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With the onset of the colder, less humid weather of winter, along with the increased need to heat your house, coupled with all the hand washing that keeps germs at bay— people find their hands can feel extra dried out. Cracked skin is no good for anybody!
To help combat that ‘winter skin’ effect, we’re sharing a quick and easy ‘hand helper’ balm, that can help to reduce the effects of all the drying out from the environment. This balm helps creates a natural barrier against the drying effects of extra hand washing, while simultaneously making your hands feel softer.
But it’s not just for hands! Use it on your whole body, where ever dry looking or feeling skin is a problem. We find it absolutely best to use just after a shower or hand washing, so that the skin is more receptive to soaking it all in.
The ingredients for this balm were selected for both their known skin-loving properties, as well as their ability to create a barrier on the skin to help reduce moisture loss.
Let’s get started!
Remember to use good manufacturing practices for any products you make, even for home use— clean, sanitary workspace, sanitary utensils, no pets or kid interruptions! As always, you alone are responsible for the creations you make and sell/give away, so do it right.
Always work by weight! If you don’t already have a scale, we highly recommend the My Weigh KD-8000 for your formulations.
Ingredients & Equipment You’ll Need
- A Set of Empty Jars for your balm – This set is glass and eco-friendly, but you can also choose to use plastic or metal.
- Shea Butter
- Babassu Oil
- Lanolin
- Avocado Oil
- Beeswax – These nuggets are the perfect size for weighing out and melting faster. You can use chunk beeswax, but you should always grate it down smaller, or use a potato peeler for tiny flakes. Do not attempt to melt large chunks of beeswax, because you will scorch your other ingredients and the excess melting may break the glass of your mixing bowl.
- Measuring Pipettes – We prefer to work with these for measuring out small amounts of essential oils.
- Measuring Cups – We prefer to work with glass. It’s the easiest to clean and sanitize.
- Essential Oil Blending Cups – These are the perfect small size for weighing out your EO blends for projects of this size.
- Silicone Spatulas
- YOUR ESSENTIAL OIL BLEND! We prefer pre-blending larger amounts of our favorite essential oil library blends in these 2oz Amber Glass Bottles. This way we can easily create multiple products without having to weigh out each individual essential oil, every time we create a product. Always do this by weight with your bottle on a scale, and remember to label each bottled blend for safety!
Winter Hand Helper Balm Recipe
Base Balm Recipe(by percentage)
- 50% Shea Butter
- 25% Babassu Oil
- 10% Lanolin
- 10% Avocado Oil
- 5% Beeswax
We enjoy this balm unscented, but will discuss how to select and scent this in the recipe below.
Recipe In OZ – 30oz Batch
We recommend making a batch size of 30oz, which will make 8-4oz jar sized balms. Feel free to adjust your batch size to what works for you! (Working in grams? Quickly convert this!)
- 15 oz Shea Butter
- 7.5 oz Babassu Oil
- 3 oz Lanolin
- 3 oz Avocado Oil
- 1.5 oz Beeswax
Easy Substitutions:
- Mango Butter works great as a replacement for Shea Butter.
- Coconut Oil can be substituted for the Babassu oil, as they are a similar consistency. If you use virgin coconut, you will get that natural coconut smell in your balm.
Instructions
- Weigh out each ingredient into your clean mixing bowl, remembering to ‘tare’ the scale to “0” between ingredients.
- Melt your ingredients in the mixing bowl using the microwave in 30 seconds increments, stirring as it begins to melt, so that you do not have any hot spots in your mix.
- The beeswax will take longer to melt than the other ingredients, but keep going in 30 sec increments until it is all fully melted. Be careful, as your container will become quite hot!
- You can choose to make your balm in a double boiler on your stove, just keep an eye on it and mix frequently to avoid hot spots.
- Mix melted ingredients VERY well with a clean spatula, to ensure your ingredients are fully melted and incorporated.
We love this balm with no added scent, but if you plan to add an essential oil blend to your batch, this would be the time to do it.
For hand use, we like these blends:
If you’re using it as a balm for the body, try these blends:
Remember, body products (leave on) and hand products have two different usage rates on our calculator to comply with IFRA standards. So, make sure you pick the correct category for your blend!
Jar & Enjoy
- Weigh out your desired scent (if adding), and then add to the melted balm.
- Stir the blend well into your melted balm, and then pour your melted balm evenly across your clean, dry glass jars. We recommend putting your jars on a clean sheet pan to allow you to move your items out of the way of your workspace while they cool down.
- Allow jars of balm to cool completely before putting lids on. ProTip: To reduce the amount of grainy-texture in your balm, put your jars into the fridge or freezer for 30-60 mins to allow them to cool completely and rapidly. Rapid cooling helps keep natural butters from crystallizing.
Label your product appropriately: Don’t forget the name of your body butter, how much is in the jar, and all the ingredients! Remember, if you give these away or sell them, the labels must be compliant with your country’s cosmetic regulations. In the USA, we recommend reading Marie Gale’s blog for helpful labeling information.
Enjoy better feeling and looking hands this winter!
From body butters, to perfume rollers, to cold process soaps, to bath bombs, our free library is stuffed full of awesome essential oil blends that will inspire and elevate your handmade bath and body lines.
Calculate a usage rate from all our oils in the library, or get inspired to make your own blend.
What are your favorite ingredients, blends or essential oils for balms? Drop a comment below and share your ideas!
