Back in September Carlee got in touch with a request—”Mediterranean Olive Almond & Sage Wonderbalm“. I’d never heard of it before. Apparently Boots, the British chemist, makes it. Carlee described it as a deep treatment for dry lips, elbows, and hands, and wondered if I might be interested in devising a DIY Mediterranean Wonderbalm dupe. Definitely!
Carlee included the ingredients in her e-mail. They were pretty run of the mill, especially considering the $9/15mL (!?!?!?) price tag. Seriously? It was mostly mineral oil & petroleum wax, plus cocoa butter (USA / Canada), grapeseed oil, beeswax, sweet almond oil (USA / Canada), and olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada). Carlee described the texture as something a bit softer than petroleum jelly that absorbs quickly, with a light, floral scent.
I started by kicking all the petroleum products, preservatives, and fragrances to the curb. Yuck. That left me with a nice variety of nice, nourishing oils. The original balm used mostly grapeseed oil (after the petroleum oils), which explains why the balm absorbs quickly. Beeswax and cocoa butter (USA / Canada) thicken the mixture, and sweet almond and olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada)s round it out. I thought I’d give the balm’s healing powers a boost by using some arnica infused olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada) instead of the plain stuff.
The original contains a bit of sage essential oil, along with some more floral artificial fragrances—probably to keep the balm from smelling like a turkey dinner, haha. I paired the sage with a bit of geranium, rose geranium, and lavender to brighten it up.
The resulting balm is nice, and rings in at a whopping $0.35/15mL. That’s 4% the cost of the store bought version, plus mine doesn’t have any petroleum byproducts or artificial fragrances in it. Awesome.
DIY Mediterranean Wonderbalm
10g | 0.35oz cocoa butter (USA / Canada)
5g | 0.17oz beeswax (USA / Canada)
5g | 0.17oz grapeseed oil
5g | 0.17oz sweet almond oil (USA / Canada)
5g | 0.17oz arnica infused olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada) (or plain olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada)) (Don’t use arnica infused oil if you want to use it on broken skin or on the lips)
1g | 0.03oz Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)4 drops sage essential oil
3 drops rose geranium essential oil
4 drops bergapatene-free bergamot essential oil
6 drops lavender essential oilWeight the cocoa butter (USA / Canada), beeswax, grapeseed oil, sweet almond oil (USA / Canada), olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada), and Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada) into a heat resistant glass measuring cup. Place that measuring cup into a small saucepan with about 3cm/1″ of barely simmering water in it and melt everything together in that double boiler.
Once melted, remove from the heat. Stir in the essential oils with a flexible silicone spatula. Decant into little tins, let cool, and enjoy!
I love these posts! Keep em coming! 😉
When I began to read the post and saw all the mineral oil, etc. I was like “oh no”. So glad you revised the recipe!!
I have all of these ingredients! Yeah!
Just wondering what the balm is used for; sore muscles, dry skin, etc.?
Thanks mucho!
Thanks, Debbie! And you better believe I booted all those petroleum products to the curb, yech! The only thing I’ll use vaseline for is… um, a paper weight, I guess (still in the tub, of course, lol).
I’d definitely put this balm in the dry skin soothing category 🙂
I am going to have to give this a try. Thanks for all your post.
My mom has COPD and can not use any petroleum products at all. It is surprising how difficult it is to find products in the store without it. So I have started making products for her. Things like this are a life saver.
Thanks for reading, Becky 🙂 I’m sorry to hear about your mum. I’d never heard of COPD before so I had to go look it up, and it sounds downright nasty. I’m curious, how do topical petroleum products effect her lungs? And sadly, I do believe you on how hard it is to find petroleum free products—the more I read labels, the more disappointed I am in the companies of this world 🙁 I think you’ll be really glad you’re getting into the DIY world, though—it’s a super awesome set of skills to have, and you’ll save tons of money on natural products.
I was curious as well, so I did a quick search and it appears it may be due to the use of oxygen.
“People using oxygen should avoid using lotions or creams containing petroleum. The combustion of flammable products containing petroleum can also be supported by the presence of oxygen. Use water-based products instead.” – http://www.lung.org/lung-disease/copd/living-with-copd/supplemental-oxygen.html
Ooooh ok! That totally makes sense! But, I will confess I initially read this comment late at night and the whole “tank of oxygen” notion totally escaped me and I thought you were a wee bit bonkers as oxygen is everywhere, lol. Clearly I am not a night person! Durrrrrrrr.
Hi Marie…
I just wanted to tell you I love your site. You make me want to make all of your recipes.
Please tell me what basics to start with for make up, (your shimmery one) I have spent hours on the internet trying to get the right things but I am a little hesitant that I have to many things on my list. I am a beginner at this and also don’ want to waste money on the wrong things just starting out.
Thank you so much,
Kim
Hi Kim! Thanks for reading 😀 I’ve got a couple great starter articles for you that should help you out:
Also, take a browse through my “The Basics” section—there’s more great articles in there about things like Carrier Oil Substitutions and Solubility that you will find super useful in your DIY endeavors. Have fun and don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need any help!
I have stopped using petroleum products. I have gotten to the place where if I don’t want it IN my body, I am NOT putting it ON my body. I have started making my own beauty products. My next DIY will be lip stain using beet root powder. I’ll let you know how it works.
Damn straight! I’m with you all the way 🙂 Though, sadly, I can tell you from experience that beet root lip stain does not work 🙁 It is one of the many things I tried before landing on carmine. Beetroot, along with all the other plant based colourants I tried (rosehip, hibiscus, and some others I’ve forgotten about), yielded brilliantly coloured water… and that’s about it. Think about spilling strong tea on yourself—it’ll stain your clothes, but does nothing for your skin. That’s about what happened with this stuff. By the time I started to have a strong enough solution to maybe do something, I had a paste… and then I left it for a week or two to see what happened, and I ended up with DIY red moonshine! Booooo. Let me know if you figure something out, though, because I have tons of powdered red stuff!
There seems to be a few different types of beeswax available, natural or cosmetic grade white or yellow pastilles. Which do you typically use?
I always use beautiful, raw, local stuff. I’ve never had any bad experiences with it—it is still super pure, it just hasn’t had the living daylights bleached and processed out of it. Using local, natural beeswax is like going whole wheat instead of white… if all whole wheat bread tasted and smelled 1000x better than the white stuff 🙂 Check out your local farmers market and try to source some local stuff. Bee products are one of the only things you can buy locally almost anywhere in the world, so there’s no excuse not to 😉
Whoa cool!!! This looks great, thank you so much for concocting a better version of the Wonderbalm! I am excited to try it out. Thanks again!!!
I’m so glad you found this—I was just about to e-mail you and let you know 🙂 Thanks for the great suggestion, this was a fun project!
would this work ok and smell good using lavendar and sage essential oils for scent only? or peppermintt and lavendar?
In this balm the EOs are mostly just for scent, and I’ve never smelled the original, so I was going off the name and what Carlee told me. Both the combinations you mention sound nice, just be sure to go easy on the sage, it makes things smell like food very quickly!
How much cream does your recipe make?
This recipe makes approximately 30g/1oz of body balm.
Hi! I jusat want to thank you for sharing all your knowledge, I am VERY new to the DIY game and very excited to get started. It’s funny how when you really start paying attention to what is in the food your are putting into your body and the product you put on your body the more you want to learn the alternative!! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks so much for your kind words, Shelly 🙂 It’s nice to know all my hard work is appreciated. Welcome to the wonderful world of DIYing! I’m totally with you on watching ingredients—it can be scary, eh? Yipes! And to think all those ingredients are government approved as well… eeek. Oh! Have you checked out my “The Basics” section yet? It’s got some great easy recipes and overview articles to help get you started 🙂
I subbed the Sage and Bergamot EOs for White Thyme and Pettigrain EOs respectively. And it came out perfectly! Great recipe
Sounds lovely! Thanks for DIYing with me 🙂
hi there, i really enjoy your site-very lovely and well laid out. of course great recipes!!! it would be helpful if you could just note the final amounts that your recipes yield, so i can have the proper containers at the ready. I am also assuming your measurement is in grams, dry weighted grams, is that correct?
thanks
Hi Suzanne! I do try to note the yields in my recipes, but I don’t have the time to go back and do up 400+ recipes where I may have missed it. So, you can easily figure it out yourself by just adding up the amounts of the different ingredients, and that’ll give you the final yield. For this recipe that would be 10+5+5+5+5+1=31g (unless the essential oils are measured in grams instead of drops you can leave them out of your calculations). 31g= ~31mL of water, but since oil is less dense than water I tend to err on the side of caution and choose a slightly larger container. That’s why I’m using a 2oz/60mL tin here, and you can see it works quite well.
As for grams, yes, I’m using grams, and a gram is a gram, just like a pound is a pound—wet, dry, doesn’t matter (unlike ounces, which are rather silly and confused, haha).
OK, now your bashing MY Country!
Ounces are only “silly” if you haven’t grown up with them, as I haven’t grown up with grams!!!
Well, I’m not really bashing your country… just the antiquated system of measurements you use 😛 I am actually very familiar with the Imperial system as Canada did a rather poor job of doing a full switch over to the metric system. So, I grew up knowing about half of each system, and when I got older I made a point of teaching myself both. From a position of knowing a good amount about both system (and more about Imperial than several Americans I’ve met, oddly enough), the Metric system definitely makes more objective sense. The Imperial system, however, is super handy when it comes to estimating! I generally only estimate things in feet, inches, tablespoons, pounds, etc. as they seem to be much more convenient measures for such things. This makes a lot of sense when you consider how, why, and when the Imperial system was invented. It’s so much easier to think “oh, that looks like about a foot” than “oh, that appears to be approximately 30cm”. But maybe that’s just my confused country and my half-half upbringing 😛 So, long story short, I think they both have their uses, and when it comes to being very precise, like in formulas and recipes, I feel that is where the metric system really shines.
Also, you should totally watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7x-RGfd0Yk. It’s hilarious and informative.
LOL woah settle down carol !
🙂 haha unrelated topic: about how long would you say the shelf life of most body butters are? and i guess using the vitamin E makes the shelf life a little longer? i read that vitamin E is a natural preservative, right?
Vitamin E is a natural antioxidant, so it helps prevent things from oxidizing, but definitely isn’t a proper preservative. That said, things that are made from 100% oils generally last ages and ages as you’re worried about the oils going rancid, not moud (mold needs water). I have body butter that’s 2+ years old that’s still totally fine.
sweet! thanks so much!! 🙂 youre a great teacher 🙂
Thanks so much 🙂 Fee free to get in touch if you have any other questions!
do you know of any other suppliers in canada like NDA and saffire blue?
i found canwax which you mentioned in a post somewhere.
i also know of coopcoco (from montreal and they have some great supplies they sell online)
i was just wondering if you happen to know any others 🙂 thanks
The only other two I know of are Soap & More (Calgary based & very pricey) and Voyageur Soap & Candle (I’ve never tried it but heard good things from readers). I know there’s a shop in Nanaimo, but they basically just resell NDA product at a higher price from what I’ve seen. That’s my list, hope it helps 🙂
Hi Marie
I know this is coming three years later, but I wanted to let you know about FPI Sales North America. They sell oils etc. in bulk. They are based on Annacis Island in Delta, BC. Really nice people to deal with. Good prices too.
I always look forward to your posts. Thanks for all you do.
Thank you! How do you find the shipping? That’s always such a deal killer here in Canada :/
Again, cannot rave enough about your site..except to say that I never have enough time to devote to reading everything that I want. Thanks to these intriguing concoctions, you’re helping this Ontarian keep New Directions and Saffire Blue in business with me (oooh…forever needing yet another essential oil). Do you happen to have a balm/salve that you suggest for arthritis/muscle relief, waiting for my EO’s for your tiger balm, but in the interim….
Thanks so much, Jan 🙂 I’m starting to think NDA & SB should be sending me a commission cheque quarterly or something, lol. Which EOs do you have? I can’t really advise something without knowing what you’ve got 😛 Peppermint & wintergreen are both good painkilling EOs, if you’ve got those.
Thanks Marie,
For EO’s I’ve got Peppermint, Clove Leaf, Clary Sage, Spearmint, Freshmint, Geranium, Lavender, Orange, Grapefruit, YlangYlang, Vanilla, Frankincense, Patchouli, Eucalyptus, Menthol crystals..to work with now, yup, I’ve got the salve/balm-cold process soap bug bad…any ideas to start with what’s on hand (like every d-i-y person, of course I have an order in the mail of more supplies) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!
I think you’ll find the peppermint is best for pain—the menthol content in it is great. Peppermint + lavender is also a great starter blend for headaches. Clove leaf is also good for pain, just be sure to dilute it. A massage bar or oil made with those would a great starting point 🙂
Thanks so much, just waiting for the EO’s for your white tiger balm as well!
No worries 🙂 I just made a big batch of hot tiger balm last night, as I’d run out. I tried adding some chili EO this time, so we’ll see how that works out.
Too funny..I also ordered that oil as well, do let us know how that “tweaking” turns out!
Success! And it made for a tiger balm that was very popular with some surfing friends—so popular that he went out sooner than he should have and made his injury worse… 😛
Oh….boys! Anxiously awaiting your soon-to-be-disclosed tweaking of the tiger balm with chili seed, or at least my tendonitis yoga elbow is 😉
😉 I think you’ll like the roller I have coming out soon—I’ve been taking it to yoga class with me to dab onto my wrist after particularly wrist-heavy sequences, and it works really well. Come to think of it, I have two roller recipes coming out soon… so watch for both of them, lol.
Ah, you’ve captured the heart of a yoga instructor coupled with fitness instructor, sometimes with teaching upwards of 16 classes a week I Anxiously await your posts… 😉 p.s. where do you buy the roller applications, I’ll get my stock in now.
🙂 I’ve been stepping up my yoga to 2–3 classes a week, I can’t imagine 16+! Anyhow, the rollers are from Saffire Blue, and they’re super useful, so I’d get a few 🙂
Done and done..awaiting your further instructions 😉
😉
I don’t want to seem like a party pooper, and hope that I won’t step on any toes by saying so, but arnica is considered a toxin that is safe to put on unbroken skin, but is nor recommended for broken skin or ingestion. I’m figuring that with it being a lip balm, ingestion is likely. I know the percentage is only small but I thought I should put it out there.
I love your site BTW. I’m out in Cochrane and have been selling my homemade stuff for a few years. It’s nice to find a BLOG that is local. 🙂
Thanks so much for pointing this out, Sarah! It seems I got some things swapped around in my brain (probably comfrey & arnica, which is a stupid mistake to make) when I wrote this up & neglected to do the research as I thought I already had. I have updated the recipe to reflect this—thank you!
It’s always good to meet a fellow Albertan 🙂 I drive through Cochrane quite frequently on my way to the mountains… I wonder how long it’ll be before Calgary swallows you whole? 😛
I was wondering if you use deodorized cocoa butter in this recipe? I’ve found it hard to counteract the chocolatey scent in my lotion bars, even with EO’s, when using natural cocoa butter. Thanks, and love your blog!
Nope, I used the delightfully odorous stuff 😛 I didn’t find it to be much of a problem here, but I do luuuuurve the scent of chocolate in everything, haha. Thanks for reading!
Thank you so much for this recipe! (and your site!) I want chemical free products but they are so hard to find. Your knowledge and experience are exactly what I am looking for.
I have always had dry skin, especially face and hands. I’ve recently been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer and my first Chemo session last week has resulted in drier skin. 🙁 Most recommend full body moisturizing after a shower along with frequent hand and face applications throughout the day during these winter months. I feel this recipe is perfect for my body and hands. I would love some help with a face oil or cream. I’m 62 and have been blessed with few wrinkles.
I’m binge watching your videos today
I’m so glad you’re having so much fun making things! I hope your treatment goes well, and that your self-made products bring you some joy and relief 🙂
For more face recipes, click here 🙂
And do remember—chemicals aren’t inherently good or bad, and chemical free is impossible 🙂 Chemicals are everywhere—water is a chemical, you’re made of chemicals, essential oils are made of chemicals. The word “chemical” has really been unfairly demonized as it really just means “made of elements”, and everything is made of elements. I’ve written some more about this here 🙂 Lab Muffin has lots of really good content about this—I really like this video and this post 🙂