When it comes to the vast majority of my DIY endeavors (especially the ones that are supposed to solve some sort of ailment), I’m my one and only guinea pig. That’s hardly surprising, I suppose, as I am both cheap and very accessible! Sometimes my friends and family volunteer, which is especially useful as it gives me the opportunity to solve problems that I don’t personally have. I suffered from eczema as a child, but it’s cleared up as I’ve grown up (yay!). My dad and a few friends, however, are still arguing with their eczema, and with my growing reputation for being an apothecary, a few people came to me looking for an eczema salve.
What I devised is wonderfully simple—just a handful of ingredients, and you can pare it down to just one if you like. What more could you want? The base is unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada). Shea butter was the first ingredient I fell for in my long, hard fall into natural butters and oils. At first it was my be-all-and-end-all ingredient, but it was also pretty much my only ingredient, and as with most first loves, I eventually moved on to other things (though it still holds a place in my heart and ingredients cupboard). I now use unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada) mostly for soap making as I find it very greasy for use in body butters. Shea, however, is amazing when it comes to eczema.
I gave my dad a small pot of unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada), and his eczema cleared up completely in a month or so. Of course, I can’t claim that it was just the unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada), but obviously it wasn’t hurting things. Then a coworker asked for something for some eczema, so this time I blended some shea with essential oils of cedarwood, helichrysum, and geranium, said to help with eczema. His cleared up straight away, and then he passed the leftovers on to two friends, and it cleared up their eczema as well! With four test subjects, this is either a very unlikely coincidence, or it really helps with eczema.
Eczema Salve
3 tbsp raw unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada)
½ tsp Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)
10 drops cedarwood essential oil
3 drops geranium essential oil
2 drops helichrysum essential oilSmoosh everything together (you’ll likely have to soften the shea a bit in the microwave). Apply twice daily to the effected area until it clears up. Cool!
I’m very new to EO’ s and a more natural world. I’m embracing this new path for me. As such I need help along the way. I found it hard to find Shea butter in my local Health food store. And even on some websites.
Would you be able to share your resources with your Blog followers New & Old?
Thank You in advance. I love your site and your recipes.
Maureen—I get almost everything from New Directions Aromatics. They’ve got great prices and both a Canadian and American website, so you don’t have to order over the border. You can check out them and all my other resources by clicking the “Resources” link at the top of the page.
Hi Marie, I’m about to make this for a friend’s mum, did you use the oils pictured in the photo on the article? Just because it is Himalayan Cedarwood pictured whereas the link takes me to virginian Cedarwood. And also the helichrysum pictured is a 20% dilution. So did you use 2 drops of the 20%? Or did you work it out so that 2 full drops of helichrysum went into the salve. Thank you!
Hi! Probably, but my memory as for precisely what EOs I used in February of 2013 isn’t great 🙂
I just wanted to put in my two cents since I use the same stuff Marie uses all the time. Google Point of Interest Blog, she lists suppliers by provinces, regions of the country. I like Voyageur Soap and Candle, because they don’t gouge you on shipping. I would just look around your own city too. I buy some stuff at small vitamin/health stores I’ve discovered because it’s easier to pick up a jar of this or that without having to order it online. And you can get Essential Oils in many places now, pretty much all the organic markets, chain supermarkets even. Now essential oils are a Canadian Brand I don’t like (of EOs). They charge less because they dilute the EO is jojoba oil. Good luck!
Hey Marie,
Could ya help me out with blogger ridiculousness? Through fiddling around and using two separate tutorials, plus asking advice from another blogger, I have 3 pretty, pink social media buttons on my blog. But I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the email one! I have used all my creative juices to no avail.
Please help….
😛
Ruth
I figured it out! As of today I am no longer calling HTML “my greatest foe”
Man, I should have gone into web design. What I ended up with was a degree in Elementary Education, very burn out, and now I “work from home”. Coulda, woulda, shoulda 😛
Glad you figured it out! And there’s still time to become a web designer—I learned most of what I know from online tutorials, not from school! Trial and error is a great learning tool (though it is both frustrating and rewarding lol).
Hey that’s cool! I’m not going back to school. Never! Still have loans to pay off from the first go round. Where did you find these said tutorials? Or where would be a good place to look?
I got started with Lissa Explains. It’s pretty bright, but the tutorials are solid and super helpful!
My Dad likes to build things….I have a soap mold I bought though. My Dad is already planning to make me a bunch of roomboxes and shadow boxes for my miniature projects. Can’t overwhelm him with too much at once. Maybe in the future though!
Gotta love handy dads!
Hi Maria,
Helichrysum essential oil is expensive….can I use another oil?
Thanks for sharing so many wonderful recipes.
Patty—You can just leave it out if you want, or look for a 20% or 3% dilution—they’re a lot cheaper!
Would this be safe for a 6 month old baby? She has it so bad and I am trying everything the Doctor says with no success.
I’d just use plain shea butter with a baby; EOs are pretty concentrated for babies. It should help just as well—my dad just uses plain shea butter and it’s really helped with his eczema. Good luck! And let me know how it works out for your baby 🙂 Fingers crossed!
Thanks so much for sharing this! You’ve probably answered this somewhere, but where do you usually get your essential oils? I’ve looked everywhere and I can’t find helichrysum anywhere but online.
I get pretty much everything from New Directions Aromatics, but sadly they’re out of helichrysum EO right now—it’s supposed to be back in stock in June or July. Definitely get the one from Slovenia, it’s awesome!
What about the one sold in Amazon by Majestic? Are they ok to buy
I haven’t used them personally (international shipping… ugh), but I know readers who do, and they definitely would tell me if they were rubbish!
Thank you so much for this recipe! I’ve started making my own body products, and it’s occurred to me that I can make a natural salve for my niece who has eczema. Body butters with added chemicals and scents have always irritated her, so she avoids them. I am so excited to give this a try & send her some!!!
Yay for presents! I actually have a batch of this waiting to be mailed out to a friend—I’m sending in flat, in a plastic bag (plus 3), to try and save on shipping. Fingers crossed that doesn’t backfire horrifically…
Hello there dear,
I’m one with eczema too and up until now still dependent with the salve from hospital. Got some amateurish question here; I don’t have microwave, is it okay to soften the shea butter in the stove? Until what point? Completely melted or must reach some degree?
And how to reserve it? Must it be put on fridge to maintain the quality? (I live in tropical country)
Hey Nita—The shea butter only needs to be soft enough that you can easily smoosh in some essential oils. Shea butter melts at 37°C, so since you live somewhere warm, it may be soft enough already (look for it being about the texture of room temperature butter—where I live shea butter is generally the texture of refrigerated butter, which is why I need to soften it to work with it). If you make it in relatively small quantities you shouldn’t have to refrigerate it to keep it from spoiling, though since our average temperature here is about 10°C, it’s hard for me to say for you. Just keep an eye on it—if it changes colours, moulds, or starts to smell weird, toss it.
Could I use this on my eyelids or around my eye? That is pretty much the only place I get this but it makes me look much older and so tired when I get it (and the eye area looks so irritated). Thank you!
This will depend somewhat on how sensitive your skin is, but I haven’t had any problems with it in more sensitive areas. I have made this for a friend who was having some eczema troubles around his eyes, and it cleared it right up with no mention of irritation. I’d just leave the essential oils out to minimize any chance of a reaction 🙂 Good luck with your eczema!
I discovered the benefits of Shea butter for my eczema and lupus rash accidentally. After one particularly bad flare up of my eyes, cheeks and chest, I stopped using all cosmetics and soaps. I tried coconut oil to cleanse my skin but this wasn’t man enough to moisturise it. So I turned to a cream with Shea butter in it. The best though is the Egyptian cream which is utterly fantastic. The honey and propolis is a very soothing and healing component.
How interesting! You are bang on about coconut oil’s wimpy moisturizing abilities; I often wonder over its popularity when it is so thin and oily. I tend to assume people who are mad for it must live somewhere more humid than I do.
Bees really are the loveliest little critters! And propolis is so darn nifty!
This was 5th down on my list of science experiments from your site 😉 I shouldn’t have waited so long to make it!!
My 2 year old had a bad case of eczema on the back of his legs that he would scratch at uncontrollably, esp. throughout the night. We applied coconut oil three times a day for months… MONTHS. (•_•) It alleviated some of itch so that it was manageable, but didn’t address the eczema.
I whipped up this easy to make salve and within the week the eczema was gone! No more itching, no redness & no scars. He just turned 3 and I haven’t seen any signs of it returning, even in the middle of our cold, dry winter days. I’m sold!
Not necessarily a fan of how helichrysum smells. Read somewhere that it smelled similar to matted, wet sheep. ^_^ I’ve never smelled a wet EWe before (pun intended), but I imagine it’s pretty close. I can handle the smell because it works. That being said… Just lathered it on dry patches around my face and the smell wasn’t offensive.
I’ve already passed it out to parents with chapped cheeks & dry/itchy legs. Can’t wait to hear how it works for them! Thank you for such wonderful, healthy recipes! My little man thanks you too 😉
Yay! Thank you SO much for commenting with this awesome success story, Angela 🙂 I’m so thrilled that this humble little recipe was able to help your wee man with his eczema, and I’m super excited to hear it worked so quickly as well! Have you tried diluting your helichrysum? I make a 20% dilution with jojoba oil and find you can’t really smell it much there, though I quite like the scent. Maybe it’s the cilantro of essential oils? Thanks so much for reading & DIYing with me 😀 Please report back with any more stories!
So very welcome! Still free & clear too. Whenever my daughter gets an itch she runs for our “special itch salve” ^_^
I haven’t diluted helichrysum before. How did you go about doing this? I have a small 15ml(?) bottle that I’m counting drops from because of its price. Did you dilute all your eo into the jojoba mixture? And if so how do you account for helichrysum drops into recipes, say as in this one, where it calls for 2 drops? Any tips on how to stretch out and preserve these sweet little miraculous drops would be greatly appreciated!
I tend to dilute my helichrysum by counting drops as I don’t have a scale that can register weights that low. I’ll basically count out 20 drops of helichrysum, and then 80 drops of jojoba. That’s usually pretty close to 5mL. It’s a fairly dull process, but you don’t have to do it often. And, if you slip and add another drop or two, it’s much less painful.
In recipes that call for helichyrsum I’ll generally note the equivalent amount of pure I used—so, in a recipe that calls for 2 drops, that means I used 10 of the 20% dilution 🙂
Hello Marie,
Me again… 🙂
Are the cedarwood and geranium EOs for healing properties or are they for smell? Essentially, can I leave one or both of them out and just use helichrysum EO?
All the EOs here are said to be good for eczema, but you can leave any of them out as I’ve found shea butter to be kick-ass all on its own for eczema 🙂
Hi Marie! Finally getting around to purchasing supplies to try this out…I’m wondering if you prefer the Himalayan Cedarwood for any reason? I had no idea there were so many options! I just want something that works…On the New Directions site, the only cedarwood oil that specifies psoriasis is the Texas. I’m just wondering if you think there might be any functional difference between the varieties/locations? Or should I just pick the one that I think I’d like the smell of? Thanks for being so much help. Your blog has been endlessly informative!
I’d definitely just go with the one you like the smell of, lol 😛 That’s what I did! I find the shea butter is the powerhouse of this recipe, while the EOs are the supporting characters, as it were. Thanks for reading & DIYing with me!
I’m so excited to have found this!! Can’t wait to make it & try it!! 🙂 Thank you!!
Fantastic! Let me know how it goes once you do 🙂
Yes, I will do that! Thank you again! :))
I received all the ingredients to make the salve for my eczema. I’ve made it and I must say it works very well!! 🙂 It’s a little bit heavier then I’m used to, but that’s OK because my skin is so dry! It’s amazing how wonderful it works! I’m very happy with it!! 😀
Fantastic, I’m thrilled to hear it, Marie 🙂 Enjoy your new salve and your happy skin!
🙂
Did this work for you?
I’m just beginning to make my own body products, I have very sensitive eczema prone skin as well as allergies to sulfates so buying “all natural” products was a must. This recipe looks like it will be very amazing for my skin, however I’m unfortunately allergic to cedar, I was wondering if you had any suggestions of other EO’s which might be a useful substitute?
You can just leave it out, or you can use chamomile essential oil instead 🙂
Again, love your posts, logical mathematical approach to formulations coupled with healing properties are incredible…do you have any suggestions for additions to formulate an “arthritis” friendly balm/salve?
Thanks!
Thanks, Jan! I’d definitely recommend one of my tiger balm recipes for arthritis—I’ve got a white and a red/hot version 🙂
Where do you get your 20% dilution helichrysum EO? NDA and BS don’t seem to have it???
I made my own using the pure EO to help it last longer 🙂
What do you think about maybe using a helichrysum infused oil? I know its not the same, but a lady at my local farmers market grows all her own organic flowers and herbs and then makes her own infusions, tinctures, etc for her body care products. I am sure she had a supply of helichrysum flowers…..
It’s definitely worth a try 🙂 I do find the shea butter is the real powerhouse of the recipe, though, so perhaps you could try infusing the shea butter with the flowers by gently warming them together over low heat for half an hour or so before straining.
Just wondering if you filter your raw shea butter?
She gets most of her products from New Directions Aromatics. the links to all the sites are in a grey box bellow the recipe.
In this recipe she calls for raw shea butter. I just checked and did not see raw shea. I ordered mine from Amazon. It has a few chunky spots in it. I have read where folks melt it down and run it through a sieve. I am wondering if that is what she does with her shea before she uses it in this recipe.
The raw shea butter at NDA isn’t called out as such in the name, it’s generally either called unrefined, or it’s just not the refined stuff. You can usually tell from the photo as it’s not bleached white 🙂 You could run it through a sieve if you want, but I’ve never found that to be necessary.
🙂
Nope! I just leave it as is.
While I was researching this project I found that there is raw, unrefined, and refined (and maybe even bleached). The raw I purchased was really raw. It still has some chuncks of the shea nut. That was why I was wondering if you melted it and ran it through a seive before use.
Hmm, well, yes, if there are solid chunks, I’d probably get rid of them unless you want a very scrubby salve 😛
Thanks! Love all your stuff!
Thanks 😀
Hello! I’m completely new to the “diy” world and wanted to try this salve to help my sister with her eczema. She has eczema but also sensitive allergies to nuts and seafood. From the comments of the other readers, it looks like this may work for her but wanted to ask if you have experience with the ingredients list affecting those with nut allergies. Would you have any substitutions in mind for those ingredients that may affect people with nut allergies?
Thank you for your help!
Hi Jacqueline! Welcome to the DIY world 🙂 In this recipe the shea butter really is the powerhouse of the recipe, as you can probably tell because it comprises well over 99% of it. I did find this article on shea butter and allergies that you might find helpful, but I’d still recommend asking your doctor, or perhaps doing a small spot test if it is a mild allergy (obviously not if your throat may close in!). If you want to stay away from shea butter completely I’d take a look at my hemp, oat, and shea body butter bar, and try replacing the shea butter with mango butter. I haven’t tried that swap myself, but mango butter is fairly close in texture to shea butter, so you shouldn’t go too far wrong there.
Have fun!
Hi!! I can’t thank you enough for your generosity to share this recipe. My 20 months old son is suffering minor eczema with dry patches on his back which makes me so frustrated. But your recipe gives me hope!
I tried your recipe, but tweak a bit by replacing the EOs with what i can find in my place( i used Frankinscence, Lavender,Geranium, and Roman Chamomile instead), and adding in some coconut oil and beeswax(ingredients that I already have on hand). I applied it on my son’s skin daily for a week and 90% of the dry patches cleared up!!!!
And you are right, shea butter is the powerhouse of this recipe!! This salve can immediately stop the itching of bug bites on my kids too!!
I wish i could try your shampoo recipe, unfortunately in my country we need a licence to buy the lye…
Hi Cindy! I am so thrilled this salve (with your tweaks, of course) are helping your son! Thanks so much for reading & DIYing with me 🙂 Also, do be careful using EOs on small children, that is generally not recommended 🙂
I made this yesterday for my 3 year old who has dry skin and is starting to get rashy patches everywhere. The doctor had us use a steroid cream, but I don’t like to do that very often. I modified this recipe to include some jojoba oil, both because that oil has been recommended to me and to make this more “whippable”. Made like a whipped body butter, and it goes on so smooth! I added essential oils of german chamomile and calendula. Could be my imagination, but the rashy spots almost seem a little better after 1 day!
I’m glad to hear it, Katie! Hopefully your wee one’s skin has continued to improve 🙂 Do be careful with those EO’s, though—use on young children is a touch controversial 😉
Hi Marie,
I was thinking about making this for my two year old but I read some of the posts above where you warned a couple of people to use caution when using essential oils on children. I wasn’t sure if the reason was they are adding additional EOs to the salve or if using any EOs on children is dangerous. Thank you!
Hi Lisa! I’m not a doctor, so I like to err on the side of caution and not recommend combining EOs + babies or young children. I’d recommend chatting with your GP and doing your own research 🙂
Hello!
Cruising around your website here and just made your “lip gloss” recipe this morning, so much fun! One, quick questions that I can’t seem to find an answer to anywhere…What makes a salve which usually seems to involve shea butter blends, “mealy” or “gritty”? Any tips on how to avoid this? Thanks for you help! As always, you’re amazing…!
Hi Tirzah! Shea butter is definitely one of my biggest grainy culprits—check out my FAQ article/links on the topic 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! This salve has become my miracle drug. I have had an incredibly itchy and painful patch of eczema on my hand for nearly a year, and nothing the dermatologist prescribed has been able to relieve it. This salve began soothing the skin immediately and after two weeks the rash has almost disappeared! I can’t believe it!
I am so, so thrilled to hear this, Betsy 🙂 Stories like this are a huge part of why I run my blog! Thank you so much for sharing and best of luck with the rest of that vanishing act!
Hi Marie, I just came across your recipe for Excema salve. There are so many helichrysum, which one do you use.?
Thank you, Roberta
Given the price, the cheapest one! LOL. I think it was Helichrysum splendidum.
Alright, well finding this blog has led to 2 sleepless nights of excitement about the recipes! I have been reading a lot about neem oil as a good eczema/psoriasis treatment as well. Before I go wasting a batch with experiments (oh, how I have done that before), what do you think about swapping out one tbsp of the shea for a tbsp of neem? Thanks so much for your resources – amazing blog. Especially since everything is in such nice little batches.
Before you try that—go smell some neem oil haha. Personally, I wouldn’t touch anything that has that much neem in it, but you might not mind it! Happy making and experimenting 🙂 I would also work in weights if you’re going to be mixing a couple different butters together; that way you can precisely re-create whatever it is you end up making if you want to! This “recipe” is more of a rough guide on how to throw together a mushed-up bit of shea butter than I find useful for very dry skin; once you start introducing more ingredients it’ll start to be a real recipe rather than a “smidgen of this” sort of thing, so precision is advisable!
I’m looking for help with Rosacea. Do you have something good to help?
No, that’s more of a medical condition than and I’m no doctor. You may find the recipes here won’t set your rosacea off, but I definitely don’t want to make any claims about being able to help a condition I’ve never had and have no experience with (and only Google-fu knowledge of). Sorry!
I developed a patch of eczema behind my ear several years ago that NOTHING helped – no creams, ointments, prescriptions, nothing. I recently made one of your lotions – the lemon chiffon one – but used frankincense, geranium and three little drops of Texas cedar wood eo instead of the lemon scents. The patch cleared up in 3 days!! It is completely GONE! I have been loving the frankincense and geranium on my “mature” skin. I have become a true believer in essential oils.
How cool! And awesome! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I just want to let you know how much I love your site and this recipe in particular. One of my twin boys developed eczema as a toddler and every over-the-counter product I tried would make him cry. The only product that he would allow was a steroid cream from the pediatrician. I didn’t want to use that long term, so I went searching on the Great Google and found you, Magnificent Marie!! He not only allowed this salve to be applied, but would ask for it every night before bed. And then his twin didn’t want to be left out of the little mini-massages and had to have it as well. Being an all natural product, I was thrilled to be able to indulge both boys while nourishing their skin and eliminating the itchy rash. I began using it on them 5 years ago and still make batches today when we run out (now being used on all 6 of us in the house especially when our skin gets dry in the winter). I have shared this recipe link with friends and clients (I’m a Holistic Health Coach) several times and recommended that they check out your other DIY recipes as well. I’ve even made up little mini samples for friends and family to try. Just want to convey my immense gratitude for you and your generosity in sharing your DIY endeavors!
Oh my goodness, what a stunning and heartwarming testimonial! Thank you so much for sharing 😀 I am SO thrilled that this simple recipe has helped improve the quality of life of you and your boys so much 🙂 And a huge thank you for sharing my site with your friends and clients as well! Thanks so much for reading and DIYing with me 🙂
Marie,
I’ve been reading through all of this and wondered, if in your opinion, this would help with exceptionally dry feet. I mean they are so dry we use a pedi-razor and everything and they just get super thick and cracked again within a few days. We’ve tried lotions and Vaseline and bag balm but nothing seems to make any difference for any significant length of time. A friend suggested maybe using creams meant for excema, and as my little grandson has it and we’ve been looking for something other than what was suggested *cause formaldehyde?* I wondered what relief, if any, this might be able to give my husband for his feet.
It’s worth a try, but I wonder if a chemical exfoliation angle might be better. Something like one of those foot peel socks? That would help remove the dry skin and give a bit of a chance to start over. Something with urea would also likely be a good idea as it helps encourage skin to turn over and regenerate. Have you considered seeing a dermatologist? If the issue is this persistent it might be worth seeking a professional opinion?
Hey Marie I need a preservative for a face cream you made and it has lemon in it,and all I have at home is sodium benozate can I use that instead?
No; that is not a complete preservative. Please read the content on this page to learn more 🙂
Hi Marie. I wanted to add my testimonial on how amazing your recipes are, including this one. My husband has had large red flaky patches of eczema on his legs and arms for years. He has tried different prescriptions from the doctor but because of them including steroids or some other medication, he never wanted to use them long term…and they never really worked that well anyways. Enter you….I tweaked the recipe a bit to add some tamanu oil as I read it was good for skin. He has been using it for a couple of months and I am happy to report that his eczema is gone! Not only is he happy about his skin, he is also more understanding when my big boxes from New Directions or Windy Point show up haha (I think I am addicted to trying new products). Thanks again, not just for your recipes but also for your insightful blogs and videos. and good luck on your move!
I’m so thrilled to hear it, Cindy! What a relief to have a DIY solution that is working 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing!
The move starts tomorrow and I am very ready to no longer live in a maze of boxes! I can’t wait to share my new studio when it’s all set up!
I only have refined and deodorized Shea butter from NDA. I know I can use it but wonder if purchasing unrefined/raw would make a big difference when battling eczema. Thanks.
I doubt it would make much of a difference, and you’ll probably like the smell of the end product a lot more 🙂 Happy making!
Hi Marie!
Would this be safe to apply on toddlers? Also, can this be used for the face?
I wouldn’t use any essential oils on toddlers, but plain shea butter would be fine and can work very well. You certainly can put shea on the face, but I’m not sure you’d enjoy how it feels. Happy making!