I am utterly smitten with this Cold Snap Cleansing Balm. I’ve already emptied two tins of it. It’s perfectly soft and smooth, and leaves my skin delightfully clean without drying it out. A wee bit of menthol gives it a perfect wee tingle that’s perfect for first thing in the morning, and the scent is beautifully fresh and just a wee bit floral. I love it.
The cleansing kick comes from emulsifying wax. Soap is also an emulsifier, making e-wax an easy way to get soap-like cleansing (well, all cleansers are also emulsifiers, but work with me here) without needing to make soap or use surfactants. You can use whatever emulsifying wax you have on hand, just make sure it’s a complete one, and not a partial/incomplete emulsifying wax.
I’ve used an essential oil blend that reminds me of cold winter air; those days when you step outside and your nostrils freeze shut. As you walk, your eyelashes collect steam from your breath and slowly freeze together. The kind of day most sane human beings (myself included) genuinely do not want to be out of doors (and for very good reason).
Once it’s all together you’ll have a couple lovely golden pots of creamy cleansing goodness. I think you’ll love the minty tingle and the fresh scent, especially first thing in the morning. Give it a go!
Cold Snap Cleansing Balm
30g | 1.06oz complete emulsifying wax (not beeswax!)
14g | 0.5oz virgin coconut oil
14g | 0.5oz mango butter (USA / Canada)
1g | 0.03oz menthol crystals
14g | 0.5oz castor oil (USA / Canada)
8g | 0.28oz sea buckthorn seed oil
20g | 0.7oz jojoba oil (USA / Canada)
8g | 0.28oz candelilla wax
8g | 0.28oz soy lecithin or sunflower lecithin (liquid is easiest to work with)30 drops fir essential oil
4 drops cardamom essential oil
6 drops michelia alba essential oilWeigh out the emulsifying wax, coconut oil, mango butter (USA / Canada), menthol crystals, castor oil (USA / Canada), sea buckthorn seed oil, jojoba oil (USA / Canada), candelilla wax, and soy lecithin into a small heat resistant glass measuring cup. Place the measuring cup in a small saucepan of simmering water and heat through until everything has melted.
Remove the measuring cup from the water bath and stir in the essential oils with a flexible silicone spatula. Pour into little jars or tins—this amount will fill four 30mL/1 ounce tin.
To use, scoop out a small amount (pea-sized-ish) with a dry finger. Splash your face with water, and then rub your palms together with a bit of water, like you’re trying to work up a lather with a bar of soap. Massage the balm into your face, and then wipe it off with a warm, wet face cloth. Tada! Follow up with some magical primrose argan serum if you are so inclined 🙂
Can you wash make-up with this? I’ve never used this kind of face cleansing stuff,it sounds interesting.
I’ve been removing full faces of makeup with it regularly, what with all the makeup I’m wearing and testing for the book! It’s great for everything but eye makeup (menthol + eyes = bad!).
Hmmmmm, any suggestions for replacement of the e-wax? I refuse to make anything with palm, I’m a pain like that 😉 Sounds wonderful!
Hmm. If you can’t find a palm free e-wax, I’d go with a cleansing balm made from soap paste instead 🙂
Is the soy lecithin necessary? I’m allergic to all soy products so I’m wondering what’s its purpose here.
It’s an additional cleanser and emollient, but if you’re allergic I’d just swap it out for more jojoba oil 🙂
8g of seabuckthorn oil, right? My batch turned out dark orange and so did my face! Used NDA SeaBuckthorn Oil (CO2).
Anyhoooo, after a warm wash cloth to remove the worst, my skin feels/looks lovely and fresh!
Yup! Mine is a nice sort of warm yellow you see in the photos, and doesn’t make my face orange; I’m thinking my batch of seabuckthorn oil is significantly less orange than yours! Perhaps it’d be best to halve the amount and make up the different with some more jojoba next time?
Lol, I must have the same batch of oil. Mine was super dark and I looked like an oompa-loopa after I used it on my skin. lol. It washed off my my poor (white) towel paid the price. Definitely will try with more jojoba and much less SBT next time.
I just re-made this with a new bottle of SBO and I had to drop the SBO to 1%! As written it’s ~8% haha. Ah, the fun of working with natural ingredients!
Can this be made without the lecithin? What properties would be changed by not using it, if any? This just sounds like the perfect thing for my face right now, with our frigid, dry Idaho weather!! THANKS!!
Hi LuAnn! The lecithin is an additional cleanser and emollient; it helps contribute to the super lovely texture of this balm 🙂 If you don’t have it you can use more jojoba oil instead.
Thanks!I did just find some soy lecithin in capsules, it’s kind of a thick paste! Is that the same as what you used?
Mine is a thick paste in a bottle from Saffire Blue; it needs a hot water bath to be pourable. I tend to sort of squash the bottle to get it out if I forget the water bath; it’s roughly the texture of toothpaste 😛
Thanks, that’s about the same texture as mine, I think it’s meant to be used as a supplement. I snipped the end off and squeezed the lecithin out, it was about 1/8 tsp. I’m making a small batch anyway, so I figure it can’t hurt to try it! Thanks for your response, I’m super excited to try this on my dry winter face!!
Enjoy! I look forward to hearing what you think 🙂
Hi! Just a quick question regarding substitutes. I do wish to wash eye makeup off so wondering if it would matter much if I just skipped the menthol crystals? Also, can I sub beeswax pearls for candelilla wax?
Thank you!!
🙂
It would be so sad if you dropped the menthol crystals 🙁 They’re probably my favourite part of this recipe! I mean, you can… but I don’t think you’ll like the final product as much. It would be like dropping the chocolate chips from a choc chip cookie recipe. I usually just use a drop or two of whatever oil I’m currently moisturizing my face with to remove eye makeup as I don’t love really waxy things around my eyes, anyways.
You should be able to use beeswax instead, but I think you’ll find the final product is tackier than it is when made with candelilla. You’ll also need more, which might mean the cleansing balm doesn’t rinse off as well as the original. Let me know if you try it!
where is the mango butter/oil sourced as I am very interested in this. Many thanks – Minty
Mine is from NDA—check out this page for a list of places that might be more local to you 🙂
This is the absolute best! I made my pot up about a week or two ago now and I love it so much. My skin feels so soft and smoothe, and it seems like a very moisturizing way to wash my face. Thank you so much. I looked at the inclusion of menthol crystals with side eye, to be honest, but they are fabulous and wonderful. You’re a genius!
Yay! I’m so in love with this as well, I just made up another batch because I used all of the first one and I just love it 😀
Made this over the weekend when my candelilla wax arrived, and it is amazing! I found that a little goes a lonnnnng way, and that the menthol crystals make it so refreshing. I went with cardamom and sage, and the combo is very “outdoorsy.” I’ve learned a bunch about vegan wax now, and am ready to try other things with that. Thanks, Marie, for such inspiring recipes.
Fantastic, I’m thrilled that you’re loving it! I can’t wait until the weather here is warm enough that this sounds like a good idea again 🙂 Thanks for reading & DIYing with me!
I wasn’t sure about this one so I only made a half recipe. I used beeswax instead (that’s what I had), upped the liquid oil content to compensate. I wasn’t quite ready to head off to soap and more to order a bag of menthol crystals so I added just two drops of peppermint essential oil. Worked out GREAT! Still get that little tingle, aaannd I can use it closer to the eye area (but not right on). As a bonus, I realized that this also works really well after waxing! Instead of using that horrible blue chemical oil to remove the sticky wax residue, just washed my face with this stuff and….Voila! All gone!
Thanks for another Great recipe!
Woo! I love this stuff so much that I’ve actually made more of it, which I almost never do 🙂 Glad you’re loving it!
Is the cleansing balm hard? Like on a scale of one to ten, how hard is it?
6?
Hi Marie, Thankyou for doing all the hard work and for allowing me to glean from it :). I have fun reading your blog and cannot wait for your book to be published!! My question is, would you use this balm to take off makeup and wash my face in one step or conversely what do you use to cleanse face and remove your makeup. I’d like a one step routine. I currently use coconut oil but then use soap to remove the oil !
Thanks, Crystle! I’d say removing makeup is the #1 reason I wash my face these days, so all of my face washes are great for taking off makeup 🙂 You might need a few drops of plain oil on a pad to remove any more stubborn eye makeup, but this balm is fantastic for removing facial makeup!
How much balm does a batch make? I looked up all the ingredients and it will cost ~$100 to get all the ingredients needed. I can buy a cleansing balm I like for about $30. To make it cost efficient you would need to get several batches out of the ingredients…. do you find this is possible? I understand that the homemade version doesn’t have all the harmful chems in it, but cost is a concern too.
Hey Lori! This recipe makes approximately 120g of cleansing balm (you can always figure that out by adding up the weights of all the ingredients), which is significantly more than most cleansing balms for sale. How many batches you’d be able to make obviously depends on how much of each ingredient you’re purchasing, but I imagine you’d be able to make several batches since most ingredients are sold in 100g+ amounts. You’d likely run out of emulsifying wax first, if that’s the case, but if you got more of that you could make years worth of this balm with $100 of ingredients. You could fairly easily set up a spreadsheet to determine the most efficient package sizes to purchase to optimize the amount of cleansing balm you could make 🙂
It’s also worth noting that all the ingredients in this are useful in SO many other projects! You’d be able to make lovely lip balms, body butters, and lotions using these ingredients as well 🙂 Check out this post for some ideas.
I’ve heard it said that making your own stuff isn’t cheap, but it is cost effective. I did a quick bit of math and this balm is less than $5CAD per batch to make!
Thanks for the information Marie!
🙂
Marie – a question about the seabuckthorn oil. I find Sea Buckthorn Botanical Extract (powder) from NDA and then elsewhere seabuckthorn SEED oil. Which would be the best option for this and other recipes? I know there’s a difference between rosehip seed oil and regular rosehip oil. Thanks!
Hey Jeannie! The seabuckthorn oil I have is from NDA, and it’s made from the fruit. It’s bright orange, and some readers who got bottles from different batches report that their oil is so orange that it’s almost impossible to use as it dyes everything orange (oompa loompa alert!). The oil from the seed isn’t as orange, and is more expensive (about 2x on Lotion Crafter). The berry oil is richer in beta-carotenes (hence the colour) while the seed oil is richer in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Aside from those differences, the benefits of the two are very similar. Any recipe you see from me is made with the fruit oil, but the seed oil should work just as well (if not better) in any of those recipes 🙂
Hi Marie – I checked the NDA site and they don’t carry seabuckthorn oil. I found this on Amazon. Is this what you think would work best? Or this one?
Hey Jeannie! It looks like NDA is out or has perhaps discontinued it. The first one (from the fruit) is the variety I have, and what this recipe (and all other recipes using seabuckthorn oil on my site) was developed with. I haven’t tried the seed variety (the second link), but I did just order a bottle today, so hopefully it arrives soon so I can have an opinion on it 😛 Either variety should work, but not having tried both I can’t say which would work best.
Thanks Marie. I’d appreciate your feedback when you receive the seed oil. I have the berry oil in my ‘cart’ now and hope to order in the next few days. I’ll keep you posted as well.
Ok, I’ve had it for a couple months, and though I haven’t been using it for any extended periods of time, it is definitely less orange, so it’s much more usable. I can actually apply it to my skin without going full oompa-loompa. It definitely still has the same nutty scent as the berry variety, which I like 🙂
Marie, what is the purpose of the candelilla wax? Does it have any cleansing or softening properties or it is in the balm for structure?
Thank you.
Hey Zlatka! The candelilla wax is there to make this a cleansing balm instead of a loose sort of cleansing… oil thing. You could use carnauba wax instead, but I avoided beeswax because it’s sticky, while candelilla and carnauba are glossy, which means they rinse clean much better and make for a much more smoothing balm 🙂
Thanks Marie for your fast reply. What an amazing balm, so silky, leaving the skin soft and clean. So I tried it two ways (with olivem1000 as an emulsifier, my skin is too sensitive for emulsimulse). It was way too hard for me with the candelilla wax (even after almost doubling the oil amount).
The second time I made it I used no candelilla, almost doubled the oil amount, and I added a tiny bit orange wax (probably 0.1-0.2g). It is not as hard as with the candelilla but is definitely not liquid, like a hard honey consistency.
I personally liked the consistency of the second batch but the glossy look of the first batch.
Maybe in the future the third batch with a smaller amount candelilla will be the charm for me.
Thank you very much for the excellent recipe!
Hmm, how interesting! I’d describe my balm as being about hard honey consistency as well (like a creamed honey at room temperature), so I wonder if the olivem1000 is contributing a lot more hardness than emulsimulse does. Interesting! Anywho, glad you’ve worked out something that works and that you’re loving the balm 😀
Marie — is there a substitute for the seabuckthorn (berry) oil (rosehip seed oil)? Will it have the same effect without it altogether?
Thank you!
Sunflower oil would probably be a good alternative as it also contains a good amount of linoleic acid, but since you aren’t leaving this on your skin for very long, any liquid oil would likely do the trick.
I’ve deleted your earlier comment since the question was the same 🙂
Thanks Marie. I sent a 2nd comment because I didn’t know if you’d see the 2nd or 3rd reply – sorry!
Thanks for the reply on sunflower oil — that’s definitely something I can get locally and if it provides the same result, I’ll get that instead.
Have a great day!
I have a plug in that specifically filters out all comments that have not been replied to—it doesn’t matter where they are or how old the post is, until I reply, they sit in a special folder and demand attention!
Marie…first let me tell you how much I admire you and all your wonderful DIY recipes!!! Your concoctions are very inspiring. I can’t wait for your book! Had a mini vacation…and had the time to try out some of your recipes and I just made Cold Snap Cleansing Balm…fantastic. And let me say…I live in SW Florida and it is a scorcher this summer, so I truly loved the cooling loveliness of this!
Thanks
Hey Rose! Thanks so much for reading and DIYing with me 🙂 I’m so glad you are loving this cleansing balm—it’s still my favourite cleansing balm, even after more than six months, which is saying something for me!
I have powdered soy lecthin. Can this still be used?
I use powdered soy lecithin and it works fine. 🙂
Thanks, Stacie!
From everything I’ve read it can be tricky to melt, so I’d just be sure to make sure it melts in thoroughly with the rest of the oils before removing them from the heat 🙂
I love this cleansing balm so much! I used beeswax and shea butter as subs and it turned out great!! Thanks so much, I love how refreshing this is in the summer!
Wahoo! I’m still absolutely loving this one, too, I can’t get enough of it 🙂
Hi Marie,
My daughter asked if I could make the Cold Snap Cleansing Balm for her. My question is, I only have BTMS-50. Do you think it would work okay?
Thanks.
Hey Kelly! It should work great 🙂
Holy Mackerel this is AMAZEBALLS.
Here’s my full review if you want to read it. Frankly, it’s quite short because I have 0 criticisms.
https://minicoopergirl93.wordpress.com/2016/08/05/review-cold-snap-cleansing-balm/
Huzzah! I’m so thrilled 😀 This is easily one of my top recipes, it’s one even I re-make!
I’m definitely making this again (about to run out soon!) but replacing the menthol crystals with some warming EOs for winter, but I’m not sure how much to add. I know it’s not very much at all, but I don’t want to add too little and feel nothing. Expert advice? (Cassia, ginger, cardamom, and cinnamon bark/leaf are what I have, I don’t have chili oil).
Honestly, I’d be pretty darn concerned about having warming essential oils around my nose/mouth/eyes, so I’d recommend being very careful. Use less than you think you need, I guess? And make a small batch just in case even that is too irritating to use?
Hello Marie,
I enjoy all your DIY videos and can not wait to try your recipes. I’ve been trying to go all natural for some time know with no success. And spent a lot of money on things that did not work. I’m hopping your recipes are what I was looking for. Thank you!!!! For being soooooo wounderful, beautiful and refreshingly funny. Please keep making your wonderful videos. Your biggest fan.
Lucy
Thanks so much, Lucy! I work really hard to ensure all my recipes work, so my recipes should definitely work for you—and I’m always here for troubleshooting help if you need it 🙂 Happy making!
Hi again Marie,
In your hair balm video you use a bore hair bruch. Where did you get yours? I’ve looked at a lot of web sites and not sure where to trust purchasing one.
Thanks again.
Hey Lucy! Mine is just from Goody, which is a drugstore hair care brand—this looks like the upgraded version of it. There’s nothing all that special about it, but it does work great 🙂
I made this up last week, and I’m still not quite sure how I feel about it.
It does clean my face well, and I do like the menthol tingle. My face feels soft afterwards, and I don’t need to follow up with an oil serum (I live in Seattle, so dry skin is rarely an issue even in winter).
I also found that it set up kind of hard in the jar. My bathroom is kind of cold, and I really had to dig and scrape out the balm, so I applied my usual solution: a hand mixer followed by an immersion blender, to whip it into more of a body butter consistency. It worked really well, and it’s much easier to scoop out a pea-sized bit on a fingertip. (interestingly, I tried the same trick with your orange wax cleaning balm and your black soap cleansing balm, and they both whipped up nicely but then settled back into stiffness, so it’s not a universal fix).
On the other hand, it feels really weird to smear an oil balm around my face as a cleanser. It does lather up nicely, and it does come off easily with a wash cloth, but it feels weird.
Also, I don’t enjoy the smell of seabuckthorn oil and it’s pretty overpowering for me, even mixed in with everything else.
But, again, my face feels clean and soft afterwards, so I’m continuing to use it and I figure it will probably grow on me. When/if I eventually run out, I might swap out the seabuckthorn oil for something else, if I’m still bothered by it.
Thanks for sharing!
How interesting! I just got a new bottle of sea buckthorn and it definitely has a much stronger smell than the bottle I used for this recipe, so there’s clearly room for quite a lot of variation in the strength of the buckthorn-y scent.
You might find the oily balm thing a bit less weird if you work it up in your palms first, if you aren’t already… otherwise I suspect you will get used to it 🙂 I really like it now!
Thanks for sharing and for DIYing with me! 🙂
I’ve been continuing to use this, and as I expected, it’s quite growing on me. I’m not bothered by the smell of the seabuckthorn oil any more, and am just enjoying the fresh fir smell of it, with something earthy underneath.
I also had to change my expectations and washing techniques a bit — I was expecting it to lather up into foam, and was using it like I use exfoliating scrubs. Instead, I’ve started using less pressure, massaging rather than scrubbing, and it works very nicely that way. I think I’m also using more of it than you recommend — maybe half a teaspoon or so at a time, but that makes a nice satisfying amount to work with.
My skin is definitely loving it, too — if I skip using it in the morning in favor of a faster “wash” with toner, I notice more pronounced blackheads the next day. It also leaves my skin nicely moisturized, which I follow up with a few drops of oil serum (though I need to make a version of your luxury facial serum without the jasmine, because while that is LOVELY, earthy-fir and jasmine are not complementary to each other).
I’m so glad! It’s amazing how much technique can impact our enjoyment (or lack thereof!). I especially love cleansing balms in the winter, where sometimes a big full-on lather can seem much too drying, but I do think the minty tingle of this stuff is my favourite part Thanks, as always, for your excellent and thoughtful feedback!
I’ve made this one many times exactly as your wrote it, but today I picked up the bottle of orange wax and added it…. I love the scent of oranges!
I found the big difference was a little more scrubbing was needed to remove the orange wax, but the scent makes up for it! and with the orange wax, I don’t need to worry about removing eye make up! The mint was a little intense!
Thank you for all your recipes!
Ha! I guess you created your own hybrid of this recipe and this one 😛 MMMmmm, orange wax
Hi Marie
I have made this balm this weekend. Wow, it is minty and soooo orange! I have replaced the 8 g candellila wax with 3 g stearic acid, as I am not a fan of wax in a cleanser. So the consistency is perfect.
I love it, and I think the next time I will iterate with something like avocado or hemp oil for green colour, and will swap michelia alba with green mandarin 🙂 Thanks again!
Beautiful! Thank you so much for DIYing with me 😀
I just made this for the first time. I didn’t have a few of the ingredients including the menthol crystals but figured peppermint oil or winter green oil would make a good substitute. Ended up picking up a bag of menthol crystals all with the rest of the ingredients. I still ended substituting the essential oils though since I didn’t have yours and I didn’t want to buy more at this time. I used cederwood, cypress and rosemary.
Thanks for DIYing with me! 🙂
I made this today I use beeswax instead candelilla wax but I double the amount I read somewhere if we want to substitute the candelilla wax to do that, the consistency is good but is very waxy it doesn’t really emulsify because of the wax, I don’t want to throw it away. What I did is I apply it with a wet cloth and it does the job i love the feeling of the menthol is very subtle. I did not used any EO. I’m not sure if next time to use the same amount of beeswax instead
Thanx again for your recipes!
Hey! So… yeah. Your wax substitution was not a good idea :/ I’d probably do ~20–25% more beeswax than candelilla, not 100%, and I really wouldn’t recommend using beeswax at all in this recipe as it is far tackier/stickier than candelilla, which is why I chose candelilla when developing the recipe. You certainly don’t have to throw it away, but using far too much wax, and a different wax than recommended, is why it feels waxy.
Hi, quick question, if I wanted to add a mild exfoliating property to this, could I use baking soda and if so at what rate? I love your posts and writing style, have been making CP soap for almost two years but just started experimenting with some of the other DIY products this past winter (love your chamomile winter hand butter recipe!). Thanks!
Please don’t use baking soda; give this a read to learn more 🙂 A bit of clay could be a good addition for some gentle exfoliation. Happy making!
Hi Marie! I had a question before i tried making this one. What are the alternatives to jojoba oil that I can use? Would Neem seed oil or olive oil work?
Olive oil would be a decent alternative; give your neem oil a sniff… it would ruin this recipe haha 😛
Hi Marie! I’m looking at starting to look into DIY skin-care products for myself (finally, after all these years!). Just wondering what you’d substitute the menthol crystals with? I checked Amazon.ca and nothing really popped up 🙁 Would peppermint EO be a good sub?
That should work, though it will alter the scent of the end product a bit (I’ve got an FAQ on this here, though I don’t recommend increasing the mint to compensate for a facial product). Also, have you checked my big list of places to shop? You should be able to find menthol elsewhere 🙂
O wow. Sorry about that! That FAQ slipped straight past me! Thanks for your answer 🙂 Been a long time side-reader/fan of your works!
No worries at all! Happy making 🙂
wow Marie !!!!!! this is the very BEST DIY cleanser that I have ever made ! and I’ve made SO MANY ! I just love it ! I used all the ingredients in the recipe except for the essential oils, because the menthol crystals were enough for me… THANK YOU SO MUCH ! I love this recipe, it’s a keeper for life !!!!!
I am so thrilled that you are loving it, Ross! Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂