This softly fragrant, intoxicating 1915 Redwood Beard Balm was inspired by a series of photos of lumberjacks in California’s Redwood forests at the turn of the last century. Tiny men dwarfed by awe inspiring trees, working in teams with long, jagged saws to fell ancient redwoods. What would it have been like to be there? To explore an untouched forest, to live among the giants? This is what I came up with.
The base of this beard balm is a blend of honeyed beeswax and warm, forest floor scented bayberry wax. To that I’ve added some green hemp seed oil, and these three things come together to create a wonderfully green, organic scent base to build on. I’ve also included some castor and sweet almond oil to help stimulate hair growth and add shine to a gentleman’s beard.
I started with warm, intriguing labdanum, sweetly vanilla-like peru balsam, and a hint of smoke from birch tar essential oil, evoking memories of the sun on the forest floor and a fire burning in the distance. To that I added a bit of coffee, fresh cedarwood and pine, and bright camphor; like a breath of fresh air.
The final scent blend starts bright and fresh, and mellows to a warm, intoxicating base of sunshine and cool soil. Since I’m beardless I spread it all over my hands, and it makes a lovely body butter/hand salve as well. Give this 1915 Redwood Beard Balm a go; it’s lovely.
1915 Redwood Beard Balm
3g | 0.1oz beeswax
3g | 0.1oz bayberry wax
5g | 0.17oz unrefined hemp seed oil
5g | 0.17oz castor oil
9g | 0.32oz sweet almond oil
4 drops vitamin E oil2 drops coffee essential oil
1–2 toothpick swirls birch tar essential oil (you can also use vetiver or cade instead)
1 blob labdanum essential oil
3 drops cedarwood essential oil
5 drops camphor essential oil
1 drop pine essential oil (fir essential oil or spruce would also work)
2 drops peru balsam essential oil (you can also use benzoin essential oil, though take care not to use too much!)Weigh the waxes and oils out into a heat resistant measuring cup and place it in a small saucepan with about 3cm/1″ simmering water in it. Heat until everything has melted through.
Once all the oils have melted, remove the measuring cup from the water bath and stir. Count out the drops of essential oils into the oils, stirring to combine.
Pour the mixture into a 30mL/1 ounce tin and let it set up before using. Makes enough to fill a single 30mL/1 ounce tin.
A toothpick swirl is where you dip a toothpick into your bottle of essential oil and then stir it into the oils. Depending on how big your “dip” is, how much you like smoke, and which smokey essential, the number of times you do this may vary. Be sure you’re using a clean end of a toothpick for each dip into your EO bottle. This is a great way to include super potent essential oils without overpowering the scent blend; I find even a single drop of any of the smokey essential oils is overpowering in smaller batches.
This is so inspiring & I’m going to try this small batch a go for my husband to try. Thank you!!
Enjoy! 🙂
Oh, Marie, I just love your website!! 🙂
As a woman, I love the smell of roses…but I find it hard to find the earthly scents I also love, like amber, cedar or sandalwood in women’s pampering products 😉 I’m surely gonna give this one a try for my hands and body. Can you recommend other products you’ve come up with like this? Maybe a shampoo or lotion? 😀
Now to find the ingredients in the Netherlands is gonna be another matter 😉
Hmmm… check out this, this, and this 🙂 Enjoy!
Hello Marie
Your bead balm formula sounds wonderfully intriguing. I was wondering about your opinion of substituting the camphor, which kind of scares me. Do you think a nice peppermint eo would work?
Thanks
Lynne
Why does camphor scare you? Peppermint really wouldn’t be a very good alternative, it doesn’t really smell anything like camphor and would really take over this entire blend and make it smell like mint, which I didn’t want at all when I was developing it.
I made this after getting some camphor and it is beautiful. My son, the only guy with a beard I know will be trying it out. I’m thinking this eo blend in a larger amount would make a really nice man soap
Fantastic! And I couldn’t agree more about the soap… I think I may also try it in a lotion 😉
I’ve found my own beard balm recipes to leave a bit of a waxy feeling on my hands. But I want it strong enough to hold shape in my beard. Does this recipe accomplish that while leaving your skin without the waxy feeling?
Hey Ryan! The wax is what provides the hold, so unfortunately you can’t have one without the other unless you want to stray into more plasticky pomade territory. This one’s more for taming and smoothing than hold, so I don’t find it to be waxy on the skin, but you won’t be able to sculpt your beard into a magnificent warship with it, either.
Mmmmmmmm lumberjacks. I think I would have married one, had I lived back then.
Anyway, this should smell out of this world. My guys LOVE your other beard balm recipe cause I made it. They still have much left, so I have time to find some bayberry. No, I still don’t have any ;/
Great inspirement Marie! As usual.
Thanks, Cristie! I do wonder if we might be romanticizing lumberjacks a bit… would they take off their boots before coming into the house? Would all that flannel get a bit old if they wore it to everything, weddings included? ;P
Thank you Marie, for all you do! You may absolutely dread this question but….how terrible would it be to leave out the bayberry wax?
Hey Irene! It will effect the final texture of the balm, making it softer, and it’ll seriously reduce the awesome forest-y scent. I guess it’s up to you how terrible you think those changes are 😛
Thanks Marie, I don’t want to leave it out at all! There are just so many ingredients to purchase for such small quantities to make all these wonderful things but I can’t possibly have or keep them all in stock just for an occasional use, I’m afraid they will spoil or go rancid. I just can’t have everything 🙁
Yeah… I know :/ My cupboards are ridiculous. I try to walk the line between introducing people to new ingredients and keeping my recipes accessible. You should be able to use a similar amount of beeswax (maybe a bit less) and get pretty good results 🙂 On the plus side, waxes keep indefinitely if kept cool and dry!
If I can find it, I’m going to have to give it a try. And then I’ll stop, fingers crossed, lol. Thanks!
Excellent recipe, but where I live can´t find bayberry wax or hemp seed oil, what others ingredientes can I use.
Thanks
Check out the encyclopedia entries for hemp seed oil and bayberry wax for information on alternatives 🙂
Thanks for sharing the Bayberry wax usage!
I am wondering though, how do you measure labdanum? a “blob” sounds awfully difficult to grasp for me… I do have labdanum absolute and I have made a 20% alcoholic dilution, but I have no idea what the blob you mention weights (and if this is in the safe range for a leave in product?)
Thanks,
Simona
oh, and another question which puzzles me. I love hemp seed oil, really really LOVE it for its fatty acids profile, but the VERY short shelf life makes me reluctant in using it. Even when adding Vit E, in less than a month the oil is rancid.
Is there a specific reason for chosing this oil – except for the scent ?
Honestly, a month is way too short of a shelf life; it makes me wonder how you’re storing it, or if your supplier is selling you fresh product. New Directions estimates a shelf life of around a year for unrefined hemp oil (which I chose for the same reasons you love it!).
not sure how or why, but out of the 30+ oils I have ever tried, hemp goes rancid the fastest. Ok, maybe 2 months then? I use unrefined hemp (the green, strongly scented, packed in black glass bottles and I always keep my sensitive oils in the fridge or freezer).
I tried the recipe today, without all the EOs (I only used labdanum and peru balsam + a drop of a favorite fragrance oil), and I realised there are a few things I should comment on:
1. I like the spreadable texture a lot.
2. I totally forgot how great hemp oil is :))
3. Both labdanum and peru balsam are insoluble in oils. they will settle down at the bottle of the oils mixtures. They are 100% soluble in alcohol and only dispersible in oils / butters, IF you mix the products constantly during cool down. Which I did not, I will find them settled down at the bottom of the containers. they are excellent base fragrances and I love them too – just need to be careful NOT to put them directly on my skin. I would advise everyone, as they reach the bottom of the container, to do the same, to avoid all irritation (I’m pregnant so extra care for me!)
thanks for a very nice beard balm recipe! you made me order from the US a bunch of bayberry wax, which does NOT look as dark green as yours, has a pleasant resinous scent, reminds me of frankincense and myrrh. Too bad I cannot upload a picture, as a thank you message :))))
I’m glad you’re liking it! Enjoy 😀 Thanks for DIYing with me!
Most of this FAQ on Benzoin also applies to labdanum 🙂
so, basically, I just scooped with a toothpick a little bit of labdanum and balsam peru in there. :))
Do you think that this can be used as an aftershave balm? I saw your aftershave lotion on the site but hubby wants something more balm-y. TIA
Hmm… do you have a link to a comparable shop-bought product? A big part of aftershave is its astringency, and that is hard to achieve without a water part.
Hey Marie ! Love your work!
Do I need preservatives in this?
No water, no preservative 🙂
Have you tried or thought of adding in some emulsifying wax? (In addition to one or both waxes, not totally in place of).
Curious how that might effect the hold, shine, etc. If I try it I’ll have to pop back over to let you know!
Related/unrelated – love your blog and how simple and accessible you make things. 🙂
I haven’t tried it—it would increase/imrove wash-off (out?). I doubt it would do anything for hold, though if you replaced some of the beeswax with it, that would negatively impact the hold as e-wax is pretty soft. Happy making! I look forward to hearing how it works out for you 🙂 Thanks for reading!
I love the sound of this. Would the fragrance of this still be OK without the coffee and birch tar essential oils? I would love to make this but I don’t want to buy too many extra essential oils that I may not use again. I love your blog. You use so many ingredients that I have never used before but all sound delicious.
It’ll still smell lovely 🙂 Happy making!
I keep making this recipe, its great. Also use it for grandsons slightly spiky hair do and to rub into scratches on my wood table. Question, do you have any other recipes for the bayberry wax. I have a lot more than i need for this recipe and love it but don’t know how else to use it.
I’m so glad you’re enjoying it! If you check out the encyclopedia entry for bayberry wax you’ll find a list of formulations using it as well 🙂 Happy making!
Thanks Marie for the great work. I really want to make this as my first attempt at anything DIY. I have all the ingredients in the cart but for the life of me i cannot find bayberry wax in Canada. I tried really hard.
Would you have a secret store that is NOT in the US? I can’t pay US $45 to ship a pound of bayberry wax from betterbee.
Thank you so much for everything you do regardless if you can help me with this or not.
Oh wow, coffee + hemp sounds interesting combo. I have lisalises coffee infused oil so I need to test it.
Btw, we love your conditioning beard balm recipe! My fiance doesn’t were beard but needed something to soften coarse stubble + use as face moisturizer. He seems to really enjoy both your beard balm and beard oil (I made rosemary infused sunflower oil versions). But he loves skinfeel of balm, he says that it feels less oily on skin. His facial skin feels soft and looks less dry thanks to these items. He likes to use the balm also for his hair (dry/ split ends).
I’ll propably whip new, closer to orginal version of your beard oil with squalane + btms50 later (I didn’t had them earlier). Squalane is fantastic emollient, I’m super happy to have it in my fridge. Just thinking if I should tweak recipe as beard & hair oil, maybe include some hair penetrating oils too, because he has the most awesom long curly hair. Thanks.