Body Balm Workshop
She was gone within days of that last visit. I think about her often — every time I drive past her house, see handmade cards (her favourite hobby) or make a batch of lavender body balm. That got me thinking. Maybe others would find comfort and a bit of fun in making the balm.
I got in touch with Manx Cancer Help, a drop-in centre for anyone affected by Cancer. Leo was a huge fan of the aromatherapy, reflexology, and other services the centre provides and I asked to host a remembrance workshop. They were more than happy to host me and I had the honor of showing Leo’s closest friends how to make Lavender Body Balm.
How to Make Lavender Body Balm
The lesson was lively and chatty and everyone seemed amazed at how easy it is to make body balm. All it’s really made of is solid and liquid oils that work together to moisturise and protect. They are gently melted together, the essential oil is stirred in, and then it’s poured into containers. I enjoy teaching people how to make handmade skincare but this was even better because it’s so easy to do.
Throughout the lesson, we all spoke of Leo and remembered things she said and did. Everyone there knew her as a friend and her husband David was able to join us for the day. Even after I’d packed up and headed out the door I could hear the sound of laughter and chit-chat and know that most of all that’s what would make Leo smile. For her, I’d like to share the recipe and instructions for making Natural Lavender Balm with you as well.
Natural Lavender Body Balm
Ingredients for two 125ml (4.23oz) pots
- 18g (0.63oz) Beeswax
- 40g (1.4oz) Shea butter
- 110g (3.88oz) Sweet almond oil*
- 1/4 tsp Lavender essential oil
- 1/2 tsp Vitamin E oil (optional)
* The sweet almond oil may be plain, or you could infuse it with lavender flowers first, making homemade lavender oil.
1. Over very low heat, or better yet, a double boiler, melt the beeswax and shea butter until liquid. Add the sweet almond oil and then wait for it to liquefy again. Keep stirring it during that time to help speed things up.
2. Take the oils off the heat and allow them to rest until the temperature is about 130F/ 54C. Stir in the Vitamin E and essential oil and then pour into containers. Allow to harden and cool, which can take two to three hours. Don’t put a lid on the container until the balm is hardened and at room temperature.
Shelf-life of up to two years and/or the closest use-by date of any of your ingredients. You should use the balm within these two years or within six months of opening.
How much vitamin E oil do I add?
The amount is listed in the recipe above.
Hey there,
I have made this before, and it was beautiful thank you! I just wondered how much Vitamin E is used in this recipe? I cannot find how much is to be used..?
Hi Kiz, and thank you :) Vitamin e oil is optional but is a fantastic ingredient for helping protect the skin from free radicals. It can also help to extend this balm’s shelf-life by slowing the onset of rancidification. Use 1/2 tsp of high IU vitamin e oil (70,000) for this recipe.
Hello Tanya, many thanks for the recipe and sorry about Leo, heartbreaking….. I wanted to ask you I do not have beeswax on hand my ingredients available are (Sweet almond oil, castor oil, olive oil, shea butter, cocoa butter and coconut oil) is there any substitute I can make this recipe without the beeswax ? Thank you Denisa !
Hi Denisa, beeswax is a very hard ingredient and you’d need to find another that was a similar hardness to replace it with. Otherwise, the balm would be too liquidy. You could use candelilla wax, rapeseed wax, or another wax. You could also compensate by using more cocoa butter, but you’ll likely need a bit more to get the same consistency.
Hello Tanya,
Many thanks for the beautiful recipe. I wanted to make it for my mum who has undergone a lot of treatment recently and left her legs particularly with really dry skin. I was wondering if the vitamin E oil was necessary as I don’t have any?
Thanks
Hi Gemma and the vitamin e is optional. Feel free to make the lavender body balm without it :)
Where is the best place to source these ingredients please?
Hi Kimberly, each region is different and suppliers will also be different. In the UK, I use companies like the Soap Kitchen for soapmaking and beauty ingredients but there are several other suppliers of organic beauty ingredients too.
Tonya, what a lovely way to remember your friend, Leo. Thank you for sharing. I use Young Living Lavender essential oil and love its properties. I’m excited about sharing this with my YL group. How was the group included in making the balm.
Hi Tanya,
Do you have any advice for how to prevent the shea butter from going grainy. I continue to have this issue and despite trying different time periods for gently heating the ingredients and different temps for cooling the balms it still seems to come out with a grain to it.
Shea butter can go grainy if it cools too slowly in the ambient temperature, especially if it’s warm in the house. I suggest that you pop your products in the freezer straight after making them and after they’ve solidified, keep them stored someplace under 23C/75F. If they’re stored over that they may melt a little and then resolidify — the stearic acid component of them will then clump together and cause grains to form.
Hi! Can you use coconut oil instead of the sweet almond oil? Same measurements?
Dear Tanya,
Lavender and Rose are some of my favourite scents, and I often wear lavender oil on my skin, it seems to be the only thing that calms itchiness, and I rub sweet almond oil on my feet, so I will most certainly be using this recipe, maybe tweak it a bit.. but how lovely that you did a class to show how easy it is to make body balms. I am so pleased I found your site!
RIP Leo. what a wonderful tribute.
Corinna xx
I imagine that you’ll be adding a little rose essential oil to your batch :) Happy to pass on the recipe and Leo’s story xx
Thank you for this, so very much.I am currently going through chemo and was searching for a lavender balm I could make for my dry skin. You’ve touched my heart and helped out in a challenging time, thank you x
Thank you for sharing your beautiful memories of your friend Leo with us all. We all need to talk and share our memories more, our loved ones never die that way
I love this recipe Tanya and keep a pot handy to apply a little anytime my skin needs a little extra TLC. Do you know the equivalent measurements in gat ms for the Vit E oil and lavender essential oil? Thanks for sharing your lovely recipes.
Can we use safflower oil instead of almond oil.thAnk u fr the wonderful recipe.
Yes you can :)
Thank you for shareing a small bit of your friend Leo alongside a most wonderful lavender balm how very nice , I look forward to make this recipe :)
Very moving .. thank you for sharing.
Thank you Mona
Hi, what is the shelf life of these soaps? Thank you.
You can find shelf-life information in the last paragraph.
can i use cocoa butter?,instead of shea butter.
Thankyou very much for the recipie, and is a beautiful way to remember your friend.
Thank you Mirta. You could do but it’s much harder than shea butter — that means that your body balm will be much harder too. You’ll have to play with the recipe and increase the liquid oils to counter balance the hardness.
That is a beautiful way to remember your friend❤
Thank you for sharing your recipe. I am going to give it a go. I love lavender but could you use other essential oils in the balm instead?
Amanda
Absolutely :) Peppermint, Rose Geranium, and Ylang Ylang are some of my favs. Rose Absolute would be great too but use half the amount.
Would you have any conversions for US measurements of cups and teaspoons? I have all of the ingredients, but do not know how to convert!
Thanks
Really sorry but I nearly always work in weight when making beauty products and soap.
To Convert
1 teaspoon = 5 ml ( milliliters)
1 Tablespoon = 15 ml = 3 teaspoons
28.35 grams = 1 ounce ( just round to 28 grams )
1 US Cup = 238.58 ml ( again round )
1 US Cup = 16 Tablespoons
Blessings hope this helps
Please keep in mind that the ounce measurement is fluid oz, not ounces by weight.
Is there a particular size container that is better or worse to use? Thanks!
You can use smaller ones if you prefer but I wouldn’t go larger. You need to use the product up within six months of dipping your finger in it and larger containers might take longer to finish.
what is the difference between a balm and a salve?
Salves are a little runnier so can be packaged in squeezable tubes. Balms are harder and are almost always in jars/tins. Also, salves usually have a healing herbal element such as calendula, plantain, comfrey, or chickweed.
I have two allotments in Suffolk and one is totally down to rows and rows of Lavender. My dear sister Sarah passed away from Pancreatic Cancer a year and a half ago and never got to see my Lavender plot, so I made her Lavender soap from my harvest and started to make my own Lavender balm from coconut butter, bees wax and the essential oils. Sarah had lived in France and gave me the idea of growing Lavender on my very large plot.
I was with her when she died.. I miss her so much and every time i am on my Lavender plot I always wish she had seen it. I think of her every day and Lavender will always be there to remind me of her. Thank you for showing me another way to make my balm. I have just finished making my Lavender bath tea bags soaks of which I sell to raise money for this dreadful disease.
What a beautiful way to remember your sister! It’s sad that she never saw your Lavender plot but her memory lives on each time you tend to it and think of her <3
I am moved by this wonderful post about Leo and the Lavender Balm, I have been looking for a recipe and tonight looked at the lovely greens website from down here in the Adelaide Hills South Australia, I will be making this very soon and will let you know the results. Jackie
I think Leo would have been thrilled to know that she’s part of this beauty-making story! Thanks for getting in touch Jackie and please do let me know how you get on.