Making Herbal Ointments (and infused oils)

An ointment is a thick, semi-solid oil-based preparation, typically for medicinal or cosmetic purposes. An herbal ointment is typically made by infusing the herb in oil. Much like making a tea or tincture, active constituents from the herb diffuse from the herb into the surrounding liquid, but instead of water the liquid is an oil. Olive oil is a popular choice, but other oils can also be used. A oil with a long shelf-life is preferable.

Infusing the herbs into the oil requires time, heat, or a combination of the two. The herbs can be either fresh or dried, but caution must be used with fresh herbs because moisture can cause allow dangerous organisms like botulism to grow. This can be avoided by infusing at a high temperature and them ensuring all moisture is removed. Alternatively, you can ensure the herbs are thoroughly dried before infusing.

You can infuse dried herbs for a period of several weeks. Or, you can heat them in a hot water bath on the stove top or in a crock pot for several hours.  Since there is no concern about spoilage, the temperature can be kept quite low and you can leave the herbs continue infusing for a few days at room temperature, if you desire. For fresh herbs, a hot infusion technique is needed to prevent the growth of dangerous microbes, so the temperature needs to be kept at or near boiling and the herbs and any residual moisture must be removed promptly after infusing.

Here, we have dried comfrey leaves to be infused. For coarse, loose herbs like this, I fill the container almost to the top before covering with oil. With powdered herbs, I would use much less.

Here, I am using a gentle hot water bath to accelerate the process.

You can see the oil has now taken on the green color of the dried comfrey leaves.

Here, we have dried calendula petals infusing in oil.

Here is an example of infusing fresh herbs. These broadleaf plantains have been freshly harvested from the yard.

First, we coarsely chop the leaves.

Then, we put them in our jar and cover them with oil.

Again, I am heating the mixture in a hot water bath, but in this case I will quickly heat it to a low boil to prevent nasty microbes from growing.

Here, you can see the color is beginning to leave the leaves as it is drawn out into the oil.

As you can see, the plantain makes quite a dark green infused oil, nearly black.

Water and oil do not mix and water is heavier than oil, so you may find moisture at the bottom of your oil. Let it settle out and then carefully decant the oil, leaving any droplets or debris behind.

An herb-infused oil can be applied directly to the skin. They also have other uses, such as coloring in home made soap recipes. But if you want to produce an ointment, you need something to thicken and harden the oil. The most common ingredient for this purpose in herbal ointments is beeswax. A good texture can be obtained with about 1 part beeswax to four parts oil. So simply measure your oil, divide by four and use about that much beeswax. This doesn’t have to be terribly precise.

I like to use a double boiler set up (or bain-marie). Here, I have simply nested a steel bowl in a pot of water on the stove top. I am using yellow beeswax that has been fashioned into pastilles for easier handling.

Once the beeswax is melted, you add the infused oil (comfrey pictured here).

Then pour the liquid into your ointment containers.

As it cools, the ointment will harden and become opaque.

Here you can see the same process with calendula ointment.

And here is a finished ointment made from plantain. Although it lightens as it cools and hardens, it still makes a rather dark colored ointment.

You can purchase dried herbs to infuse, or you can grow or wild-craft your own. The broadleaf plantain (Plantago major) depicted here is commonly found growing as a weed. Here is an example of the plant growing in a yard.

The narrowleaf plantain (Plantago lanceolata) can be used similarly.

Another common wild herb used to make an ointment is chickweed (Stellaria media).

You can also add essential oils to ointments. Since essential oils are relatively volatile, allow the oil and wax mixture to begin cooling before adding the essential oils. Keep in mind that essential oils are highly concentrated and you should be careful that you are always using a safe dilution.

If you are interested in buying pre-made herbal ointments, I currently offer several on my Etsy store:

Plantain Ointment

Comfrey Ointment

Calendula Ointment

 Cayenne Ointment

Making Lip Balm with Honey

Today we are going to be making lip balm. Lip balm is a fairly simple proposition, much like other balms the basic ingredients are fats hardened with beeswax. It needs to be fairly firm to work in lip balm tubes, or a softer balm can be put in small tins, etc.

But the idea I found particularly fascinating was using real honey in a lip balm. And this requires a bit of a trick, because honey is water-soluble, not fat-soluble. If you pour honey into a pot of melted fats and oils, it will immediately sink to the bottom. If you try to stir it in, it will soon separate and sink to the bottom again. But with some research I found a technique to incorporate honey that works well and was able to make the most delightful honey lip balms, and I am going to share that secret with you.

In order to combine water-soluble and fat-soluble components, what you need is an emulsifier. Contrary to what some claim, beeswax alone is not an emulsifier. It may contribute some stability by physically hardening the mixture, but this is not a true emulsifier. The confusion probably stems from a very old technique of creating an emulsifier by combining beeswax with borax to produce creams, etc. In this case, it is the reaction between the beeswax and the borax that produces an emulsifier, not either component alone. However, this technique is not suitable for our application where we only want to incorporate a little bit of water-soluble components into an otherwise fat-soluble base.

There are a variety of emulsifiers available, but many are synthetic and I wanted to keep my formulas as natural as possible. The solution I found was lanolin. This product is derived from the natural coating of sheep’s wool and serves as a natural emulsifier. In a lip balm, it serves double duty, as it is also a marvelous skin-protectant in its own right.

Now, let’s get down to the actual steps to making this amazing lip balm.
As with other ointments, we will melt and combine the ingredients using a double boiler set up (a bain-marie, if you want to be fancy). Here, I have simply nested a metal bowl into pan of water on the stove top, which is really all you need. I begin by melting the hardest ingredients first.

2 tablespoons of shea butter and 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons of beeswax. This recipe has a pretty high proportion of shea butter, both because of its skin conditioning properties and to help keep the lip balm firm so that it melts onto your lips, but hopefully not in your pocket.

Once the shea butter and beeswax are melted, we add 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of coconut oil.

Now we add the secret ingredient, 1 tablespoon of lanolin. Besides its skin-protectant properties, this is the ingredient that will allow us to mix in the next two ingredients.

In addition to honey, I also like to use glycerin, a skin-protectant and emollient that is also water-soluble. It is naturally derived from vegetable oil and has a sweet taste, too. So now we add 1 teaspoon of glycerin.

And 1 teaspoon of honey!

You can see that both of these ingredients sink to the bottom and bead up. Although the lanolin will stabilize the emulsion, it still takes vigorous mixing to create it. You can see a whisk here, but I would actually suggest an immersion blender.

I like to get all of my lip balm tubes lined up neatly in advance, before I get ready to start pouring.

Now, before we add the aromatic essential oils, we remove the bowl from the hot water bath and allow it to cool until it just begins to harden. This way, we won’t lose volatile essential oils by overheating them. If it begins to harden too much, set the bowl back on the hot water bath briefly and stir it back in. Once the essential oils or other flavors are mixed in, we are ready to pour it up in the containers. I like to use a syringe, like the kind used to measure medicine, to fill the lip balm tubes.

Here you can see what the hot liquid looks like in the tubes. As you can see, the first tubes have already begun to set up while I was pouring the rest.

And here you can see what they look like once they have cooled and hardened. As you can see, each batch makes about 16 tubes. This is part of the reason I also sell some of my lip balm, after all, who really needs 16 tubes of lip balm, all of the same flavor!

Base Recipe

• 5 parts Beeswax
• 6 parts Shea butter
• 4 parts Coconut oil
• 3 parts Lanolin
• 1 part Glycerin
• 1 part Honey
• a small amount of essential oils or flavoring

The best flavorings are fat-soluble, such as steam-distilled essential oils, CO₂-extracts, and cold-pressed oils. However, with the lanolin you may be able to incorporate some water-soluble flavorings as well. Here are a few of my favorite recipes.

Sweet Cinnamon

• 0.7 ml cinnamon bark essential oil
• 0.7 ml clove bud essential oil

I love that this one is different from what you get with most lip balms. It produces a bit of tingly warm sensation on the lips. You can also buy it from my Etsy store here:

Honey Vanilla

• 1 ml vanilla CO₂-extract

This one is just sweet and soothing. The vanilla only enhances the natural sweetness of the honey. You can also buy it from my Etsy store here:

French Vanilla Latte

• 1 ml vanilla CO₂-extract
• 1.5 ml coffee CO₂-extract

This one has the robust flavor of coffee balanced with fragrant vanilla and that sweet hint of honey, for the flavor of a delightful coffee beverage! You can also buy it from my Etsy store here:

Merry Mint

• 0.4 ml spearmint essential oil
• 0.2 ml peppermint essential oil

Mint is popular flavor for lip balm, but I wanted to do it a bit differently. I find some mint lip balms overpowering and I wanted something a bit milder. I also decided to use a blend of peppermint and spearmint. It has a cool, tingly sensation with a light, balanced mint flavor. You can also buy it from my Etsy store here:

Lavender Vanilla

• 0.7 ml lavender essential oil
• 1 ml vanilla CO₂-extract

Lavender has been a common request, so I developed this blend. The lavender gives it floral and herbaceous notes, rather unique for a lip balm. The vanilla helps to round it out. I find this one soothing and pleasant. You can also buy it from my Etsy store here:

Making beard balm

Today we are going to be making our own beard balm. The process is basically the same as making ointments. “Balm” is often used as a synonym for “ointment” and that is basically what a beard balm is, being composed mainly of fats hardened with beeswax. Of course, the purpose is different from most balms or ointments, as it is intended to condition, style, and protect facial hair.

As with other ointments, we will melt and combine the ingredients using a double boiler set up (a bain-marie, if you want to be fancy). Here, I have simply nested a metal bowl into pan of water on the stove top, which is really all you need. I begin by melting the hardest ingredients first.

2 teaspoons of beeswax will harden the balm and provide a protective coating to the hair and a bit of hold to control scraggly beard hairs:

2 teaspoons of shea butter also helps harden the balm and provides extra conditioning qualities:

1 teaspoon of lanolin provides a superior protective coating (lanolin is basically the natural protective coating from sheep’s wool):

Here I stop and let it melt before moving on (I could probably have waited on adding the lanolin, as well):

Now that it is good and melted, I can proceed with adding softer ingredients:

1 tablespoon of coconut oil, which is solid at room temperature but melts quickly at only about 76°F, helps make the balm firm as well, but is also a conditioning oil rich in antioxidants:

1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil provides even more antioxidants than coconut oil and has a long history of use on skin and hair:

1 teaspoon of castor oil, which is well known for its beneficial properties for hair, also provides a bit of a healthy shine:

Now, before we add the aromatic essential oils, we remove the bowl from the hot water bath and allow it to cool until it just begins to harden. This way, we won’t lose volatile essential oils by overheating them. If it begins to harden too much, set the bowl back on the hot water bath briefly and stir it back in.

Once the essential oils of your choice are blended into the mixture, you are ready to pour it up into tins, ointment jars, etc. This tiny batch is enough to fill a 2 fl oz container:

Now, we let it sit until the liquid cools and hardens:

And here is the final product:

Base Recipe

• 3 parts Coconut oil
• 3 parts Olive oil
• 2 parts Beeswax
• 2 parts Shea butter
• 1 part Lanolin
• 1 part Castor oil
• a small amount of essential oils for fragrance

The base recipe here is pretty simple, it is the essential oils you choose to add at the end that make each batch unique. You can experiment with this to find the combinations you like best. Be careful, however, to make sure you are aware of any safety concerns for the oils you use and their maximum concentrations recommended for topical use. Using the wrong oils or exceeding their recommended concentrations can cause irritation or other adverse effects.

Here are some guidelines for safe dilution of essential oils (2 fl. oz. is 60mL). Another source you may find useful is AromaWeb, which has essential oil profiles that include safety information as well as descriptions.

Now that you have the basics down, here are a few of my favorite recipes to get you started. The amounts of the essential oils shown are the amount for one 2 oz. jar, like I made in the instructions above. The measurements are in milliliters, but remember there are about 20 drops per ml, so 1 drop = 0.05 ml, 2 drops = 0.1 ml, etc.

The Outdoorsman’s Blend

• 1.6 ml cedarwood essential oil
• 1.4 ml patchouli essential oil
• 1 ml balsam fir needle essential oil
• 0.6 ml rosemary essential oil
• 0.4 ml frankincense essential oil

I wanted to create a blend that was reminiscent of the outdoors and I wanted it to capture different aspects of the outdoors recreate a fuller experience. The cedarwood and fir needle capture different aspects, combining a woody scent with the fresh crispness of evergreen needles. But to really round it out I needed a rich, earthy note, and for that I turned to patchouli. Rosemary and frankincense are both known for their cosmetic benefits for skin and hair and they help to round the blend out as well.

The Woodworker’s Blend

• 3 ml cedarwood essential oil
• 0.6 ml myrrh essential oil
• 0.6 ml rosemary essential oil
• 0.4 ml patchouli essential oil

For this blend, I wanted to focus on particular note. Since the cedarwood is so dominant, it is more reminiscent of a carpenter’s workshop than the outdoors. It smells like a freshly carved cedar chest. I found myrrh to be more complimentary to this scent, as it has a woody note as well. I like the rosemary for its cosmetic benefits and it works well in this scent, too. Finally, just a little bit of patchouli helps to anchor the scent and give it an underlying earthy musk.

Cup O’ Joe

• 2 ml coffee CO₂-extract
• 0.1 ml cinnamon leaf essential oil
• 0.1 ml clove bud essential oil
• 0.1 ml vanilla CO₂-extract

This one is obviously intended to smell like a cup of fresh brewed coffee, and it is awesome! Just a hint of cinnamon, clove, and vanilla help to round it out without detracting from the rich coffee aroma.

Spice Master

• 0.2 ml clove bud essential oil
• 0.2 ml cinnamon leaf essential oil
• 0.1 ml clary sage essential oil

I liked the idea of a spicy fragrance based on cinnamon and cloves, but I needed something to round it out. Clary sage proved to be perfect for this and I had found a masculine scent that my wife also found attractive. As it turns out, all three of these scents are reputed to have aphrodisiac properties.

If you would rather buy pre-made beard balm or want to try it out before investing in the ingredients yourself, all four of these scents are available from my store on Etsy: