How To Make Vapour Rub

Petrol Anyone?

The leading brand of vapour rub uses petroleum as its base.  Personally, I don’t feel like petroleum has any place in skincare.  It’s certainly not something I’ll be putting on my skin.  Vapour rub is a perfectly easy product to make.  I’ll share with you how I made mine.

This vapour rub is for adults.  Children need a much milder rub, please check beforehand.

The Base

You can use any natural butter or oil as the base ingredient for your vapour rub.  I usually use coconut oil but today, I opted for mango butter because it was the first thing I reached for.  Other options could include cocoa butter or shea butter.  You could mix the oils up too, you don’t have to just use one.

This recipe makes around 120g of product.

Measure out 80g of mango butter (or alternative).

Wax

You don’t have to use wax because mango butter is a solid at room temperature anyway.  I like to use wax because I like a harder product.  I’ve used beeswax from a friend’s organic hive.  The bees are beautifully cared for and he literally takes it from the hive and sieves it.  You can use a vegan-friendly wax if you’d prefer, such as carnauba wax.

15g of wax (I know the scales read 20g but my vapour rub came up pretty solid).

Menthol Crystals

I use 2 teaspoons of menthol crystals, which works out to about 10g.

I melted the wax first because some oils/butters don’t like to be heated to high temperatures, such as shea butter (makes it go grainy).  Once the wax had melted I turned off the heat and added the mango butter and the menthol crystals.  Stirring it until the butter had melted and the crystals had dissolved.

Essential Oils & Vitamin E

Today, I used lavender (around 25 drops) and peppermint (around 20 drops).  I would have liked to have used eucalyptus oils too but mine has gone for a walk.  I also add half a teaspoon of vitamin e because it’s great for your skin and a natural antioxidant.  Once all the ingredients were combined, I decanted the finished product into a container for storage.  I reused one of the tins I had a foot balm in.

The Finished Product

I love this vapour rub.  I use it on my feet (because I’m obsessed with having hydrated feet!), on my chest and on my back.  It’s great as a decongestant and the essential oils really help relieve the headaches associated with colds.

Hope this helps and you make your own using this recipe.  Thanks for reading.