I made this Hot Tiger Balm Massage Bar just before my first ski trip in two years. Pathetic, I know. I live at the foot of the Canadian Rockies and I work in the outdoor industry, and yet it’s been two years since I’ve hit the slopes. Anyhow, I knew I would suffer for it in both loss of ability and some serious soreness. So I made these bars, and they were a total lifesaver!
Ever since I made my own white tiger balm I’ve been thinking about ways to add some oomph. Cassia essential oil is the only difference between white and red tiger balm, so that was my first addition.
Next up, peppermint and camphor powder. Peppermint essential oil is really quite pricey, but the extract delivers much of the same sensation without the hefty price tag (or the strong scent, which I’m not overly crazy about). The extract is a fluffy brown powder with a soft, sweet scent.
Camphor powder is actually crystalline, and could be confused with sugar—until you catch a whiff of it, that is. It tends to clump, so I whizzed it through my dedicated DIY coffee grinder (along with the peppermint extract) to break it up.
Neither peppermint powder or camphor powder are oil soluble, so I had to settle for a suspension. Oh well. It worked quite nicely, and the small amount if settling that happened meant the bottom of the bar was stronger than the top of the bar, giving me a bit of choice.
My last addition was a small handful of dried white beans. Lush makes a massage bar with adzuki beans so there’s something in there to massage yourself with, and I thought that was a pretty cool idea.
The result is a beautifully hot massage bar that amps up circulation like there’s no tomorrow. As in, if you write your name on your leg in tiger balm, it will appear in bright red in a moment. Keep this away from all of your sensitive areas (this definitely means eyes, nose, and mouth!)!
Hot Tiger Balm Massage Bar
25g | 0.88oz cocoa butter (USA / Canada)
25g | 0.88oz beeswax (USA / Canada)5g | 0.17oz camphor essential oil
6g | 0.21oz cajeput essential oil
4g | 0.14oz menthol essential oil or menthol crystals
2g | 0.07oz cassia essential oil
8g | 0.28oz spearmint essential oil1 tsp peppermint powder
1 tsp camphor powderMelt the beeswax and cocoa butter (USA / Canada) together in a small saucepan over low heat. Arrange a sparse, single layer of white beans at the bottom of two glass 125mL (4oz) mason jars. You’ll want to use a glass jar for the mould as the high amount of essential oils could corrode plastic or metal.
While the beeswax and cocoa butter (USA / Canada) melts, weigh out the essential oils in a small mason jar. You’ll need a lot of essential oils, so DO NOT try and do this by drops! You will go mad trying to count them all, and the large amounts mean your errors in counting or calculations, and variations in drops sizes between the different essential oils, can be much, much larger.
The trick with the essential oils is to combine them with the heated wax and cocoa butter (USA / Canada) without getting them too hot, and definitely not for too long, or you’ll cook off their potency. So, once the wax and cocoa butter (USA / Canada) are melted together, remove from the heat and quickly stir in the essential oils, trying to use the residual heat from the melting to get everything incorporated. If that doesn’t work, pop the saucepan back over low heat for a little while.
Once the essential oils are thoroughly incorporated you’ll have a very fragrant pool of oils in your pan.
Blitz the camphor powder and peppermint extract together in a dedicated coffee grinder until finely ground. Tip into a small dish and add a spoonful of the melted oils. Mash everything together and then add the peppermint paste to the rest of the oils. Stir to combine.
Stir the mixture until it begins to thicken a bit, but not solidify. Divide the mixture between the two mason jars. Let sit overnight to set.
To release the bars from the jars you may need to dip them in a shallow pan of boiling water before tapping them out.
Wow this stuff sounds incredible, well done! And thanks so much for sharing this recipe! I hope to try to make some especially to share with some of my friends who like to ski 🙂 Love the beans!
Enjoy! And be careful, I’m not kidding when I say it’s HOT!
Wouldn’t it be more eco friendly to use reuseable beads? Like the strings of beads for Mardi Gras? You could reuse the beads. And you wouldn’t be wasting food!
Well, the main benefits of the beans is that they’re both natural and biodegradable. Because the bar is just a bar (and not in a tin), the beans often end up getting lost, and at least they’ll break down if they do (especially outdoors). You could re-use them if you saved them as they fall out of the bar—they’re very sturdy. Also, I don’t particularly like the idea of plastic beads leaching plasticky toxins into my natural bar. Have you read about the recent controversy of various exfoliating scrubs using micro plastic beads? It’s not really the same, it just came to mind and I thought you might be interesting.
I was wondering two things, first is there a way to do this in like a creamy almost like a lotion? Also I’m kinda scared to try because you often warn that it’s hot is there anyway to make it a little less “hot” ?
Hey Tashia! In order to make something creamy like a lotion you need to emulsify it with water, and I really wouldn’t recommend that here. While water will initially dilute the essential oils in here (and there are A LOT!), it’ll evaporate quickly, which will leave nearly pure essential oils on your skin pretty quickly and make the lotion extra hot—probably too hot. For a less hot recipe, check out this one 🙂
Thank you so much for getting back to me. It’s great that you have taken the time to respond. I look forward to trying that one. And that page also had a link to the pocket roll on very clever idea 🙂
Thanks! Happy making 😀
For a softer, more lotion-y version, you could start with the Coconut Massage Butter from July 12 2018 and replace the liquid oil portion of the recipe with the appropriately scaled EOs from this recipe (or the actual can of Tiger Balm). It’s kind of drooly, but still much more manageable than a liquid oil. We’re liking it over here. : )
do you sell any of these?
I don’t at this point, sorry Cheryl!
I’d buy this 🙂
Thanks, Alicia! Stay tuned, maybe I’ll change my mind 😛
Must make this for my back it looks wonderful!
It is! Just be careful with it, it’s super hot! 😛 Which is especially awesome when it’s cold out, it’s like telling your body to turn up the thermostat.
I am definitely making a few of these bars!
In the space of four years, I have : 1) fallen on ice landing on my back 3 times; 2) got hit by car (only my legs, arms and of course tailbone were affected and 3) got in a physical argument by accident (yes by accident) with my ex. While I love the LUSH version, it is a little expensive given my budget these days. At least I will be able to make a few of these lovely bars to give as presents to the folks I love.
Thank you for creating an alternative to spending beaucoup bucks!
Oh no, I’m so sorry to hear about your crazy string of bad luck incidents over the last 4 years 🙁 These bars should really help, though—I love them for those first few days after getting into a new activity, when muscles you didn’t even know you had ache 😛
thank you for the info i but it and always run out to soon this is great and i will have plenty 🙂
You’re welcome! Tiger balm is super awesome to have around, but I definitely go through a lot of it… speaking of which, I need to make some more!
My husband is going to love this for his sore back. I cannot wait to make some of these. What a wonderful idea!
Enjoy it! I love these bars 🙂 Must make more…
When do you add the beans?
Just put ’em at the bottom of the jar/cup you’re using as a mould and pour the balm over top!
I will be making these in the future!! 🙂 Perfect for gifts, too!
They are great gifts! Just be sure to include a warning label, they are STRONG!
Is it possible to leave the peppermint out or replace it with something else? My fiance is allergic to peppermint but this would be a great benefit to him. As he is always using Tiger Balm.
You can try leaving it out or replacing it with spearmint, assuming he’s not allergic to that as well. If you do leave it out, make a half batch and see if you find it to be strong enough. If not, increase the menthol a bit, it has a similar cooling effect to peppermint.
I’m hoping you can give me some tiger balm advice, since yours came out nice and hot. I used this recipe: http://www.ehow.com/how_6876986_do-homemade-hot-tiger-balm_.html
And I tried doubling and even tripling the amounts of essential oils but I still feel nothing when I put it on! Is there a major ingredient that I’m missing that will heat it up? Thank you so much!
Hey Yaro—So, I took a look at that recipe, and it was clearly written by somebody who never actually followed or tested their own recipe. They should have titled it “Tiger Balm Scented Lotion”. There are almost no essential oils in there at all!
That recipe calls for 10 drops of camphor essential oil for 85g carrier oils —this recipe uses 5 grams, which is equal to approximately 100 drops, for just 50g carrier oils! Or for the mint—it calls for nine drops, where this recipe uses 8g, or about 160 drops! In general, this recipe looks like it calls less than 10% of the EOs you would need to get the desired “hot” effect. Whoever published that should learn to test before they encourage people to waste expensive ingredients on something that won’t work at all.
Good luck with your next batch! I can promise if you use this recipe it’ll come out super hot—I’ve tested it 😉
I know you already said we could sub peppermint for spearmint, but what about forgoing mint altogether? I really don’t like the smell, should I just increase the menthol? Do you think eucalyptus or tea tree oil would have the same or a similar effect?
Eucalyptus or tea tree are not a good replacement for mint—they don’t have the topical cooling effect from the menthol constituent that the mints do (peppermint moreso than spearmint). If you’re worried about the scent I would do a test batch first, because you honestly cannot really distinguish the smell of anything specific in tiger balm. There are so many strong essential oils in here all you really get is the sinus-clearing sensation of the menthol/camphor. If you can still smell it and hate it, then I would swap it for menthol, though I’d start at only 50% as menthol is stronger.
Thank you for all the wonderful info you provide. I am devouring it all 🙂
Having trouble sourcing peppermint powder…..any hints?
Pretty please 🙂
Cheers
Jen 🙂
I got my peppermint powder from New Directions Aromatics 🙂 Enjoy & thanks for reading!
Hi marie
Thanks for taking the time to reply to me 🙂
I live in australia and can get the camphor powder from new directions here, they dont sell peppermint powder…no idea why. Sighhhh
Shipping to Oz is prohibitively and ridiculously high, so i wonder if you could tell me why you use the peppermint powder in this recipe? Does it work some special magic or can i maybe just incresase the peppermint oil? Or….something else maybe?? Or maybe i just have to suck up the shipping costs……
I would really appreciate your thoughts on this as i am very keen to make some of these bars
Cheers
Jen 🙂
Hello, Ozian! I lived in your wonderful country for 7 months back in 2010 and I miss it oh so dearly. I was in NSW in a wee little suburb called Penrith, about halfway between Katoomba and Sydney city centre. Sigh. I’ll get back there someday!
I used peppermint powder here because I had spearmint essential oil, but no peppermint essential oil. Peppermint EO packs a lot more of a cooling punch, so I supplemented with the powder. If you can’t get it, just use peppermint EO instead of spearmint EO and you’ll be right 😉
Marie
G’day marie 🙂
Thanks….again…..for getting back to me. Muchly appreciated.
Gotta say, i too, am rather fond of Oz. been all over and love the quieter, more outbacky bits. Sadly, i am in a noisier bit at present lol. I know penrith. Havent been there for a long time, but spent time nearby on an air force base as a kid…both folks in the raaf.
Now. Back to your response. I KNEW you would have a good reason. And i am glad it a simple one as i despaired of getting any peppermint powder. How i can merrily mix these bars and all will be good 🙂
Hope you make it back to this side of the planet one day….and perhaps i will eventually make my way over to your side lol
Cheers
Jen 🙂
Enjoy your massage bars—and maybe try out my sunburn lotion, it’s great for mozzie bites as well. I remember those Aussie Mozzies being just brutal!
I would like to use peppermint EPO instead of peppermint powder. You commented that oil could be used but you did not specify how many drops would substitute for a teaspoon of peppermint powder. Could you clarify? thank you so much-
In that case I would simply use peppermint EO instead of spearmint EO in the recipe 🙂 Have fun!
I found your blog after g’ling tiger balm and have spent the last hour reading so many great posts. Thanks so much for the wonderful ideas and information.I hope to start creating soon! Take care – Karen
Thanks for reading, Karen! Do make your own tiger balm, it’s awesome to have an affordable source of it 🙂 I use it so much more than I would if I had to pay the exorbitant price of the original!
I have a couple of questions about the ingredients. (1) I see that you use both camphor oil and powder. What is the reason for using both types? (2) I only find peppermint powder as a tooth powder. Do you have a source for this item? Thank you.
Hi, Li! I use both to boost the power of the bar, but only because I have both on hand. You could simply use more of the EO if that’s all you have. I get my peppermint extract from New Directions Aromatics. You can also just use peppermint EO instead. Thanks for reading & have fun!
First, I just LOVE your blog! Thank you for taking the time and resources to do this and to answer so many questions…you are AMAZING!!! So would you say about 7 or 8g of the camphor EO and no powder? Also, does this burn your hands when applying? My guess is that the cute plastic push up containers would not work in this case due to the high amount of EOs? Thanks again!
Hi Meg! The powder to EO swap should work well 🙂 I don’t find this burns my hands as the effect takes a few minutes to kick in, but do take care to wash very thoroughly after applying! And no, I would not recommend storing this in anything plastic 🙂
Is peppermint essential oil okay to use instead of menthol? I’m having a hard time finding Menthol.
Yup! Peppermint essential oil is approximately 40% menthol, and menthol EO is 100% (I’m assuming here, I can’t find any sources… but it makes sense to me!). So, that means this recipe has 4g of menthol in it with 4g of menthol EO. So, if you want to use more peppermint EO instead of menthol EO, you will need to add enough peppermint EO to have 4 grams of menthol. A bit of cross multiplication gives us this formula: 4 x 100 /40 = 10g. So, you’d need to use 10g of peppermint essential oil to have the same amount of menthol.
Hey Marie, I was wondering if menthol crystals can be used here – could they be melted in when you add the eo’s or am I better off using 10g of peppermint eo like you suggested above? I simply can’t find menthol eo anywhere so I got menthol crystals.
You should be good to use 4g of the crystals instead of 4g of the essential oil. The essential oil is practically a crystal anyways (it’s solid at room temperature), so it should be an easy swap (especially since menthol crystals are oil soluble). Have fun!
* I ment eucalyptus in place of menthol *
No, definitely not. Eucalyptus doesn’t contain any menthol (or if it does, it’s so little it doesn’t make the list here at all). You will not get much (if any) cooling sensation if you do that 🙁
Thank-you m’am!
🙂
Just discovered your site and am loving it! Thank you so much for sharing your recipes/knowledge.
Question: What is the conversion rate for powder=EO? I have no experience with powders, but do have all the EOs on hand,,,
Yay, thanks for reading, La Donna! For this recipe, if you have peppermint EO but no powder, just swap out the spearmint EO for peppermint EO 🙂
I love how responsive and organized you are! Smart lady. I am a massage therapist and have thought about making massage bars for clients.
Have you ever experimented with coffee beans in place of the white beans?
Would you say these bars are more potent than Tiger Balm? I often use that on clients, so I am familiar with that “heat” level.
Thanks so much for your sharing with us!
Aw shucks 😛 Thanks, Michele 🙂 My only thoughts on coffee beans is that they may stain the skin, but other than that I’m sure they would work perfectly well. And… I’ve only used “real” tiger balm once, and it wasn’t the hot stuff, so I don’t really have a comparison here for you. I would guess that mine is hotter, though, because it is really, really hot and I kind of wonder about them being concerned about selling that to the, err, not-so-bright, masses. 😛 Try it and let me know? 🙂
Hi, I just wanted you to know you may hot have to settle for a suspension. I was recently interested in menthol and incorporating it in my lip balm. I was reading that as you said; it is not oil soluble, but one woman (in the article) was saying she melted it in the microwave oven in 30 second bursts, then incorporated it into her oils. Might be worth a try. I haven’t received my newest order, which the menthol crystals are part of, so I have not tried this yet, but plan to for sure. Best Wishes.
Hi Danni! Sadly, because camphor powder is water soluble (not alcohol soluble, like mentol crystals), no amount of microwaving is going to make it oil soluble 🙁 You can check out the MSDS sheet for camphor powder here. I haven’t ever worked with menthol crystals because I bought a big bottle of menthol EO before my supplier discontinued it, but I’ve never had a problem incorporating the EO into oil based concoctions. I have my doubts about the two being very different as the EO is practically crystallized in the bottle and is totally solid without a good soak in a hot water bath. Enjoy your new menthol crystals! They’ll make kick-ass foot scrubs 😉
Hi there. Love your recipes. You mentioned getting most your ingredients from new directions aromatics. But I didn’t see peppermint powder or the cajuput. Anywhere else you might suggest?
Thanks
Peppermint powder/extract & cajeput essential oil!
Could you just put shop bought Tiger balm in? It’s going to take me a lot of time & money to gather all those oils!
Well… that entirely defeats the point of making your own tiger balm… it’s kind of like buying a pre-made cake and frosting it at home. Store bought tiger balm is really over priced (your initial investment for ingredients will likely only be a bit higher than purchasing it premade at the store [assuming you purchase the smaller sizes of things], plus you will be able to make far more) and it is made using petroleum products. You can buy everything you need all at once from New Directions Aromatics. I’ve also got another tiger balm recipe coming out in a few months that requires fewer ingredients, so perhaps you’d like to wait for that?
Buying a pre made cake is a great analogy, you get to do just the fun bit! I already have Tiger balm in the cupboard so I’ll definitely be adding some to my next lot of massage bars.
Ha 😛 Well, just keep in mind that the topical effect of the tiger balm will be greatly reduced if you are adding it to massage bars. These massage bars don’t have tiger balm in them, they are tiger balm, with the essential oils making up a full 50% of the recipe. Once you get too far below 50%, the effect of the tiger balm weakens substantially—great for kids & people with sensitive skin 🙂
Is there a way I can make this a cream instead?
Possibly, but you’d have to completely re-develop the formulation.
I’m allergic to cocoa butter, could shea butter be used to sub it out in these? Currently covered in tiger balm (for fibromyalgia and other fun muscle/joint issues) and could really do with a cheaper alternative, as we go through a jar in two weeks!
Hey Steph! Bummer on your cocoa butter allergy 🙁 You can learn more about carrier oil subs here, but the simple answer is no. Kokum butter is the only good cocoa butter substitute I know of 🙂
Can I sub cinnamon eo for the cassia? I have everything except the cassia eo!
I haven’t tried it, but cinnamon bark EO does have a similar warming effect, so it’s definitely worth giving it a try 🙂 Even if it’s not exactly the same, I imagine the effect will be similar enough that you’ll still have a perfectly lovely tiger balm. Enjoy, and do let me know how it turns out!
I love your blog Marie. I find your recipes so inspiring 🙂
What kind of scale to you use? Mine doesn’t seem to be sensitive enough to measure a few grams. I’m having a hard time measuring the essential oils of this recipe.
Hi Stephanie! I use this scale for smaller amounts, it’s fantastic 🙂
I have found that some scales aren’t that sensitive to the first few grams added to them, which is rather silly. To get around this I’ll skip the taring and just count up from the weight of the container I’m measuring into—that really seems to help 🙂
Hi Marie! What would be the result if I made this minus the powders? I have everything except the powders. Please advise!
Thanks!
Kate
Hi Kate! You can drop the powders, but I would recommend using peppermint EO instead of spearmint if you do 🙂 It’s got more menthol in it for a stronger effect.
Hi Marie! Could I add in clove and chili EOs to this? If so, should I reduce others to compensate or just add more Beeswax/cocoa butter? My brother has a horrible case of Raynauds disease and I would like to make him a warming tiger balm with the chili EO included to help blood circulation. You are AMAZING! Thank you for your wonderful blog. What a blessing this is for so many people!!! Thank you!!!
Hi Meg! You could add clove and chili, but I would recommend just trying the bar as it is—it is HOT and amps up circulation like you wouldn’t believe 🙂
Just want to say your knowledge/research is phenomenal. Your blogs are so much fun, and I really appreciate that you answer people that send you questions/comments. I have several of your recipes I am gathering supplies to try. Want to get the some things finished for Valentine gifts. Thank you again.
Thank you so much, Lois! Happy DIYing 🙂
May be a silly question but is this for use on dry skin? I am guessing not a shower bar. How do you store it?
These bars are for sore muscles, and are quite strong—keep it away from sensitive skin and mucous membranes. There will be some benefits for dry skin, but that would be a bit like having tums for dinner; they might eventually fill you up, but that’s not really the point 😉 Definitely don’t use it in the shower as the heat will open up your pores and amplify the effect, likely to the level of some pretty serious discomfort. You could store them in a shallow tin/jar 🙂
Thank you. I meant dry skin as in ‘not wet’, I should have been a little more clear but your answer helps!
Ah yes, you’ll definitely want to apply this bar to that kind of dry skin 🙂
Hey Marie, made the bars yesterday. They are awesome with great cooling/heating effect. One bummer what I was not sure about that for me they came out more on a very thick cream side just shaped in 4 oz container. I put all the ingredients as per your recipe but did i miss something or do they suppose to come out that way. I just stuck them in a freezer to see what happens (lol), but yours don’t seem as soft. Thanks
Hmm… they are fairly soft for bars, but should still be solid, not just a thick cream. You did everything by weight? And didn’t make any substitutions? Those are my first two troubleshooting questions 🙂
Hey, yes, they are solid but the minute you take them into your hand, they become quite soft for a bar and start coming apart (they would not hold that solid state if start rubbing). They feel really great though besides my wonder what went wrong. Did quite a number of your recipes by now and this one is the first I did not really get right. No substitutions, everything by weight as per your recipe. 🙂
I actually just moved them into 2 tins as their consistency I got is kind of similar to Egyptian Magic. Gonna try later again and see if I can get them like yours but did everything by the recipe. 🙂
Hmm. The only thing I can think of that’s left is that I developed this recipe in the dead of the Canadian, which makes everything harder. If you are lucky enough to live somewhere significantly less freezing, you can probably get away with using more beeswax 🙂 Try 3–5g extra and see how that goes!
I will try that. Thank you. I am in Midwest of USA. Works quite well in tins meanwhile (lol):-).
Happy to hear it! I suppose the original is in tins and that seems to work pretty well 😛
Yes, it seem to work quite well..Will update you with how they came out when I get a chance to make a new batch..:-)
Happy making!
Thank you, thank you..:-)
Hi Marie,
Thanks for the great post! My question pertains to the use of plastic…what would be your best guess as to how quickly it would erode? I’m leaning on putting this in a deodorant container (minus the beans) so I don’thave to use my hands to apply. Would this work in that type of a push up container?
Possibly to use up in less than 1 month?
There’s honestly no way for me to give you an accurate answer on this. It would vary with so many things (quality of the plastic, freshness of the oils, storage conditions, etc.). Probably less than a year, but more than a day? I truly have no idea—nobody could answer this question accurately! Maybe look for a glass push-up container?
Hi Marie,
My sister has suffering sore back for quite a while now and I’d like to make this for her, but would also like to check with you first if this much of essential oils is ok to be used, especially in a leave on product (I suppose we don’t wash this off)?
I also don’t have peppermint powder or camphor powder but peppermint essential oil and camphor essential oil. From the comments I know I could replace the amount of spearmint essential oil with peppermint essential oil, but how about the camphor powder, how much of camphor essential oil should I increase?
I think in the white tiger balm the essential oil amount is also 50%, wouldn’t that be too much, as I’ve learnt we can only use a small amount of essential oils…
Thank you and look forward to you reply,
Huong
Honestly, I’ve been wondering the same thing lately. The large quantities of essential oils in tiger balm is what makes it work, so the store bought version must have a similarly high concentration. That doesn’t necessarily mean it is safe, of course, but it’s something—it’s sold in many countries, and you’d think that if it was problematic someone would have noticed? I’m planning on looking to see if it is sold in the EU when I’m overseas later this month, as I know they are very diligent with EO concentrations. I might also see if I can ask Tisserand about it at the Formula Botanica conference!