Homemade Skin Care Balms

In my last home skincare post, I described a process for making herb infused oils. These oils are great massaged into skin on their own but I also like to use them as base oils for simple balms. Typically, though they infuse the properties of the plant you've used, they don't have a strong scent so they also make really good carriers for blending stronger smelling essential oils into the balms without overloading the olfactory system!

Home made balms are wonderfully simple to make, you don't need any special kit or anything you're not already highly likely to have in your kitchen. They last well and make great additions to your selfcare routine as well as impressive little gifts! I use them as lip balms, moisturisers, semi-solid massage oils and first aid solutions for cuts, bruises, scratches and grazes. They're great for gardener's hands and chapped, weather worn skin. They can even be soothing for burns as long as you've properly treated the area with cold, running water first and have used a cooling oil.

To make balms, all you're doing is melting together roughly equal amounts of different fats, one that is liquid and one that is solid at room temperature. Together, they give you that lovely soft ointment that's easier to control than oil but quicker to melt into your skin than a solid fat. Of course you can tweak the proportions to give yourself a softer or harder product and there's much to be gained from blending different solid/liquid oils too. When I first learned to make these, I defaulted to the traditional beeswax as my primary solid oil but these days I like to make them vegan so I favour cacao butter and/or coconut oil. I find the chocolatey scent of the cacao butter quite strong so I often blend it with unscented coconut oil to knock it back a bit. Ayuervedically speaking, I also like that blend as cacao would be considered heating and coconut cooling, so they'd balance each other out a bit. Having said all that about plant based fats, I was recently gifted some beeswax from a local beekeeper, so I did add it to a blend and it was very lovely! In terms of the liquid oil, I quite often default to sweet almond. It's a classic, affordable, skin nourishing favourite that's widely available, but of course, it's not suitable for you if you have a nut allergy! Avocado and evening primrose oils have also worked well for me but really you could use anything you might select as a massage oil base. As with all fats, go organic if you can. I can't always afford it myself but it's so much better for your skin and for your planet!​

Homemade Balms:

To begin, roughly measure your fats into a pan. If you're using your infused oil, of course you'll want to strain the bits out first. I find it easy enough to weigh them pretty vaguely but you could use a jug/cup measure or simply trust your judgement! Gently heat the pan until the solid fat melts into the liquid oil and they blend fully. If you're able to get a nice, low flame on a gas cooker this stage will present no problem but if you're using electric or it's quite an enthusiastic hob, you'd be better off using a bain marie or double boiler; a bowl over a pan of hot water would do it, to warm it gently enough to melt but not to over heat or burn it. Remember that plant based solid fats will likely melt just at average body temperature. You really aren't trying to cook it, and if you are using your precious herb infused oils you definitely want to avoid excess heat, which will risk degrading the active herbal properties that you so carefully infused! When your oils are blended, pour the mixture into sterile jars, I'd recommend pouring from your melting vessel into a jug first. I like to re use miniature jam pots for this which means I can then make a full range of different scents from just the one base batch. You can add essential oils or dried herbs and flowers directly into the pots at this stage but you'll need to move relatively fast to catch them before they solidify. You can take your time a bit in summer or if you have a cosy kitchen!

If you're using essential oils, remember that as volatile oils, they evaporate very fast so pop the lid on as soon as you can so you don't lose too much. For a small jar, you won't want more than about ten drops in total, depending upon what you've chosen to work with. Using dried flowers and herbs is lovely at this stage too but be warmed; less is more! The fragments of delicate petal or dry leaf will eventually be rubbed onto your skin with the balm and can be either scratchy or a bit clingy depending upon what you use. I once got carried away and put a whole dried rose into a balm pot, unwittingly awarding myself the job of picking tiny bits of rose petal off my skin and bathroom floor until the balm was no more! Whatever you're adding, give it a little stir with a cocktail stick or something similar, pop the lid on and allow it to cool to room temperature, slowly. If you've made sure your jars are properly dry after you've sterilised them, and you do need to let them fully air dry, then there'll be no problem with condensation on the closed lids as they cool. You certainly don't want water in there, hence the use of dried herbs; oil and water don't mix!

Once the balms are cool, you have the pleasant task of labelling and it's good to record the date you made them too. I find the balms keep very well, though fresh is best with plant products generally. Older balms won't do you any harm but they will be far less potent and oils will go rancid over time. I like to use mine within a year but I've stretched to two with no adverse effect! Remember they're heat sensitive and will remelt if you leave them in the sun, or any other warm place for that matter!

I find it as satisfying to use my own homemade skin care as I do to cook (and eat!) our own home grown veggies so I'd very much recommend having a play. Experiment with different oils and herbs, mix them up, try new combinations and though I'd suggest something more ethically sourced than eye of toad, a bit of kitchen witchin' can't be beat! Have fun until next time! Xx